Welcome to the first edition of What’s For Sipper? Wherein I ask my friends, colleagues, funny people, interesting people, food and beverage people….you get the point. Where I ask them what in the heck they are going to be drinking. And what they like to drink in many a situation.

First up is the always lovely and charming Rachel, one of my partners in crime (see evidence: On The Lamb.)

Name: Rachel Humphrey

Hometown: St. Louis, MO. Current city: Los Angeles, CA

Favorite summer beverage: iced mint tea, historically, it’s a Missouri thing. These days I like mint & lavender iced tea, sweetened with honey!

Favorite cocktail or spirit: I love bourbon. Hands down. A perfect manhattan, not as in just perfectly rendered, but someone that knows how to make a “Perfect Manhattan.” Sweet & dry vermouth, a lemon twist rim & a dash of bitters. Or a wet gin martini.

Favorite place to grab a drink: Your house. You always have something I’ve never had! Or at Stella, it reminds me of New York & France.

Favorite toast: To life. Or…Get that water out’my way!

Favorite post-dinner quaff: I love herbal liqueurs if you’re really gonna do it. A great old Madeira is sublime & too rare. Armagnac, fantastic. Or, a really yummy spicy tea made of warm spices, like Good Earth tea with almond milk.

Favorite food & beverage pairing: Kimchi & lager. Or Animal’s poutine with a Burgundian red. Holy hell, I just died inside.

If you could travel to one wine region of the world where would you go? Wow, this is hard. I’ve been to a few that I would love to go back to, Gevry Chambertin, I would like to die there. But right now, I am so intrigued by Paso Robles & the lesser known Oregon areas, and then there’s Columbia Valley, Washington. Can I come back to this? No way to know right now!!!

But maybe I want to visit New Zealand wine country- not because they make my favorite wines, but because I am intrigued to find out if they are as much like French wine country as they say. But then there’s Mendoza.

Shoot. I failed that question.

And last but not least…

What’s for sipper? It was a hot day, a Marlbourough sauvignon blanc.

Last summer was epic. Epic. The kick off to that fabulous and shenanigan-filled summer? A blind rosé tasting with my best gals. You can see a few photos from that here (bypass the bolognese and pasta.) It was only natural to continue/establish the tradition and have another tasting. Not only to imbibe some delicious pink wine, but to wear pretty dresses and hopefully bless this summer with good mojo vibes.

I picked 4 very different rosés; different countries, varietals and style so my pals could see how versatile they can be. I apologize for the lack of pics- it was getting dark and, well, I was having too much fun…you know- drinking.  I do have one rosé wine porn pic for you….

Philippe Bornard’s “Tant-Mieux” petillant naturel. Sexy.

Anyway- here’s a little label photo fest so you can see what we were lucky enough to sip on…

1998 Lopez de Heredia Vina Tondonia rosé  (garnacha, tempranillo and viura)

2009 Weingut Christ rosé (zweigelt)

2009 Christian Venier Gris Gourlaouen rosé (pineau d’aunis)

Philippe Bornard “Tant-Mieux” pet nat rosé  (poulsard aka plousard)

Ladies’ favorites of the night: the Christ zweigelt and the 1998 Heredia rioja! Here’s to a great summer ahead….and as long as its filled with a crap ton of rosé and my lady friends, I think it’ll be all right.

]]> http://www.brunelloshavemorefun.com/2010/07/brown-bagging-it-the-2nd-annual-rose-tasting/feed/ 2 http://www.brunelloshavemorefun.com/2010/07/bourbon-drinks-with-bulleit-kitchy-kitchen/ http://www.brunelloshavemorefun.com/2010/07/bourbon-drinks-with-bulleit-kitchy-kitchen/#comments Thu, 22 Jul 2010 07:44:54 +0000 whitney http://www.brunelloshavemorefun.com/?p=2955

I recently spent a lovely afternoon with Claire Thomas of The Kitchy Kitchen and the always interesting and wonderful Hollis Bulleit making some bourbon drinks! Claire and I originally bonded over our mutual love of obsession with Bulleit bourbon and all things pecan milk back in May at the On The Lamb Kentucky Derby party. She asked me to share the recipes from the party with her and I happily obliged.

Photos by Claire Thomas

Miss Hollis graciously hosted us at her home, making the afternoon all the more fantastic. See below for the beautiful (and super fun to make) video Claire and her team put together! And head on over here for all the recipes.

Thanks to Claire and Hollis for a good time. No- an excellent time. No….a Bulleit time.

What: A Lebanese feast (and birthday celebration for moi)

Where: Marouch

Eats: hummos, dolmas, tabbouleh, kibbeh, falafel, labneh, fattouch, fatayer…. basically, every Lebanese (and some Armenian) food you can think of- we ate it. And it was damn good. Serge- you’re the man!

Dranks:  NV German Gilabert cava, 2009 Moulin de Gassac Guilhem rosé, 2008 Chateau d’Oupia Les Heretiques (all carried in a case by me to the restaurant…with high heels and all.) Please note- yes, Chateau Musar was on the list at the restaurant. And yes, it was too expensive for our broke asses. Other than that- go to Marouch for the food….not the wine.

Photos: by dear friend (and hot sexy mama) Marisa of  Marisa Q Photography

Thanks to all my pretty and funny pals! Love you lots. And to the winemakers who so beautifully made the wine in which I imbibed. And to Matthew and Dustin at Covell for letting me close the place down post-dinner. If you haven’t been there yet people- get with the times! Go now.

All right- I promise not to bore you with anymore bday related posts. Birthday week officially over. Sad face.

What do mothers love? Tea. Scones. Clotted cream. Rose gardens. Museums with…art and pretty things. Where do you take your mother when she visits town? A place that has tea, scones, clotted cream, a ton of roses and a lot of art. Get thee to the Huntington!

The gardens are absolutely lovely. There’s a rainforest, a tropical garden, a sub-tropical garden, desert garden, japanese garden, chinese garden…you get the point. There is no short of variety here. And within the rose garden there is also a tea room. From the idyllic splendor of rose scented paths and floating butterflies, we entered….

A Doubletree in Ohio? A Best Western continental breakfast in Indiana? What is going on here?

After knocking back our respective rooibos (me) and english breakfast (mom) teas, we quickly packed up our scones to go and headed back into the sweet bounty of the Mother Nature.

Sorry Huntington, but seriously. You need to step up your game. In the future, I should have taken the advice of my friend Rachel and grabbed a pot of tea and a bento box in the amazing Japanese garden. Next time.

{warning! self indulgent post!}

Wishes:

Healthy and happy friends. Healthy and happy family.

Lots of laughter. Belly laughs. Deep, primal guffawing. I look like an idiot- tears streaming- I may be drooling laughing.

Good wine and good food. In neverending abundance.

Although these wishes have already basically come true (pinch myself), I wish for them to continue. Forever. Thank you.

PS- I would also like cake. Endless supplies of Baskin Robbins mint chocolate chip ice cream cake. You can get the girl out of Kentucky…

Ah, the joys of summer. Firing up the grill and throwing back some rosé. Could life get any better? Oh right…add to that line-up outdoor dining; something that is possible most of the year in LA, but somehow seems way more special and exciting in the summer months. So, on to the important stuff! The sipper: Domaine du Bagnol’s Cassis rosé.

This Provence rosé is truly delicious and the color is divine. To me, it’s basically like a really gorgeous prep school girl in pearls and shiny watermelon lip gloss that you love to hate because she’s so perfect but can’t help but love because she’s actually really smart and sophisticated (and nice.)

On the menu: sliders made from McCall’s hamburger blend on La Brea Bakery jalapeno onion rolls, brussel sprout salad and rosemary fries. Yum! There’s just something about rosé and grilled meat on a warm day. You feel me?

I cleaned my plate….and my bottle glass.

Where there’s a grill, there’s Andrea Calek. Well, not really. But a few weeks ago ’twas true.

sorry for the blur...that's how excited I was for meat

My dear friends Molly and Tyler had some people over for grillin’ and drinkin’.  I decided to add some vin naturel goodness into the mix of steaks and Memorial Day shenanigans. Babiole is an interesting wine from an interesting man in the Ardeche (Rhone); a sans soufre blend of syrah, carignan and grenache.

For a bunch of people that never drink wines like this, they loved it. Another one for Team Natural Wines!

Last but not least- many thanks to our dashing butler for the evening- Monsieur Willy.

Where: Cinespia Cemetery Screenings, Hollywood

What: Purple Rain

Who: A bunch of cool ass people. Including Dâm Funk on the turntables and keytar pre and post show.

Click here to put a little funk in your step courtesy of Mr. D Funk himself.

I ♥ lambrusco. I really do. And with summer literally at our doorstep, it’s that time again. Time for a cold fizzy glass of lambrusco. But, not just any lambrusco- Medici Ermete lambrusco- one of my favorites. I spent a few days with Alberto Medici last fall and had a pretty amazing time.

So when I was invited to a beach party in the ‘bu (Malibu for all you non Cali folks…or just sane people who don’t refer to a city with it’s last syllable) I thought it would be sick to make some killer sangria bro. With what else but…Lambrusco!

Simply delicious. The deep dark berry fruit flavors that are so naturally present in the wine were pumped up times 10 with the addition of the actual berries. I must say- I don’t know if I’ll ever go back to a bottle of Malbec or Rioja again in my sangria-making ventures.

PS- I could stare at the cross section of a blackberry for days.