Friday, July 2, 2010

Rain or Wine

This is what our weather has looked like all week. Apparently it came in with a cold front and then kept on going with some of the hurricane fall-out. We are really enjoying the gray days since, believe it or not, days drenched in sunlight and blue skies and high temps do get old. It's currently raining steadily which I think is a perfect backdrop for the Brit-style pub we'll be going to shortly to celebrate a friend's birthday.

On Wednesday this week, we went to a wine tasting at our our favorite liquor store. Now, before I describe the tasting, I feel I must add the disclaimer that perhaps it's unusual for relatively healthy, stable people to have a favorite booze shop but trust me, it's more than that. In addition to the fantastic selection and knowledgeable staff, this place has a great deli, an outstanding selection of international foods (from Vegemite to HP Sauce to caviar), lots of tea and coffee, and cool local products. So when we heard that there was a wine tasting, we were in. We showed up and the parking lot was full with lots of folks heading in with empty wine glasses. We were given a list of the wines at each station and the pricing on them. There were ten total stations with a taste of a red and white at each. Along the way and to keep you busy in the long lines, there were samples of interesting cheeses, Texas salsas, and even fondue! Austin and I had a great time; the only drawback was the crowd of people but hey, that's minor. In the photo is one of the wines I selected that we didn't actually taste- txakoli wine that had been recommended to me by a Basque friend years before. The name was so unusual and the bottle was so pretty (reminding me of this famous Spanish/Catalan painting) that I took it as a sign to finally try the stuff. One bottle reminded but more wines were to be tasted! Dilemma, hmmm, so I hid the bottle behind other less interesting ones and rescued it when we were done with the tasting. We also acquired a few other interesting bottles from the tasting so if you're in the neighborhood, please stop by for a glass.

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