Anne Amie Muller Thurgau `08 (Not TJ's) $16.99 **(*)

I tasted this wine at a Pacific Northwest Tasting at Bacchus.  It is fresh, crisp, reminiscent of a German Riesling. I brought it with me as one of two wines for a visit to Long Island. Of course, we had a lot of wine at dinner, we opened this Muller-Thurgau as we were cooking.  Miranda and I picked lobsters for the "Make your own Lobster Rolls" I gave her a coast of Maine education on lobsters... and we (ok, I) probably named them...and anthropomorphised a bit (Cyrus the suicidal Lobster and Barnacle Bill were two standouts). That much laughing makes picking 10 lobsters fun.

As soon as I unscrewed the top, the fruitiness wafted though.  Crisp apple, with a slight oil/mineral aftertaste, a good sweetness for the finish.  The four of us decided that it was an ok wine.  Don't go running out to buy it, but you could do much, much worse. It is good to buy American, and Anne Amie vineyards has a nice product. I am bumping it up a star for bringing this new grape to the United States.  I've never had a wine made from Muller-Thurgau grapes before, and now, I want to try more - just to compare.

Now for the pictures.  Many bottles of wine were opened that night, so I will start with the official picture of the wine (above styled and photographed by Miranda H.).

Then on to the Menu (I cooked NONE of this - well, I stirred the dressing for the potatoes):

Make your own Lobster Rolls (note the respectful salt on the side.  You know people care when they are careful about cooking with salt.  My kidney disease and my new boy kidney appreciate salt on the side - not in the food)

German Potato Salad in a red onion and bacon vinaigrette 

Fresh Corn, Chili and Avocado Salad

Hotdogs and Hamburgers (not pictured)

Homemade Blueberry Pie and Home Made Blueberry/Peach pie (the latticed one)

Fresh Fruit with a Ricotta Citrus Topping (I dream about that topping...) I couldn't put my spoon down to take a picture of that dessert, but I did make JPH give up the recipe and he let me take a picture of it. He modified Marcella Hazan's Ricotta and Coffee Creme to be an Orange and Grand Marnier Cream. (I am drooling as I type this) from her cookbook: Essentials of Classic Italian Cooking. What can I say.. the meal was amazing.  So was the company.

The end of the evening...

"And they all lived happily ever after"