Warwick Pinotage `07 (not TJ's) $25.99 ***

This wine is from a tasting at Bacchus.  I brought it home it because I liked it, and I had made notes that it would go GREAT with bacon (but then again, what doesn't go well with bacon???). We had it with pasta in a pancetta mushroom cream sauce, fresh heirloom Brandywine tomatoes, fresh corn on the cob and grilled lamb chops.  Yes, it was a delicious Thursday night!

Yes, a little tipsy... but aren't we all?

This is Old Bush Pinotage from the Warwick Estate, Stellenbosch, South Africa. South Africa can lay claim to a lot - some good, some bad. But in the case of this wine, it is all good. This is a well balanced wine. Pinotage is a versatile SA grape - both fruity AND savory. After our first pour, I was trying to to think of how to describe it, and S simply said, it tasted like lovage. She nailed it.  It is a fruity, red berry wine, but it has a depth that is unique in that it is also herbaceous.  That would be the spiciness, and maybe a slight hint of smokiness.  And yes, it tasted of lovage (which is a good thing).  Also, at 14.5% it is a fruity, spicy, well balanced wine that packs a punch.

I was enjoying dinner so much that at one point, I remembered that I had to run it through the Vinturi.  That was a first - was it the meal, the wine or the fact that I may have been on my third glass already???  hmmm.  Welll, I popped up from the table, grabbed the Vinturi and aerated it.  Yeah, a bit smoother, but really, why bother? I finished my glass and went back to my meal.

I'd still like to try a glass with a nice, juicy bacon cheeseburger - but as it stands, this wine was a good dinner wine.  Kind of pricey for everyday dinner, BUT well worth having for a special meal.

And, just because it is always amazing
to come home to stunning flowers on the counter, 

I am leaving you with a shot of the Sunflowers.  

Absolutely gorgeous!