Last night was Super-Tuscan night at my monthly wine club. What are Super-Tuscans? I've got a bit more about them here, but most would say they are a cult wine.  I think they are delicious! If you ever find them on a wine list be forewarned that they’ll be very pricey, if you buy them at the store they run anywhere from $15 (hard to find at that price) to $75 a bottle.

Now, onto the wines from last night. We had six different wines, and they were all very good.

Bigi Umbria Vipra Rossa, 2004. A blend of Merlot and Sangiovese.

Banfi Centine, 2005. $13.99

Villa Antinori, 2003. A blend of 60% Sangiovese, 20% Cabernet, 15% Merlot and 5% Syrah. This was a remarkable wine! $23.99

Santa Cristina, 2006. A blend of 90% Sangiovese and 10% Merlot. This was very good.

Arceno Prima Voce, 2003. A blend of  blend of 13% Sangiovese, 22% Cabernet, 57% Merlot and 8% Syrah. This was nice, but it smelled like a perm. If you’ve ever spent an hour in your mother’s kitchen getting a perm then you know the smell. $19.00

Capineto Dogojolo, 2005. A blend of 80% Sangiovese and 20% Cabernet.

It's been a super busy week! And Daylight Savings hasn't exactly helped. My sleep is all off, my body clock is off, and I'm hungry for lunch at 11 a.m. -- sometimes 10:30! I don't know how I've managed to get out of bed early every morning so that I can run 3-4 miles before I get my daughter ready for school, and then go to work. Perhaps it's just because I know that I won't have the time in the evening to do it. And my pants were getting too tight. And those darn Thin Mints are so good!!!

So what is on my agenda for the weekend? Well first up is wine club on Friday night. This month we are tasting Super Tuscans. I don't have a lot of experience with these wines because they are rather pricey, but what I've had, I've loved!

Saturday is Sleeping Beauty at First Stage Children's Theatre. We haven't been to a theatre performance in a while, but they are always enjoyable.

Then on Sunday afternoon is the Admirals hockey game with my daughter's school, Milwaukee French Immersion. She received a free ticket for reading and she's pretty excited. I haven't been to a hockey game in years, but I used to go fairly often when I was in my early 20's. There was a point where I was as in to hockey as I'm now into grand slam tennis (VERY!).

In between all of that I have a final project due for my Productions and Operations graduate course.

Have a great weekend! I'll post a wine recap on Saturday.

p.s. In case any of you are wondering, my phones are plugged back in. That's right, the phone company had unplugged my wire at the big box up on the corner. They thwarted my phone-lines-are-located-in-the-basement security system and everything! Kudos to you AT&T! But I'm plugged back in, my iPod is charged, and since my DSL is working too I can continue to blog about stupid little trivial things .... like how much I love this video and I'm trying to talk my husband into taking our two treadmills and putting them side-by-side so that I can practice the moves.

Last week Friday my wine club had their Holiday splurge on wines. We all pitched in $25, and there were about 13 of us, so that gave us a generous budget to work with. All wines were purchased at Waterford Wine Co., (located on Milwaukee’s Brady Street) under the advise of Ben. Here’s what we tasted:

Henri Goutorbe Cuvee Prestige Champagne, Premier Crue, Brut. Approximately $50. This was devine, and I wish I could provide you a link, but I can’t quite find this exact champagne for you. From my tasting experience, I believe this champagne was made from the pinot noir grape. It’s from Champagne, France, which is where all champagne is from, if it’s not made there, it must be called sparkling white wine.

Jean Francois-Mercieau Sparkling White Wine. $18, from Frances Loire Valley. It was not nearly as good at Goutorbe, and I believe it was made from the chardonnay grape.

Kistler Les Noisetiers Chardonnay, 2006. Approximately $40-50. This wine came from California’s Sonoma Coast. It was buttery and delicious (as far as chardonnay goes, I’m not a huge fan), and definitely was oaked in french barrels. This was a limited vintage, and our bottle was #68,591 of 92,220. In fact, I checked their website and this wine is produced to be sold only to restaurants with limited sales in stores. I believe I’m going to pick up a bottle for my husband so he can experience chardonnay the way it was meant to be.

Kali Hart Chardonnay, 2006. Approximately $20. Produced by Robert Talbott Vineyards in Monetary, California. This wine had tropical notes and was fermented in both oak and stainless steel. Barrelling in stainless steel gives wine a mineraly taste, whereas barrelling in American oak will give it a bold and robust taste, and French oak givs it a buttery taste.

Bishops Peak Pinot Noir, 2006. $50. Produced by Talley Family Winery in the Central Coast Region of California. This was our fourth wine of the night, and sadly, I wrote down nothing about it.

Woodenhead Pinot Noir, 2004. $20. From the Russian River Region in California. While this was the less expensive pinot noir, I remember it being the only one we felt was better than the expensive selection.

Isley Cabernet Sauvignon, 2003. $50. I knew this was a winner when I saw it was produced in the Stags Leap District. This wine was excellent, and by far my favorite. I haven’t tasted wine this good since the 2001 Smith-Madrone Cabernet Sauvignon from Napa.

R. Collection Cabernet Sauvignon, 2003. Approximately $20. Produced by Raymond Estates in Napa Valley, California. This was a worthy red, silky with flavors of blueberries and blackberries.

While we enjoyed the more expensive wines the most, you can definitely purchase a good wine for $20 or less. Not everyone is able to splurge on a $40-50 bottle of wine, myself included. That’s why I love my wine club so much, not only have I made friendships over the last 2-1/2 years that I value, I’ve also learned quite a bit about wine and I’m not purchasing something based on how cute the picture on the label is anymore. (Yes. That is how I used to pick my wine.)

Here are some great holiday suggestions from my own wine tasting journal in the $10-20 price range:

Gnarly Head Old Vine Zinfandel, $16

Duck Pond Pinot Noir, $19 (my husband found this at Whole Foods)

Solane Santi Ripasso Classico Superiore Valpolicella (an Italian red, similar to Chianti), $14

Columbia Crest Reserve Chardonnay, $15

King Estate Oregon Pinot Gris, $14

Crush Pad Red, $14 (a blend of red grapes)

Cathedral Cellar Shiraz, $16

Bogle Petite Syrah, $10-12 (all time favorite!)

(Also posted @ Thoughts Outside My Head)

This month’s wine club tasted wierd and wacky wines. All of those bottles should have come with a Mr. Yuck sticker on them. This is what we drank, and I use that term loosely, because I’ve haven’t dumped so much wine since August of 2005 during chardonnay night.

Choya Umeshu Plum Wine. Have you smelled varnish lately? You’d better make sure it’s not plum wine because that is what was wafting out my glass. It tasted, in a word, nasty. A few of the ladies each tried (as in ate them) one of the six marinated plums that were floating in the wine bottle. I imagine that could only be compared to eating the worm from the bottle of tequila.

Mekedonikow Tsantali, a Greek rose. Oh. My. Gosh. BLECH! Try it, if you dare.

Donausonne Blaufrankisch, a 2006 Hungarian red. This was my wine, and after drinking the above two it tasted like a dream! A bad dream …… I had hoped that Blaufrankisch would somehow taste like a 2001 California Cabernet Sauvignon. It did not.

Goats do Roam, a 2005 red from South Africa. I have no clue what grape this wine was, they should put it on the label so that I know not to buy that variety again.

The best wine of the night was Oroya 2006, a Sushi inspired white wine from Spain. It was 60% airen, 30% macabeo, and 10% muscat. It was the first wine of the night, I didn’t take a big pour because I was saving myself for the rest of the night. My first mistake: in the future I will drink up!

(Cross posted @ Thoughts Outside My Head)

I've spent some time in front of the movie screen lately, here's a recap of what I've been watching:

The Game Plan, starring Dwane "The Rock" Johnson, and a super cute little girl named Madison Pettis. This is a Disney movie, which I didn't realize until we decided to see it. I absolutely loved this movie! It's great for all ages, my 6 year old daughter enjoyed it, as did my husband. The Rock plays a bachelor football player who doesn't know he has a daughter until she shows up on his doorstep. Kyra Sedgwick is fantastic as his agent.

Bee Movie, starring Jerry Seinfeld and a bunch of other big name actors. In all honesty, this was a cute movie. I enjoyed it, but I don't think it lived up to the hype. If I were you, I'd go to a matinee, or wait until it came out on DVD.

The Pursuit of Happyness, starring Will Smith and his son Jaden Christopher Syre Smith. Why didn't I want to see this movie last year when it was nominated for an Oscar??? I have no clue, but I finally got on Netflix and I loved it! I spent most of Sunday morning watching it. By the time it was over my face was wet with tears -- I'm sure I needed a good cry anyways. Will Smith's performance was definitely worthy of his Oscar nomination.

Now onto wine. Tomorrow night is my monthly wine club night. The wines we are tasting are 'weird and wacky wines'. It'll be interesting because every one has a different idea of 'weird and wacky'. Yesterday I visited Vintage in Germantown, where the owner, John, is always ready with a good suggestion. Off the top of his head he had about seven choices for me, but we finally narrowed it down to a red from Hungary. I purchased a 2006 Donausonne Blaufrankisch, the label calls it a Quality Red Wine. We'll see on Friday night just how 'quality' it is, and of course, if I have managed to bring the weirdest and wackiest wine. A close second, which I purchased just because, was a red from the France. As I was paying for my bottles I stumbled upon the wine I'd been searching for ever since trying it at Balzac on Brady St. in July: Zaca Mesa US Red Blend "Z Three". It's amazing! I bought one of the two bottles left, and told John to not even say what the total was out loud, just hand me the receipt and I'll sign it!