I recently got the chance to try the new 2007 Fat Bastard Chardonnay. I hadn’t tried anything by Fat Bastard before, but I had heard a lot of good things from other folks about this brand. I think I had gotten deterred by the name, and thought it was kind of ostentatious and rude.

But after tasting it, I think the name somehow works because it more describes the playful side of the wine. It’s certainly not negative. This wine is so easy to drink. I was having some difficulty figuring out the specific fruit notes though- information that came with the bottle mentions acacia flower and a clean citrus finish. Although I admit I don’t know what acacia flower tastes like in the first place, I got the citrus taste, and it is clean and crisp, but not overboard. The clean taste was what made me go back for more.

This chardonnay also has the right amount of dryness to it. There’s a bite, sometimes a bit strong, but okay. The bouquet was flowery and fruity with a bit of vanilla. And although it’s billed as fullbodied, I think the weight of it was more on the light side, which is appealing when you are drinking it with a lighter cheese or anything non-meat (makes sense).

Now that I’ve gotten over my this wine-must-be-weird-because-of-its-name thing, I plan to try a lot more Fat Bastard white wines to compare with this gem.

October is National Breast Cancer Awareness Month, so drink up!

Almost every major company these days seems to have a line that donates proceeds toward the fight against breast cancer. Here’s another that’s joined in:

Photos of breast-cancer survivors adorn Cleavage Creek wine bottles. What a great idea!

Cleavage Creek Cellars is run by a California man, Budge Brown, who lost his wife of 48 years to breast cancer in 2005. He’s taken his anger and turned it into a line of wines, and he donates 10% of the sales toward research.

The line is now in its second year, with the second set having just been introduced this month. The new wines include a 2006 Reserve Napa Cabernet Sauvignon, a 2006 Reserve Napa Petite Sirah and a 2006 Reserve Cabernet-Sirah, as well as a 2006 Secret Red and a 2007 Secret White.

Each bottle of Cleavage Creek wine honors a breast-cancer survivor with a picture on the label. You can find their stories on the Cleavage Creek Web site.

To date, Cleavage Creek has donated more than $37,000 to research.

Know of any other wines or drinks that help out a good cause? Please share!

OK, with Tom Brady recovering from a second surgery and the rest of the New England Patriots losing games left, right and forwards, you could probably find 101 reasons not to go to Gillette Stadium this fall. But don’t fume, because what’s on tap there is good. So good that even the most disappointed fans may still want in.

Patriot Homebrew IPA is what it says it is, a homebrew, but given a little corporate help from The Boston Beer Company, which makes Samuel Adams beers. Brewer Adam Walsh, of Massachusetts, entered his beer in the company’s Patriot Homebrew Contest and took the prize – not just $2,000, but the opportunity to see his beer poured for thousands at Gillette all season long. And what won was pure gold.

OK, mahogany, really, with a cherry red tinge in the light. Dark and rich, it’s hard to imagine a better color for a New England autumn. As an IPA, or India Pale Ale, it is wildly hoppy, but unlike a lot of IPAs, this one has a good balance. There is a lot of sweetish malt here to round off the flavor, so the bitterness has doesn’t just hover in the front of your mouth with nowhere to go. Plus a fragrant, slightly fruity nose invites sip after sip. And if the Pats don’t break their mediocre streak, it might invite beer after beer, too.

Sam Adams Patriot Homebrew IPA is available at Gillette Stadium in Foxborough, Mass., for the 2008-09 football season.

Well, that, and the fact that I’d be surrounded by wine all afternoon.

It was a little early to be out at the Seacoast around 9 a.m. last Saturday. But it was a gorgeous New England fall day. I caught up with friends in the registration tent, and I was surprised to see maybe a hundred or 200 people in the tent by the time the day was about to start. I bought my $6 T-shirt (really, you can’t go wrong at that price), gathered my pruning shears, and I was good to go.

The employees brought us to one area of grapes where we were asked to start shearing. We were each given bins to fill with grapes. (It’s a good thing I’ve been working on my arms at the gym — those things got heavy quickly!) With so many people and only so many rows of grapes, it was almost amusing to see people race around to try to grab at more grapes.

After we finished the first section of grapes, we moved onto another type, and then a third. The third section was the most difficult to get at, as there were more leaves covering the grapes, and some of the fruit didn’t look as good as the first two sections, so we were in that area the longest finding the perfect fruit.

The atmosphere was great. Most people were really friendly and having great conversation. It was a great day to get pictures with your friends in a casual, relaxing environment. Only a few louder noises were made when people accidentally got clipped with the pruning shears (yup, I injured myself) or were stung by bees (that was me, too!).

The couple hours we were out working went by quickly. I couldn’t believe we had finished in such a short amount of time. But it was almost lunchtime at that point. I could smell food, but wasn’t exactly sure what was coming out of the kitchen.

Everyone was also given a commemorative wine glass to mark their participation in the event. Here is one of ours filled with the raspberry wine. (Thanks for the photo, Jen!)

In the meantime, we did — what else? — sample some wine. It took me a while to make my decision from the wine list, as well as because I was silently poking fun at the people in line who were ordering beer. (Hello?! You’re at a winery. Get wine.) I chose a glass of the strawberry wine, and what a great choice! It was so light and fun to drink. My pals at the table had bought some bottles of wine, choosing the raspberry and apple. The raspberry was a close second to the strawberry in taste, and the apple wine was very subtle and could probably be paired with a better variety of foods.

Then the food was ready to be served. YES! The meal consisted of delicious homemade rolls, cole slaw, pasta salad, bone-in chicken, and beef carved by the chef. Now THAT’S what I’m talking about. And not only did we get to fill up our plates with that, we also were given a great selection to choose from for dessery. I chose a slice of raspberry cheesecake, while some others at my table opted for the pumpkin, which was fantastic!

The day ended just as casually as it started. I popped in the store again to bring home a bottle of strawberry wine (about $11) to enjoy later, and I was ready to go home and nap.

Flag Hill is beautiful. The owner mentioned that weddings are being done there. (Maybe I should have looked at Seacoast locations when I was deciding where to hold my own upcoming wedding!) It would be a great backdrop for wedding day photos, too. And it would be fun to offer guests local wine.

I’m excited to go to more of these events in the future. Do you have one to recommend? Please share!

Popping open a bottle of bubbly makes any night feel like a celebration. I think it’s the whole anticipation of the corking flying off the bottle (and hopefully you aim the bottle at something other than your rented apartment’s window… yikes…) and all those tiny bubbles flowing out the top.

So when I got my hands on a bottle of Barefoot Wine’s new Barefoot Bubbly Chardonnay champagne, I decided to pop the cork on a Thursday night mid-September. The occasion? A full moon? Spike was playing a marathon of “CSI” episodes I’d never seen? I didn’t burn my homemade macs and cheese? Sure! Cheers!

For those of us who have no idea what makes champagne a Chardonnay champagne and find the world of Champagne vs. champagne confusing, I consulted my favorite little wine book, appropriately called “The Pocket Idiot’s Guide to Wine.” (Who you callin’ an idiot?) My pint-size guide says that because the bubbly isn’t from the northern French region of Champagne, it’s a sparking wine, denoted by the lower case “c” in “champagne.” Got it. And it’s called Chardonnay champagne, because Barefoot used Chardonnay grapes to make the wine.

It becomes bubbly through the method the vintner uses to carbonate the wine. In Barefoot’s case, they use the tank method or Charmat method (named for the French dude who discovered this nifty technique). I know this because it’s written right on the bottle (smart! I know). “The Guide to Wine” says that the wine is put into a pressurized tank, and yeast and sugar are added to provoke a second fermentation, which produces the bubbles. Then the bubbly is bottled under pressure to keep it bubbly. Apparently, this is the most popular way to make sparking wines, as it’s the most inexpensive, and the bubbles last the longest. Perfect for a winery that wants to produce an affordable, long-lasting champagne that can be stored on supermarket shelves.

So, now I’m sure you’re like, “Bla, bla, bla. WHAT DOES IT TASTE LIKE?”

I’ve tasted everything from Andre (three bottles for $4, baby!) to Dom Perignon. To me, it’s all drinkable, but not my first alcholic beverage choice. However, Barefoot’s sparking Chardonnay is so mild and subtly sweet, that I actually enjoyed drinking it for the flavor, not for the “let’s all drink Champagne”-feeling of camaraderie. It’s not dry at all or have that kick-you-in-the-taste buds tartness, and it tastes more like a champagne-flavored Cleary Canadian (you know, that fruit-flavored soda) than a bottle of bubbly. The after taste is really pleasant and smooth.

The bottle tells me that this sparkling wine has the flavors of green apples, pears and a hint of vanilla. I can taste everything but the vanilla, but perhaps that’s the ingredient that smooths out the tartness of apples and pears and makes it incredibly drinkable. This is the kind of treat I’d buy to go along with apples, grapes, Camembert and a chick-flick comedy.

Maybe on a random Thursday night mid-October.

The first time I was mesmerized by midori was when I was 16. It wasn’t from drinking it. I was at a family dinner and my older cousin ordered a midori sour.

I remember the vivid green and thought when I turn 21 I’m drinking one of those. And when I turned 21, it was one of the first drinks I ordered at the bar.

I’m no longer 21 though and drinking something that sweet doesn’t always agree with my tastebuds, but cut it with something tart and you have a winner.

My roommate and I decided to go girly for Saturday night this weekend, which meant drinking sweet stuff and martinis. Our favorite of the night: the illusion shaker.

It’s 2 oz of Midori; 1/2 oz of triple sec; 1/2 oz of vodka; 1 oz of lemon juice; and a splash of pinapple juice.

The lemon adds enough sour to keep the drink from being too sweet.

And for the experimental, try a Q.F shooter. I was a little hesitant at first of this shot with 2/3 midori and 1/3 Irish Cream liquor but it was quite tasty. The Irish Cream is a little stronger and the midori adds a sweet aftertaste.