Today, I'll be sharing a few photos of some flowers in my yard and a bit of a review on a new wine that I just tried yesterday. I'm starting with the flowers and I was pleasantly surprised to see that the pink Conehead flowers aka Echinacea had started to bloom.
I have another Conehead variety that will be blooming soon as well. I did, recently, add a third variety which is an Echinacea hybrid named 'Marmalade'. I bought them to replace the group that I lost two summers ago (I think) to pests. When I bought the 'Marmalades' they already had a couple of blooms that were getting ready to open which is how most nurseries tend to sell them.
I took the following two photos of Bee Balm this morning. They bloomed while I was away for a few days. Funny story ... when I visited my moms house a couple of weeks ago I was in the back yard there with a sister who was showing me the different plants in bloom and there was Bee Balm. I took off a petal and told her to eat it. She was a little taken aback and said "no way". I explained to her that it was perfectly fine and in fact Bee Balm is tasty and also has some medicinal properties. She still didn't want to try it so I gladly nibbled it instead. She said "you're not right" which I won't entirely dispute but this coming from a sister who used to eat Rose petals and other flower petals when we were little ... lol!
My last grouping of flowers are from some Milkweed plants in the garden. I keep Milkweed for the Monarch butterflies and I hope I get some visiting this year like I did last year. This is the first time though that the Milkweed has bloomed.
The following three photos are close-ups of the little flowers.
Okay! Let's try that wine! This is Risata Moscato d'Asti and it is imported from the Piedmont region of Italy. A 750 ml bottle here costs anywhere from $12 dollars US to $15 dollars US. The bottle contains approximately three (8 oz) servings with 190 calories per serving. The alcohol content is 5.5% by volume. It also has a twist cap/no cork.
I've bought this bottle of white wine before but someone has gotten to it before I could actually try it so I bought two more bottles to be sure that I could, at least, try one. I'm not gonna give you some bogus review but will give my honest average person opinion because some of the reviews online I feel were a bit disingenuous. It says right on the bottle that the ingredients are grapes and sulphur dioxide so I don't really know how some people are claiming to taste all these notes of this and that.
I did chill the wine before trying it. I can definitely taste the sweet grapes and that is the first thing that you may notice is that it is a sweet wine. The sweet fruitiness comes through in smell also. It is also a sparkling wine but I don't feel like it was overly sparkling like a soda would be but it has an effervescence that (for me) was not overpowering and I found it refreshing and complimented the sweetness of the wine.
There you go! Simple and to the point! If you prefer a slightly sparkling white wine that is on the sweeter side and not as dry as some other white wines then this may be one that you will want to try. I enjoyed it very much and I'm even enjoying some right now! Seriously though, I do plan on getting this one again. Interestingly, I have reflux and sometimes white wine will cause it to act up but so far it's all been good (knock on wood). If you've already tried this then let me know in a comment and also let me know what you think of it. Everyone has different tastes and what is delicious to one person may not be as delicious to another and that is okay. If you do decide to try it and don't care for it then please don't complain about it to me. I only gave you my opinion and that is Risata Moscato d'Asti is yummy to me! 馃挅
Oh Yeah! It also comes in a pretty blue bottle. I only mention that because some people like to repurpose bottles and I know my daughter will definitely want this one ... when I'm finished with it .. of course! 馃槈
Thank you 
All photos and text by me 