Today was one of those days that I had to get out of the house. We are in the midst of a slowly progressing bathroom renovation, and I am sick of walking around stacks of tiles, bags of cement, contractor's tools, a toilet and sink in the middle of my living room, so I said to Joel, let's get out of here and buy some wine.
I contacted my friend, Charles Massoud of Paumanok Winery, and told him I wanted to pick up some of his wines to take to Napa with us next week as gifts to winemakers who will be sharing their wines with us. Never one to miss an opportunity to share some wine, Charles met us at his tasting room with an armful of bottles, and led us to their outdoor patio overlooking the vineyards where we spent the next hour and a half tasting and chatting.
I thought about bringing wines that we don't often see in Napa - Chenin Blanc and Petit Verdot - and Paumanok does a very nice job with these wines. Charles liked my idea but had some other thoughts. So, he started pouring...
2007 Festival Red
2005 Merlot
Both were easy drinking and perfect pizza wines and each was under $20. While I would like having this wine at home, it is not what I wanted to bring to Napa.
2004 Grand Vintage Merlot - a big step up from the 2005, with lots of structure and deep, dark fruit. It would never be mistaken for a California Merlot. Alcohol was in the 13% range.
2005 Assemblage - a Bordeaux blend, and our favorite of Paumanok's lineup. They did a monumental job with this vintage which brought 21 inches of rain in 8 days just prior to harvest.
2005 Cabernet Sauvignon Tuthills Lane Vineyard - gorgeous dark ruby color that is tight and tannic at this time. You could just sense the fruit behind this wall. It has 7% Cab Franc.
We didn't retaste the wines we tried a couple of months ago, but the memory of the 2007 Chenin Blanc has lingered with its razor sharp acidity and citrus flavors, and I was greatly impressed by the 2005 Petit Verdot - dark, spicy fruit. So, we went home with these 2 wines, and a bottle of the Assemblage.
Well, we didn't go right home. We drove past a bunch of other wineries to our lunch destination, Seafood Barge. The weather turned dismal and rainy, but the cheery atmosphere of this restaurant overlooking a marina was just the thing to cap off our afternoon. The food was quite good. I had a glass of 2007 Lieb Pinot Blanc with a tuna tartare with avocado starter and then halibut with clams in a corn chowder - lots of chunks of bacon and very delicious. The wine was especially good with the halibut. Joel skipped wine and enjoyed his Manhattan clam chowder and swordfish with sauteed summer squash (my entree was better). A nice almond cake with fresh strawberries ended the meal.
On the way home, we stopped off at Magic Fountain for some ice cream that we packed in our cooler - we had it later in the evening and called it dinner.
