Wednesday, February 24, 2010

Blind Dog Midnight Run Cuvee

This Paso Robles red nearly didn't make it home with me (from Lazy Acres) because I don't like gimmicky labels (e.g. the "jarhead" wine also at Lazy -- leave your politics out of my wine!). However I was really really glad I took it home, as it turned out to be one of my favorite ~$15 wines I've tasted. It's the kind of sunshiny, jammy red that I like and Dan doesn't. I have to agree that such a wine has its place, and that it lacks the gravitas that one sometimes chooses a drier or more tannic wine for. But this one was fun and simple and easy to drink, a bit like fruit juice, so it gets high marks from me.

Boutari Moschofilero (Μπουτάρη Μοσχοφίλερο) & the Hungry Cat

For her birthday we took my mom to the Hungry Cat, a restaurant I've been wanting to try for a while now. The rationale, by the way, was interesting: she wanted crab, but the only other place to get fresh crab in town is the crabshack on the pier, and we had too many people for that. I would never have thought there would be only two places serving whole crab in SB! Anyway, she had the local crab and my dad had Alaskan crab legs. Hers was apparently tasteless, but Dan and I both thought my dad's was amazing! I had Hope Ranch oysters, Savas had the burger and Dan had the home made chorizo with mussels (which I will have to try my hand at). We paired it all with the Boutari Moschofilero, a dry white wine from Southern Greece, made by a Northern Greece vineyard (incidentally owned by the mayor of Thessaloniki, my home town). The wine was really really good, but in general I expect Greeks to make better white than they do red, so... In any case, I needed a martini with my oysters, but it would have been anti-social to indulge myself. Next time ;-) Overall it was an amazing outing!

Municipal Winemakers 2008 Bright White

We had this with the paella we made for my parents' visit, and not only was it a great pairing, but it also garnered high marks from the Greek contingent. Very nice!