Class 5 Hurricane Tropical Sangria with Camembert

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The top weather/news story here in Florida this week is Hurricane Hermine. And, playing off this theme, we chose a wine called Class 5 Hurricane. Lucky for us, Hurricane Hermine was barely a hurricane at only class one and did very little damage where we are staying, but still a fun way to build on our current Florida experience. This wine is made by Florida Orange Groves Winery, http://floridawine.com, that uses “untraditional” fruits for winemaking. Their tagline is, “Finally! Wines that taste good”! Although many of you reading the blog would typically choose wines made from grapes, join us in this fun break from tradition.

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ABC Fine Wine and Spirits Tasting

It’s been a few years since Neil and I have lived in St Petersburg, FL but we are in town temporarily to fix up our house. While we are here, we’ve been trying to figure out a good place to buy wine besides the grocery store. An ABC Fine Wines and Spirits, http://www.abcfws.com, was built down the road after we left and last week we just happened to find out that they were holding their semi-annual wine tasting. When we called the store about making a reservation, we found out there would be over 50 samples of wine and spirits. Obviously we planned to check it out!

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Sweet Wines Paired with Both Savory and Sweet Snacks

This week’s WineAndCheeseFriday was inspired by a bottle of wine from New York. Our neighbor Val’s mom had been saving this bottle from near where she grew up, and decided to give it to Val to see how she liked it. The bottle of wine was from Merritt Winery (http://www.merrittestatewinery.com) in the Lake Erie Wine Region. Knowing that wine region and it’s tendency to be sweet wine, we planned to have some savory snacks to balance it all. Val had a different idea, she though we should have some cheesecake with the wine, which I wouldn’t say no to, so we ended up having both sweet and savory snacks. When Val was picking up the snacks at Publix, she came across another bottle of sweet wine from San Sebastian Winery in Florida (http://www.sansebastianwinery.com) to bring along. She also brought a friend along, Jessica, to join in the fun. We decided to share the wine fun with our other neighbor, Amanda, so there were 5 of us in total. This is a slightly different group but our second time all getting together for a wine tasting (http://mferraro73.tumblr.com/post/135469941803/gouda-goat-cheese-with-chardonnay-and-grenache). And now onto the shenanigans!

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Salice Salentino Red Wine

This week’s WineAndCheeseFriday entry stemmed from curiosity, like most of our entries. The first time we tried Salice Salentino, it was a bottle we had picked up at Trader Joe’s since it was an inexpensive Italian wine that we didn’t know. We decided to have it with dinner and found it to be a very easy to drink wine. We had it a few times more until I decided to feature it in my “Search for an Inexpensive Dinner Wine at Trader Joe’s” entry, https://wineandcheesefriday.com/the-search-for-an-inexpensive-dinner-wine-at-trader-joes/. We knew we liked it but until then had never really taken the time to write tasting notes.

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Tasting Wine Ice Cream by Winey Munkies

This week’s WineAndCheeseFriday entry, Tasting Wine Ice Cream by Winey Munkies, will wrap up our series of “Wine Fun” in Reno. Neil and I have never tried wine ice cream before but were curious when we saw the Winey Munkies food truck at Food Truck Friday, https://www.facebook.com/RenoStreetFood/ at the beginning of our trip to Reno. Although we didn’t try it that night, I was still thinking about it a few days later so I found the Winey Munkies Facebook page, https://www.facebook.com/WineyMunkiesReno/ and contacted them to see where they would be next? I’d be able to find them at Food Truck Friday the next week so I made a plan to head out there.

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Dorinda’s Chocolates

Last week we told you that we had tons of “wine fun” while we were in Reno, so here’s your next entry. Dorinda’s Chocolates (http://dorindaschocolates.com) was next door to Hub, the coffee shop where we spent a bunch of time working in Reno. On our first day there, I was gazing out the window and noticed the menu hanging on the wall for Dorinda’s. There were wine flights and wine and chocolate pairings so obviously I made my way over there pretty quickly. We spoke to Dorinda, the owner, and she let us know that they had a weekly wine and chocolate pairing event on Thursday’s so the plan was set.

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West St Wine Bar, Reno, NV

We’ve spent the last couple weeks in Reno, NV and have heard about a few different wine experiences nearby. We figured we’d start by creating an entry about our wine flight at West Street Wine Bar, http://www.weststreetwinebar.com.

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Madroña Zinfandel Rosé

During our Wine Tasting at Madroña Vineyard, (http://mferraro73.tumblr.com/post/146094751633/madroña-vineyard-wine-tasting-it-was-scheduled) we tasted a Zinfandel Rosé that we wanted to take a second sip to really think about it. Since we were in Bass Lake, CA, outside Yosemite National Park, we didn’t have a chance to go out to find some cheese.

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Madroña Vineyard Wine Tasting

It was scheduled to take us 6 hours to reach our place near Yosemite National Park from Truckee, CA, so we figured there must be a place to go wine tasting around the half way point. Then we found Madroña Vineyard in Camino, CA. (http://madronavineyards.com) We were with some friends who share our love of wine, so I wanted to find a vineyard where we could all have the entire wine experience. It was a little confusing when we saw the apple orchards and christmas trees on the way there, but then we found signs pointing us to Madroña Vineyards.

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Wine and Cheese Pairing with All Our Berkeley Goodies

This entry is a continuation from the Best of the Best of Berkeley, https://wineandcheesefriday.com/best-of-the-best-of-berkeley/. We hope you enjoyed hearing all about our shopping and now you get to hear all the delicious tasting notes! Our cheeses came from Rockridge Market Hall, http://rockridgemarkethall.com and The Cheese Board Collective, http://cheeseboardcollective.coop/cheese_bakery/cheese. Our wine was purchased at Kermit Lynch, http://kermitlynch.com. Our theme for wines and cheeses this entry was based on recommendations from others over the past few months. Without further ado, we present to you Fattoria Moretto Lambrusco paired with Mimolette, Robiola 2 Latti, Besace Du Berger, and Fourme D’Ambert!

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