No photos of dinner - it was a boring breast of turkey with some rapini and cauliflower lightly glazed with balsamic (thanks Karen for the wonderful collection of vinegars and oils!). It didn't look bad on the plate, but the breast was dry. I'll look forward to turning into a pot pie or something tomorrow.
The interesting thing tonight was the wine. Last year Conrad and I visited his nephew in Kansas City and went wine tasting with Justin, his wife Tonna, and Conrad's Mom. Yep, Missouri wine tasting. Well, only one winery, but it was entirely pleasant. So much so that we bought some wine. Oh heck, why not? So when we went to the wine closet tonight, all our reds were more "special occasion" or heavy for dinner, from what I could tell. That in mind, I decided it was about time we cracked open the bottle of Cynthiana.
OK, love the name. Is it the grape? I should look that up. Whatever, it just sounds pretty and maidenly and a good match for a lighter meat like turkey breast. I poured some before dinner, and...
... well ...
... I'm not sure. I swear it was pretty good at the winery, but what I poured tonight was sweeter than I recalled and a touch reminiscent of cough syrup. Odd. Not anything as bad as the Carlos and the Noble, however. I asked Conrad to taste it, then suggested we wait to try it with the food before deciding on its fate.
You know what? We stayed with it. Against the turkey, it seemed a brighter wine, if that makes sense. The slightly queer notes of allspice and pepper on the finish were subdued, and it took on some lighter red berry tones. Fine, that's pretentious of me to describe it like that. Just the same, though, it wasn't at all bad, just odd, and intriguing and drinkable. We poured more.
There's still easily a third of a bottle left. I may use the rest for cooking. I wish I could rave about it as a wine, but at least I can think back to how much I enjoyed the day we got it. Maybe it's not in the same league as, oh, Michigan wines, but it gave us yet another thing to talk about through dinner. More than that. the trip when we bought it, the wine itself. Hmmm, I think in the end it was very well worth what we paid.
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2 comments:
How many people do you think do the same thing? Taste it at the winery, take it home only to not like it as much...
I agree - I think the surrounding, the fun experience of doing the tasting in the setting, contributes greatly to the perception of the wine. We've had our disappointments from time to time once we got the bottle home. But at least we've had the fun of the winery visit!
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