Tempted by the Fruit

One morning, right before the Christmas break, I glanced at the school hot-lunch menu and said, “Oooooo, pancake-on-a-stick.” Mr. B heard this and looked like he was going to barf. Miss Puff, on the other hand, shouted a glee-filled “yummy!” from the bathroom where she was happily seated on the family throne. That was all the encouragement I needed – Miss Puff was having school lunch.

Ahhh, those were the jours, when your biggest concern was whether or not you should have hot lunch or home lunch. Nowadays, I have to concern myself with finding wines that I like (and can recommend) and that is not always an easy thing to do. Take for instance, my purchase a few weeks ago of a snazzy looking Spanish wine. There it was on the shelf, looking sophisticated and smart and I figured at $15 it should be pretty tasty. I know, I know, price is not an indication of quality so what the hell was I thinking. What can I say – I was seduced by the intelligent looks of the wine and the prospect of enjoying something that cost more than $10.

Since the 2008 Atteca was 100% Old Vines Garnacha, I knew there would be a certain amount of peppery flavor to the wine and sure enough, there was but not much else. Hello? Where is the fruit? Wine is made from grapes; grapes are fruit, so it is only logical to assume that a wine would have a little fruit character, right? You don’t have to be Mr. Spock to figure that one out.

I so badly didn’t want to give up on my $15 wine, so I sipped again and again and still no fruit. I just stood there feeling like a fool and totally bummed-out that my seductive wine turned out to be a high school classmate of mine, Mr. Glenn (with two n’s) Beck. Like Glenn, the Atteca appeared to be harmless with its attractive, inoffensive label in neutral tones and easy-to-read type. But as the old saying goes, looks can be deceiving and the Atteca was no exception.

This Old Vines Garnacha clearly had a voice with its perfectly punctuated peppery prose but it totally lacked the sweet taste of sincerity and compassion. Where is the love, Atteca? Where is the salivating flavor of raspberries and tart cherries? In the absence of real substance, it became clear to me that this spicy Spanish red was all talk. And quite honestly, you’d get a warmer and fuzzier feeling from eating a pancake-on-a-stick than you would from sipping a glass of Atteca Garnacha.

I haven’t seen Glenn Beck since high school but I hear he’s put on a little weight attending all those parties where tea (and BOLOGNA) is served. Maybe it’s time to switch to wine, Mr. Beck. I'd be happy to recommend something.

xoxox,

VinoMama