Tag Archives: wine tasting

by Becki | November 5, 2012 · 9:47 am

The Rehearsal

Last Friday, Brie and Chris were preparing to be joined forever in holy matrimony.
While the bride and groom were busy making the final preparations, Commander Matt, Brew Chief Joe and I were feeling quite stressed out by the pending nuptials and de-stressed at Ladyface Alehouse. We split a gigantic flight of all the Ladyface beers…
…Suicide sweet potato fries…
I also stole a bite from the boys’ mini sliders. We attempted not to overstuff ourselves. I failed.
The rehearsal and rehearsal dinner was held at the Cornell Winery. As soon as (or a while before) the three of us arrived, the vino started flowing.
As did the appetizers. Thick slices of rustic bread were smothered in creamy garlic and topped with sweet balsamic reduction. Salty prosciutto and rich cheeses rounded out the first course, as well as some cold tomato soup-looking dip that I never got a chance to try.
The boys approved of the spread. So handsome.
After everyone had their fill of carbs and dairy and full glasses of wine, the rehearsal began.
Best Man Brew Chief Joe escorted the lovely Amanda down the aisle.
Best of Men Commander of Finance Matt walked down with the beautiful Sarah.
And then came the beautiful bride and her father.
Utter radiance!
They walked through the ceremony with no mishaps and no sprinting away from the altar. Step one – complete.
Sealed with a kiss.
Success! Unfortunately at the wedding the next day neither the bride or groom showed and everyone was left broken-hearted.
Just kidding. They lived happily ever after and went to Maui for their honeymoon.
(Pictured above is the wedding beer – The Last Days of Braun with the newlywed Enegrens in the background!)

Congratulations, Chris and Brie! I couldn’t be happier for the both of you!

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Tagged as Cornell Winery, rehearsal dinner, wedding, wine tasting

by Becki | November 2, 2011 · 10:05 pm

Maple-Sugared Grilled Sweet Potato Fries

I had the most wonderful mini-vacation yesterday and today! I went out to Santa Clarita to visit the only place that I ever go to taste wine: Roman Holiday.
None of our regulars were there. We picked a new table with some ridiculously comfy chairs and settled in for a few hours.
I got a new hat! And made an unfortunate duckface. For that, I blame the wine and sincerely apologize.
Allie looked gorgeous and un-duckface-y as usual.
Small tastes of red wine were consumed by myself. A glass and a half of prosecco was also consumed.

Besides these few pictures, my camera stayed tucked securely in his bag and my computer remained unopened. The only contact I had with the outside world was through my Twitter addiction, where I posted some pointless photos. It was wonderful to get a break and spend some quality time with my cousin, shoving our faces with Indian food, baking quiche, tasting wine and watching ridiculous shows from our middle school years.

In other news, I have a wonderful recipe to share with you!
[gmc_recipe 4978]

Tomorrey is International Stout Day! How are you celebrating?

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Filed under recipe

Tagged as Allie, Drink Eat Travel, drinkeattravel.com, duckface, Maple-Sugared Grilled Sweet Potato Fries, mini-vacation, Roman Holiday, Santa Clarita, sweet potato fries, Twitter, wine tasting

by Becki | March 19, 2011 · 1:29 pm

Bernard’s Wine Gallery

My friend and cousin Allie came over for a day of wine tasting and food eating yesterday. I had a Groupon for wine tasting that I bought way back in December, and it was expiring in three days. We jumped in the car and headed over to Calabasas to Bernard’s Wine Gallery. Tip: Pull into the free parking lot to the left of the store and try to get parking there if you can. When we got there, no spots were left. We ended up driving down the street and valeting with some snobby, uppity guys who scoffed at us and begrudgingly agreed to valet after hearing where we were going.
As you can tell, I got really dressed up for the occasion…
We “splurged” and got the Petit Sirah tasting. The Groupon got us a wine tasting for two people for only $15, but the Sirah tasting was $3 extra per person. We figured we could spare the extra cash, even though we’d gone all fancy with valet.
Our favorite was the third one – Hunt Cellars Irresistable Paso Robles Petite Sirah from 2002. We jokingly asked for a refill and the wonderful gentleman who was serving us generously poured us another taste!
Allie is well-versed when it comes to wine. Seeing that this was my first wine tasting, I did a lot of nodding and agreeing with whatever she said. It all tasted good to me!

After our four tastings, we roamed the adorable little shop for a bit, talked with some of the staff and finally went to retrieve my car from the snobby valets, who we tipped because I’m so very, very nice. It was around dinnertime, so we headed over to… LADYFACE!!!
Ahhh, this is MY kind of place!
I tried their oaked blueberry Trois Filles Tripel that had real wild blueberries in the glass. This beer was very mild, slightly sweet and very tasty, however I just cannot get used to drinking room temperature beer. I went with my current Ladyface favorite – Chesebro IPA.
We split the sweet potato fries with red ale ketchup – another one of my “regular” orders, along with the sausage plate.
BREAD PUDDING!!! We specifically requested a center piece of the bread pudding (I’ve found the corner pieces are dry and hard) and it was AMAZING! Notes of sweet cinnamon, rich caramel and nutmeg made for the best bread pudding I’ve ever tasted in my entire life – including mine! Okay, maybe not QUITE better than mine, but pretty close!