The Ten Spot - Tisdale Moscato

Ladies and Gentlemen, I would like to introduce you to my new favorite little wine. I have to thank my friend Mendi for introducing me to this one. She had a glass of this at a restaurant a while back and asked me if I knew where she could get it.
I happened to know that our local grocer carries the Tisdale label, but not the Moscato; only the standard four varietals. But, being the shameless person that I am, I went straight to the guy who does their ordering and asked if he could get us some. (And by “some” I mean a case of it for us to share.)
I admit, when she first mentioned it to me, I was a little hesitant because I knew that the other Tisdale wines retailed for about $3.49 a bottle. Now, you won’t find me complaining about a cheap bottle of wine, but when you go below the $5 mark, you just never know what you’re getting into.In this case, I was very pleasantly surprised. I’m not going to try and blow smoke and tell you this is a fantastic wine and to rush out to your local liquor store and demand that they carry it. But it IS a wine that will be taking up permanent residence in my wine rack....if I can manage to keep from drinking it, that is.
The Tisdale Moscato is a very light white wine, definitely on the sweet side, but not sickeningly sweet like so many I have come across. It is refreshing and clean enough that it makes a great go-to wine for every day drinking and pairs well with just about anything on the grill, making it a great summer choice. Crisp and citrusy, it is a winner in my book, and at under $4 a bottle, a can’t-miss pick!
You can learn more about the Tisdale wines on their website.

The Ten Spot - Liberty Creek Sweet Red

I have pretty eclectic taste in wine, but it does seem like lately I’ve been veering toward the sweet wines more than anything else. I wonder if that is a side-effect of the summer heat.

So, I suppose it should come as no surprise that I picked this bottle up during a recent shopping trip.

Partly because it’s the BIG bottle. And partly because it was $6.99.

This is definitely a “more for your money” bottle of wine. Sweet and fruity, it’s a little too easy to drink. You tend to forget that it is a double size bottle, so you may drink more of it in one sitting than you should.

What struck me about this particular wine, though, is that it is going to make a fantastic batch of sangria this weekend. Well, ok, I’m going to buy ANOTHER bottle to do that with, since I’ve already put too big a dent in this one, but you get my drift...

Ty and I are going to Story Time Live in St Louis this weekend with his best buddy and his mom. If you’re not familiar, this is basically Nickelodeon, Jr., live on stage. If you are acquainted with Dora and Diego, The Wonder Pets and all their friends, then you know what I’ll be going through on Saturday.

And so, surely you can understand why I’ll be picking up the big bottle and letting it marinate some fruit while we’re gone in St Louis. Because, after an afternoon with The Wonder Pets....well.....I’m going to need it.

You can check out this wine as well as Liberty Creek's other offerings on their website.

The Ten Spot - Mad Housewife Merlot and Ruby Truffles

A couple of weeks ago, I posted a Ten Spot about the Mad Housewife Cabernet Sauvignon. It was a decent little wine. I will admit, it didn’t excite me, but for under $6 a bottle, it didn’t need to, I was just happy to have a decent bottle to drink that night.

Wasn’t I surprised when a member of the Mad Housewife staff commented on my post! (Hmmm haven’t heard anything about that t-shirt he wanted to send me tho...)

Well, I am all about getting feedback from my fellow bloggers and readers, and it gave me the push I needed to go check out their website, which is not something I normally do when I pick a wine. Lo and behold! They have a FOOD section. Wine and food, two of my favorite diversions in life. I greedily browsed the recipes available there and it didn’t take me long to pick a recipe to try. Why, one that calls for WINE, of course!

I have cooked with wine on numerous occasions, but I am always interested in a dessert recipe that lists wine as an ingredient. And, I found that in their “Ruby Truffles”.

A simple enough recipe, I added the necessary ingredients to my shopping list and headed to the store (oh, darn, I have to buy a bottle of wine...shucks.)

It was a shame that the recipe only called for a half a cup of wine...that left me with almost a whole bottle to do something with. I couldn’t think of anything else, so I rallied my resolve and drank it. It was a real struggle. Italian girl....red wine....yeah, I was devastated. (you really should know how sarcastic I can be by now.)(as you can see, the bottle didn't last long)

And, I have to say, pleasantly surprised! I usually can’t drink Merlot. It’s just too tannic for me and I end up with a raging headache after just a glass or two and a case of the ol’ “black tongue” the next morning. Seriously, after a glass of Merlot, I usually wake up, go to brush my teeth and my tongue looks like it belongs to a victim of the plague. Its nasty.

Doesn’t stop me from trying though.

After my only “average” experience with the Cabernet, I honestly wasn’t expecting more than that from the Merlot, but I am happy to say I underestimated it. Very light on the tannins, and full bodied, I had no trouble at all putting away the rest of the bottle (no, I don’t mean in the fridge, and yes, I’m fully aware that I’m a wino, thankyouverymuch.). There were a lot of great fruit undertones in this bottle and no case of the black tongue the next morning! (yay!) This bottle is in the lineup for my next pasta dish. I think it will lend great flavor to the meat sauce I’ll be making next week.

**DISCLAIMER – no, I am not just saying this to get Mad Housewife to send me a shirt. You all know by now that I am enthusiastic when I like something, and a real bitch when I don’t, so you can be sure I’m nothing if I’m not honest. I was not paid or otherwise compensated for this endorsement. And yes, I really do have another bottle of Merlot on my shopping list. Now...let’s see if I can brave the Chardonnay.

Now! On to the truffles!Let me start by saying, there are very few recipes that are this easy. It’s one of my favorite kinds, much like pesto, where you dump everything into a food processor and give it a whirl. The only spot where I ran into trouble was in forming the balls. The recipe indicated that the dough would be stiff, and it did appear that way in the bowl, but in reality it was too soft to handle. I ended up freezing the dough until it was firmer to form the balls and roll them in sugar. The recipe also says to bring these to room temperature before serving, but honestly, once they start to warm up, they tend to go soft again, so I am serving mine to my co-workers today straight out of the fridge. Maybe I did something wrong, maybe it was just a variation in the brand of vanilla wafers, I don’t know. They were still tasty though! They actually remind me a lot of a recipe from my friend Tara’s mom back in Ohio that she called Pomanders. We always had them at the holidays and they had a base of vanilla wafers as well. So, for me, this recipe was a bit nostalgic and made for quite a sweet afternoon! They are not as rich as a standard truffle, so don’t be expecting that. They do not have the typical chocolate base that you are familiar with, but have a nice dense texture and give off just a hint of the wine.

After making the first batch, I think next time I will try doubling the amount of wine and then reducing it to about half the volume for a more powerful taste. We’ll see how that goes!

Thanks, Mad Housewife, for a nice bottle of wine and a great recipe idea!

“Ruby” Truffles

1 box Nilla Wafers

¾ C powdered sugar

¼ C cocoa powder

3 T light corn syrup

1 tsp. vanilla

½ C Mad Housewife Wine – Merlot

1 C red decorative sugar

In food processor, process wafers to the consistency of coffee grounds; add powdered sugar, cocoa powder, corn syrup, Merlot and vanilla. Process until dough becomes evenly mixed with all ingredients (dough will be stiff). Shape into 1 inch balls and roll in decorative sugar.

Store in covered container in refrigerator. Allow to come to room temperature before serving.

The Ten Spot – Mad Housewife Cabernet Sauvignon

The Ten Spot – Mad Housewife Cabernet Sauvignon $5.99Another new acquisition by my local grocer, four wines under the Mad Housewife label. I chose the Cabernet because, frankly, I can generally drink a Cab at room temperature and I was wanting a bottle of wine to drink immediately. Yep, that’s the kind of mood I was in that day. Plus, I always like to at least try one bottle of any new wine they get, just to say “thanks for getting something new, and please keep getting new things” to my friendly neighborhood grocer.
How was it? It was fine. It wasn’t exciting or unique in anyway. It was a standard Cabernet, fairly tannic, but easy to drink. Nothing special, but for $5.99 a bottle, I’ll probably buy it again when I need a bottle right away, or maybe just because I’m walking down that aisle at the store.....

The Ten Spot

Okay, I admit freely that I am totally robbing this idea from a fellow blogger. Pam over at Sidewalk Shoes has been sharing a regular series on wine called “Weekend Wine Reviews”, and I love it! Since I have some friends who are starting to get interested in wine and regularly ask my opinion on their choices, I’ve decided to start sharing what I have found here as well.

One very important thing you should know about me as a wine drinker is this. I’m cheap. I would be hard pressed to pay more than ten dollars for a bottle of wine, and if I can find one for half that price that I enjoy, well, even better.

Hence the name of this post, The Ten Spot, as I will be trying out new wines that are ten dollars or less per bottle and reviewing them here. The good, the bad, and yes, also the nasty.

I am by no means claiming to be an expert in all things wine, I just know what I like and I don’t think you should have to spend a fortune on a bottle to be able to enjoy wine.

I don’t have a set schedule for this post, you will just see it appear randomly, whenever I find something I think is worthy of sharing.

Like today!

Jam Jar Sweet Shiraz $9.99I’ve been wanting to try this one since it came out as a special in my local liquor store newsletter a few weeks ago. One of my book club friends has a preference for sweet wines and since I prefer dry, we don’t usually enjoy the same wines. The description of this wine intrigued me since a Shiraz is not a sweet wine, but this one was described as “like drinking a jar of jam”.

And the man at the store who told me that (must be popular because he walked right up to the bottle on the shelf when I asked for it) was absolutely right. The first glass was like drinking boozy, liquefied blackberry jam. Sweet, and almost viscous on the tongue. The second glass brought out more of the dryness of the shiraz that I am familiar with. It was a very intense wine, and for the heat of summer, I can see it being very tasty as a spritzer. I’ll be getting another bottle for our next book club meeting.

Be on the lookout for more editions of The Ten Spot as I explore new wines in my small town!