Pig Tasting Wine Roast

The title is a trick! We really went to a Pig Roast, Wine Tasting!

Today's French word is cochon: meaning PIG.

I am not one to partake in a pig roast, I am not a huge pork fan (except for my love of bacon), and I don't like looking at the poor animal turning on a spit. I did attend Mario Batali's Roast Suckling Baby Pig Roast last year at his NYC restaurant LUPA, where the baby pig was laid out on the bar. I couldn't look. I know if you love food that you have to get over these things, I mean, I eat most everything, liver, sweetbreads (glands), you name it (NO TONGUE, EVER). I just don't want to LOOK at the entire carcass!!!!!



Last night, we were invited to a wine tasting hosted by Amanti Vino, a beautiful, small, very special wine shop in Montclair, NJ. This is a husband & wife owned business, where they have free wine tastings on Saturday nights with some unusual and specially hand picked wines, many of them reasonably priced.
The wife of the team, Sharon, travels all over the world and brings back what she thinks her customers will like. Each wine is thoughtfully chosen and there is a nice selection, something for everyone in every price range. The shop is laid out beautifully, displaying only one bottle on the shelf of each vintage, it's almost like a living room. Their adorable yellow lab lays on the floor and greets the customers.



Anyway, the dinner and wine tasting event was for SHINAS ESTATES, an Australian wine maker. It was held at the historical Van Vleck Mansion and Gardens (too bad Hurricane Hannah did not allow us to use the gardens, it was POURING RAIN, and we got soaked just entering the building. It was a bad hair night, to say the least). The 3 wines we sampled were The Innocent, The Guilty and The Verdict. Do I sense a theme going on here? (The owner of the winery is a Judge).

We enjoyed the white wine called The Innocent, made with a Viognier grape, which I had never had the pleasure of trying before. It was fruity and very refreshing. I am not a wine connoisseur by any means, but I know what I like, and what I don't.

I am not going to comment on the food, because it was supposed to be an end of summer bbq, outside, and due to the bad weather, the pig was cooked and brought inside in foil and laid out. They also served burgers and hot dogs with macaroni salad. My husband said it was pretty tasty.

The highlight of our wet evening, was meeting a lovely couple named Will and Beth, and discussing the upcoming election with them and just enjoying the conversation.

We will be leaving for Paris today, and I hope to have the wifi hooked up so I can blog about all the food from the City of Lights while on vacation, and maybe I will review the food on the airplane if it is anything decent!

So, have a good week, take care of my 18 year old kitty, Shasta, and cook up some good eats!

Stace