When is it ever going to stop snowing? Here it is March and we’re getting 3 inches plus more snow. Yesterday we had a play date with our friend’s dogs and our dogs, for a game of tag team wrestling all in an effort to exhaust their sixteen month old Belgian Malinois. We did all this in seventeen degree weather with a stiff wind out of the north. We aren’t the brightest sometimes. Anyway at least I had a pot roast waiting for us when we got back. I made a loaf of Italian beer bread and for dessert apple pie tortillas. Something of a diverse menu, wouldn’t you say?

Our friends brought the wine, two bottles, both French and both very different in taste. The first was Chateau Grand Bert, a 2006 Saint Emilion Grand Cru, a Bordeaux, 85% Merlot and 15% Cabernet Franc. It was dry, a bit harsh and had a minerally taste. It had cherry notes with a medium to full finish. Not bad, a wine I would drink again, but probably not buy myself.

The second bottle was also French, Reserve de la Saurine, a red blend from 2011. It was fruitier in aroma and taste, definite cherry flavor somewhat tart but not as dry as the first bottle. I liked it better than the first bottle, but would definitely drink either one again.

To go along with the apple pie tortillas and because we are always up for a bit of adventure, we tasted a bottle of Sake that a friend had given me on a trip to Japan. I bet you thought I was going say we had a rum chata, or Kahlua, but no we had American fare for dinner, Italian bread, French wine and Mexican-American dessert so what could possibly be more adventuresome than Japanese Sake? I had never tasted Sake so I had no idea what to expect. It smelled like straight out of the bottle, grain alcohol, and was clear as water, but what really surprised us was that it had a very light taste. There was no burn at all, very smooth. I tried to look it up on the internet but it blew up my computer and kept opening a gazillion pages that took forever for me to get all of them closed out, so I have no better information for you, except that it was a pleasant surprise.