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A quick newsflash – Cabernet Day is Thursday, September 2nd. Across the US and around the world, people are going to be opening a bottle of Cabernet Sauvignon (or a blend featuring Cabernet Sauvignon) and taking to various social media sites to share their experiences. I can’t wait – I’m a big fan of Cabernet Sauvignon and so I will be participating in the fun and tweeting about my experience.

To find out more information, go here. According to their press release, #Cabernet Day will be hosted on all social media sites and blogs including Facebook, Foursquare, Twitter, Friendfeed, Gowalla, Wordpress, etc. Those wishing to participate need to use the hashtag, #Cabernet, in all postings. Restaurants and wineries in multiple locations across the globe will have specials available for participants. More information and lists of participating restaurants and wineries can also be found on their website.

And don’t forget – if you are looking for some delicious (and very affordable) Cabernet Sauvignons to drink on Sept 2nd, look no further than HERE!

On Monday I attended the annual Institute of Masters of Wine Champagne tasting in New York. It has been quite some time since I’ve had the opportunity to taste so many Champagnes all at once and it truly was an amazing experience. While these wines are a bit more expensive than the wines we normally discuss here on the blog, I did find three that I thought were worth a mention for the next time you are looking for a special (and truly delicious) bottle of Champagne.

The first wine that really knocked my socks off was the Ayala Brut Zero Dosage (around $45). This is a Champagne made from a blend of 45% Pinot Noir, 35% Chardonnay and 20% Pinot Meunier. It had a beautiful expression of fruit with a purity and an elegance that made the finish linger in my mouth for quite some time. The wine had a freshness and brightness to it that would make it a wonderful wine to pair with sushi, lobster or scallops. The interesting thing about this wine is that it is a “Zero Dosage” wine. This means that it is a totally dry Champagne and that in the process of making the wine, in the final step, no sugar was added to sweeten the wine. Sometimes “Zero Dosage” wines can be too dry and acidic, but this wine achieves a beautiful balance between tangy acidity and ripe fruit.

The second wine I thoroughly enjoyed was one that I had never tasted prior to Monday. It is the Pehu Simonet Brut Selection Champagne (around $40). This is a blend of 70% Pinot Noir and 30% Chardonnay. Pehu Simonet is a small grower (they produce just over 3000 cases a year apparently) and the winemaker, David Pehu, is the 5th generation of his family to be in the Champagne business. I found the wine to have a delicious citrusy note with a fairly full mouthfeel and a long finish.

The final wine I want to mention is the Louis Roederer Brut Premier (around $35). The wine is a blend of 40% Pinot Noir, 40% Chardonnay and 20% Pinot Meunier. A small percentage of the wine is aged in oak, so there is a slight toasty, yeasty character to the wine that I thoroughly enjoyed. I thought the wine was nicely balanced and a terrific example of a well-priced Champagne that would be perfect for pairing with a variety of shellfish dishes.

Also keep in mind that some of these, such as the Roederer are available in half bottles, which not only makes them more affordable, but makes them ideal for pairing with a meal for two. And don’t forget that there are a number of affordable and delicious sparkling wines on the Wines of France Top 50 list, so you have a wide variety to choose from depending on your meal, your palate and your budget.

I had originally thought I would try to make a salmon dish to pair with this week’s Wine of the Week tonight. But then at the grocery store today I discovered that they had a special on haddock, which is my son’s favorite type of fish and not one that I can find all that frequently here in North Carolina. So I decided to wait a few days on my salmon pairing and serve the haddock for dinner instead.

I considered keeping my original plan to serve the Marsannay rosé with the haddock, but then I had a thought. Why not do something completely different? I’ve mentioned a few times here on the blog that it is entirely possible to pair red wines with fish dishes, but I have to be honest – up until recently I haven’t had that much experience with fish, it just hasn’t been a favorite. So the number of times I’ve actually attempted the red wine/fish pairing (outside of Salmon with Pinot Noir) are few and far between. But since we have been making more of an effort to eat fish lately and I have been experimenting with various fish recipes, I now have more impetus to try my hand at testing the limits of the red wine/fish pairing. So tonight seemed like the perfect time to put my money where my mouth is and pair fish with red wine.

A week or so ago I purchased a box of 10 wines, each wine from a different Beaujolais cru. I decided that the wine from Régnié, the Domaine Dupré Regnié “Haut Ronze” 2007 ($16.99), would be the perfect wine to try out with my haddock dish. Régnié became a cru in 1988, so it is the most recent of the 10 crus. But since its claim to fame is that it was one of two spots in Beaujolais where the Romans supposedly first planted vines, it is a terroir that has been noted for quality grape-growing for quite some time. With relatively sandy soils over a pink granite subsoil dominating the vineyards, Gamay is able to produce wines of good structure in Régnié. Wines from this cru have been variously described as being on the lighter side with aromas of raspberries, cherries and blackberries.

So what was the verdict? Well, the Domaine Dupré Regnié was delicious and more importantly, it was actually a pretty good match with the haddock. I used this recipe and while not my favorite fish recipe, it was easy and pretty tasty. The fish was not overwhelmed by the red wine and since the tannins were very soft and supple, they didn’t make the wine taste fishy or metallic. So definitely a pairing I would do again.

And it turns out that I am not alone in my red wine and fish experiments. After doing a search online, I discovered this article from the UK wine trade publication Harpers.

I’ll look to do the salmon pairing in another day or two, but in the meantime I’d love to know if anyone else out there has been playing with some unusual wine and food pairings. Drop me a line – I’d love to hear from you!

There’s quite a lot going on in the world of wine these days and so I thought it would be good to pass along some information that might be of interest to you all.

Tyler Colman, aka Dr. Vino, has a post up on his web site about his article in this month’s Wine and Spirits magazine. The article examines the question, “How often is the alcohol level stated on the label consistent with what is actually in the bottle?” Alcohol is a topic of great interest these days – not only for winemakers and the wine trade, but for wine consumers as well. Without alcohol, wine would not be wine, but more alcohol does not necessarily equal better wine. Many wine critics feel that the wines they taste today have much higher alcohol levels than they did 10 years ago but this may not be reflected on wine labels. While a high level of alcohol in a wine doesn’t mean that the wine is bad, it can be problem if it affects the overall balance and stability of the wine. So definitely check out this month’s Wine and Spirits magazine for some more details about alcohol levels in wine.

Also of interest to French wine lovers is this news brief, from Decanter.com, which is one of the better articles I have read about the new classification system in the Languedoc. In an attempt to streamline the appellations of the Languedoc and give wine lovers some indication of quality, the appellations have been reorganized into three levels. The first level is the basic AOC Languedoc, an AOC that covers the entire region. The second tier is the more exclusive Grands Vins du Languedoc which includes such top appellations as Minervois and St Chinian. And at the top of the pyramid are the Grands Crus du Languedoc, which appellations such as Minervois La Liviniere and Corbieres Boutenac will be entitled to use.

And finally, to end on a piece of good news – it looks like the harvest has started in France. Domaine Rombeau in Rivesaltes, which is located in the south of France, started harvesting their Muscat grapes on August 12. They are expecting a smaller crop this year, but say that the quality of the harvest looks good.

My goodness, it has been a busy week around here! The last few days have flown by in a flurry of last minute errands, attempts to enjoy the last few days of my son’s summer vacation and trying to fully understand the world of twitter.

Yes, that’s right, I’m a full-fledged tweeter these days. I tweet in two places – my own, personal account (SSMMW) and also for Wines of France (WinesFranceUSA). I’m finding keeping up with the wine world a pretty fascinating and sometimes challenging endeavor. On one hand, I love that I can read what people all over the world are doing, what they are drinking and what they are eating. I’ve found out some great information and read some interesting articles as a result of various links posted by people I am following. On the other hand though, the information can start to seem a little overwhelming. I am currently following a few hundred people, but I’ve noticed that there are some folks who follow thousands of people. Where exactly do they find the time to keep track of it all!?!

While I am finding twitter a lot of fun, I find the best part is tackling the challenge of making my tweets interesting and relevant (maybe not to everyone, but at least to one person out there hopefully). So I’m curious – what do you all think would be good information to pass on about French wines? What would you like to see me tweet about? Would you like to see a French wine fact of the day tweet? And have you started tweeting? If you have, what do you tweet about? Please feel free to leave me a comment in the box below – I’d love to hear from you. Or, better yet, send me a tweet!