Revisiting a Beverage on the Bridge

Unfortunately, we've already hit Monday and it's Boo's and my last day of our naughty weekend in New York. Luckily, it was another sun-filled day, allowing us the chance to accomplish one more standout activity - taking in the Manhattan skyline and walking over the Brooklyn Bridge. Funny, with only forty bottles to go on this Odyssey of mine, heading back to the Brooklyn Bridge was almost like coming full circle on this blogging experience.

I was only a couple of months into the blog the last time Boo and I visited Berra Yogi in NYC. And, as was becoming a tradition when visiting the Big Apple, we made a quick tour of the DUMBO area (Down Under the Manhattan Bridge Overpass) and took a bit of a wine break while walking the bridge on our way back to Manhattan. That post was six years ago and back at the #88 wine on The List.

Once again, we'd have been better off grabbing a wine back around the hotel because it was surprisingly hard to find a bottle while wandering around DUMBO. There was supposed to be a wine shop in the area but we couldn't find it - even after waiting half an hour for the scheduled opening time. Thankfully, we finally found an upscale corner store that stocked a handful of wines. Probably less than a dozen wines - mostly commercial bottles that weren't befitting such an august occasion as we had in mind - but there was one bottle that at least had a bit of promise.

1970.  2011 Restivo Malbec Reserve (Patagonia - Argentina)

In retrospect, it's surprising that a shop with only a sprinkling of labels would feature a wine from Patagonia as one of it offerings. I can see Malbec as being a popular, crowd-pleasing choice but I would have expected a more commercial, general release wine to be from Mendoza. I don't partake in Patagonia that often. So, I didn't mind running across this bottle at all. I just wish it hadn't been such a task to find it.

As might be expected from an Argentine Malbec, there was plenty of body and dark fruit but there was a bit more nuance and depth to the wine than I had expected considering I found it in a corner grocer.

Admittedly, it's the walk over the bridge and not a stop, sit and sip on the bridge that's the allure of this landmark. So, we quickly toasted our return to the bridge and to the almost 1900 bottles that we've finished off in between visits.

That's a lot of wine under the bridge.

We had two more scheduled stops to make today: the obligatory shopping spree at Century 21 and a visit to the World Trade Centre memorial. Given the historical background to 9/11 and a common tendency to hyperbolize the tragedy, I found the 9/11 Memorial Plaza to be incredibly understated and restrained. The two waterfalls, set within the footprints of the original Twin Towers, were both incredibly contemplative and emotive. Boo and I both found it to be a superb commemoration.

There were too many people and security guards to refill our wine glasses and soak in the atmosphere but there was no escaping the deep sense of loss that the memorial stirred.

We weren't able to take in the actual Museum but, perhaps, that just means that we'll have to visit the city yet one more time - whether it be for a naughty weekend or something a little more substantial. Either way works for me.