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Getting into the Holiday (Wine and) Spirit

Of course one nice difference about working a little this past Friday for my father versus when I was younger was that I could slip out when I'd had enough and do a little wine shopping. I really already have enough wine, but I still like to browse on the Cape since the selection is so different from what can be found here in New Hampshire. I ended up buying several interesting bottles that seemed unique which I thought I'd take home to try...

Friday night my mother and step-father had an even larger crowd (11 people) over for dinner. You're thinking leftovers -- but of course not -- shish kebab on the grill (smart idea: indoor grill built into the fire place chimney). We started with vodka martinis and/or scotch and managed to blow through most of the wine I had bought that day: With dinner we had some Beaujolais-Village Nouveau 2003 (which I did not care for -- stick to the normal Beaujolais Nouveau), Selena Estate Shiraz (very good, popular with the ladies), and Covela Vinho Tinto 2000 Minho (this one from Portugal was my favorite, and supposedly the store on the Cape has all that is left in the country). We then moved on to dessert wines and had a bottle of La Spinetta Bricco Quaglia Moscto d'Asti 2002 and Mondavi Moscato d'Oro 1998, both very good. The La Spinetta is a light carbonated dessert wine very similar to the Marco Negri that we really like (and is no longer available!). And finally we topped that all off with some vintage port that my step-father had hanging around, but by that point I was beyond remembering exactly what it was.

Saturday I went back to the wine store and re-stocked-up on the stuff we had liked: Selena Estate Shiraz, Covela, La Spinetta. The clerk said: "Hey, you finished off all that wine you bought yesterday already! Ha ha!" Um, actually, yeah.