I hated wine, until I met a Pinot Noir I just can’t say no to!
For many, it takes a long time to appreciate a nice glass of wine, for others it just takes one sip. It took me until about two months ago! What I learned was that there is life after White Zin! Every time I drank it, I ended up with a headache. It was just too sweet for me, but that was what everyone was drinking so I decided to just skip it altogether. But then along comes a restaurant…did you know that a nice dinner needs wine? I have to admit it though, we had a wine salesperson come by the restaurant and I was planning on taking one sip and then ditching him with my husband. I figured I would find anything to do except for have to sit there and try 8 different kinds of wine. Yes, many of you are cringing and thinking to yourself – someone is bringing her free wine to try and she is trying to ditch them!
But then, along came Paul. Paul Dolan Wines, that is. I was introduced to a Pinot Noir that made me want to sing. The flavor, the color, the fragrance. It was a pleasure to twirl it in my glass and taste the essence of the fruit. Suddenly, I found wine’s true purpose, to end the evening well. On top of the beautiful flavor, it turns out the company is one of the fore runners in environmental production and even uses windmills for energy. So, here is this beautiful drink that doesn’t ravage the earth to be created. Win-Win (and as my husband says, Win-Win-Win because he finally has someone to share his love of wine!)
I’ve gone on to try other wines by this same Vineyard and the best thing I can say is that Paul Dolan taught me to love wine! The more I learn about his practices, the more I want to visit Mendocina Valley and meet him in person to say thank you! I know my family wants to thank him too. I was always the oddball out because everyone else drank wine and there I would sit with beer or soda.
But white wine drinkers behold, Parducci Chardonnay is absolutely amazing! I believe this wine is related to the Paul Dolan line, but again, I was convinced that maybe I just liked red wine only. That could be, right, but then along came a bottle, a bottle of Parducci Chardonnay. The wine rep, Bob, that carries these wines then invited us to a Wine Tasting hosted by his Distribution Company. You walk over and check in, they give you this booklet and a wine glass and away you go.
I can see why people love the wine country if this is how you are treated! We walked around and tasted, tried, and enjoyed so many different wines. We wrote our comments down in our books and enjoyed the wonderful food, thank goodness there was bread!! Even though it is just sips, it is a bit overwhelming after the first aisle. My husband thought it was hysterical that I went from hating wine to sipping my way through a Wine Tasting Picnic at a Distributors Lot. We found Bob and he brought us around to certain tables and introduced us to some really fun wines. One of my personal favorites was called “Heretic”. It was fun, bold, and a little risky. It was a dark bottle with this red flame writing on it. It was perfect for that sassy mood that everyone gets in.
So now I use my love of wine to pair it with foods on our menu. I love trying a new wine and pairing it with something fun from the menu. More on wine later….
