To The Reef and Down Under

Bit of a full night here. We recently got the news that Skipper was moving back to VanCity from the Centre of the Universe - not that he's going to curl with us this year though. And GQ was going to be in town for the weekend. So we made plans to head out to The Drive for dinner.

I'd always seen The Reef and its Main Street location. Always thought it would be good to go, but never did make it. Now that a sister restaurant's been on The Drive for awhile, we figured it was finally time to pay a visit.

207. 2007 Castello di Gabbiano Pinot Gris (Venezie IGT - Italy)

Gabbiano winery is actually located in the Chianti region in Tuscany, but the grapes for this wine were sourced from three districts north of Venice - Trentino, Veneto & Fruili-Venezia-Giulia. This region is well-known as one of Italy's foremost cool climate regions and, therefore, the production of whites is much more prevalent than in the much warmer Tuscan sun.

This is a simple and drinkable white. I suppose it's the sort of wine that one should expect to find in a Caribbean restaurant that sells way more of their rum-based cocktails than they likely ever will of wine. It was hardly an extensive wine list. But then, I think our's might have been the only bottle on a table in the pretty much full restaurant. Not a lot a wine being sold here.

In fact, you can see that even we succumbed to the lure of the Reef Rum Punch that was on sale. But, it just goes to show the extent to which my dining habits are now driven by this blog. No way was I giving up another night out without a bottle to add to The List.

A much bigger disappointment than the limited wine list was the fact that the restaurant was out of one its signature dishes - the plantain fries. Turns out the plantain guy just didn't deliver that day. Bummer.

BTW, the accompanying pics aren't quite at the same level as most that I post. That's because it didn't dawn on me to bring along a camera and these were the first pictures that Boo tried taking from his new toy, his iPhone. We have a ways to go to master the phone I suppose.

208. 2006 ring-bolt Cabernet Sauvignon (Margaret River - Australia)

Following dinner at The Reef, we hightailed it back home to catch the Grand Final of the Aussie Rules football season. Skipper and GQ had ever seen a game before. So, it was time for a little proselytizing - not usually that hard of a sell given the steady action, short shorts and biceps.

Neither Boo, nor I, had much invested in the two teams playing. Our respective teams had long been left in the season's dust. But the game was featuring the number one and two teams from the regular season. And the game truly lived up to the "Grand" aspect of the game's moniker. It was a close game to the end - although I'm the only one of the four that made it to the end, seeing as how the game was live - Aussie time - and didn't finish up until well past midnight.

Oh yeah, there was a bottle of wine as well. Normally, I'm a huge fan of the Margaret River. But, this bottle just didn't fit the occasion. We needed an Aussie wine - given the nature of the game - but we probably would have been better served by one of the more fruit-driven shiraz that Oz is so well-known for. This wine is more refined and is better with food. The fact was we'd long finished off the goat curry and needed a little something that was a simple quaff - maybe even more like the Gabbiano.