Skip to content

New Wines and Great Food

Even as someone who thrives on trying new places, I still need to visit some of my old haunts now and then. It is fun to see what new wines they are pouring and to try something new on the menu. In this post, I am sharing two such experiences. The first is about the incredible new wines I found. The the second a fantastic take on “Eggs Benedict.”

@goat.sheep.cow.north

One of my favorite old haunts is the wine bar and fromagerie goat.sheep.cow.north. “Old” here is a relative term because it has not even been open for two years yet. No matter how long, it is a great wine bar and has the best cheese counter in Charleston, if not South Carolina.

Gary and I were getting together with my photography team, and it is close to Stan’s studio and easy for Lisa to get to from Daniel Island, so we decided to meet there. We were going to have a few glasses of wine and nibbly bits and catch up on life. But the day before our gathering I see a Facebook post about a wine tasting for that evening. Score! So I told them to plan on doing both, which we did.

New Wines – The Tasting

Wine tastings here offer a great bonus. Not only do you get to try new wines but you also get to sample new cheeses and charcuterie as well. The theme was wines from the Alpine regions in Europe that was inspired by a white wine from Switzerland. There was only one case allocated to Charleston, and after they tasted it at a distributor tasting, they snatched it up. Lucky them. Lucky me.New Wines at goat sheep cow north

The second from the left is the Swiss wine. The only time I have had Swiss wine was when I was in Switzerland, and that was decades ago.  This wine was a real treat. This full-bodied, beautifully structured wine is from the Fendant (aka Chasselas) variety which is believed to be indigenous to western Switzerland.

new wines
The selected wine along with the cheese or charcuterie pairing

We ended up bring home a couple of bottles of the Fendant along with the Alcasian Pinot Gris and the German Mosel Riesling. The Lagrein from Northern Italy was the only red in the lineup. Gary especially liked, but we had to pass on it since we still have way too many red wines to evaluate right now.

Note: I will be providing in-depth tasting notes for the above new wines (white) in future posts.

New Wines – the Nosh

So after the tasting, we sat down for some food and, of course, wine. Now before you go all “dang you drink a lot,” remember that at tastings you get one ounce pours. So the tasting was not quite one full glass of wine. “I don’t drink a lot; I drink often,” but I digress.

Having written a post about my dining experience here not too long ago, I had not planned to blog about the food. While the items we ordered were outstanding, I decided ahead of time to be “off the clock.” I have just one picture, and that is of the dessert which is the featured image above. My friend Lisa captured the other image which highlights the fab dessert but also the rosé wine that sent me over the moon.

new wines
© Lisa Livingston 2018. Used with permission all rights reserved.

This dessert is Buttermilk Pannacotta with fresh strawberries, raw honey, almond cookie crumble and edible flower petals. I have three words: Fab. U. Less.

You may recall last Spring on my first visit to goat.sheep.cow.north I enjoyed a La Galoche Beaujolais Blanc. I loved this wine, and it set me on a path to find other Beaujolais Blanc wines.  What I had been told was there was a rosé as well, but it was allocated to a restaurant. I never did make it there to try it So, imagine my surprise when I saw that the ladies at GSCN had secured the allocation for this year’s vintage of La Galoche Beaujolais Rosé.  Yahoo!

Side Note:

Some wines are allocated to a single store or restaurant because the entity commits to buying the entire shipment. That will undoubtedly limit access for the masses but for some wines that is a very good thing. Few people have heard of Beaujolais Blanc or Beaujolais Rosé, so seeing it on a store shelf probably means nothing to them.

To many Beaujolais is a light red wine that sells every November as a Beaujolais Nouveau. It is low cost, and due to overproduction of what has become a “fad” wine, the quality is low as well. So a Blanc or a Rosé will need to be sold, presented, promoted, etc., by the clerk if in a wine store or the server or bartender at a restaurant. The right allocation at the right place that puts effort into the selling of the wine provides the panache of exclusivity for an extraordinary wine.

The La Galoche Beaujolais Rosé

This wine was the surprise find of the evening.  Gary and I both loved this fresh, bright fruit-forward Gamay rosé. As I breathed in the aromas in my glass, I immediately started humming The Beatles song, Strawberry Fields Forever as ripe strawberry predominates the nose. Ripe fresh strawberry follows to the palate with a back note of raspberry. It is a perfect wine for summer.

This wine is an exclusive at goat.sheep.cow.north in the wine bar. It is sold by the bottle ($48.00) and by the glass ($13.00). But the real deal is Happy Hour from 3:00 pm to 6:00 pm daily when you can get a glass of any of the rosés on the menu for just $8.00 a glass.

goat.sheep.cow.north 804 Meeting St #102, Charleston, SC 29403 * (843) 203-3118


@ The Early Bird Diner

I had lunch with my sister the other day, but we were both craving breakfast. So we went to The Early Bird Diner on Savannah Highway. When you want breakfast all day, this is the place.  Check this out… I had their version of the classic Eggs Benedict. They call it, Corn Cake Benedict ($13.00). Two savory corn cakes topped with bacon and two poached eggs with your choice of hollandaise sauce or salsa. I had the hollandaise, but I bet the salsa would be great as well.

It comes with one side… so I ordered more bacon because one can never have too much bacon.


Obsessed with my new Sunnies!

Incredible, Affordable, and fashionable Sunglasses. I think I am obsessed!  Check out Blue Planet Eyewear and use the Discount Code for 20% off. #TheBluePlanetLife #VisualizeChange #BluePlanetEyewear

That is all for now.

Cheers,

rick


 

2 Comments

  1. Steven E Clem

    GSCN is, IMO, one of the best spots in Charleston. I didn’t know about the 3-6PM Happy Hour, so thanks for sharing!

  2. Kelly Hynes

    “I don’t drink a lot; I drink often.” Truth!

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.