A Long Awaited Photo Show

We'd been talking about getting together with Lucy and Ricky to go over photos from our trip to Argentina and Peru - "talking about it" for like 16 months now. But we finally managed to pull it off. Naturally, we still haven't figured out how to load a folder with a reasonable number of photos onto the iPad. So, we had to basically leave a program running with a slide show of all the photos and just stopping if there was a particular one that caught someone's eye. I won't mention how many photos there actually were. It's enough to point out that there was no need to worry about running out of shots before we needed to make some room and dive into the tapas at Biercraft.

1090 . 2010 Trinchero Zinfatuation - Zinfandel (Amador County - California)

I would have preferred to order an Argentine wine for the occasion, but Biercraft's wine list is limited and the only wine they had from Argentina was The Show Malbec - which I'd only just tried a couple of weeks back. As such, we went with a Zin that none of us had tried before. It may not be a coincidence that both The Show and Zinfatuation were on the limited list as it turns out they're both from the same parent company Trinchero Family Estates.

I've had some Trinchero wines in the past and remember them as a higher end California producer; so, the Zinfatuation is likely an entry level, mass market wine for them. I didn't even find it on the Trinchero website.

As a fruit forward, easy drinker that can accompany a wide range of menu items at the restaurant, I suppose the wine met its goals. Likely the more telling note is that we didn't order a second bottle - despite the fact that there were four wine lovers at the table and that the stories about travels, wineries and local providers of specialty meats and foods seemed like they'd never end. Rather, each of us opted to go with one of the long list of specialty beers that were available.

I guess if we get together again, we should consider a wine bar rather than a restaurant called Biercraft - even if the food is worth the trip and the price is right.

I am going to have to find that East Side butcher that serves up Argentine cuts of beef, however, and you know I'll drag out one of the nice Mendoza wines we still have if I can pull off that slab of beef.