Skip to main content

Wines From Parts of the World That I'm Not Very Familiar With

This post today is a small nod to my Russian readers of which, according to my stats, has been significant in the last few days.

I know, the quick consulting of a map tells me that Georgia is NOT Russia...and Hungary is certainly not Russia.  Forgive me.

What do I know about Georgian and Hungarian wine?  Nothing.  When I wander into a store in my state's capital city called "European Flavors", it takes about 3 seconds to realize I'm not in Kansas...er, Iowa, anymore.  Most of the foodstuff items in this store are wrapped in colorful papers and printed with a language I do not understand.  Oh, I have enough wherewithal to know that I'm probably looking at some kind of Russian or Turkish or Greek.

Some kind of middle European anyway.

In regards to wine, I like German Riesling, so I'm browsing the shelves, and luckily, the wine section is clearly marked out by country, and I do know enough to find myself a Riesling.  The bottle is in my hand when a hearty voice befriends me, "Are you finding everything all right?"  I turn, and there's the owner, a portly older gentleman (early 50s, maybe) wearing a Bela Karolyi-type moustache...and speaking with a similar accent.

He kindly informs that if I'm looking for semi-sweet, I could do way better than German.  After all, he claims, Germans add sugar to their semi-sweets, where this Georgian wine here is just as sweet, but there's no sugar added - it's the natural sweetness of the grape.  That was the Khvanchkara...supposedly the favorite wine of Joseph Stalin.  The Furmint on the left is one of the store's better-selling semi-sweet white.  I buy both, because hey, I'm kind of a sucker like that.  And because the guy's nice, showing me various products and letting me taste a sunflower-seed goody like halva and Irish cheddar cheese.

As it turns out, the Khvanchkara is good by itself, but much better with dark chocolate.  There's definite cherry on the palate, and I'm looking forward to trying it with some meat and cheese later in the week.  The Furmint is similar, decent by itself, but very good with chicken.

It's funny, though, European semi-sweet is WAAAAAY different from American semi-sweet.  I feel kind of like I'm finally drinking "the real thing".

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

(She) Blinded Me With...Citrus

Excuse my attempt at tying today's blog entry with an iconic Thomas Dolby song.  What a terrible pun-ishment. Har har har. So, we're on the backside of Winter Vacation/Christmas Break/Holiday Hiatus here.  The kids return to school tomorrow, the freshman and I start back to our respective colleges next Monday. The clock is ticking and suddenly, I am whipped into frenzy to Get Work Done.  I suspect this phenomenon happens to many, many educators who try to avoid that panic-stricken night before they go back to work. And believe me when I say, I had the deepest, most earnest of intentions to write lesson plans, write quizzes, and generally prepare for the restart of my classes next week.  Like, really. And then...I was distracted by...citrus.  This happened. Okay, so....the lemons on the far right are no big deal.  They're available year-round.  But Meyer lemons...MEYER...I only find around here in the winter.  I first read about them i...

Spaghetti Cake

Yes. You read that right.  Keep reading, friends, it's about to get good. Photo by Brent Nelson...who doesn't quite know about shadows and things in photography. Photo by your trusty author, who doesn't quite know about taking knockout food pictures. So, the caboose (Elliot) was in charge of meals this weekend...as part of his requirement for one of his Boy Scout badges.  Even though we'd be eating meals easy for a 12-year-old to put together (usually not healthy), I was totally ready to hand over the reins for the weekend. Saturday night's dinner was supposed to be simple.  Spaghetti.  But then, I remembered I had Justin's Chapple's Mad Tips article for Pasta Bundt Loaf .  I handed that over to the Boy Scout...and things just got awesome. The ingredients here seem to be a cross between those of a lasagna and an alfredo.  One pound of spaghetti noodles is cooked, and to which a bunch of cheese, milk, eggs, and seasonings are added.  All...

Keeping It Short, Keeping It Real

Today marked the penultimate day of Cake Decorating...and it was by far the most stressful of the last three weeks...and I mean, to quote the youth, I was a hater . But, that time is done and gone.  Here's what happening right now: A glass (which may turn into a bottle) of a Riesling I have not had in quite some time (read about that here ), and a episode (or more) of AMC's The Walking Dead . Let me clarify...quickly because TechMeat's got the Netflix cued.  School friends of mine went on and on about this TV show, so I got nuts one night and watched the first episode (with Brent, natch)...and now, we're kinda interested.  We're on episode 4 of Season One, so yeah, a long ways to go to catchup. Honestly, the last time we had this much interest in a TV show was Spin City and Dharma and Greg in the early 2000s.  For real.  We don't do a lot of TV around here.  Movies, yes.  TV, no. I'm going now.  To recover my strength and gear up for t...