One thing I haven’t discussed is wines and my curiosity about wine. My husband and I would go to this very cool underground wine cellar when we lived in Southern California. It was called Hi-Time Wine Cellar in Costa Mesa. I hope it is still there. You had to go in the basement to the wine cellar and it felt like a maze when you walked around. The wine cellar was divided into various countries and types of wines. We were young and didn’t have any idea about what made a good wine. (Sometimes we still don’t and we’ve been together for nearly 35 years.) Anyway, my point is that my husband would plan these homemade dinners and try to match the wine to the meal. He did a great job as far as I can remember. This was a looong time ago, before we had our kiddos.

How we picked wine when we had no clue

We never had a huge preference of only drinking whites or reds. We drink what we feel might go best with what we are eating because if you get it right it makes the meal and drink so much more tasty. I don’t know how to explain it. When the food and drink merge effortlessly, it enhances the meal even more. The entire experience is truly awesome.

Our first favorite: Chateau Montelena Chardonnay

We found a favorite among the wines at that Costa Mesa wine cellar. The winery is Chateau Montelena, and we started with their chardonnay. The funny thing about how we found it: one day we were wandering around the wine cellar. I saw an older couple who seemed to know what they were doing and they bought some, so I pointed them out to my husband (then he was my boyfriend) and repeated what they said. We bought a bottle. It was so good (I don’t remember the year of that bottle, but we drank it, this was in the early to mid 90s.) We drink plenty of other wines from other wineries, which are mostly California wineries, but we really like going back to that particular wine maker. We should see if we can tour their winery one day, but that would be another post. We have since tried their cabernet sauvignon and that is actually better lately than the chardonnay.

Side note: The movie Bottle Shock and that Dallas dinner

Side note… One time my husband and I were enjoying a dinner at a restaurant in Dallas. They had Chateau Montelena, specifically their cabernet sauvignon. So we ordered a bottle. At that point we had only ever had their chardonnay. We had two awesome waiters (one was in training), and one of them mentioned that there was a movie made about that winery titled “Bottle Shock”. We found it and watched it. It starred Alan Rickman and Chris Pine, which was a surprise. The movie is loosely based on the winery, but the truth was, Chateau Montelena’s chardonnay beat out French wines in their white wine category. Back to that dinner… we ended up drinking two bottles of that wine, it was so good. I do not recommend doing that because it is a lot of wine and it was a lot of money, but the memories of that weekend were the best.

Other wines we’ve loved (and lost the corks to)

My favorites over the years that I can remember include a Stag’s Leap Chardonnay we had in Las Vegas. We actually requested a different wine, but the waiter said they had already opened another bottle by mistake, and this one was better. So we said ok. It was very good with whatever we had that night. I can’t recall where it was or what we had, since we went to Las Vegas many times when we were living in Southern California.

Other wines I have enjoyed over the years, I kept the corks, but as with many of my life’s memories, they are packed in a box somewhere in a storage unit. I looked for pictures and it seems they are lost in a file somewhere or deleted, the ones I had taken over the years of various bottles of wine we had enjoyed.

Our go-to affordable wines: Bogle and Blackstone

I know Bogle is a brand we often have when we want wine (their pinot noir specifically) but don’t want to spend extra for a bottle. Occasionally I get a Merlot and my go-to is Blackstone.

Why price doesn’t equal taste

I know my husband and I are currently learning about whiskys and whiskeys, but last weekend we had our favorite wine and enjoyed every drop. I don’t think a wine is best because of price, just how it tastes with your meal. That’s what really makes a difference. If you want to try that cabernet sauvignon, we had it with chateaubriand at Capriccio’s in Providence. It was a nice place, and considering how close tables are in restaurants these days, the noise level wasn’t too bad. We plan to go back sometime.

What we’re drinking now (and learning next)

I am planning a future post of restaurants we have been to around where we live and places we have been to since moving to New England. Keep an eye out for that one coming out in the next month or so.

Tell me your wine recommendations

What wines do you like or recommend that we maybe haven’t tried? Let’s chat in the comments.

A Luxury Hotel Welcome (and the Sweetest Anniversary Touches)

My husband and I went to New York for our anniversary, and it coincided with a Broadway show I was gifted tickets from our children. We splurged quite a bit but really enjoyed ourselves. We stayed at a swanky hotel and was greeted by name by anyone who had been introduced to us just once. They cleaned our room I swear anytime we left to go somewhere, I mean like 3 times in one day. We felt like we had been there a week but were only there 3 days and 2 nights. They gifted us a tasty anniversary dessert with a bottle of champagne in our suite. One night at the lobby bar the wait staff ended our evening with 2 complimentary espresso martinis and told us the three beans on top were for health, wealth, and I forgot what the third one was. (My daughter seemed to think health which makes sense.) It came with a card signed from the group who had been waiting on us in the bar that evening it was so sweet. Our main server mentioned she was a newlywed so our marriage was a bit inspiring since our marriage is nearing 3 decades. 

Fine Dining, Caviar, and Seeing Harry Potter and the Cursed Child on Broadway

One of the two evenings we booked dinner in their fine dining room and it was very nice. We had a choice of ordering the chef’s special which was a 4 course meal with drinks or wines paired to each course. We ordered a la cart instead. My husband wanted to splurge and try caviar so we ordered some and it was tasty. I had been fortunate to take one of my kid’s to a holiday tea for their birthday and we ordered a caviar sampler and it was quite good. Not surprisingly the higher the price of the caviar the tastier it was.

Broadway Matinee Highlights: Effects, Polyjuice Potion, and Dementors

Back to our New York weekend, the play was a matinee and we enjoyed it quite a bit. It was Harry Potter and the Cursed Child. I had read the book years ago when it first came out and from what I recall it was pretty close. The special effects (for theater) was pretty cool. If you are a Harry Potter fan you know what Polyjuice potion is and the way the way they had the characters change bodies was very interesting. The actors did an awesome job of portraying each other. (Side note if you aren’t a Harry Potter fan. – Polyjuice potion will turn someone’s appearance into whoever they want if they have a piece of their hair. The person is still original but appearance is completely someone else.) Also the scene where Harry and Draco have a spell fight was pretty cool. I would love to see how they did it. It was done well since they were spinning and flying across the stage. I didn’t notice any ropes from the ceiling so very interesting to watch. The dementors flying around the theater was awesome too. They got very close to the audience and how they would capture a soul was good too. All around that was a very awesome play to watch considering it was our first Broadway play.  I look forward to going to more. My husband isn’t a fan of musicals so we will pick and choose accordingly. He may have to give in at some point though because I like musicals.

Final Thoughts (and What We Might Do for the Big 30)

Back to New York, we had such a great time. We took the train so we didn’t have stress of traffic or dealing with people. I look forward to our next time although I am not so sure we will splurge that much. When we checked out the front desk asked us if we were going to make our trip there an annual visit but my spouse told me that perhaps next year for the big 30 we might go to Asia. He knows I am a huge Kdrama fan and would love to visit some of the places in my favorite dramas. We shall see what happens since that is next spring.

If you’ve done New York for an anniversary or you’ve seen Harry Potter and the Cursed Child, I’d love to hear what you thought. What’s your go-to splurge in the city: the hotel, the food, or the show?

If you would like to read my post on who I am and what I am about click here. If you want to read any more of my posts there is a list in the side bar of recent ones.