First it was Zombie Prom. Then Urinetown. Now, it's time for In The Heights.
Yes, it's time for another high school musical. This time around, Melmo, the youngest niece, has a featured role in the Broadway hit. Unlike the others, I've actually heard of this show. Don't know anything about the songs or the story but I did know it was a hot ticket on the Great White Way the last time Boo and I were in the Big Apple.
It's a little tough taking an obvious glass of wine to the high school gym; so, we had a quick pre-show dinner at my sister's place before heading off to the school.
I'm pretty sure that this is the first time that I've tried a wine from Saviah Cellars. I don't recognize the winery and I don't tend buy many US wines up here, north of the 49th Parallel, because of the additional taxes and currency exchange. So, I think I probably grabbed this during a Costco run during a naughty weekend in Seattle.
A little visit with Mr. Google shows that Saviah Cellars was established in 2000 as a very small boutique winery of only 300 cases. It has since grown to the point where it produces around 18,000 cases annually and was named "One of the Rising Stars in Washington" by Wine Spectator in 2010.
The Jack brand of wines is Saviah's entry label and it has also enjoyed success, having been named one of the Top Value Brands of the Year in 2013 by Wine & Spirits Magazine. The 2007 vintage of The Jack Red was primarily Merlot (89 percent) that is fleshed out with small additions of Cab Sauv, Cab Franc, Syrah and Petit Verdot.
Although the wine was big-bodied, it was still fruit forward and approachable enough to fill our travel coffee mugs to take with us to the show. We hadn't finished the bottle during dinner and you never know the kind of "support" you might need to get through a high school production.
When looking for a white to take to Vixen's, I was glad to see that I had a bottle of the 2012 Riesling in the cellar because I hadn't realized that I'd picked up a bottle before it won one of the twelve Lieutenant Governor's Awards given out in 2014. Once a wine is given one of the prestigious awards, it can be next to impossible to find a bottle.
What was quite exciting about the award was that this was the first vintage where the Riesling was made 100% from fruit that was estate grown at the winery's Lillooet vineyard. Being the first winery to set up shop in the Lillooet region, the winery is justifiably proud of the fact that they were able to execute such an award-winning wine so early in the winery's venture. It should certainly turn some heads in the direction of BC's newest wine-producing region.
Even with this vintage's bright lime and minerality, Fort Beren's story should only get more exciting since the home estate vines are still very young and the enterprise has, within the last year, opened a new winery with facilities large enough to make all its wines, cellar them and open a tasting room to help draw wine-loving folks away from the Okanagan for a spell.
There was no Riesling left for the theatre however.
As exciting as the wine was, we were told that Melmo was to have a big solo number in the show. Now, that would be exciting! Terrifying perhaps, but exciting all the same. We were also told, however, that Melmo's character dies six minutes into the show. Naturally, we asked if we could leave after she dies. Turned out that she didn't die until the second act; so, we stuck it out until the end in order to give our little diva her bouquet of roses. After all, she managed to pull off her performance without any cringe-worthy notes.
Guess we'll have one more production to look forward to as Melmo definitely has the stage bug and she doesn't graduate until next year. Given the variety of shows the school drama department comes up with, I'll be intrigued to see what that performance is going to be. Think a high school could get Spamalot? Whatever the show is, I'm sure we'll be there - wine in hand.
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