A few months ago, Buzz Bishop was nice enough to give me a bottle of wine to try. I wouldn’t really consider myself much of a connoisseur when it comes to the vino, but who am I to decline a free bottle of fine alcohol? You don’t have to go to a nice restaurant to enjoy a bottle of wine.
This particular example is a Zinfandel from Cellar No. 8, a winery based out Sonoma County in California. Interestingly, Asti Winery (the place behind the Cellar No. 8 brand) only produces red wines. In addition to the Zinfandel, they also produce Cabernet Sauvignon and Merlot. I’m partial to red wines over white wines myself, so they sound like my kind of people.
In my humble and novice opinion, the Cellar No. 8 Zinfandel was full bodied and rich in flavor. The aromas are definitely on the heavier side of things, so people who want a wine that is a little less robust and a little lighter may want to consider something else.
Interestingly, I had a little trouble getting the cork out of the bottle. My corkscrew actually snapped when I tried to pull it out, so I started poking around online to see what alternative solutions were available. Eventually, I came across a method that worked like a charm, albeit a more time-consuming charm.
What you do is take a sharp but narrow knife, slowly rocking it back and forth to dig into the cork. Keep doing this until you get clear through the cork. Slowly work the knife back out and repeat the process at a different angle on the cork. The idea is that you are releasing the pressure from inside the bottle. With two decent sized holes in the cork, you can now push the cork into the bottle. It works, but be careful since you’ll get a bit of a splash when the cork falls into the wine. This method is far from elegant, but at least it’s effective.
Thanks again, Buzz, for the bottle of wine. It made for a nice glass on a hot summer’s night and it was a great wine for my homemade sangria too.
On a side note, since you’re staying at home, be sure to check out my posts on homemade ice cream and five-minute chocolate cake. Both of these recipes are easy enough for even the most useless of cooks.
You know they say a glass of red wine a day helps with your cardiac health. SO, sip it slowly Michael.