champagne tastes

date: Feb 27

drink: cava, Ruinart Champagne (blanc de blanc & rose), an Italian Red & Penderyn Whiskey!!! (followed by some Piper Sonoma champagne at home... because we just couldnt stop!)

what: Cheese & Wine 101 at Artisanal


so, back on J's birthday, i decided to go the 'experience' route and include a cheese & wine class as part of his gift... J and I drink a LOT of wine and eat a LOT of cheese... (note to self - this probably has contributed to those 10lbs gained...) so this seemed like a no-brainer... chose Artisanal because we both LOVE that place and chose the 27th simply because it was one of the only fridays that offered the class... (and hoped we wouldnt break up before then... dangerous in a new relationship...)

On the day of, i hopped over to the artisanal site (btw, dont just go to artisanal dot com - its porn...) and noticed this little blurb about the evening:

Friday, February 27th: Special Guest Instructor Frederic Panaiotis, cellarmaster for Ruinart champagne will be co-teaching with Max McCalman. Enjoy an exciting one of a kind culinary experience. Plus, a pairing with Penderyn Whiskey.

Now, generally speaking, the wine for Cheese & Wine 101 is provided by Chambers Street Wines and i'm sure they are fabulous, but it was clear that this night would be different...

The night starts out with a reception - freeflowing cava (spanish sparkling wine) and a ton of cheese, crackers, dried fruits, preserves, gougeres (hot from the oven) and, of course, fondue...

i was already fairly tipsy by the time they put us in the classroom.

when i looked at the 4 glasses in front of me - 2 champagne, 1 wine and 1 WHISKEY, i got a little nervous that it may be a praying-to-the-porcelain-god kind of night.
when i looked at the 7 cheeses on the plate, i thought to myself what a shame it would be to not keep it down... and i resolved to slow down, drink some water and pace myself


without going into too much detail, i will say this - even in my drunken stupor, i learned a lot. a lot about cheese (like those grainy bits? those are amino acids. that is an indication of a good cheese) nutrition, a lot about cheese types, a lot about cheese tastes and a lot about how to pair a cheese and a wine...

but mostly? mostly i found my new favorite celebration champagne... that ruinart rose - highly recommend! i'm not a rose champagne lover but this is made differently... something about combining white and red rather than just making the pink a result of the red... i dunno - but that stuff is GOOD... perhaps even better than that bottle of la grande dame...

its too expensive for my typical saturday night, therefore i can only hope that there will be a worthy celebration in my near future :)