Welcome Back

Well for those of you who were wondering where the Hell my blog was, here it is.

There were many contributing factors to my lack of posting, including "losing" my blog for about 10 days, but it's a New Year and it's a new blog.

First off I've modified the name from "The Wine Guy" to "A Wine Guy" for reasons of semantics, I'm not The only Wine Guy out there. Secondly I'm going to try to get back on topic of wine. food etc. more often. Last, and I know we've heard this before, I'm going to try diligently to post at least once a week.

This week I have a couple of wine recommendations:

The first is a Pinot Noir from Moillard, "Hugues le Juste" Vins de Pays D'OC, CSPC #363523, $12.99 (fairly widely available) - this is a solid Pinot Noir from the Languedoc region in southern France and a very good deal at $12.99. Light to medium bodied with lots of bright fruit flavours and good acidity. This wine is very nice along with Salmon or poultry and wouldn't hurt your fish Tacos.

The second recommendation is an old favourite that I just re-visited: Hogue Cellars Cabernet-Merlot blend from Washington state, CSPC##463695, $13.99 (widely available). Washington state is the best value in US wines, to my mind, and Hogue are a great value producer (when summer rolls around, or you've over spiced the fish tacos, try out their Riesling #363291 , $10.99). The Cab/Merlot is meaty with good weight and lots of fruit, just the ticket for a little winter ragout.

On the topic of "ragouts" I've noticed a supermarket trend of "extra lean stewing beef" ........ Why would I want my stewing beef to be extra lean ? The whole idea behind stewing is that long slow cooking in liquid allows for the meat to release its' flavour. My solution is twofold: first don't buy meat in supermarkets, and if you do then buy a blade steak and cut it into cubes.

That's it for today except to note that I may add a new feature weekly called "Value Driven Vancouver", you see I am frugal by nature and neighbours and workmates often seek me out for "where the bargains are" so I'm toying with this idea. Stay tuned.