Vino Slut

Imagine my amazement when checking my email to receive an invite to review wine. Well hells bells, where do I sign up for free liquor. But the suspicious chick I am began to wonder what could possibly be the trap. After all, I remember the days before the Tylenol safety packaging. Quickly, I did a Google search of Flip Flop Wines to ensure no wack a doodle was luring innocent bloggers to their death. No recent poisonings by people pretending to be wine merchants, whew, safe. Because besides Wikipedia, I get all my facts from Google, the Google Rapture notwithstanding.

First, a little background on Flip Flop Wines. Based in California, they produce affordable wine for approximately $7 a bottle. Certainly within Mrs. Tuna’s price range. Typically my criteria for selecting wine involves standing at Costco picking wines with more than 90 points or pretty flowered labels. The second measure is gotta be less than $10 bucks because I am a cheap date. The thing that appealed to the more noble me (no really, I can be noble sometimes without a payoff) was that for every bottle of wine sold they will donate a pair of flip flops to someone in need since they are paired with Soles4souls. This organization sends shoes to people often impacted by natural disasters or third world countries to improve quality of life. Besides, flip flops are the universal weekend shoe for those of us crammed into pointy high heels all week because they make our ankles look shapely.

The tall, dark and handsome Stephen (okay we are thinking of course he’s tall dark and handsome with amazing abs because he’s offering free booze) obviously read my blog since he knew I was only a white wine woman. I have to reject red wine, I seriously think I have some kind of weird allergy because 2 hours after drinking I wake up from a dead sleep violently ill. The same instant alert you get when you hear the dog getting ready to yack at 2 AM. Frick, I can drink gallons of white or beer so I know I’m not a pansy ass light weight. Maybe I need one of those medical ID bracelets, Do Not Administer Red Wine in Case of Emergency. Stephen, my new BFF committed to sending 3 white wine samples, how giddy was I when it turned out to be THREE WHOLE BOTTLES!

Since the Big Tuna is more of Bud Light kind of redneck beer drinker I recruited my cohort in booze fiestas Bebe to help with evaluations of Chardonnay, Riesling and Pinot Grigio. The bottles give descriptions of what they will taste like and food pairing recommendations along with their trademark flip flop label. This week’s recipe is seafood, always a hit with the lighter variety of wine.

Tom’s White Clam Sauce
4 tablespoons butter
1 small onion minced
2 cloves garlic minced
Black pepper to taste
2-6 ounce cans chopped clams
Handful parsley chopped
1 cup heavy cream

Drain clams but reserve juice. Melt butter in sauce pan. Add onion, garlic, pepper, clam juice and parsley to butter and simmer for 10 minutes. Add chopped clams and simmer for an additional 10 minutes. Add heavy cream and heat throughout. Serve over hot pasta with parmesan cheese. My Italian brother-in-law gave me this recipe after promising not to divulge it under penalty of mafia. When you don’t hear from me again it’s because I’m living in a South American Country.

All of you that know me know I’m a bit of a wine ho, hopefully I won’t come off too trite in my review. While I’m not sure I agree with the food pairings I have to honestly say I was really surprised on how tasty it really was for a table wine. Now that’s it’s been a steady 110 degrees in Phoenix, light and refreshing is the order of the day. So tasty in fact, I relinquished my standard ice cubes in order to not dilute the taste. If you are looking for a basic and affordable wine then I can certainly recommend Flip Flop wines. I wonder if since they support a Soles4souls I can get a tax deduction….if so, ship me a case.