Back to Reality

We first spent nearly two weeks in New Hampshire, and then Kath attended a writing conference at Antioch College. Hence, we haven't been very consistent with our blog recently, but now it's back to business...at least until our next trip, which will take us South. Anyway, on to the drinking!

We did some sipping on Saturday, but it was of the gin variety and not our usual wine. Following our sojourn in Spain, Kath had been obsessed with finding lemon soda so she could make a ginlemon. Her search took her 45 minutes south to Jungle Jim's, a Cincinnati-area grocery store known for having pretty much any international product imaginable (we also went there to pick up some Asian produce). After scouring the massive market, we found Italian limonata and happily went home to make our beverages. Later that evening, we stumbled across the exact same Italian soda - for fifty cents less! - at our nearby Trader Joe's. The moral of the story: stay local, especially with spiking gas prices.

Today it was back to wine, and we opened a bottle of Masi Campofiorin Ripasso 2002. This wine was paired with a Maple Smoked Cheddar made by Grafton Village Cheese Company, Vermont. We should quickly point out that we did not do the pairing; rather, our lovely, local wine store has a wine and cheese of the month club, of which we are members.

The wine was a warm, cherry-red color, which contrasted nicely with the golden pale cheese. Daryl's mom also joined us in our tasting, and she was first to note that the wine was semi-dry, although Daryl thought it leaned a little more towards dry. He described it best: It hit the entire palate smoothly with an enjoyable finish. Tannins and acidity were low to medium. It balanced very well with the sharp, smoky cheese. Kath, in a poetic mood (she did, after all, just finish an intense writing workshop), rambled on for a few moments about the yin and yang of the wine and the cheese, of the contradictory pairing of the subtle wine and the strong cheese. Daryl was quick to remind her that she was no longer surrounded by other like-minded folks and that he had no idea what the hell she was talking about.

To sum things up, we liked the wine and really enjoyed nibbling the cheese in between sips. We'll be back next weekend!