Friday, March 9, 2012
Wine Wandering Wino: Mmmm ... Pancakes Edition
Posted by Chris Chamberlain on Fri, Mar 9, 2012 at 12:09 AM
Go find out for yourself at Brinkmann’s Wine and Spirits at 103 International Drive in Franklin (on the corner of Carothers and Bakers Bridge). Tonight at 6 p.m. they'll be sampling Cabin Fever Maple Flavored Whisky. Apparently, it is (and I quote):
- Top-quality rye aged in non-charred barrels
- Infused with 100 percent Vermont maple
- Chill-filtered to remove excess sugar
- Good enough to pour on pancakes and waffles!
Check out the product at cabinfeverspirits.com
Meanwhile, Porta Via Italian Kitchen is stepping up their wine program during the month of March, when they will host “Dare to Pair,” a special wine celebration, which includes a fixed-price wine dinner during the entire month of March and a one-day educational wine tasting event. Here's the official info:
The three-course meal will be available for dinner Monday through Thursday at both locations, 21 White Bridge Road in Nashville and 3301 Aspen Grove Drive in Cool Springs, for $30 per person, exclusive of tax and gratuity. The menu and wines, prepared and selected by executive chef Giovanni Giosa, will rotate each week.
Porta Via Italian Kitchen will also host a wine tasting event at its Cool Springs location on Thursday, March 22, 4-6 p.m. The event is $25 per person and includes a tasting experience of four Italian varietals and expertly paired authentic Italian appetizers. The experience, hosted by Best Brands, Travaso decanters and Brinkmann’s Wine & Spirits, will include sampling the wines from both bottle and decanter, as well as a tutorial in aerating wine. There will be drawings for wine, Travaso decanters and Porta Via gift cards. Space is limited and reservations are required; call 615-771-7747 for more information. Attendees will receive a 10 percent discount on dinner following the event.A portion of proceeds from all March wine events will be donated to the Tennessee Wildlife Rescue. The regular dinner menu, which includes authentic Neapolitan-style pizzas, pastas and entrees, all of which are prepared fresh in house, will be available nightly as well. No substitutions allowed on the prix-fixe wine dinner menu, though dietary restrictions can be accommodated with advance notice. The menu is subject to change.
Porta Via Italian Kitchen serves traditional Northern Italian and Mediterranean cuisine. The restaurant is the first and only restaurant in Tennessee to achieve Vera Pizza Napoletana (VPN) certification. This honor, which translates to ‘true Neapolitan pizza,’ is shared by only 47 other restaurants in the country. Among the many characteristics necessary to create real Neapolitan pizza, Porta Via holds the following standards: quality ingredients, including tomatoes harvested from Italy’s Mt. Vesuvius region, freshest mozzarella and 00 (doppio zero) flour supplied directly from Naples, Italy; absolutely no mechanical methods used to create or press the dough; baking in a specially-crafted wood fire oven constructed in a bell shape from volcanic rock. The oven cooks the pizzas in 90 seconds at 750 degrees temperature, minimizing the average wait time for a patron
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For more information, visit eatatportavia.com or facebook.com/portavia.
Frugal McDoogal’s invites you to the Predators Foundation Wine Festival & Tasting on Friday, March 23, from 6-10 p.m. at Bridgestone Arena. The evening will feature wine tasting & heavy hors d’oeuvres over the ice on the Bridgestone Arena floor for just $75 per person.
Tasting over 200 higher end wines • Spirits Tasting • Anheuser-Busch products • Cocktail bar • culinary delicacies from Bound'ry Restaurant • Predators personalities • GNASH photo opportunity • Extensive silent auction
Watch the embedded video for even more details.
Finally, Grace’s Plaza Wine and Spirits is again opening their tasting bar on Saturday, March 10, from 4 to 6 p.m. It sounds like (literally) a big time with a tasting of some of their favorite magnums.
This week, we're having a mag-nificent tasting featuring some of our magnums of wine! For many, these mags make a nightly glass of wine possible. We think, there are certainly people who drink those big bottles, but it's just not for me. But it can be for you. Dinner parties. Gallery openings. That odd night where you and your friends just need to drink a ridiculous amount of wine. All of these situations are perfect for a wine mag, and we're tasting two that will really surprise you with their quality as well as quantity.
Frontera Chardonnay
Frontera is one of the many brands under the Concha y Toro umbrella. This Chilean producer is one of the largest and most recognized companies in the global wine market. They make everything from their incredibly limited and high end brand, Don Melchor, all the way down to their value line, Frontera. This Chardonnay is ripe and unoaked, giving it lush tropical aromas and a creamy, but not buttery, mouthfeel.
$10.99/1.5L
Redwood Creek Cabernet Sauvignon
Now it certainly would be real nice to open that magnum of Insignia that we have in our cellar, but, uh, HA! fat chance on that. I mean, if you wanna buy it and open it for all of us, we'd sure appreciate it. But in the meantime, we're also tasting on Saturday a fabulous Cabernet from Redwood Creek, one of the many Gallo brands. A big fruitiness provides for a full mouthfeel, while the structure makes this one of the better Cabs in a magnum.
$10.99/1.5L
