It’s late, I have a nice buzz, so I’ll keep this (first) one brief.

I went on a (blind) date with a nice young woman tonight. Another woman who “likes sweet wine” I took her to the local wine bar (yeah, real creative WTG). Although it is a Monday, the deadest night in the food/beverage industry, we waited about 20 minutes for a place to sit. I think that since I know and said hi to the owner, the hostess sat us at a table before another couple who had arrived before us. That other couple glared at us, and were clearly NOT happy.

On to the wine. The lady I was with likes sweet wine. But, she said, if the wine is not sweet, it should be red. Sweet & red??? OK, now I’m confused. There would be no sweet red wine served that night. I still have nightmares of thick, syrupy sweet red wine. NEVER AGAIN! I asked her how she felt about Cabernet. Blank stare. Do you like Merlot? Still nothing. Finally, I asked if she liked a big, chewy red, or a light red without the big mouth feel. Lite she said, although I think after 10 minutes of perusing the menu, she would have said whatever she thought would have gotten me to just order something already.

Lite it was, and we settled on a Pinot Noir. But now, where would the Pinot be from? Price was of course a concern. I would have loved to have splurged on a premier cru Burgundy, but I have yet to make my first million (does that count for anything anymore?). The waitress recommended a California Pinot, but at $80 bottle, kinda steep, especially for someone who is not a big fan of California Pinot – too fruity!  We settled on a New Zealand Pinot Noir priced at $44.

The Pinot, which had a screwcap (not a negative in my mind) and a cheesy label, was actually OK. It had some nice red fruit, but it also had a touch of earthiness, well integrated oak, a nice crisp acidity & a medium finish. My Napa contacts might kill me for saying this, but I think I preferred this wine to some of the high scoring California Pinot’s I have had. The Cali Pinot is SO DAMN FRUIT FORWARD. Even the Cali Pinot’s I was told would be “elegant” or “feminine” have this big artificial fruit taste to them. Bottom line, I had about 3+ glasses, my date had 1+ and we each left happy (I hope).

As to the date, well…..tune in to see if there is a second date.

Happy Monday!

-The Wine Tasting Guy (WTG).

Tags: Pinot Noir, Wine bar

This entry was posted on Monday, November 26th, 2007 at 8:49 pm and is filed under Wine Bars. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.