Today was an early morning for the house – like o’dark thirty kinda early.  Jean and Dr. V had trip to Bryan to meet with a school and Brian, well, he had a date with roll of blue tape and a paintbrush – kinda makes you stop and wonder who got the better end of the deal.  Hmmmmmm – 4 plus hours in the car or taping, spackeling, sanding, priming and painting . . . the car ride is sounding pretty awesome.

Albeit long,  the day was productive on all fronts – good validation for why we do the things we do – both work related and home stuff.  Jean would admit that she and the good Dr. had a wonderful day – the best part being listening to Broadway show tunes and trying to figure out a) who was singing b) who performed on stage and c) who performed in the film version.  Much to her surprise, Jean knew quite a few – but fell well short of Dr. V’s knowledge of musicals.  It was a good day, a great lunch and wonderful to get home.

Brian performed a yeoman’s effort on the painting project, and by the time Jean arrived at Casa del Vino, he was ready to pack it in for the day – “whew” was about all Jean could say . . . and “hey, let’s go sit out on the deck”.  Brian was a willing victim (only after he visited the “wine blog rack” and selected tonight’s sampling). It was a beautiful night – watching the sun go down and the deer come out always makes for a great finish to daylight.

So, remember when we went on our western adventure to Paso Robles in October?  Well, one of the first places we stopped at was Bonny Doon Winery on our way down from San Francisco to Monterrey – we blogged about this adventure on Day 42 – WOW, can it really be 50 blogs ago?  Funny, our days are now counted as blogs – not days . . . so, anyway – back to the story.  On Day 42 we stopped in a Bonny Doon and tried some really good wines – so, when we made that cross-country trek several weekends and ended up at World Market in College Station we happened across a wine from Bonny Doon (isn’t that a song – “come into my arms Boony Doon?” – oh no, wait –  it’s “Jean, you’re young and alive!!  Come out of your half-dreamed dream  –  And run, if you will to the top of the hill – Come into my arms, bonnie Jean” – what a great song) it’s a 2009 blend called, CONTRA.  We must admit given our age – all we could think about was the Iran Contra affair involving Lt.Col. Oliver North . . . think we slept through it – but that’s a whole different story.

The wine was a blend of 55% Carignane, 15% Grenache, 15% Mourvedre, 7% Petite Sirah, 5% Zinfandel and 3% Syrah – it had a pretty soft nose with lots and lots of sour cherry, (almost reminded us of the Michigan Cherries you got out of a vending machine in the 70’s) a little earth and some spice notes. A little short on the palate the wine tasted again of lots and lots of sour cherry and maybe even some purple plum tossed in. The finish is smooth and short but the lingering of sour cherry is there – do we sense a theme of sour cherry???  Not sure we would go out of our way to hunt this wine done for a do-over, but for the price of less than $12 it was worth trying.  The added ambiance of the deck improved the smell, taste and finish for us.  If you find a bottle,  well, it’s your call–you can pick it up and give it a whirl–or let it go and try something else.

Enjoy your Saturday night – chance are we will sack out early in preparation of a busy day tomorrow – it’s the start of the Christmas Season which means, Advent . . . time to get focused on the reason for the Season.  Until tomorrow, remember to enjoy responsibly and recycle whenever possible.