I decided it was a good day to clean out my pantry. I got rid of canned food whose expiration date had passed. Tossed out spices that were old. Got rid of a few bottles of suspicious olive oil. (But surely fish sauce lasts forever, right?) There was something calming about this task and it took my mind off more serious problems. Memorial Day weekend is off to a good start.
Thursday night I was treated to dinner at Crescent City Steak House. It was a great night with a very good and charming friend and lots of good conversation. What’s better than commencing a long slow dinner with a Sazerac and onion rings? This restaurant seems happy to charge a corkage fee and open whatever bottle of wine you’ve brought. We let the wine open up a few minutes before the canned asparagus and blue cheese arrived. The wine was poured. I wasn’t sure about it but it got my attention. The steak was buttery and bacony, almost as if in competition with that wine which began demanding attention as the night wore on. The wine was… well, okay, let’s talk about this wine. It was huge . It was tannic and jammy at the same time which seems like a contradiction but every time I went back to it, there was something else about it that I noticed. I want another bottle, but it was pricey. It was great and it was expensive. It may seem odd to say this but I probably should have drunk it alone on a night when I was grilling a piece of prime tenderloin. I would have been more focused on this enormous red wine. As it was, my friend’s company was even more interesting than the wine. And that’s saying a lot. I really do want another bottle. Del Forno Romano 2013 Valpolicella. Wow.
