BostonZest

On April 1st, 2025 We Raise a Westport Rivers RJR Brut Cruvée to Those Who Hold Wine Tastings

This month, we salute all the wineries, wine shops, events, and generous people who have introduced us to new wines at wine tastings. We are doing it with a local wine to remind our readers that opportunities to visit winery tasting rooms can be a day trip or weekend away!

If you visit a local winery, like Westport Rivers, you not only have the opportunity to sample their wines but also to meet some of the people who know the most about their story and their bottles. This is one of the vineyards on the Coastal Wine Trail that includes wine tasting opportunity in our south coast and nearby states.

Many wine shops host tastings, and some offer extraordinary opportunities to try a wine you might never experience otherwise. We once tasted Salon Champagne at a Brix Wine Shop Tasting. While we found that this legendary Blanc de Blanc was not to our taste, we discovered other offerings from this vintner to add to our wine collection. Moreover, we've enjoyed meeting some great winemakers over the years.

Restaurants with great wine lists and knowledgeable staff are another way to sample wines. A few wine bars may offer flights of wines matched with their food. We have been known to ask if we may have half-glasses of two different wines so that we can have an old favorite and something new.

Trying wines from different places, made with different grapes and produced by different methods, adds spice to our monthly ritual. Since 2007, we have raised a glass of sparkling wine to greet each new month!

 

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Words: Penny & Ed Cherubino
Photos: © 2007- 2025 Penny & Ed Cherubino 

 

 

March 1, 2025 We'll Raise a Glass of NV Vina Dona Dolores Sparkling Brut Reserva

We are raising a glass of NV Vina Dona Dolores Sparkling Brut Reserva to all the wine shop owners and staff who have, for years, helped us find the right wine for the right situation. We are not the easiest customers to face. We have this monthly toast that has been going since 2007.

We arrive looking for wines from strange places, made with new grapes, made by female vintners or produced by a specific category of people we would like to honor. We could be searching for high-value wines, special occasion wines, inexpensive wines, or half-bottles. Here's to everyone who knew your topic and handed us wines to keep our exploration going.

When we asked for wines from unusual places, a staff member at Urban Grape suggested this bottle of Vina Dona Dolores Sparkling Brut Reserva. We look forward to trying it. This wine is from Mexico. Some reviewers call it a Cava. 

Here is what the vineyard says about it.

Trying wines from different places, made with different grapes, and produced by different methods adds spice to our monthly ritual. Since 2007 we have raised a glass of sparkling wine to greet each new month.

We purchase our bottle at Urban Grape for ~$18.00

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Words: Penny & Ed Cherubino
Photos: ©2025 Penny Cherubino 

On February 1, 2025 We"ll Raise a Glass of Gruet Sauvage to Michael Serpa

This year, we'll share what we have learned about wine from generous wine mentors, like Michael Serpa of Select Oyster Bar and Little Whale restaurants. This is a special year for Michael. It's the tenth anniversary of Select Oyster, and he has been selected as a semi-finalist for the 2025 James Beard Award for Best Chef in the Northeast. Here's to Michael and his outstanding team at both restaurants.

 

 

In 2015, we wrote about sharing the taste of Champagne Jacquesson Cuvée 736 with Michael. 

In the process, he changed our choice of glassware for sparkling wines. He said, "Any nicer sparkling wine, I think, just works much better in a standard kind of wine glass rather than a flute, just because you get the aroma..." "When you're drinking great wine," he continued, "I think it should be in a proper glass where you're going to get the full experience of the wine." This tip has added to our enjoyment of our monthly toasts for the past decade.

Trying wines from different places, made with different grapes and produced by different methods, adds spice to our monthly ritual. Since 2007, we have raised a glass of sparkling wine to greet each new month!

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Our Sparkling Resolution is covered in this post : Join Us as We Toast...

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Here are all the wines we've covered. Since this is a category, this post may appear at the top. Just scroll down for more.

What's on your food lover's shopping list?

Details:

Words: Penny & Ed Cherubino
Photos: ©2015 Penny & Ed Cherubino 

We Will Raise a Glass of Deutz Brut Champagne to 2025!

We will ring in 2025 with a bottle of Deutz Brut Champagne and a year of sharing a toast to each new month with you. This year, our theme will be wine tips we have learned from our wonderful wine mentors and our own experience.

Our tip for New Year's Eve and January is that you don't have to have an expensive bottle of wine to enjoy a toast. Our two favorite ways to achieve this are to find an inexpensive wine you like or buy a half-bottle of slightly more expensive but great-value wine. With our Deutz Champagne, we opted for the half-bottle.

Like many of you, we are drinking less alcohol these days. We love half bottles of great wine. We recently matched a wonderful half-bottle of Amarone with a braised short rib meal. 

We recently enjoyed Deutz at Select Oyster Bar, but our fondest memories of this champagne are from Brasserie Jo, located in the Collonade Hotel. While we enjoyed many items on that menu, the highlight was having champagne and profiteroles. The waiter would come to the table with a plate containing naked profiteroles and a pitcher of fudge sauce. He would begin to pour and then ask us to say when we were happy to have him stop. Finally, he would refill our champagne glasses to enjoy with dessert.

 

Trying wines from different places, made with different grapes and produced by various methods, adds spice to our monthly ritual. Since 2007, we have raised a glass of sparkling wine to greet each new month!

 

We purchase our half bottle at The Urban Grape for $38,00

 

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Details:

Words: Penny & Ed Cherubino
Photos: ©2024 Penny Cherubino 

For December 1, 2024 We Toast the Many Friends We've Enjoyed with Glasses of Sparkling Wine!

This year's theme for our monthly toasts has been wine heroes who improved the world of wine and taught us more about this fascinating topic. Our December toast is to the many friends who have enhanced our enjoyment of wine with their presence and gifts. 

Rather than naming a particular sparkling wine this time, we are going to use our wine stash as a memory lane and choose something that we happen to have on hand that is full of memories of special people with whom we have shared that particular wine. Perhaps the friend presented us with our first bottle of that sparkler. A wine in our rack may be made with the favorite grape of a wine-loving pal. It may be a wine we often choose at a favorite restaurant where we have gathered with friends.

We have learned about wines from friends as well as professionals. Some of our friends know more about wine in general or a particular wine region than we do and pass on tidbits of their expertise as we sip. We also learn from friends who ask questions as they explore the world of wine.

Thanks to all of you who have raised a glass with us and spent an hour or two sipping and chatting. You are the best of the best!

 

Trying wines from different places, made with different grapes and produced by different methods, adds spice to our monthly ritual. Since 2007, we have raised a glass of sparkling wine to greet each new month!

 

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Our Sparkling Resolution is covered in this post : Join Us as We Toast...

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What's on your food lover's shopping list?

Details:

Words & Photos: Penny & Ed Cherubino

On November 1, 2024 We'll Raise a Glass of Raventos i Blanc de Nit Cava to Great Wine Mentor Bartenders

This is our year to toast and thank the many heroes who contributed to our knowledge of wine. This month, we'll raise a glass to all the bartenders who acted as wine educators for us. We chose the 2021 Raventos i Blanc de Nit Cava wine for this salute because it was a frequent recommendation from many of these wine experts.

(It also comes in a half bottle, perfect for a lunchtime toast.)

Restaurants with great wine lists often have serious training for their staff. The bartenders who care for the wine and assist the waitstaff with it are often masters of the list. We have been very fortunate to have picked up bits and pieces of wine lessons sitting across their bars. There are far too many to name, and we fear we would leave someone out, so we will raise a glass to all of you. You know who you are!

Trying wines from different places, made with different grapes and produced by different methods, adds spice to our monthly ritual. Since 2007, we have raised a glass of sparkling wine to greet each new month!

We purchase our bottle at Urban Grape for $30.

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Our Sparkling Resolution is covered in this post : Join Us as We Toast...

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What's on your Food Lover's Shopping List?

Details:

Words: Penny & Ed Cherubino
Photos: ©2019- 2020 Penny & Ed Cherubino 

We Toast October 2024 with a Sparking Sake to Honor The Passionate Foodie, Richard Auffrey

This month, we'll raise a glass of sparkling Sake to another wine hero, Richard Auffrey, from The Passionate Foodie blog. Richard has been writing about food and wine for as long as we have. We've followed him for nearly two decades and find him a reliable food and wine scout. 

We love his rants about the world of food and wine! His recent article, "Rant: Boston+ Area Restaurants, Want To Be Cutting Edge? Embrace Sake," inspired us to try sparkling Sake.

If you want to try Sake or learn more about it, click on the post above and the link to the food pairings he suggests. Then, stroll around the site for more on that topic or other food and wine recommendations. 

We even had a bottle of sparkling Sake in our wine rack. While this particular one may not have been Richard-approved, it did come from a trustworthy wine shop owned by people who care about wines of all kinds. We suggest you go to The Passionate Foodie and let Richard recommend your choice of Sake. 

Trying wines from different places, made with different grapes (OR RICE) and produced by different methods, adds spice to our monthly ritual. Since 2007, we have raised a glass of sparkling wine to greet each new month!

Related Posts:

Our Sparkling Resolution is covered in this post: Join Us as We Toast...

A Few of Our Favorite Gifts for Wine Lovers

Here are all the wines we've covered. Since this is a category, this post may appear at the top. Just scroll down for more.

What's on your food lover's shopping list?

Details:

Words: Penny & Ed Cherubino
Photos: Unsplash