panic attacks and perfect cupcakes

it's officially crunch time

D2 is two weeks out from the publishing of this post and yes, dear reader, I have lost my mind. I’d taken last week off of studying because…I wanted to (and needed to, quite frankly), so coming back to it so soon before the exam has amplified my anxiety. After two days of mentally muscling through the panic, I’ve got a lil plan in place to work through the text and practice questions so that I least feel a little bit better about the exam.

my favourite bake to date

Last weekend, I decided to make chocolate cupcakes with raspberry buttercream for a coworker’s birthday party. Y’all. Y’ALL. These cupcakes were incredible. I freestyled with these a bit, especially the frosting. I used Bonne Maman raspberry preserves and pulverized freeze-dried raspberries to make the frosting both tasty and visually appealing. I ended up making A TON of these so I shared them with friends, who all expressed their utter enjoyment. And now I’m quitting everything and going on GBBO.

jk. a girl can dream.

Baking has been a great discipline to learn lately. Not just the precision required, but also the discipline to clean up while the bake is in the oven. I’ve never really loved doing dishes, but I also have a tendency to use every goddamn thing in my kitchen when I cook/bake, so it’s only right for me to clean it all up myself and not leave it for my bf to do 😅

I’ve found a small amount of joy in doing the dishes. It forces me to slow down, stay in one place, and focus on one task. And when I’m done, I no longer have the full kitchen sink that gives me a low level of ever-present anxiety.

Now, onto this week’s wine picks:

ottin petite arvine

This wine took me by surprise when I tasted it with my reps last week. This was my first experience with the Petite Arvine grape and, I must say, I’m quite impressed. The grape is indigenous to the Swiss canton of Valais, but was brought to Italy’s Vallée d’Aoste in the 1970s. The nose is pronounced intensity, full of white flowers (elderflower in particular) along with fresh mountain herbs, slight vegetal notes, and a hint of pineapple.

This wine is the perfect fondue wine. Also the perfect welcome to spring wine. Getchu some.

rasa wines ‘dusty miller’ dry white blend

The team and I tried this wine and were immediately like YES PLEASE WE NEED THIS. A skin-contact blend of 50/50 Riesling and Muscat. It’s floral af (think jasmine and chamomile) with tea-like tannins, a phenolic finish, and notes of green almond and pear. Absolutely delicious. It’s got a lot going on, but it’s incredibly approachable as well.

This wine is part of my expansion of the program into sleeper Aussie wines. Australian wine isn’t all Chardonnay and Shiraz - winemakers are doing incredible things like this orange wine that deserve our attention.

Plus, this wine is a part of the Legend Imports portfolio, a portfolio that I trust when it comes to Australian wine.

domaine st. cyr ‘mélo’

This wine was one of the rare times that I taste a wine and immediately order cases of it. Coming from one of my favourite producers in Beaujolais, Mélo is a coferment of equal parts Gamay, Pinot Noir, and Chardonnay. It’s all the crunchy red fruit that you expect from Beaujolais (it does go through carbonic maceration) but lifted a bit by the Chardonnay. The finish has a pleasing natural edge to it, making it even more interesting. It’s a chillable red, but with a bit more texture and nuance.

bolney estate blanc de blancs

Being English, I had to have some English bubbles in the shop. This wine is electric and precise (and vintage!). It’s all the things you could want in a BdB - all the brightness paired with apple, peach, brioche, and white flowers. English bubbles are slowly but surely making their way into the market, which I’m excited about. Their prices is comparable to Champagne, which is a tough competitor, but I think English sparkling is worth the price. You have a lot of small producers there with a climate and terroir that are very similar to Champagne. And it’s still quite a novel thing to the average consumer - England producing sparkling wine is not common knowledge! Since I’m aiming to expand consumers’ understanding and exposure to the wine world in its entirety, this wine seemed like a worthy choice.

Here’s to expanding our palates and not losing our minds,

- j