One good, one not so good

The other night we went out the farm of some friends of ours, and, with dinner, we had a good wine, and a not-so-good wine. We were very glad that we had taken two.

We started the evening by opening a Pinot Noir rose. Yes, a rose. Sorry, I don’t seem to be able to type accented letters. It was a wine from Toad Hollow, which I actually got as a door prize at a wine tasting I attended several months ago.


The wine was called Eye of the toad, which should have been a warning all by itself. But the appeal of a Pinot Noir with our steaks, along with the appeal of a rose for the summery day, seemed to be just the right mix.

The wine was slightly sparkling, very simple (ie, bland, almost no flavors) with a nasty bitter acetone aftertaste. And it smelled of sour milk. I am not making this up. Sour milk.

Well, that was the end of that one. I brought it home to cook with, bit I’m really having second thoughts about that too. I hesitate to cook with anything that I would be unwilling to drink.

Wine number 2 was a Chrisman Mill Chambourcin. I took it because I had my suspicions about the froggy wine, and I know that I can always trust Chrisman Mill to be a reliable wine. The Chambourcin was a 2000, and I had wanted to keep it longer, but it was all that I had without opening the Cabernets that I am saving. It was very yummy, with a nice earthy backbone, long finish, and dark berry flavors and leather in the nose. The steaks were really good too.

So, not much to say about them, really, except that you should always take a backup wine when you take an unfamiliar wine to a friend’s house. And when the first wine turns out to be plonk, you’re prepared, and not stuck without a wine with dinner.