Possibilities

How is it possible to go almost a month without talking about wine?

Because I've been so busy enjoying it!

Let's start with last weekend. I did a wine tasting at a Christmas party. Everyone brought a bottle of wine (their choice) and we did a blind tasting. Throughout the tasting we discussed the complexities and nuances of good wine and what makes a bad wine bad. I was reminded that everyone has different palates. What's good for one person may be only marginal at best for another. Something that hasn't changed is that great wine is always recognized as great. Somewhere there must be a line that is crossed where a wine can cross all palates and become truely great in the taste of every beholder. Do you get what I'm saying? There are wines we can disagree on. Then there are wines where we all have to agree they have reached the threshold of wonderful. When does this happen? What wines reach that threshold? This is my quest.


This weekend my husband, 9 mo. old daughter and I ventured to Palm Desert to stay with an old college friend, Tim. Tim is a Director of Pharmacy. He works with Cancer patients. He is very knowledgeable at his job (that's an understatement), but more importantly, he is one of my husband's best friends and therefore regarded as part of the family. In short, we love Tim. We spent a weekend of eating and wine drinking. Last night, Tim made a wonderful pork roast with mashed potatoes and green beans. He also concocted this butternut squash soup that was to die for. Fresh sage. Need I say more?

With last night's dinner we had a bottle of Nadeau "Critical Mass" Zinfandel. Wonderful. The BEST Zinfandel I have ever had. Honestly. It was a 2005. You won't find it in any stores, you have to go on the net or go to the winery in Paso Robles. Even then, your chances are they have run out of the wine as it is a small family vineyard and it goes quickly. But it is worth the hunt. I promise. It is full of fruit. Jammy is a word that comes to mind. It would pair well with beef. It did fine with the pork and mushroom gravy we had--but we are critical mass groupies and would drink this wine with anything and follow it to the ends of the earth. Seriously.

After our dinner and Critical Mass, we traveled to the local "living desert" zoo to see the Christmas light display they do every year. What fun! We have decided to make this a yearly tradition. Still happy from the Zinfandel, we braved a maze of hay, but my husband had to back out because the stroller wouldn't fit around some corners.

Tonight we had leftover pork, a wonderful pasta dish, and a salad made with homemade dressing. That is following a breakfast of chocolate pastries and bagels with cream cheese and lox. I think I gained 5 pounds. We shared tonight a bottle of 2002 Hewitt Cabernet from the Rutherford Valley (Napa). It was just as deep in color as the Zinfandel, but less fruit and more earth. There was a definite "wood" to the Cab as well as some herb tones. Again, there are those who would say this Cab wouldn't pair with pork, but we say, "We're drinking it!" Tim said he looked online and it's about $68 a bottle, so we felt privileged to be able to share this with our friend.

As I am writing this, we are about to leave Tim's and head back to reality. Well, for a few days anyway. Wednesday I am off to Morro Bay with the baby to visit the folks for Christmas. I am very blessed indeed.