It’s Not Over Until You’ve Had Champagne

If you’ve ever wondered what champion Formula One race car drivers drink after zipping past the competition, so did we. But it didn’t take long to notice that after every race, the men were swigging back huge bottles of G.H. Mumm. Intrigued by this, and in celebration of Ferrari’s recent winning streak, we decided to purchase a bottle and see what it was like on the winning team.

Of course, a classy event like Formula One racing could never disappoint. We purchased the authentic G.H. Mumm Cordon Rogue ($30), in a more reasonable 1.5 liter bottle. (Though who are we kidding? We would have purchased the double size bottle in a heart beat). The champagne smelled sweet and delicious. It was extremely refreshing, which must explain why men who have sweated through two hours of being stuck in a tiny, hot race car can drink so much of it afterwards. It had a full, bready taste that was slightly dry but still left your mouth feeling pleasantly moist. The aftertaste was smooth and complex. This was a champagne that activated all the tastebuds. Definitely for winners; wimpy losers should stick with their Korbel and goldfish crackers.

Score: She gives it a 4, while he jumps ahead with a 4.5

Recommended: Heck yeah, this is only classy champagne.

Brought To You By The Letter J

The most exciting event of the past week in our neighborhood was the start of a weekly food truck convergence at the end of the block. For the foreseeable future, our Thursdays just became that much tastier. There’s something about food from a truck that has flavors you just can’t get in a restaurant that's not on wheels. And food trucks don't just sell tacos and hot dogs these days – there’s deconstructed samosas, lumpia, and cupcakes too.

Just another reason we love this town.

The sparkling wine for this week has nothing to do with food trucks (we don’t think trucks can get a license to sell booze, which is a shame). We tried it because we had seen the bottle everywhere and were intrigued by the simplicity of its marketing. A single letter on a clean, green bottle – it’s pretty sexy.

The wine was J Brut Rosé ($25), which not only rhymes, it’s pretty tasty too. It had a gorgeous, peachy-pink color, yet again proving we love staring deeply into a glass of rosé. The scent was distinctly floral. The first sip was dry, with just a hint of sweetness, and a tangy floral aftertaste. It had just the right amount of carbonation and a very smooth finish. The more we drank it, the more we liked this playful sparkling wine. And we should note, it goes very well with a ravenous appetite, like the kind produced by a flock of food trucks.

Score: We both gave it a 3.5

Recommended: Sure. This is a good, solid rosé.

Making It Memorable

Labor Day may seem like the end of summer for some, but to us, it’s the beginning of the most beautiful time of year. Our summers up in the bay usually arrive later than the rest of the state, so while most people head back to school with memories of sunburns and charred meat, we head out on the town for warm days and cloud-free skies.

This past weekend, we celebrated the return of gorgeous weather with Rochelle’s sister and brother-in-law, who live just beyond the Caldecott Tunnel in the East Bay. Amid the summer-brown fields and down the hill from a pasture full of miniature donkeys (honestly), we all sat down for many things grilled, along with one thing bubbly.

But before we began our full review, Rochelle’s brother-in-law took haste to point out that in his opinion, our blog would garner more readers if we made the reviews more “memorable.” And in his mind, this could only mean using far more offensive language to describe our wines. And hating the wines more, for as he sees it, the only really good reviews are those in which the reviewer absolutely loathes that which is being reviewed.

The sacrificial wine for this roast (haha) was the Piper-Heidsieck Brut ($28). We’ll start off with the majority review of the three, less antagonist tasters. The wine had a lovely golden hue in the glass, with a large dose of bubbles and a scent reminiscent of bourbon. It was pretty dry, with bitter overtones that gave way to a smoother, sweeter finish. While not offensive, it was fairly unremarkable, with a nose that promised much more complexity than was actually delivered. But it left a pleasing, faintly fruity taste in the mouth after drinking.

Now, this same wine as reviewed by the brother-in-law. First of all, he thought we should start off with something clever to say about the name, like “Piper tastes like a diaper,” in order to lure in more readers. He also wanted us to point out that the color looks like a urine sample from a particularly healthy individual. And as this was his first taste of champagne (not being a drinker), the review grows even more colorful after his first sip. He thought it tasted like alcohol he used to steal out of his mother’s liquor cabinet when he was younger. In response to its profuse carbonation, he thought we should add “warning: causes gas.” In conclusion, he decided it was too gross to drink, but would make an excellent disinfectant.

We expect our readership to quadruple after this review.

Score: It was a unanimous three (well, almost, if “use as disinfectant” can count as a middling review).

Recommended: Rochelle’s brother-in-law may have been a little over-enthusiastic with his color commentary, but we did all agree that we wouldn’t buy this wine again, especially given the price (many other good French champagnes in this range).

This is a Heat Wave?

A funny thing happens when it reaches 80 degrees in San Francisco – people run through the streets because they no longer have to wear jackets outside, and the fire alarm goes off in our building. Maybe it’s not really a fire alarm, but a warning system that it’s time to leave your apartment and enjoy the rare pleasure of a semi-hot day in the city. It does make us wonder, though; what would happen if there was actually a fire on a warm day? But these are questions best left to the experts.

There are a few ways to cool down on the sporadic warm days in this town. None of them involve air conditioning. In a town where 82 is like walking through the gates of hell, there’s really no need. Besides, that’s what windows are for. And if you ever open a window in San Francisco and there isn’t a breeze blowing, you can be pretty sure the world has ceased to turn. But besides open windows, relief can also come from taking a dip in the frigid Pacific Ocean and risk running into a great white shark, or doing what we do: drinking champagne.

One nice choice for a warm summer’s day is Freixenet Brut Cordon Rosado ($14). This sparkling wine is lovely just sitting in the glass, with a blushing pink color and the perfect amount of bubbles. The aroma is faintly sweet, as is the first taste. It starts dry, but has a wet finish, and is thankfully easy to drink when trying to cool down. The overall flavors were of tart apples and grapes, with no bitterness left in your mouth. We wouldn’t care if the heat wave lasted until November.

Score: She gives it a 3.5, he gives it a 3

Recommended: Yes, while not spectacular, this is a good wine for someone who has never had champagne and doesn’t like drinks that are too dry.

Game over, all over again

Let me start this off with a little warning. Usually, the missus writes these blog entries, the reason being that the missus has an English degree and can actually write things that sound official. In other words, things that don't sound totally conversational. See what I mean?

I most certainly don't have an English degree. As a matter of fact, I went to an art school. That should pretty much cover everything you need to know. Go easy on me!

Have I mentioned you all look wonderful today? (Hey, every little bit helps)

After a particularly long week at work, we decided that we'd line up a special Friday evening to make up for it. In our case, a special evening usually means eating out, buying champagne, and watching a movie at home. Actually, that's pretty much our normal evening too - minus the eating out part. Pajamas are almost mandatory once we get home. And despite the fact that you could probably get away with wearing pajamas to dinner in The Haight, we always keep it classy and wait until we get home.

Speaking of classy, what exemplifies class more than burgers and beer? Exactly. Thus enters the Burgermeister. There's one right down the street from our apartment, so it was a perfect setup.

I had a big, sloppy turkey burger, and the missus had a sautéed onion and blue cheese veggie burger. We shared a big pile of curly fries, and washed it all down with cold beer. I don't need to go into too many details here - after all, this is burgers we're talking about. But I will say this: HOLY CRAP THEY WERE DELICIOUS AND THE FRIES OH MY GOD CURLY FRIES ARE SO GOOD AND THE BEER TO WASH IT ALL DOWN AND THE BURGERS WERE SO GOOD DID I MENTION THAT?

After our big dinner, we stopped by a local wine store to pick up a bottle of champagne. We actually ended up getting something we'd tried before back when we weren't writing reviews. Now enters: Veuve Clicquot Ponsardin Brut. ($50)

I'll start off by saying that I was a little biased going into this official review. Veuve is easily my #2 favorite champagne of all time, so I was literally bursting at the seems to have it again. Of course, it didn't disappoint.

It greets you with a light, slightly bready, slightly fruity aroma from the glass. It's a little dry, but not the kind of dry that punches you in the face. And the aftertaste? Forget it! Hints of peach - sweet, deep, and lasting. What struck us while we were drinking this champagne is that we were really having a hard time coming up with things to say about it. It's just wonderful. Perfect harmony - no off-notes grabbing your attention. I guess with champagne you really like, you just drink it and shut up. Fine by me!

Score: We both give it a 4.5

Recommended: Highly. Sure, it's kind of getting into the pricey range at $50 a bottle, but it's totally worth it. Trust us. It is worth every penny, and then some. Absolutely spectacular.

Thrifty Must Mean ‘Wads of Cash’ in Old English

We were under the impression the economy is in the toilet. Times are hard; everyone is tightening their belts and waiting for the ridiculous opulence of times past to return. But if you walk into the Salvation Army in San Francisco, you’d think that even the homeless have found a housing bubble that just won’t burst.

Since we recently decided we desperately needed a new camera for filming our future Academy Award nominated movie, we’ve tried to keep our spending in check (well, mostly in check, since Amoeba is right down the street). With that in mind, we headed to our local Salvation Army recently to see about some inexpensive furniture to fill up our still sparse apartment. Maybe a little coffee table or a cheap-but-functional dresser. But the folks at this store must take the meaning of “thrift” to entirely new levels. What cash-poor individual could afford a $250 dresser? From a used goods store? Was this dresser made of unicorn dust and originally sold for $2 million, making a mere $250 a good deal? We think not. And the store was full of similarly priced items. No piece of furniture was under $200, and yet none of them looked like they would fetch more than $30 at an old-fashioned garage sale. Maybe the bums here really do make a good living. We need to reconsider our careers.

We haughtily left the store as soon as we realized the insanity of its pricing scheme, but we were determined not to let our bus trip across town be in vain. Luckily, there was a BevMo just two blocks away. What better way to forget that we are not even middle-class enough to buy from a thrift store than to purchase swanky bottles of champagne?

The wine we decided to drink that evening, in the spirit of dabbling in the higher classes, was the Moët & Chandon Impérial ($32). This very pale, lightly bubbly wine smelled very fresh in the glass, though not yeasty like most French champagnes. It had an extremely clean, subtle taste with only a hint of bitterness at the end. It was very dry, probably the driest wine we’ve tasted so far, with very little mouth fizz (a technical term). It also had no real aftertaste, besides the sensation of needing a glass of water. But the overall experience was pleasant, fresh, and enjoyable enough to let us look down our noses at those fools buying furniture at the Salvation Army. You could buy eight bottles of this champagne for one of those dressers! The savvy shopper knows which choice to make.

Score: We both give it a 3.5

Recommended: We’ll give this one a solid sure; it’s a relatively affordable, dependable French champagne.

The Call is Coming From Inside the House

As many of you may have noticed, this past Friday happened to be the 13th of August. Friday the 13th! We realized this fact about halfway through the day, and immediately knew what we were going to do that night: watch scary movies, while drinking champagne.

That is the beauty of this beverage, it’s completely versatile. It can be used to celebrate everything from white weddings to black demons. Whether we’re blissfully happy or about to pee our pants in fright, there’s nothing else we’d rather do than take a minute to sip some refreshing, bubbly wine. Raises the spirits and calms the nerves.

The proof was in how much we thoroughly enjoyed both our movie selections for the evening, and our wine pairing. For those who are curious, we started the night with a more

“classy” horror movie, to get on the right foot. A modern, black and white silent movie entitled The Call of Cthulu. And if you don’t believe a silent movie can be scary, we dare you to watch this movie and see if you can even so much as move a muscle until the final credits. If you don’t know about the awesome, tentacle-faced ancient god that is Cthulu, just do a quick Wikipedia search. Yeah, he’s that handsome. Our second movie selection continued with the theme of modern movies imitating older cinematic styles. This one was a freak-out-the-babysitter-style movie that was made recently but filmed like an 80s thriller, called The House of the Devil. And maybe it was the champagne talking, but this movie couldn’t have been more perfect if the lead character wasn’t wearing waist-high skinny jeans and rocking out to a walkman. Incredibly, it leaves out all cheesiness and still delivers a satisfyingly eerie yet ambiguous ending. Perfect.

The wine we chose for our night of chills was the Schramsberg Blanc de Blancs 2006 ($28). The name seemed intimidating enough to stand up to the monsters and demons of the evening. But the wine itself, from California, was actually fairly delicate. Right out of the bottle it smelled intensely like just-risen bread dough. Which, if you like bread dough, is an amazing thing. It was extremely fizzy, and had a nice, pale yellow color in the glass. Once the bubbles died down in our mouths, the flavor was gently tart, but not dry, and didn’t linger long after drinking. Overall, it was a pleasant wine that was easily consumed while clutching our pillows in suspense. And luckily, this time no one peed their pants.

Score: She gives is a 3.5, he gives it a 3.

Recommended: We’re on the fence on this one. We probably wouldn’t go out of our way to buy this again, but it’s definitely a wine that won’t let you down.