I have to admit, I haven’t perfected the art of wine tasting with friends.
I forget to write down my thoughts, or I drink my wine too fast to gather anything remotely useful. I have tried to juggle social events and my wine posts many times over the last year; it just never works. It finally occurred to me that I was missing the point altogether—these are the times when you’re not supposed to be caught up in the minutia, when you can let your guard down and just sip with a whole lot less sniff.
Regardless, we had some great wine and food the other night—it was a tapas get together. Due to some miscommunication, we had more than enough Parma-wrapped asparagus. The muscles were amazing. Hey, did you know it’s actually spelled mussels? I didn’t until my paranoia told me to double-check.
The fancy, handmade shrimp Hot Pockets provoked a discussion about the proper pronunciation of phyllo pastry—I bet Meg from Maker’s Table would know. Carey was also crowned the official aioli queen (by me, privately, later that night)—and there was an abundance of areola jokes at the dinner table.
The 2007 Can Blau Montsant is a wine I have been wanting to try for a long time. I have even given it as gifts a few times based on reputation alone. It carries ratings of 90+ points across the board, even pulling a 91 from Stephen Tanzer: ”Dark purple. Sexy aromas of blackberry, blueberry, Asian spices and smoked meat. Supple and open-knit, with sweet dark berry preserve flavors, velvety texture and good mineral bite.”
The star of the evening was the ’06 Stags’ Leap Merlot, supplied so generously by our hosts. It breathed through dinner and was the perfect accompaniment to a good board game. “Black cherry, dark chocolate, and profoundly developed mint. Evergreen and floral notes. Robustly meaty—hickory smoked pork preeminently. Impressive mineral presence all over the palate. I would got out of my way to try this wine again.”
The evening closed out with me not getting a single point playing Apples to Apples. I was probably just distracted by the wine, and espresso vodka, and chocolate ice cream milk shakes. By the way, did you know that water and salt take wine out of carpet brilliantly?
Thanks to all for the wonderful evening.
-Rob
It would appear you had a fabulous time, and yes, I agree that sometimes you must keep the little black notebook in the handbag.
For what it’s worth, I pronounce it “FEE-loh,” and I think this is the more accustomed pronunciation, though “FIE-loh” is equally acceptable. I deeply suspect neither of these capture the essence of it, though; I’ll ask my Greek friend Markus to weigh in, and will report back if he has any light to shine.
Cheers,
Meg
yum! did you finish all of the parma-wrapped asparagus? nice site! you were re-tweeted and i headed over. homemade hot pockets with shrimp? what a great idea.
Thanks!
The retweeter herself was responsible for said Hot Pocket contraptions, and they were deee-licious!
Yes, Markus the Greek says, “for sure, FEE-loh.”