Skype Wine Night - November

We may have failed a little in keeping this blog updated. Don't get us wrong, we've been drinking wine, but we just haven't been writing very much. However, there is a new feature we're going to start (at least for a few months or so) where Crymson and Miranda will have a monthly skype wine night. Basically we're trying to catch up and drink some great wine 2,000 miles away.

And as all things necessary in a civilized society there are a few rules:

1) We each drink the same type of wine

2) We each prepare a recipe

3) Guests are both welcome and encouraged

This past weekend we had our first organized Skype date and we decided that we would also try to cross of one of the wines on our 'Wines To Try' list. It's surprisingly harder than you would think to be able to find the same wine to try in Illinois and California. We resorted to the Internet and UPS to be able to help us out. Now the one downside to ordering wine online (if there can even be such a thing) is that the price of shipping can be nearly as much as the bottle of wine. So we'll have to do some good searching to make sure we're both drinking the same wine.

The Details:

Wine - One Hope Winery's Pinot Noir (featured on Drinking for a Cause post)

Amy's Recipe - Brie En Croute

Miranda's Recipe - Apple Crisp with Dried Cranberries

Amy's take: It was a nice wine, a lot lighter than the pinot noirs I'm used to. But the flavors were nice and smooth and sweet. It went down fast. I'd probably give it 4 stars...any other wine would have probably only gotten three but since this was One Hope and it's a charity that ups it. Kinda fun that we ordered the wine too. At least until we noticed the shipping rates. I made baked brie or if you want to get fancy like Paula Deen, Brie En Croute. It was good and super easy to make. It was more than the three of us could handle though, very rich. I'd bake brie again for a bigger group and I think I'd use an unusual jelly to top it instead of the candied pecans.

Miranda's take: I really enjoyed the wine. It was not nearly as dark red as I thought it would be, but it still had a pretty rich taste. So two thumbs up for One Hope. One for donating 1/2 the profits to charity and one for having a yummy pinot. Overall I'd rate it a three star wine.

Now let me just say that my apple crisp is freaking delicious. I accidentally misjudged the recipe and the size of the pan it needed. I thought a pie plate would be enough so I had to make two batches. And I had nearly finished the first batch prior to wine night. Oops! But seriously I give the recipe like 4 stars.

Does anyone else have skype dates? Any suggestions on a good, but readily available wine? We'd love to hear your thoughts.

Drinking for a Cause

Over at my other blog, I recently wrote a list of things that I wanted for Christmas this year. One of the items on my list was (Fledgling Wine). This wine raises money for Room to Read which is a great non profit that works for worldwide literacy. This made me start thinking about other wines and wineries that give back (besides that headache the next morning).

Here's a list of wines that I found that are making a change, one bottle at a time:

1) Macchia's Victorious Zinfandel (nicknamed Boobylicious) - $5.00 of every bottle sold is donated to American Association for Cancer Research

2) One Hope Winery - Winery has a variety of different wine options and 50% of profits are donated to causes such as autism, AIDS, our troops, breast cancer, planet and children's hospitals

3) Greater Purpose Wine - 55% of the wine profits benefit abandoned and orphaned children

4) Cleavage Creek Winery - Each winery label features a breast cancer survivor and 10% of purchase is donated to breast cancer research

5) Lookout Ridge Wine - Donates one wheelchair for every bottle sold of their new releases  

6) Philanthropie Wine - Percentage of the sales from bottles of wine goes to six Oregon animal charities

7) Mutt Lynch Wine - A portion of sales goes to support local animal rescue operations

I'm definitely going to add some of these wines onto my 'To Drink' list. How about you? Do you know of a winery that gives back with their wine? If so, please leave a comment so we can check it out.