My NYE.

Happy New Year all. Hopefully you took some time off from reading worthless blogs as some of us worthless bloggers took some needed time off from pounding out worthless posts.

How was the New Year's Eve you ask?

I used to hate NYE. It was always such a let down. We would build up the night and it just never seemed to deliver. After 40 plus years I still don't know the words to that effing song. Somewhere along the way I guess either I got my expectations in order or just started enjoying it more. I just always end up asking myself, "where did the year go?" I not a resolution guy. Anyway on to NYE.

This year we were THAT house. At my age I didn't think we'd ever be that house again. It started off well enough. You know just a few friends for a dinner party. Put the kids in the basement.........perfect SOJOCO NYE.

We ended up with a full house which was fun. Dinner was fine although grilling was a bitch cause it was so cold out.

At midnight Champagne, er, uh Prosecco actually was flowing and then it happened. Somebody brought fireworks. I'm drunk so when they ask if I mind..........I smoothly say why not. I'm thinking a couple bottle rockets or maybe one big thing-a-ma-jingy that you light and run. What ensued was about an hour of 4th of July leftover mania. I knew there was a problem. Neighbors started turning on their outside lights. One kid hit my neighbors house with something that went boom. I thought the Leawood Po Po was coming for sure.

Yep, we just became that house. It was no longer a dinner party. It was a house party and it went until....well, last time I looked at the clock it was past 3. The only thing that was missing was wife swapping in the guest room or the bathroom.

At a dinner party people politely help to wash dishes and clean up. Not so much at a house party. The house was a disaster and reeked in the morning. My wife was conveniently too hungover to help with the clean up opting to stay in bed until the afternoon. OMG. I cleaned for hours. After the first hour it looked like I had hardly made a dent. Next time schedule the cleaning lady for the morning........would she even do that?

I realized I'm too old for that crap. I mean it was fun but it was a lot of work and other than cleaning up all the evidence of the fireworks display I staying in my house for the next 2 straight days.......when I did go to the front to grab a couple days worth of newspapers I realized proof that at least one of my guests had lots of fun and left puke proof on the street in front of the house. Lets hope for rain or snow soon.

I guess the real question is did I learn my lesson or do we do it again next year? Good question.

So, politeness dictates........how was your NYE?

Prosecco is hot this season! Best Wine Friday!

Have you noticed all the Prosecco showing up at the trendy places? I certainly have.

It makes some sense to me. It is cheaper than champagne and has a cleaner taste but has the romance of being from Italy.

I've noticed instead of champagne many nice and trendy places have started offering Prosecco as their entry level sparkling wine choice by the glass. Cheers to them.

I've been partaking of several and indeed I've been enjoying them. It is a excellent way to start an evening out..........or to be the drink of choice all evening long.

Prosecco is a sparkling wine made in Italy. The upper North East part. It is a grape, becoming more known as Glera, and a place and a style of wine. It typically is light with nice fruit but dry. One big difference between champagne and prosecco is in how it is made. Champagne goes through the second fermentation, where it gets the carbonation, in the bottle. This time spent resting on dead yeast cells for several years gives the wine a nutty and toasty quality. Prosecco by contrast utilizes a Charmat method where the secondary fermentation is completed in stainless steel tank. The french created a stigma to disparage sparkling wine not made in the traditional method. It is important prosecco is made this way because the fruit is delicate and wouldn't handle that process. Just like you don't see light whites like Albarino or Pinot Grigio barrel fermented and aged. The result is appropriately made, delicious sparkling wine that doesn't cost you a ton of cash. Unlike Champagne, it doesn't age well and should be consumed young and fresh. Although most Americans don't like aged Champagne either....which should explain why we are loving the Prosecco so much.....because as Champagne ages it grabs more of the nutty, bready notes.

I hope the trend continues. Many countries make nice sparkling wine. Maybe some of them will make it to the US someday.

For today, I'm recommending one I had at Houston's on the plaza called LaMarca but I've also had some nice examples from Lunetta, Mionetto and Zardetto. Yes, I've started looking for them when I go out.

La Marca is my favorite so far. It was bright with floral and peach and citrus fruits. The bubbles hit just right for my rendezvous with a friend for a holiday tipple this week. A tiny bit of googling also revealed to me that the Wine Spectator gave it 90 points. Nice.

Is there much hotter than a sexy, beautiful woman drinking sparkling wine?

I think it was like $8 bucks a glass and while I'm not into labels......this one is a very cool light blue that has a very upscale look to it......yep, I said upscale to describe prosecco.

If you are having a NYE party this would be the perfect thing to serve for guests. A conversation piece and affordable. If you only serve sparkling plan on 1 bottle per 3 or 4 people per hour and you'll be rolling right through to midnight.

Cheers!