A few years back we were at one of our all time favorite restaurants – Rails, A Cafe By the Depot.  Rails is owned and operated by our great friends John and Melissa – who only know one way to do things one way . . . top drawer.  Their work ethic is second to none, and really know how to treat people right – if we still lived there, we’d continue to eat there on a weekly basis . . . it’s that good.  Anyhow, one night all those years ago while we were enjoying dinner, in walks our good friend Sandy Sue – she sits down and promptly orders a bottle of “Goats Do Roam.”  So, being the wine snobs we are – this caught our ears (especially since she was at the table next to us) – all we could think of was the traditional Cotes Du Rhone – and were intrigued.  Hence the way we discovered the Goats Do Room Wine Company in South Africa.

So, while at Trader Joes, we stumbled across a bottle by the same wine company and snapped it up for waaaaaay under $10 – tonight we opened a 2009 Goats in Villages Shiraz Pinotage – ok, you have to agree the label is intriguing.  The Shiraz grapes are mostly from a selection of vineyards in the Malmesbury and Agter-Paarl regions. The Pinotage is mostly from the Primo vineyard in Agter-Paarl, as well as from the Fairview farm in Paarl. Kind of an interesting mix  – this wine is 70% Shiraz and 30% Pinotage.

The first thing you notice is the deep purple red color – not quite Harold and the Purple Crayon deep purple, but close.  The nose was pretty bold – Brian is pretty congested, so Jean was the Nose de Jour.  She noted a combination of dark fruit, some spice and a dash of anise (aka licorice) tossed in.  On the palate, the wine definitely got better with air time – it did open up, but needed about an hour to really be worthy of tasting.  We must admit – tonight was leftover night at the house – not something that happens too often, but it is what it is.  So, Brian sampled with roast beef and Jean sampled with Kung Pao Chicken – both good pairings.  The finish got longer as it aired out as well.  Guess we would say that we might purchase again if we stumbled upon it – but wouldn’t go out of our way to find it.

Bottom line, is we still aren’t too sure what goats and wine have in common, or if goats live in villages – perhaps only in South Africa.  This could just be one of life’s mysterious we can never solve – one thing for certain . . . we won’t lose any sleep over this, but will continue to enjoy responsibly and recycle whenever possible.