Tuesday night is a special night for me. It's the night that AKA Bistro in downtown St Helena hosts a local winery and offers a tasting of their wines for $9. Tonight featured wines from a winery that I didn't get the name of. I didn't get the name because the reps of the winery were dicks. Best I could tell without my glasses is that name on the bottle was Halliburon but I am sure I am spelling it wrong.
After I sat down at the bar I was greeted by Robert the owner of AKA as he pointed out that it must be Tuesday because I pledged to him last week that I would be at AKA every Tuesday until the day comes that I have to leave St Helena. He told me that the winery was offering Cabernet Sauvignon from various vintages 2001, 2002, 2004 and 2005. After further discussion with the bartender I found out that I would get 2 pours of 3 ounces each of the wines I chose. So I walked over to the table and asked the reps (one being the winemaker) which of the 4 vintages they recommended. One of the other reps said "You should never ask a winemaker which wine to choose".
What the hell is this guy's problem? Did they not want to sell any wine? Why were these people being dicks?
Well I was here and I wanted to try the wine so I went for the older vintages and got a glass of the 2001 & 2002. The 01 was rather blah but the the 02 had really benefited from bottle age, the tannins had smoothed out but the fruit was still powerful. I enjoyed a sample of a delightful tomato puree soup with a touch of spice with my cabs. I followed this up with a sampling of the 2004 & 2005 vintages (even though they were dicks they still got my business) and paired this with the AKA burger medium rare with bacon. NICE! The 04 & 05 showed their youth and I really thought that tasting the 01 & 02 with the 04 & 05 was a good learning experience as you could tell the significant differences in the young verses the older vintages.
Since I didn't get the name of the winery I can't tell you who they were or where to get their wines which is cool because they were dicks.
I am a big fan of AKA Bistro and I recommend their Reuben sandwich, vegetable pasta and of course the killer burger. If you decide to drop in one Tuesday around 6:30pm feel free to come by and say hi to me at the bar.
2 comments:
Wow you're throwing out some major wine lingo there "but the the 02 had really benefited from bottle age, the tannins had smoothed out but the fruit was still powerful.". And your previous post talking about acid, when can I start subscribing to the Wine Life newsletter?
Vlade
That's funny about the dick winemaker. We were at a tasting out here in VA (don't laugh, there's a couple local wines that are drinkable), and one of the winemakers was VERY good at describing the differences between the vintages, and why he liked one over the other for drinking by itself, and why another went better with certain types of foods, etc.
The dick winemaker who won't pick a favorite vintage is like the dick Starbucks guy who won't pick between coffees, and who insists the new VIA instant coffee tastes like the real deal.
Well, guess what. VIA instant coffee tastes just like ... instant coffee. Save your money and time and just buy Tasters Choice if you must have instant. Otherwise, pony up for the real thing and STFU, dick.
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