Here are a few highlights of today’s meeting of representatives of the city, college and local neighborhood associations.1) University Construction Projects*Eagle Village remains on schedule. This will represent an addition of 624 beds to campus housin…

Wednesday the 9th of December @ 7pm—
Kybecca Wine Bar – 402 William Street

Join us on Wednesday, the 9th of December at 7pm for a memorable wine & tapas pairing with Estebe Salgado, President of International Operations for Tradewinds Specialty Imports. You will enjoy 5 courses of tapas, each paired with different wines, plus hear Estebe talk about the different wine regions and ask him questions. Cost is $ 45 per person which includes tip.
The Menu

Arugula and Serrano Ham with Smoked Paprika Dressing
Paired with Rossinyol De Moragas Cava Brut NV

Roasted Yellow Pepper Soup and Roasted Tomato Soup with Serrano Cream
Paired with Mania Rueda Verdejo

Manchego with Almonds and Green Olives
Paired with Eder Rioja Coscha

Garlic Chicken
Paired with Munia Toro Roble

Sweet Paprika and Dark Chocolate Truffle
Paired with Valsotillo Ribera Del Duero Crianza

Seating is limited, so please make your reservation promptly! Call 540-373-3338

The organizers of the Christmas Parade are looking for volunteers to help collect trash.Vounteers will walk the parade route twice as a group carrying trash bags. They will meet ahead of time at the Visitor’s Center on Caroline St. at 4:15 pm on Decem…

As you may have guessed we had a lot of wine on Thanksgiving. We usually like to drink something we know will be good but that we hadn’t tried yet. Three wines in particular fit that bill this year.

In the afternoon Kyle shucked some oysters which we ate both raw and roasted. We paired them with a wine many say is the best with oysters, a Vin Jaune. Vin Jaune, or “yellow wine”, is somewhat similar to sherry but much harder to come by. We drank the Rolet 1998 Vin Jaune shown in the picture. Click here for a fuller description of this unusual but delicious wine.

For our first course Rebecca made an oyster stew (we had a lot of oysters) which we paired with the Gatinois Champagne, a fantastic wine made by one of Champagne’s small growers. In fact, Gatinois sells their grapes to Bollinger who use it to make their high end cuvee. What they don’t sell they make into this wine which is a fraction of the price of the Bollinger. I love pairing Champagne with food on special occasions. Champagne is great for toasts and parties and such but pairing it with oyster stew will change your view of this wine.

Finally with Turkey we had a new wine from one of our favorite producers, Thierry Puzelat, known for his natural winemaking meaning he uses wild yeast and doesn’t put additives in his wines, sometimes not even sulfites. This year we had the Le Rouge Est Mis, a Pinot Meunier. Pinot Meunier is related to Pinot Noir and is most often used in Champagne. In fact if you’ve had a rose Champagne (from Champagne, not just any sparkling wine) then it was probably Pinot Meunier. It was even better than we anticipated, with bright fruit flavors that didn’t overwhelm the food and the earthy and tea-like flavors that seem to be a signature of Puzelat’s wines. It is worth every penny of its $33.99 price tag – I’ve had Burgundies that cost twice as much that weren’t as good. Plus the label has a gangster on it which is cool.

The Rolet is only at Plank road now but will be available at William Street starting next week. The other two wines are available at both stores but in very limited quantities in case you want any of these for Christmas or New Years.

The old water heater decided to start leaking a few days ago. That was a sure sign that a more serious failure was pending, so we started shopping for a replacement. We live in an all-electric house that happens to be set in an all-electric neighborhoo…

At both stores Friday and Saturday we’ll be tasting out all five of our Thanksgiving picks. Click here to see a description of them.

Just about every place that sells wine has Thanksgiving picks. What makes ours special is our selection criteria. Most places will just push some stuff they want to sell for whatever reason and call it a pick. We took the time to find the most food-friendly wines we could at different price points. Not only have we tasted all these wines, we’ve brought them home to drink so that we could vouch for their quality. Plus, these are all hand crafted wines made by people who really care about wine instead of making a buck. If there was such a thing as a Farmer’s Market for wines these would be the sort of wines that would be for sale.

You will be pleased to hear that 3 Master Gardeners, Extension Agent Guy Mussey and myself planted 6 birch trees over at Cossey this morning.The trees , balled and burlaped specimens all over 6 foot tall, were special ordered from Colesville Nursery us…

Today is Beaujolais Nouveau day. Beaujolais (technically part of Burgundy) is a region in France famous for their delicious and (in my opinion) hugely under-rated red wines made from the Gamay grape. Beaujolais Nouveau is released every year on the third Thursday of November worldwide. I’ll skip the technical details, but Beaujolais Nouveau differs from regular Beajolais in that it is made very fast and best consumed young. The vintage is 2009, so these grapes were harvested just a couple of months ago. It’s a fun wine to drink this time of year.

You’ll see some big brand Beaujolais around town but I don’t mind telling you that ours is the best. We have two in stock at different prices and you can taste them at both stores tonight!

By the way, if you’re wondering about pronunciation it’s Boh-jah-lay. The “j” is a soft j as in the French name Jean, not a hard j as in January.

The next meeting of the Neighborhood Association will be wednesday, December 9th at 7PM .It will be held at Aggie’s Salon near the corner of Franklin and Monument (1403 Franklin St.)The meeting will feature representatives from the group responsible fo…

Saturday,

November 28

@ 3:00p

Gallery at 915

915 Lafayette Blvd

Fredericksburg,VA

22401

kybecca & The Gallery at 915 are pairing up to bring you a tasting adventure your palate won’t soon forget! You will sample five different style sakes, each paired with a cheese or food item to complement the unique flavor and texture of the sake. You will also learn about the different grades and the sake making process. Sake lovers… this one’s for YOU. Don’t like sake? Then this is DEFINITELY for you (as we are certain we can change your mind!)

$15 per person.

Call kybecca at 540.373.3338 for reservations.

Reservations are limited, so make yours today!