Wines I’ve enjoyed recently

A couple of weekends ago we finally got the chance to go out for Shaun‘s birthday (damn you, lately unsatisfying Braves baseball), and I chose, appropriately, a restaurant named Shaun’s in Inman Park. Pretty much all you need to know about this place is their French fries are fried in duck fat. Sold? I thought so. Our server sold us on this Syrah Rosé from Roshambo Winery, and with the awesomeness of the label, despite drinking a chilled, pink wine, it couldn’t have been better. When a different member of the staff complimented our choice, we had won the sommelier lottery.

Our local Trader Joe’s has a good selection of (cheaper) wine, and they include lots of helpful information on the price cards, which is the only way I buy wine now. When they find particularly good ones, they slap a “Discovery Wine” tag on the display. One of these was Epicuro Aglianico Beneventano (2006, though), which I can’t give you much background on except that it is Italian, and there is a horse on the bottle. Trader Joe’s tasters rated this wine higher than a $38 bottle (it was about $6). It’s a great weeknight wine for when you’re not too worried about pairings. (We are rarely worried about pairings.)

Shaun saw this 2006 Robert Mondavi Private Selection Pinot Noir in a store and thought, that has to be good! And it must have been, because we repurchased. I always feel a bit pretentious/lamely Sideways when I drink Pinot Noir, but oh well, it was good.