What kind of wine am I?

At some point during the Chilean food and wine demo, the wine ambassador made an interesting observation about Pinot.

"I always tell women, it's just like us," she said. "It's complex, sensitive, tender and hard to grow."

Sound familiar? It's like in the movie Sideways, where the main character's personality bears a striking resemblance to the profile of his favorite vino. I have to say, I've never been a huge fan of Pinot Noir. So it got me thinking. What does that say about me?

Over time, my appreciation of different wines has evolved, and more recently I've become a big fan of heavier, richer reds. My favorite, the Chilean signature grape Carmenere. Some Wikipedia research showed that Carmenere favors a long growing season in moderate to warm climates (Kind of like me). The vines do poorly if introduced to rain (As do I). It blends well with some other grapes, but stands just as well on its own (Sounds familiar). Carmenere is known for its rich, intense colors and flavors that range from full fruity to spicy and smoky. Despite its boldness, Carmenere is still softer and gentler than some other reds.

Hmmm... Maybe there's something to this. What's your wine type?

It's the FINAL COUNTDOWN ...

Cue the trumpets from that cheesy Europe song.

Or just forget about the trumpets altogether and start your own countdown.

For me, I'm less than a week away from SoBe.

I was so busy relaxing all weekend and recharging my battery for the big event I forgot to post my weekly installment on the blog countdown.

But yes, there's a decent chance that next time I post it will be photos of the South Beach Food and Wine Festival.

Of course my festival experience would not be complete without the appropriate attire. This time I'm conjuring Rachael Ray. My Yum-O shirt arrived in the mail this week in perfect time for me to have for the food festival.

Everyone sing with me. The final countdown ...

Unveil, the Valentine

Well the Valentines managed to make it safely to Buffalo, fashionably late for the holiday.

This year's design was inspired by the wine humor t's that have become all the rage among my friends lately, and that I happen to find pretty amusing: You had me at merlot.

HIL-arious!

I saw the phrase on a shirt at the wine store across the way and immediately thought it would make the perfect Valentine message. I cut out little heart-shaped cards with stems to resemble wine glasses, covered them with red foil and sprinkled with glitter. Voila! The 2010 Valentine.

On to next year!

A lovely Sunday!

I think I've decided that my new favorite day of the year is the annual Forks and Corks food and wine festival at the Ringling Museum.

I've gone every year since they started doing it in 2008, and every time it seems like it gets better - more food, more wine, better music. It's just so lovely to spend the afternoon leisurely strolling around the courtyard of the Ringling. One of the pourers from Miami said it's probably the best venue he's been to for that kind of festival anywhere in Florida. Cheers to the Fresh Originals!

Anyway, there were a few big winners of the day. Michael's on East had the same ginger and garlic flank steak with fresh ground horseradish they had at the Lakewood Ranch festival. Delicious. Ceviche represented with a paella, made in the traditionally giant paella pans you see in Valencia. Probably our two favorites were the Mayan chocolate cupcake (nice kick of heat and cinnamon) from The Bijou Cafe and the braised kobe beef from Ophelia's. By the time we got to Ophelia's I had really reached my full stomach capacity, but the flavors were so great (think mushroom ragout and white truffle cream) I stuffed every bite of it in.

On the wine front, there was a lovely tent with Pinot Noirs from the west coast and lots of California representation. I got to try the Swanson Alexis cabernet sauvignon that my friend Melissa raves about.

And honestly, we really didn't have a bad sample. Sure, there were some things that could have been better, but by and large the restaurants really stepped up to the occasion and put their best flavors forward. LOVE it!

Oh, and yes those are wine humor t-shirts my friend Melissa and I are wearing in the picture. Surprisingly, they were a big hit! We got a TON of compliments, a photo taken by one of the pourers and an invite to some upcoming wine events (and some decent pours from people who presumed we take our vino seriously!) Talk about a conversation starter.

Sarasota Forks and Corks

OK ... I can already hear Emily laughing from her little hut in Senegal.

Yes, I'm all dorkily excited about another food festival.

This time it's the Forks and Corks food and wine festival right here in Sarasota. A group of local restaurateurs started doing it two years ago at the gorgeous Ringling Art Museum.

I can think of few better ways to spend a Sunday afternoon than sipping wine, eating food from some the area's best restaurants and strolling around the grounds of the museum.

And I expect this to be the best festival yet. The first year they had the festival in June, a terribly humid and miserable time of year for eating and drinking in Florida. Last year they moved it up to May, but it didn't make much of a difference.

Finally, they got the picture and we're on for January.

Some of the girls and I got special wine humor t-shirts (think sayings like "Drinks Well with Others"). We've got our tickets.

Now, less than two weeks and counting ... I'll have a drink for you Emily, you smart ass : )

47 days and counting ...

With my ticket in hand and hotel reservation made, needless to say I was thrilled when I checked the South Beach Food and Wine Festival web site and saw they have posted the schedule for the Grand Tasting.

The day my friend and I picked to go (Saturday) is sold out (not surprising...but you can still get tickets for Sunday). The schedule is packed with celebrity cooking demos by some of my current and former favorite Food Network stars - Bobby Flay, Rachael Ray, Emeril, The Neelys ...

Of course I'm expecting long lines and waits for the demos, so we will have to be selective with our choices. I'm thinking Rachael Ray and Emeril will be priorities...

The rest of the time we can spend wining and dining our way through the food tent. I can't wait! This trip has been years in the making ...

Rachael Ray's Drunken Tuscan Pasta

OK... Next time it comes down to drinking a bottle of wine or boiling pasta in it I'm going to go with my gut instinct.

Just drink it.

Rachael Ray's recipe for Drunken Tuscan Pasta has always kind of intrigued me. The pasta recipe was in her Express Lane Meals cookbook

Surely, pasta boiled in a bottle of red wine must be packed with plenty of flavor. She actually made a risotto version of this dish on her Iron Chef appearance (she and Mario Batali went up against Bobby Flay and Giada De Laurentiis... Mario and Rachael won).

But is it really worth a bottle of vino?

I caved on this belief over the weekend, and only because I had a nearly full bottle of wine I opened before my Christmas vacation and never finished. After it sat about a week, what else was I going to do with it?

Maybe using wine that's been open that long detracts from the flavor. But aside from turning the pasta a magnificent fuchsia color, the flavor I got wasn't worth a full bottle.

Don't get me wrong. The pasta is tasty, with the peppery flavors of escarole and pancetta. But I don't think it was any better than other pastas I've made with this ingredient combo.

Can't blame me for trying.

Tis the season to be merry

So if you're wondering would could possibly be more enticing to me than cooking up a good meal in my kitchen, consider the following: FREE ... HOLIDAY ... WINE TASTING.

That's right, this year I've learned that swanky businesses and upscale restaurants like to promote themselves by inviting wine-loving people like me in for "holiday parties" that involve free food and dozens of wines to try. All of this in exchange for a toy that will be donated to a charity.

Part of me thinks this is a brilliant and altruistic thing for seemingly successful businesses to do, forfeiting profit from entrance fees for gifts for the children. But in reality I realize their ulterior motive is probably to get people all tipsy and enamored by their concern for the kids that they spend big wads of cash in their stores and restaurants (or, as always noted, on those perfect stocking stuffers - gift cards).

Either way, I consider this a win, win, win situation - for me, for the businesses, for the children.

On Thursday I'm planning on hitting up an event at Sarasota Architectural Salvage. The list of contributing restaurants includes local favs like The Colony, Michael's on East, Bijou Cafe and Libby's.

Then on Saturday I head over to Michael's on East for their holiday wine tasting.

As they say, tis the season to be jolly : )

Good thing I've got that big pot of soup to feed off of.

Food, friends and fun

When I'm not stalking celebrity chefs, I love a good food and wine festival. There's nothing like paying a somewhat exorbitant amount of money to then turn around and gorge yourself with food and vino. It's like a dare. Oh, you don't think I can eat $60 worth of food and wine in three hours? Watch me.

And I did on Saturday, but with all of this talk of Emeril haven't had time to post my update.

My lady friends and I headed out for the eighth annual Suncoast Food and Wine Fest at the Lakewood Ranch polo grounds. Despite the high price tag, I enjoy this event every year. It can get a little overwhelming - there are over 1,000 people and 300 kinds of winds - but the key is to just go enjoy being outside and being in good company.

I will admit, for the most part, that the food this year seemed fairly lackluster. Understandably, these restaurants are cooking for a mass crowd and have to be ready to man a three hour rush. I remember more luxurious dishes in past years, and wonder if some places scaled back because of the recession.

A friend of wine suggested I post some of my impressions on the blog, so without further ado ...

Best of show

Every year I've been to the fest, hands down, Tommy Bahama has the best food. It makes me wonder why I've never gone to eat there. They always have ribs that just fall off the bone and year after year are consistently memorable. The restaurant menu says that its a blackberry brandy sauce. They also served some sort of pineapple cake and probably the best thing at the festival, a creamy crab bisque that is just so smooth with a touch of sweetness that comes from sherry.

Perhaps the dark horse of the event was the lobster ravioli from Let's Eat!, one of those places where you go to make masses of dinner and bring it home to freeze it. My friends liked the steak sandwiches from Ruth's Chris. I, of course, enjoyed the little shredded pork sandwiches that Derek's was serving.

Can't believe I ate that

Just try to guess where the worst thing we all ate at the festival came from.

I'll start by saying it was a fairly small scallop served over a bed of carrot slaw and absolutely doused in some sort of dark soy sauce. As soon as the scallop hit your tongue you were hit by this overwhelming taste of salt, like eating a salt lick. If your taste buds survived the shock you could detect an extremely fishy taste that followed, which made me think the scallops were poor quality and I wondered if they over seasoned them on purpose to try and cover up the inferior seafood. The carrot slaw was no better. So where did this not-so-tasty delicacy come from? That's right. The elite Ritz Carlton Members Club. If they serve that in their restaurant, I guess you don't always get what you pay for.

There was another restaurant, whose name I can't remember, that served an etouffee with shrimp so soft that when I picked up the shell of mine the meat, literally, crumbled off. Yuck!

The thing I hate about big events like this is that there are so many wines, and not many of them are too memorable, that it's hard to find anything too exiting. It's definitely better as a social event to go relax with friends and enjoy the weather.

We were having so much fun, I started revving everyone up for the other big Sarasota food and wine fest, Forks and Corks, that they've done for the past two years in the spring at the Ringling. The big downside: spring in Florida is pretty frickin hot. Not the kind of weather you want to eat copious amounts of food in.

But out of curiosity I checked the event's web site Sunday to see if they set a date yet. It brought a smile to my face. They moved it up to January. The weather will be perfect : )

More food, more wine

Tomorrow at this time I will be sippin and strolling at the annual Suncoast Winefestival. What a great way to count down the last few hours of the workweek!

Along with literally hundreds of wines, some of the highlights of this event can be found at the three dozen restaurants that participate - many of which are too expensive for me to normally eat at.

In all, it's one of my favorite things to do all year. You can buy tickets or check out more information about the festival here.

Happy days are here again ...

Call it Christmas, just two months early. This past week I came in official receipt of my tickets for two upcoming food fests - the Suncoast Food and Wine Festival in Lakewood Ranch and the South Beach Food and Wine Festival in February in Miami.

As mentioned before, I've been wanting to go to the South Beach fest for years, largely because it involves all of my favorite Food Network personalities.

Although it can't boast the likes of Emeril, Bobby or Rachael, the Lakewood Ranch festival is exciting in its own right. For $60, I get to eat and drink as much as I want, with much of the food coming from big ticket restaurants I can't normally afford to go to. Even better is that Starbucks is usually on hand giving away packages of their wrapped biscotti and cookies. I can easily find ways to get the most of my admission!

Off to SoBe the wizards ... the wonderful wizards of food!

I watched the countdown tick off the minutes, right until midnight this morning.

That's when tickets for the 2010 South Beach Food and Wine Festival went on sale. I've been shut out in years past, and this year I wasn't going to miss it.

Bobby Flay wrapped up his Throwdown as midnight struck and the magical virtual box office opened. Within six minutes I had in my possession (electronically at least) a coveted ticket to the Grand Tasting.

I can imagine it now. Me, on the sandy, white beach tasting the finest of South Florida epicurean fare and rubbing elbows with the likes of Rachael, Bobby and Emeril.

OK, I know it won't QUITE be like that. But the beach isn't going anywhere, and the food will likely be more incredible than I could ever imagine. If I happen to catch a glimpse of one of my favorite stars, it will be all the more exciting.

So yeah, maybe I'm being melodramatic, but this is really exciting - a somewhat nervous excitement - for me. I've been wanting to go to the SoBe fest for years, and finally it's going to happen.

Part of the angst comes from the fact that taxes and all this set me back some cash. But talking to one of my friends in the office today - after she invited me to her son's school International Festival/fund raiser - I realized that times like these when I can somewhat guiltlessly drop money on something like that for myself could be limited.

I might as well take advantage of the opportunity.

To SoBe... or not to SoBe ...

... I actually think I already know the answer to that question.

For those not in the know on this one, by SoBe I'm referring to South Beach in Miami. More specifically, to the annual and extravagant food and wine festival.

Each year masses of foodies from all over the country flock to see the rock stars of the culinary world do their thing, while indulging in dishes from some of the best chefs in the nation. Oh, there's also vino.

I've been wanting to go for the past few years, but it's pretty pricey and most years I either had other things I needed to spend my money on or had no one to go with me.

But I've resisted so long, and really haven't treated myself to a vacation (besides visiting family at home) since I entered the workforce. I think this will be the year I succumb to the temptation.

The big event at the festival is the Grand Tasting Village, where one can pay a somewhat hefty sum for unlimited food and wine and a chance to see presentations by the likes of Emeril, Rachael and Bobby.

The chefs also do a number of events besides the tasting. I'm eyeing Rachael's beach burger bash and Emeril's champagne cocktail party.

The festival runs from Feb. 25 to Feb. 28, and tickets go on sale in late October.

Ode to my favorite wine, ever ...

... or at least for now.

If you haven't familiarized yourself with Chilean wines stop whatever you are doing immediately, call the nearest wine store you think will be open and steer yourself in that direction. I don't think it's even fair to call Chile an "up and coming" wine region anymore. For those of us that really enjoy our vino, it's here!

Chile is getting a lot of mainstream attention for its cabernet sauvignons and even sauvignon blancs. While these are both great wines coming out of the country, I challenge the real aficionados to get a little more adventurous. Pick up a carmenere.

Carmenere is a bold, full-bodied wine that is usually spicy, and sometimes smoky. These wines are tougher to come by. For example, for such a great wine, the local Total Wine only has about a half dozen of them.

The problem with carmenere - or at least selling it - is that the flavors in the wine are so bold only really seasoned palettes can appreciate it. Maybe in a few years though these Chilean wines will gain the same popularity of some Spanish wines on liquor store shelves.

In the meantime, look for my favorite label of the moment Santa Alicia. I've had a number of different wines - chardonnay, shiraz, malbec ... - from this Chilean winery and they've all been fantastic. Get an $8 bottle of carmenere and it will hold it's own at any tasting against $20 California bottle.

If you are in Sarasota, you're in luck. Whole Foods has had an ample supply of Santa Alicia carmeneres, malbecs and chardonnays for $8. If you buy six bottles, you get 10 percent off, and if you like bold and flavorful wines you'll drink that no problem.