a little link love

As you may know, I am doing regular guest posts at Natalie MacLean's fabulous wine site. My latest is a bottle of Cabernet Sauvignon from the Dealu Mare region in Romania. I wanted a focus for the pieces I write at her site, so a little 'nod to the odd' seemed interesting to me. Aside from the opportunity to practice writing, I get to do a little research, and explore grapes and regions that are not part of my regular repetoire. I like the focus, but I'm not the first person to think of writing about unusual wine... nor will I be the last.

If this is the kind of thing that interests you, check out Dave Flewelling at Dave's Domaine. He does regular picks of wines from the Vintages releases called "Off The Beaten Track". He keeps it coming every two weeks and, well, his is a great wine site for all other kinds of reasons too.

Now for the wine love. This bottle came home with (my) Dave one day and we shared it over a Wednesday night's mid-week lethargy. A little bottled sunshine from the south of France that's all warm, smoky and inviting; it made us happy. An initial whiff of Christmas cake is accompanied by lots of dark berry fruit, some black liquorice, and tobacco. All that fruit goes on and on in your mouth with a tinge of bitter chocolate. Did I say it made us happy? A good deal at $15.95, but from a Vintages release, so I don't know how much is left out there on the shelves.