Zinfandel: Wines that are 52% more likely to have a punny name than any other varietal.
I was about to title this post “Wine Night”, but the realized that the amount of times I sit down to blog and come up with a topic about “wine” might be problematic. But this time, I swear, we were not drinking alone.
Last month I invited over about 14 people for “Syrah Night”. I asked everyone to bring over a bottle of sirah/syrah/shiraz from a different part of the world. My hope was that we could talk about terroir by tasting and comparing the nuances of the same grape grown in different regions.
Wow, was I mislead about how the night would go. I think it’s nice when you can count on your friends to make sure you stop acting so pretentious and remember to have a good time. (thanks, guys.) We ended up having bottles from around 15 different areas, drank them copiously, and woke up to several shades of hangover. Syrah was a great grape to start with because it’s grown in so many different places.
Since we had such a good time in October, I thought we should do it again! Last night we had a few people over for Wine Night, Take 2 (Zinfandel style). I really dig zin. It’s such an “all American” wine for a couple of reasons: sure, there’s that whole “zinfandel isn’t really grown anywhere else” but more importantly, I can’t think of any other grape that simultaneously pairs well with with BBQ sauce, grilled hamburgers, and thanksgiving dinner. I was a late-comer to the zin-train, but now that I’m here I’m an evangelist.
I digress.
We have good friends. If you’re reading this, thanks for entertaining my wacky ideas.