Kay and I went to a Champagne and cheese tasting event yesterday. I know,  it didn’t quite sound right to me either, but the pairings we’re surprisingly good. Actually, it was a sparkling wine and cheese event.
We had a Prosecco, a Cava, a Grower Champagne, and an Austrian Secco. The cheeses spanned the range from a couple of soft brie-like cheeses, to a goats milk chevre, to an excellent semi-hard Italian cheese called Trugole, and oh yes an excellent Cashel Blue.

My favorite sparkler, by a wide margin was the Cava – Raventos I Blanc L’Hereu Brut Cava.  I can’t claim to be a Cava expert, but this is without question, my favorite Cava to date.

A side benefit to this excursion and specifically to this wine is that we picked up another two varieties on our Wine Century Club quest and now stand at 84 varieties tasted out of the required 100.  The Cava is made up of 60% Macabeo, 20% Xarel-lo, and 20% Parellada.  The last two are the new varieties.

The Cava was paired with an excellent Laura Chenel Chevre in two different presentations.  One was the Chevre with a fairly spicy pesto on french bread, and the other was the chevre on a semi sweet cracker with pear comfit.  The Cava paired very well with both and the wine as well as the pairing was a standout favorite for both of us

You never know — try it — you may like it!

Posted by DRHamp as Wine-Wine-Wine at 5:56 PM GMT-0500

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Back in February, I posted about our aquisition of Allie Mae as a companion for JoJo, our aging female Golden.  Then sadly, in May I made the post regarding our losing JoJo.

Allie Mae at four years of age is just emerging from puppyhood and has a lot of energy and playfulness in her.  She visibly wanted and needed a companion who not only would bond with her, but would also run and play.  While Allie Mae is an well trained and disciplined young lady, she does possess a degree of oneriness and quickly earned the nickname – “Pill”

In June, with the help of Golden Retriever Rescue of North Texas, we identified a candidate for the job of Allie Mae’s playful/loving companion.

He is a two year old red male named Marty.  The rescue coordinator said he might work out although she had not seen him especially playful with other dogs and wasn’t sure that he would do so.  The coordinator was actually somewhat interested in keeping him herself but allowed us to keep him for a day just to see if he and Allie Mae would get along well together.

It took all of about an hour and they we’re wrestling and playing that they had been Best Friends Forever!  We took several pictures of them playing and sent them to the rescue coordinator.  Her response was:   ” Well, it looks like he has made his decision “.

Marty is still a little un-disciplined and very much a puppy, but he’s eager and learning fast.  We will get him involved in a more structured obedience class very soon and I expect him to do very well.

We thought Allie was a little onery — if we only knew.  We now call Allie Mae “Sugar Pill” and Marty, “Piss & Vinegar Pill”  – He is full of it!

Marty has a classic Golden Retriever shape – big head, broad chest, big paws — a very handsome boy.

In a short time, Marty and Allie Mae have become BFFs and we’re all loving it!

Posted by DRHamp as We Love Dogs at 9:07 AM GMT-0500

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