Christmas and Beyond

Our traditional Christmas Eve supper is basically snacks. Cheese and salami and crackers. Maybe a dip, maybe hummus and pita bread. Lil' Smokies. Frozen canapes (no, we don't eat them frozen, we bake them first). This year, we had them with a bottle of cheap champagne. Cook's, I think. Maybe Korbel. No, Cooks. The champagne was a little drier than I remembered but it went nicely with the cheeses. We had a smoked cheddar, a pesto jack, and a sharp cheddar. The wine and the pesto jack were excellent. And the smoked cheddar was amazing. It actually tasted creamier as the evening went on.

Christmas dinner was a whole pig. It roasted in the Caja China for several hours and then was carved and served with sweet potatoes, mashed potatoes, deviled eggs, Caesar salad, corn, rolls, olives, cranberries, etc. I had water. There just seemed no where to go with all the choices.

Saturday, Dec. 26, we made our way north to visit family. While there, the mother ship called Wine Snob Hubby and we all answered the call with a stop at Total Wine in Roseville, CA.
We knew risotto and veal was the evening menu, so WSH whipped out his copy of Karen MacNeil's Wine, Food & Friends to get her recommendations for risotto.

Her first suggestion was Col d'Orcia Brunello di Montalcino. It was available but at $50 a bottle, a bit out of our price range. Her back up was Rosso di Montalcino at $15. We got it.

The white MacNeil suggested wasn't at the store (Domaine Weinbach Cuvee' Ste. Catherine Pinot Gris) so we went with an employee suggestion of an Alsace Pinot Gris from Albrecht.

I'd read about eiswein (or ice wine) and I wanted to try some so we found an employee who was very helpful and knowledgeable and he pointed us in the right direction. They were from Germany and Canada and ranged from $12 - $75. I figured since this was a new experience, I'd start cheap and work my way up. We bought the $12 bottle and I'll let you know when we open it.

WSH found 3 other wines he purchased. Then we moved to the tasting area. Total Wine was offering flights of champagne. For a whole dime each, we tasted 5 different wines, ranging from $6 - $50. One of the lower priced and the highest priced were the best. (When will I remember to write these names down??)

For dinner, the risotto was cooked in a red sauce but the veal was light and thin, so we opened the Albrecht Pinot Gris. We tasted first and I tasted pears. We had a crab cake appetizer and the wine complemented the smoothness and richness of the crab and its crust. Then we segued into the veal and risotto and the wine contrasted with the risotto in a very different way. I lost the pear tones, but the wine still, in my uneducated opinion, held up very well.