What is a poor guy to do when his wife and son decamp for Florida for the weekend and the temperature drops to single digits? Take himself out to the local wine bar, a surprisingly good place, for a late dinner and a few wines, naturally. This wine bar, the only such place in town, is somewhat whimsically named "Windows on the Levee," but to me it is always "Windows on the Wabash" for purely esthetic reasons. They have a Wine Spectator Award, but I don't hold that against them. With a light meal of various dips with bread, I got a flight of 3 red wines chosen from their list of 50+ wines by the glass:
2004 Anime Valpolicella nose: classic Valpo cherries and tar, with more than a hint of Brett palate: medium body, good acidity, Brett in the finish2005 Cusumano Nero D'Avola IGT nose: muted, with a touch of oak palate: light tannins, plums, sour cherries, good structure
2004 Montes Alpha Clos Apalta Syrah nose: ethyl acetate and berries palate: vinyl, berries, moderate tannins, oak, rounded, softThis latter wine was advertised as a WS Top 100 wine, so perhaps it stands to reason that it was my least favorite and way too modern for my tastes. The Valpo was good but ultimately a bit too Bretty even for my Brett-tolerant palate. The Nero D'Avola, though by no means a complex wine, was still appealing in a simple way and went very well with the food, with which the tannins were tamed.
To add to the evening, I returned home to find a $10 gift certificate from Sam's in my mailbox. Life is good!
Mark Lipton