Julie, Julia and Me

I'm back. After computer issues and other assorted useless and lame excuses, I'm back. And not only back but back with a purpose.

The bride rented Julie and Julia, we watched the movie and I am still ticked Streep didn't win the Oscar. The idea of 534 recipes in 365 days and posting them in a blog excited me. The bride and I talked about it and so, starting today 600 wines in 365 days.

The wines to be counted will be recently tasted, any mention of wines tasted years ago will not count. Picking out the first one was a tough decision. Saturday night I tasted 4 great German Rieslings, my first love in wine, and that took the lead. Thursday, I spent the day on Cape Cod tasting 200 wines at a trade show held to inform the soon-to-open seasonal restaurants down there what was new to the market, and there were lots of wines worth mention. However, rarely do I drink a wine that goes on the top ten of all time personal taste list and it's a Champagne. Julia would want it this way. What she wouldn't want is the price. Wicked expensive.

1999 vintage Cristal Champagne from Louis Roederer is just about perfect wine. Full of rich flavors and full of tiny bubbles, I tasted it a friend's restaurant to celebrate something that I already forget. That's it, the first wine. Perfect and pricey. The only other Champagnes I have tried that rivaled it were the 1947 Krug I drank in either 1986 or 1988 to celebrate a friend's 40th birthday and both 1946 and 1948 were bad years for wine, and the 1985 Rene Lalou from Mumm's. Which we bought on closeout when the firm discontinued the brand. The Rene Lalou had the best looking bottle of all-time too. Fluted glass in a gorgeous shape.

Oh, and Champagne chocolate covered strawberries are not a good match. Looks good in the other Julia's movie, but the taste doesn't work for me. When visiting Champagne, the locals put out a dish of classic salted mixed nuts or crackers to enjoy and evaluate Champagne.

One down 599 to go. Those 4 German wines are coming tomorrow.