I don't normally break this recipe out until Passover (you may recognize it from the time I shared it on my dear friend Tori Avey's website), but, in case you haven't been online yet today, Trump surrogate Scottie Nell Hughes referred to the the Molotov cocktails in the Jay-Z and Kanye West video, "No Church in the Wild" as "Mazel Tov cocktails," and, well, I couldn't help myself. 

I won't comment much on the election here (if you follow me on Twitter, Instagram, or my personal Facebook page, you know exactly where I stand), but I think we can all agree that, regardless of what happens tomorrow, we're all going to need a big icy cup (or three) of what I am now officially dubbing the "Mazel Tov Cocktail." 

Tip: make the syrup today (a nice reprieve from refreshing political polls all day), and you'll be ready to make a big batch of these on election night.

Start by reducing some classic Concord Grape Manischewitz in a small pot over medium-high heat.

We're making a syrup here. Yep, that's right: we're making cloyingly sweet Manischewitz even sweeter (trust me).

Next, we need to get out our cocktail shaker and fill it with 2 teaspoons of the syrup, plus blood orange juice (you can use any kind of orange juice you like -- have fun with the symbolism), and vodka. 

Then shake that sucker up, strain it, and serve it in a pretty glass.

L'Chaim!

Oh, and in case you haven't done so yet, MAKE A PLAN TO VOTE! 

 

It just seemed obvious.

I had half of a bottle of Zinfandel left over from last night and dark chocolate on the mind (surely inspired spending Friday afternoon with my friend Julie, owner and chocolatier of Salt Side Down Chocolates), so I did the thing that made sense: I combined the two, studded the result with plump dried cranberries and popped it in the oven. Bliss.

You know I love wineries on a budget, so when my buddies at Joffer told me about this sweet deal, I had to pass it on to you:
Wattle Creek Winery, whose tasting room is right here in San Francisco, is giving away a tasting for 2 PLUS a bottle of wine, all for $25. That is a sweet deal, friends. You would normally pay more than twice that amount. Get on it!

Even with jobless rates as high as they’ve been in years, some Americans still have money, and some wines still move from the shelf at $700 a bottle, like the Cabernets of Screaming Eagle in the Napa Valley. Some young wineries are even entering the struggling market at price points above $100, like the brave Yarden Rom, an Israeli winery now introducing to the United States a 2006 red blend at the suggested retail price of $160. Madness? Absolutely.

Because wines as complex and food-friendly as the high-priced giants are available – and perfectly adequate for all but those most particular of dinner party guests. In fact, by my eyes, affordable good wines have become even more readily available now that the economy is in a trough and wineries wising up to reality. This is all good news for the Brokeass among us.

Concannon Vineyard, based in the Livermore Valley clearly knows how to do business; the winery was founded in 1883, long before rock star winemakers sold their bottles of juice for the price of a Vegas vacation. Recent releases from Concannon include a 2007 Central Coast Shiraz and a 2009 Central Coast Riesling. Fourth-generation winemaker John Concannon swears they bear “the structure, balance and intensity of wines twice their price point.” They could probably compete with many wines of 10 times their price, the wine business often being a game of name recognition and slick marketing. The Shiraz is smoky and leathery in smell, and it tastes of thick berry jam, dried prunes and juicy ripe fruits, balanced by earthy forest floor. The Riesling, like the best examples of the variety (“varietal,” in case you’re about to correct me, is an adjective), smells and tastes bright and beautiful, of pears, peaches, mango nectar and miscellaneous tropical fruits. A crisp acidity fortifies the wine’s delicate fruit backbone. I tend not to well-versed in white wines, and so I tend not to review them, but I do appreciate a nice Riesling.

Also high in quality and low in price are recent releases from Blackstone Winery in Sonoma. The 2008 Winemaker’s Select Merlot runs $11 and tastes as fruity as it does green – an interesting sort of herbal vegetal character. Some might suggest allowing it to age a year. I personally liked it. The Winemaker’s Select Zinfandel ($12) carries plenty of that sharp pepper and raspberry bite we all love while also bearing softer edged flavors of chocolate, vanilla and tree bark – the latter, I concede, an acquired taste of the trained wine drinker. Indeed, growing to appreciate notes of tree bark can take years. Keep sipping.

Old stereotypes are fading as the boxed wine trend picks up credibility. Some of the latest wines in the movement are those of the Octavin Home Wine Bar, a collection of several varietal wines in 3-liter octagonal packages, holding the equivalent of four bottles of wine at BrokeAss rates and with a spigot at the base of the container.

“Home Wine Bar.” How do you like that for a selling point? The phrase evokes a tantalizing image of wine endlessly available, which wine in a box is. For boxed wine means wine by the glass – or the sip – anytime. For better or for worse, a box on top of one’s fridge, the spigot ready and willing, and the wine, never exposed to the air and always fresh, provides a fresh pour whenever one grows thirsty. Whether happy, sad, bored, leaving for Yoga, freshly back from a run, about to call the mayor’s office – there’s the box. The ease in taking a draft at any pass through the kitchen comes in place of the pomp, circumstance and clumsiness that otherwise accompanies the corkscrew ritual – so 2009. Without so much cork-pulling ceremony, guilt-free indulgence is what’s left in a box of wine.

The 2008 Monthaven Winery Chardonnay ($24 for 3 liters) lasted a week in a household of four. We noted the wine for its smoothness and grace, and we praised it for its mild oak and butter flavors – intuitively surprising for a wine contained in a plastic sack – and we drew from the box like there would be no end. The end came, though, and the sad hour arrived when we tore the box open and squeezed every last drop possible from the sack. The well had run empty.

On the darker side is the Big House Red ($24 for 3 liters), a 2008 blend from winemaker Georgetta Dane, a Romanian now living and working in Ripon, California. The Big House is made of 13 grapes, and while I prefer varietal wines that have more of a conceptual identity, this blend still does the trick. The wine is bright and fruity with enough tart acidity to make it interesting and smooth enough to glissade over the palate. This wine also lasted a week before a household drained it dry.

More of the Octavin series are available, though. The in-box collection features six wines from around the world, including a California Zinfandel, a New Zealand Sauvignon Blanc, a Spanish seven-grape blend, and a Pinot Noir and a Pinot Grigio from, of all odd places, Hungary. Each box runs roughly $24 or $25 – a well worth tapping into.