Oh Wednesday, you always seem to come along so quickly! For this week’s Wine Wednesday post, I decided to share a little bit about the Washington DC International Wine and Food Festival. I went this past Sunday with a group of friend; we bought half price tickets for the Grand Tasting through a daily deal site, I believe this time it was Capital Deal. Tickets were pretty pricey ($80 for the day), so getting them half off was definitely the way to go.
The event was held at the Ronald Reagan building in the atrium and adjoining wings. There were so many different wines to try and a few snacks along the way. There seemed to be a lot of wine distributors/sellers rather than individual wineries. Two of the booths that stuck out to me were Ten Sisters and Swirl & Sip.
Ten Sisters is a New Zealand based vineyard, and they currently have two types of wine: Sauvignon Blanc and Pinot Noir. Both were very good, but I loved the sauv blanc. They sell their wines in a lot of shops in the DC area, so I’m going to try and keep an eye out for it soon.
Swirl & Sip is an online wine shop that specializes in finding great wines in four categories: Hidden Gems under $12, Gold Medals under $25, 90+ Points under $25, and 91+ Points under $50. We got to try all of the wines they currently sell online, and they were all surprisingly good. My favorite was the Buehler Cabernet Sauvignon. It was just great. Cab is my absolute favorite most of the time, and this just reinforced that. This is one if the 90 point wines under $25, coming in at $21.99–totally worth that and more.
Overall, it was a fun afternoon of sipping wine, eating lots of hummus, and really discussing summer wine festivals and wineries we need to attend. Sipping wine is always more pleasant when you’re outside on a lovely warm day.
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As we all know, yesterday was Valentine’s Day and I hope it as a lovely day for everyone. Who doesn’t love eating candy all day?!
I made Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough Truffles to share with the office. Thanks for this awesome recipe, Lindsay; they were so delicious and quite the hit!
I went with a group of friends to Oyamel in Chinatown for Galentine’s dinner. They had a special menu for the holiday, and a menu of drinks with different “stages of love.” I got the “Seductive Night” cocktail; I wish I had written down what was in this one. It was amazing. Strawberry, chocolate, vanilla, tequila, bitters, from what I remember.
For dinner, we all split guacamole. During less crowded nights, they make the guac table-side which is fun to watch, but since the place was packed last night, they brought it up from the kitchen. I had tuna ceviche, which had this awesome crunchy quinoa and pecan topping, and split pork tacos and prawn tacos with Kim. They were both delicious, and the prawns still had their little heads on!
The highlight, besides my delicious drink, was definitely the ceviche. It’s not something I always think to order, but in the few times I have been to Oyamel, it has not disappointed. I hope everyone had a lovely Valentine’s Day and an even better Wine Wednesday. Until next time. Cheers!
Cupcake wine goes on sale pretty often at my local grocery store, so I always make sure to pick up a bottle or two when it does. After all, who doesn’t love cupcakes?
