Wine Tasting Notes: Chateau St Jean 2009 Cold Creek Ranch Chardonnay

Image from cellartracker.com

A big part of my home and my free time is socializing over wine and cocktails. A few other home blogs and websites have wine or cocktail features, and in order to keep track of my favorites (and duds) I’m going to start a new series on the blog called “Wine Tasting Notes” which include my comments on my various wine adventures!

My first wine to review is a good one: Chateau St Jean 2009 Cold Creek Ranch Chardonnay.

Brentan and I were in Sonoma a few weeks ago for a friend’s birthday, and Chateau St Jean was on the list of wineries we were planning on visiting. I was excited since I have enjoyed their wine before, especially their chardonnay (available everywhere around here it seems!). First, the winery was beautiful, like an Americanized version of a French chateau (no big surprise) with a huge lawn and some intimate courtyard gardens. In fact, we happened to be there with a Frenchman, and he said it was very Americanized. The tasting room was nice, but not nearly as beautiful as the grounds. We tasted a few wines and I bought the bottle of Cold Creek Ranch Chardonnay to take home. It was cold cold and refreshing during the hot Sonoma day. I often buy a bottle when we go tasting, and this was one of the standout wines from the tasting room. I’m blanking on how much it cost exactly, but it was between $28 and $35.

Unfortunately, Cold Creek Ranch Chardonnay is only available at the winery, so hopefully you’ll be in Sonoma soon! It’s worth a trip. However, it is similar to (but much nicer than) the ubiquitous Chateau St Jean generic Chardonnay.

So, I opened up this bottle one night to enjoy on the patio. This is a summery wine that I enjoyed without food, and the best word I have to describe it is golden. The color is bright and sparkly, the aroma is deep and a bit sweet, and the texture is a bit viscous.  It was thick and slightly sweet just danced on my tongue. I could drink it all summer before and after dinner. It was not a dry a Chardonnay, and pretty oaky and fruity and just a tad creamy, and overall smooth smooth smooth trickling through my mouth.

Here are the bottle’s tasting notes: The Cold Creek Ranch is tucked away in the coveted Sonoma Coast appellation where maritime influences produce Chardonnay with forward fruit flavors and lively acidity. Eight months of aging in French oak add a creamy texture to the wine that compliments the concentrated pineapple, lemon, and coconut notes from the Chardonnay grapes. 

Deets:

Price: Ahh I can’t remember! About $30.

Value: Worth buying a few bottles

Score 4.5 of 5

Goes well with: Your sweetheart, a nice view, and some summery weather

 

Have you tried this wine or another Chateau St Jean? What’s your favorite summer wine?

-Liz

Installed Skylight ‘After’

Some of you asked for some ‘after’ shots of the skylight. I was a little hesitant to put these up because they look so awful. But you asked, and I will publish.

It’s really hard to take a good photo of a big blob of light in your ceiling!

-Liz

Meet My New Friend the Upholstered Chair

Meet my new friend, the adopted chair. Doesn’t he have really nice, mid-Century lines? Our neighbor was going to throw him out!

Luckily, Brentan and I walked by and asked to have him.

Are you wondering what those gray things are on the seat? Well, Mr. Chair didn’t have a seat cushion, so between walking home to pick up the car and driving back over to the neighbor’s house, the neighbor made a seat cushion out of medical device packaging foam. Isn’t that sweet!

I have great plans, which include a real seat and cushion, and learning to really upholster with welting and everything. I watched a few videos online, and it is going to be tough, especially since my sewing skills are really basic.  I stumbled across this one, which shows the founders of Spruce Home in Austin reupholstering and making chairs really beautiful, emphasizing the craft and history of upholstery.

I haven’t decided on a fabric yet, or even a style. Crazy pattern (like the chair in the video?) Nice neutral? Interesting texture?

Spruce Home Chair

Do you have any suggestions for my new chair friend? Can you offer me any help on really reupholstering (I’m specifically talking to you Mom, and Sarah!)?

-Liz

Light up my life!: How to Install a Skylight

Sorry for the cheesy title.

We did something amazing last weekend. And by ‘we’ I mean Brentan did the work and I signed off on all the decisions.

We cut a hole in the roof.

And then installed a skylight. In the kitchen. It’s amazing. It’s life-changing. I want to spend time in my kitchen now. It’s a huge transformation and cost about $150. We should have done it two years ago when we moved in. I loooove it. The kitchen is bright and I’m happier in it. (ha! My husband made a change to our house that makes me want to spend more time in the kitchen!)

1. First, cut a hole. Make sure you don’t get sawdust all over your dishes and appliances.

2. This is what a cross section of my roof looks like! The wood screwed to the top of it made sure it didn’t fall down and crash in the inside of our house. That would be bad. 

3. Then you can make some breakfast with your little brother who happens to be visiting.

4. Then you install the skylight. Make sure it is sealed well so when the rain starts in the fall you don’t have water gushing into your house. We still have to double check this.

5. You might need some tools.

PS. Just as I suspected, we had a tie on the poll from last weekend. The Decorated Shed and the Spaulding house have equal pull for Just About Home readers!

 

Which would you rather….

Which of these beautiful homes would you rather live in?

The Spaulding House via here

Spaulding House

 

Decorated Shed via the New York Times

 

 

The Decorated Shed

I found both house tours online last week and was blown away by both, but disregarding location I think I’d have to pick the ‘Decorated Shed’. So spacey and airy and creative. I usually love uber modern, and would move to the Spaulding House in a minutes, too. Take a few minutes to look through both tours, and then vote below!

-Liz

Mexican Dinner Night: Mango Salsa

Cell Phone Picture of Mexican Dinner Night Salsas

Last night was Mexican food night–my favorite night of the week!

Brentan was watching the NBA finals and I decided to make a bit of a variation on our usual salsas and dips, with mango salsa! We always cook the same dinner for Mexican food night, and my little brother jokes that he loves that when he comes to our house he likes having that meal because it always tastes the same. Well Henry, when you come over next time we’ll have some new flavors!

We’ve been obsessed with Rick Bayless and his cooking recently after visiting his restaurant in Chicago and seeing him do a cooking demo at the Sunset Celebration weekend, and all three of these salsas were inspired by him. I made mango salsa and guac last night, and we had a bit of leftover roasted chile salsa from last week that Brentan made from his cookbook.

Here’s my own easy recipe for mango salsa. Oh my it’s so easy:

You need:

• 1 small mango
• 1/4 white onion
• Juice from 1 lime
• 2 medium tomatoes
• 1 Serrano pepper

1. Cut up the mango into small pieces, place in bowl.
2. Dice onion, place in bowl.
3. Squeeze lime juice over onion and mango. The juice helps mellow out the onions, according to Mr. Bayless.
4. Dice tomatoes, and chop pepper. Place in bowl.
5. Mix everything together and salt and pepper to taste.
6. Eat it all with tortilla chips or place on top of tacos or burritos!

Enjoy!

-Liz

Succulents in Baking Loaf Pans

Hey there! I told you earlier that I found some interesting containers for my succulents!

I went epic estate sale-ing with Brentan and Sarah this weekend and found a cute ceramic bowl at the first stop, and found a stack of small and medium loaf pans at sale #4 in Alameda. Loaf pans! Who would have thought that I would be inspired to plant things in them. I think it’s because I like the old school metal school lunch trays at the Alameda Antiques Fair a while ago, and am feeling the vintage metal bake ware.

So I have a stack, and planted a few full. One now sits on my kitchen table (below) and one is on my bedside table (not pictured).  And you can sort of see the pile of the rest of the pans in the left side of the picture below waiting to be planted. 

I also took this long ceramic vessel that my brother made for me a few years ago and planted some succulents in there. It’s sitting on my coffee table and I love all the colors!

So I may not be Flora Grubb yet, but I’m working on my container gardening skills.

I’m still on the lookout for some larger containers to hold my larger plants. I saw a good sale on containers at Crate and Barrel, so maybe I’ll pick up one of these blue guys.

-Liz

Linked to: Transformation Thursday, Strut Your Stuff

Weekend Updates: Swing Arm Lamps and New Crystal Knobs

I didn’t tackle everything on my list, but I did make it to six (I think that’s a record) estate sales and to the Sunset Celebration weekend. As for my checklist, I made huevos rancheros (yum!), found some great succulent containers (post coming soon!), and hung up my Home Depot swing arm lamps and installed new hardware on my bedside tables.

Sorry for the dark pictures, they were taken on rainy Saturday.  No need to explain how I installed them, since all the direction I needed was on the instruction booklet. Except that you always always should measure twice and cut (drill) once. Luckily, my little mistake was within the margin of error. That and things are not always symmetrical, like the backing on these lamps!

-Liz

New Knobs!

Saturday Morning Thoughts

It’s 9am, Saturday morning and I have the whole weekend ahead of me. It feels wonderful! I’m feeling ambitious and thinking of tackling a few projects over the weekend. I went to Home Depot last night to pick up a few supplies already.

• Install swinging arm lamps next to the bed from Home Depot (inspired by Jane from her pretty bedroom pictures)
• Install new knobs for new old nightstands (Done last night! Pics to come later)
• Make a ladybug house to attract them to eat all my garden aphids, like the one here
• Find some cute little containers to plant all my succulents
• Cook some kick-ass huevos rancheros and learn to make sushi rolls
• Oh, and maybe finally finish a cafe curtain for the bathroom

What are your weekend projects?

-Liz