It’s Oscar night. Chez Scamp never watches the Oscars, but we’re breaking our custom… for what reason I have no idea. We’re about 7:48 in right now, and I can’t say I’m really sold on the decision, but I’ve decided to pop a bottle of bubbly, so I’m likely to see it through.
Domaine Ste Michelle is one of my favorite “mixer” bubblies, so I’m actually going to taste the wine on its own as well as made into a mimosa and a poinsetta – which is bubbly mixed with cranberry juice and triple sec; I meant to make poinsettas over Christmas sometime, and I will confess that the cranberry juice has been waiting in the very bottom and back of my fridge, unopened since December.
Let’s start with the wine unadulturated: color is a perfectly respectable straw yellow in the glass. Perlage (that’s fancy wine talk for bubbles) is quite fine, which testifies to the stunning high quality-price-ratio that DMS delivers.
Yummy green apple and lemon on the nose – as well as a mild undertone of earthiness. Palate of self-same lemon and quince (which is an appley-pear taste, if you’ve never had a quince) with a crisp, refreshing acidity that bounces around your mouth and leaves you wanting another sip. SUCH an incredible value for about $10. Seriously.
Why is it that I adulturate this wine again? I seem to consistently forget how good it is. Don’t forget like I do, gentle reader! Remember! Buy this wine! Drink it every day!
Anyway, I’ve mixed the drinks – and the glass of straight wine is gone – so let’s move on to the mimosa.
Color is, well, obviously, orange. OK, I’ll dispense with the traditional structure of a Scamp tasting, because if the nose on a mimosa doesn’t smell like orange then I don’t know what.
Oscar Sidenote: wow, Anne-Hathaway-Singing-At-The-Oscars-And-Doing-The-Wolverine-Thing? So unutterably hideous. Upside, we then get to look at Dame Helen, who makes me want to dye my hair white.
Anyhow, DSM Brut makes a good mimosa – it brightens up the orange juice with all the lemon, and the sweetness of the orange makes the wine even more suck-down-able.
The poinsetta… is interesting. Without the triple sec, the drink is painfully sour. The triple sec takes the edge off, but there’s still a definite bitterness here. I can definitely see this as a sharp contrast to a heavy holiday brunch, bracing after a night of caloric overindulgence. As an independent cocktail, I can’t recommend it, and I like sour/bitter drinks (I’m famous in my family as the only one who can happily drink Campari). If you’re planning your Boxing Day Brunch and wondering how to balance the homemade cinnamon rolls, cheesy egg & sausage strata, and leftover pumpkin pie, this might just be your ticket. I’m not finishing it tonight, even though Anne and James Di are about as cloying as an entire pan of frosted baked goods.
The mimosa was gone in about as long it took for Cate Blanchette to lead us through the clips of makeup nominees. Oh, Rick Baker. I love effeminate straight men with pure white ponytails.
OK, Wine Scamp out – there’s some serious laundry yet to be folded up in here. For true Oscar liveblogging and general awesomeness, check out Kari Anne Roy’s hilarious Haiku of the Day. I aspire to her life on multiple levels.