Thursday, February 11, 2010
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Letters | Opinion | Editorial | Weekend Report |
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Did I get a champagne 'buzz'? Shavaughn Moss ~ Lifestyles Editor ~ shavaughn@nasguard.com: I've had my first sip of sparkling wine and dare I admit that it was a most delicious couple of sips. I'll own up to it — yes it was! It was actually a California sparkling wine called Schramsberg Mirabelle Brut Rose. That momentous occasion — momentous in my eyes at least — took place at the newly-opened Wine Lounge Tasting Room and Retail outlet at the Villa Florence on East Bay Street, which is located near the entrance of the Paradise Island Bridge just last week. I visited the Wine Lounge with my friend Garnel, and it was while we mingled that glasses of the Schramsberg Mirabelle Brut Rose were being handed out and I snagged a glass just to have something in my hand, well . . . I was in a wine lounge. What else would be on offer? I took a sip just to try it expecting in all honesty to turn up my nose, but to my surprise, I liked it. The Schramsberg Mirabelle Brut Rose wasn't dry or bitter like I'd heard of other sparkling wines, and at the same time it wasn't sweet and cloying as I'd heard of others on the other end of the sparkling wine spectrum. It fell palatably in the middle, which encouraged me to take a couple more sips — small sips to be exact, but I put it aside after that for a glass of my ever popular H2O. (Actually I did have something else). Did not want to overdo it, being a "newbie" to the stuff and all I didn't want any accidents to happen. Actually just those couple of sips still ended up doing me in I think, because by the time I got home and prepared for bed, my head felt really heavy like I couldn't lift it off my pillow, and it was difficult trying to pry my eyelids open to welcome my husband when he came home. So I guess I experienced my first "wine buzz" — and from just a couple of sips lightweight that I am. The one thing I do know is that I slept rather soundly that night, even though I didn't quite feel like getting out of bed the next day. Wonder if anything happened to any of the other persons that were there on the night and who had glass after glass after glass? Unlike myself, they're old hands at enjoying wine so it probably didn't bother them one bit. For wine lovers, the Wine Lounge Tasting Room and Retail is a unique business model brought to Nassau by Ruben Fox and his partners which allows for customers to taste, relax, experience and purchase wines. In this case it's all California wines at one location, similar to an experience you could have at a vineyard's winery. Now, while I've never visited a vineyard, I've read up on what those tours are like so I have an idea of what it's like in my head. At the Wine Lounge they offer more than 40 wines by the glass that you can taste before going into the retail store to purchase a bottle. They are able to do this because they have a unique machine called a wine-keeper, a self-contained storage that keeps the wine and dispenses it. It's connected to a nitrogen tank that preserves the wine by keeping the oxygen out, because once oxygen hits wine, it basically goes south, but the machine preserves the wine for up to four weeks, so they're able to open a bottle of wine and keep it preserved. To compliment your wines, they are also offering a well-matched tapas menu with a variety of olives, Italian meats, roasted red peppers and an assortment of cheeses or Mozzarella, roma tomatoes and basil drizzled with olive oil, balsamic vinegar and spices, along with imported and domestic cheeses served with fresh baguette, imported crackers and seasonal fruit and hand-tossed thin crust gourmet pizzas. The Wine Lounge is open Tuesday through Saturday from 10 a.m. to 9 p.m.
Wednesday January 13, 2010 |
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