Skinny Pregnant Girl Mimosa

Obviously when you're pregnant you're not supposed to drink alcohol, and I haven't.  However, there are days when I'd just really like a cocktail or a glass of wine.  I look forward to having my Ono Mai Tais occasionally after the baby arrives.  In the meantime, what's a girl to do?

Well, I looked up non-alcoholic wine, and there's a brand called Fre that makes wine and then removes the alcohol from it.  Kinda cool and kinda perfect for me.  I tried their Moscato a couple months ago and wasn't impressed.  My husband actually ended up finishing the bottle thinking of it as grape juice.  Basically, that's what it is without alcohol, right?  Aged grape juice in a pretty glass bottle.

Last week, my husband and I were walking around Total Wine.  I thought it'd be torture.  It was on the weekend, and they do 10 cent wine tastings every weekend.  He did a wine tasting, but I obviously didn't.  We bought a few bottles (including one he tasted) to save for after the baby's here, but I also ventured over to the non-alcoholic section and looked at the Fre wine again.  I decided to pick up a bottle of Fre Brut sparkling wine and try making Mimosas with it.

Oh happy day.  Yes, the Fre Brut sparkling wine mixed with orange juice (or, my favorite Trop50) tastes exactly like a real Mimosa.  I hear angels singing.  Finally, a mocktail I actually like!  I mean, I've had Shirley Temples a couple times, but this is something I'd drink anyway (a real Mimosa, that is).

The best part is that this is a super low-cal mocktail too, only 30 calories per 4-ounce glass (champagne flute).  It's time for some guilt-free indulgence!

Skinny Pregnant Girl Mimosas
(makes 1 serving)

Ingredients:
2 ounces Trop50 No Pulp Calcium + Vitamin D
2 ounces Fre Brut

Method:
Pour the Trop50 in a champagne flute and top with Fre Brut.  Cheers!

If you like this mocktail, you should also try my Skinny Pregnant (or Breastfeeding) Girl Pina Colada recipe.

Happy drinking!

Mia Dolcea Moscato d'Asti

The first time I went wine tasting with my husband, my husband didn't like wine at all.  The sommelier started out convinced she could help him discover a wine that he liked, but in the end, she gave up.  He wanted it to taste like grape juice.  

Several wine tastings later, we discovered that my husband likes wine that is very sweet.  Gewurztraminer was probably the first type of wine that he didn't want to spit out.  It's a little too sweet for me though.

I mainly like white wine, but I like a lot more variety than my husband.  I enjoy Chardonnay, Rose, and sparkling wine.  We do wine tastings at Total Wine about once a month, and there have even been a few reds that we both really liked.  

When we're looking for a bottle of wine to share with dinner, we usually play it safe by buying a wine that's sweet but not too sweet for me, and Moscato is always the perfect choice.  We tend to prefer Italian Moscato, and our current favorite is Mia Dolcea Moscato d'Asti.  It has a deliciously sweet flavor that would make it a great dessert wine, but a couple days ago, we enjoyed it with pizza. 

If you're looking for a sweet, easy to drink wine, you can't go wrong with Mia Dolcea!

Happy drinking!

Bartenura Moscato

More than any other type of wine, my husband and I buy Moscato.  It's sweeter than a lot of wine, and my husband likes his wine sweet.  It's usually a safe bet that we'll like Moscato, some more than others, but we usually don't have trouble finishing the bottle.

Well, we were in Vegas last week, and wine/cocktail/beer prices at restaurants/bars there aren't cheap.  Instead of paying $15/glass, we decided to buy a bottle of wine at the nearby Walgreens. 

We almost always stay at the Palazzo when we're in Vegas, and right on the strip in front of the Palazzo and the Venetian is a huge Walgreens.  The Palazzo and the Venetian are connected inside, and you can access Walgreens by walking down a long hallway in the Venetian (near the canals).  When you exit, you go down an escalator, and you're there.  This Walgreens has everything you'd expect it to have plus lots of Vegas souvenirs.  The liquor bottles cost about double what I'd usually pay at my local Total Wine back in L.A., but it's definitely cheaper than drinking out.  Besides, when you have a beautiful hotel suite with a strip view, it's a luxury to stay in.

We looked at several different types of Moscato, but in the end, the label on the Bartenura bottle intrigued us.  I know you can't judge a book (bottle) by it's cover (label), but we had to know if it tasted as good as it looked.  Also, it was an Italian wine, and we tend to like Italian wines.

The verdict?  It's very sweet, a great dessert wine.  In fact, it was our dessert that night.  It's also crisp and refreshing.  We didn't eat anything with it; it was great by itself.  However, it's not the best Moscato I've ever had.  I'm glad we tried it, but for the price (about $20), it's not as good as I expected.  I've paid less for Moscato in the past and been even more pleased. 

However, props to the Palazzo for having everything you need to enjoy a bottle of wine in your room...wine glasses, bottle-size ice-bucket and even a corkscrew.  Ahh!

Happy drinking!

Framboise - Raspberry Wine

On the way back from a road to Hana bus tour last week, our last stop was at Maui's only winery which is located in Ulupalakua.  I had been looking forward to this stop which included a free wine tasting.  I've had several of their wines before since they're sold at our local wine shop in L.A.; however, there was one wine I particularly wanted to try, their raspberry wine.  On this particular day, that wasn't one of the bottles available for tasting.

My husband and I tend to like sweet dessert wine, and raspberry sounded particularly delicious.  The bottles at the winery were $40, so we thought we'd see if we could find it elsewhere for less.  I know you'd think that the bottles at the winery should be cheaper than at the grocery store, but that's not always the case.  We actually pay less for some of the bottles in L.A. than the price at the winery.

The next day, we looked at the ABC store, but they didn't have the raspberry wine.  Then we went to Times supermarket and found it there.  It was the same price as at the winery, but we decided we wanted to try it regardless.

A couple nights ago we popped the cork expecting great things.  It smelled good.  The first sip tasted exactly like raspberry jam.  However, the second, third, and forth sips also tasted like raspberry jam.  That's a pretty strong taste.  I felt like I needed to dip a piece of toast in the wine or something.  The alcohol is also 20% by volume which is pretty strong for a bottle of wine.  We tried watering it down thinking that maybe the alcohol was just too strong for us, but we still didn't like the taste.  We ended up pouring most of the bottle down the drain.

In short, unless you can get a free taste at the winery and decide you LOVE this wine, save your money.  Just buy some raspberry jam. 

Happy drinking!

R.L.Buller & Son Premium Fine Muscat

A few weeks ago, my husband and I were shopping for Australian wine in our favorite wine store.  We were really impressed with the Hunter Valley wineries when we were in Australia, so we thought we'd see what Australian imported wine we could find.  We like our wine sweet, so we specifically looked for wines in the dessert wine section.  We bought one bottle of Moscato (our favorite type of wine), which we drank later that weekend.  I don't remember the brand, but it was pleasant, not spectacular.  We also bought a bottle of R.L.Buller & Son Premium Fine Muscat, and we just got around to opening it tonight.

It's imported from Victoria, Australia, and like many other dessert wines, it's a half bottle, which is plenty.  The lid is a screw-top instead of a cork, which may not seem classy, but it's certainly practical.  A screw-top bottle also seals better than a cork.  I'm not against embracing technology.

The Muscat has a high alcohol content for wine at 18%.  This is intended to be sipped.  It is also very sweet.  It's like drinking candy.  In short, it's a really delicious and flavorful dessert wine.

When in Australia, my husband and I bought a bottle of Muscat that reminded me of this Muscat.  It's nice to know I can find a similar taste close to home.