Beverage Recommendations

Wine | Beer | Cocktails | Wine Tasting Scoresheet

Wines

Here are some of my favorite wines to drink around the house! The prices listed are about what I pay for them here in Minnesota, varying up or down by a few dollars depending on the store.

• Chateau Ste. Michelle ($8-$20): A general recommendation for the winery as a whole! I started buying Chateau Ste Michelle wines because they're union-made, and kept buying them because I've never had one disappoint! It's my go-to chardonnay, at about $9/bottle here in Minnesota depending where you buy. Their merlot is also stellar, but really I've enjoyed every wine of theirs I've bought. If you get their single-vineyard Indian Wells varieties they are, in my experience, actually worth the few more dollars, but really the regular mixed vineyard bottles are close enough that if you aren't doing a tasting and really paying attention, it's not a huge difference. n.b, they do have wines on their website that are more than $20 but I've never seen one in a store around here.
• Espiral rosé ($5): A great rose for sipping on a summer afternoon! Espiral is a real crowd-pleaser, but packs a lot of flavor without being overly sweet.
• Kim Crawford sauvignon blanc (~$13): Crisp and not sweet! Extremely pleasant to drink.
• Boen Russian River Valley Pinot Noir (~$28): Not an everyday wine for us at this price point, but so very delicious (solidly won our Pinot Noir night in a blind taste test) and a nice occasional treat for something special. I asked my live-in wine expert how she would describe it, and this was the answer: "Nicely balanced between minerally and fruity, without tasting strongly of calcium carbonate or blueberries." I concur!
• Lazy Bones Cabernet Franc ($6): Lazy Bones is fruity and floral, not hugely bold, and just really nice for drinking with dinner or while reading a book after work. The label has art of a naked lady hanging out with a cat, and that is the vibe that drinking this wine puts out.
• Dark Horse Cabernet Sauvignon (~$9): From the wine expert: "not very berry." I asked if there was anything further, but that's it. I'll say, the things we've bought from Dark Horse have all been very nice and eminently drinkable, this one is just the house favorite.
• Cantina Zaccagnini Montepulciano d'Abruzzo ($14): Stick wine! It's the wine with a stick tied to it. Fruity with bold flavor, it's hard to go wrong with the stick wine. We've been buying it for years to have around the house, and to bring along to dinners.

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Beers

I am the only person I know that actually enjoys the ubiquity of IPAs, so I guess that's an FYI in terms of what I enjoy even in non-IPAs. On the other hand, I am decidedly not a fan of stouts! Here are a few specific beers I like best.

• Castle Danger Cream Ale:
• Allagash White:
• Fair State Brewing Party Forward IPA:

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Cocktails

Not included is the obvious gin & tonic, 2/3 of whose ingredients are in its name. Add some lime! There. Otherwise, here are some of my faves as a person who prefers herbal to fruity and doesn't love a sweet drink. A lot of these originally have a more sweetener in their recipes, which I have minimized or left out here because I leave the syrup out of most drinks I make, but YMMV.

• General Cocktails

  The Last Word

  1.5 oz gin

  .5 oz chartreuse

  .25 oz maraschino liqueur

  .5 oz lemon juice

  Shake all with ice, strain

  Basil Gimlet

  4 basil leaves, muddled in shaker (hold back another sprig for garnish)

  1 oz gin

  Juice of 1/2 lime

  smidgen of simple syrup

  Shake all with ice, strain, garnish with basil sprig

  Aperol Negroni

  for the person who doesn't enjoy campari

  1.5 oz gin

  1 oz aperol

  "a fairy's tear" sweet vermouth

  Shake & strain, garnish with orange slice

  Italian Greyhound

  1 oz gin

  1 oz aperol

  1 oz grapefruit juice

  Mix in glass over ice cube, garnish with rosemary

  The Yellowjacket

  2 oz aquavit

  1/2 oz chartreuse

  1/2 oz lemon juice

  Shake with ice & strain

• Pride Cocktails

  Or, as we like to call it, drinking the rainbow. Carefully taste-tested over several years, here are the house favorites for a vibrant cocktail in each color. We tried mixing sloe gin & soda so you don't have to!

  Red: The Cape Codder

  1 oz vodka

  1/2 lime

  Mix in glass over ice, top with cranberry juice

  Orange: The Rosé Mimosa

  Pour 1 oz orange juice into champagne flute

  Top with sparkling rosé

  Yellow: The Harvey Wallbanger

  In a highball glass, mix:

  3 oz vodka

  Orange juice

  Top with 1 oz Galliano

  Green: The Lumière

  1.5 oz gin

  1/4 oz St Germain

  1/4 oz Chartreuse

  1/2 oz lime juice

  4 dashes orange bitters

  Shake with ice & strain

  Blue: The Summer Margarita

  1 oz tequila

  1/4 oz blue curacao

  Juice of 1 lime

  Pinch of salt

  Indigo: The 2 Wet 4 Wm

  2 oz butterfly pea tea-infused gin

  Shake with ice, strain into chilled glass that has been rinsed with vermouth. Add lemon twist.

  Violet: The Lavender Bees Knees

  1.5 oz butteryfly pea tea-infused gin

  1/2 oz lavender syrup

  After shaking gin & syrup, strain into glass. Add 1/2 lemon at end for color-changing fun and a lovely violet cocktail

  Note on infused gin: butterfly pea flower tea can be purchased in quantity from the internet! Put just a few flowers in a mason jar of any type of gin & let sit in a dark place for three days, and you'll have a beautiful color-changing gin.

• Non-Alcoholic Cocktails

  The Minnesota Goodbye

  To make the spiced cranberry juice: To 1 quart of unsweeted cranberry juice, add: 3 cinnamon sticks, 2 star anise pods, 5 cardamom pods, zest & juice of one orange, juice of 8 limes.

  In glass, mix: 1 oz spiced cranberry juice, 3 oz ginger beer

  The Elevator

  1 oz grapefruit juice

  1/2 a lime

  1 oz mandarin orange juice

  top with sparkling water

  Lavender Lemonade

  1/2 oz lavender syrup

  Juice of 2 lemons

  Pour over ice, top with soda water

  The Clean Linen

  Muddle 3 cucumber slices in shaker

  1 oz lemon juice

  1/4 oz simple syrup

  Shake & strain

  Top with elderflower-flavored soda water

  Garnish with thin cucumber slice

  The Watermelon Slush

  Blend in blender: a bunch of watermelon, a bunch of mint, and juice of some limes.

  ...this one is done by feel.

  But once blended, pour in glass and either drink straight or add soda water

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Wine Tasting Score Sheet

I put this sheet together so we could hold some wine tastings with friends and family at home! We find that a fun way to do it is to pick a whole bunch of the same type of wine (for instance, five Chardonnays, or five California pinot noirs), so you can really think about them in detail and compare, but as long as everyone has fun there's no wrong way to pick which wines you're trying.

• Wine Tasting Sheet

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