On June 12, the Buzz Coffee and Wine held another in their line of fantastic wine dinners. This one was very timely: Picnics, Outings and Fun! The dinner was based on a warm, maybe hot, summer evening. There are photos below of the offerings. Paul Colwell, from BRJ Distributing in Boise, did a great job in paring the wines with dinner.

The event started by Cristi pouring some fun box wines. Yes, box wines! One was a red Shiraz and the other was a white. I can’t say much more; They are what they are. I scored them each [12]. The graphic here shows what my score sheet looks like at the end of the evening. Very busy and full of notes. Scoring is based on 20 possible points and I have placed my score for each of the wines offered tonight in [20]. You won’t find me giving a wine a score of [20] many times, but tonight there was an exception. Enjoy!

Pork and Sauce
spicy Thai red sauce and mustard

2009 Renwood Petite Sirah
13.5% alc, best with the spicy Thai sauce, cherry and fruity [17] $15.00

Iced Black Bean Soup

2009 Durigutti Malbec (Mendoza)
14.0% alc, chocolate and vanilla. I’m not a Malbec fan, but this was awesome. Buy a case! [20] $17.00

Couscous Salad
(A very good salad.)

2011 Apaltagua Chardonnay (Chile)
13.5% alc., lemon and citrus hints, great with the salad but poor without food. [18] $13.00

Pasta with Gorganzola, Mint and Chicken
(This was delicious. I tried to get a second. No luck. You gotta try.)

2010 Leese Fitch Merlot (Sonoma)
13.5% alc., well paired with the entree, great with the Gorganzola [19] $13.00

Grilled Pound Cake

2010 Besitos Spanish Moscato
10.0% alc., yes – a Spanish Moscato, wonderful with the strawberries. [18] $11.00