It’s Wednesday night, and that means Date Night with Dinner and a Movie!  You know, one of the parts about having daughters away at school is that we now have time to drop what we’re doing and go to the movies.  As a matter of clarification, we love the girls very much, and want them to be successful in school–and ultimately, in their careers.  However, it’s really nice to look at the movie times and decide. . .let’s plan for this show at this time. . .and then, BAM, we’re there!  Tonight was an opportunity to see a movie that, well, we really weren’t sure what to expect—BUT it had De Niro in it, so–we were ALL IN to see “Silver Lining Playbook”.

Silver Lining Playbook, with Bradley Cooper, Jennifer Lawrence and of course, Robert De Niro…interesting show.  It reminds us of some cartoons that we used to watch and our kids used to watch. . .Looney Tunes!!!  Seriously, it’s not anything we expected, but Brian did appreciate the passion for Philadelphia Eagles football.  Anyone who is ‘connected’ to his/her hometown football team—whether it’s professional, college or high school—can relate to this movie.

We hadn’t seen any of the movies with Jennifer Lawrence–fresh from ‘The Hunger Games’,  so tonight we saw a star with a lot of opportunities ahead of her.  Bradley Cooper, best known for his “Hangover” movies was equally impressive in the lead role.  However, this particular movie started at around 6:45 p.m. and wasn’t over until almost 9:00. . .the length didn’t bother us–BUT, it took until almost 8:30 for the storyline to move into high gear in order to enjoy the show.  We understand about character development.  We understand about developing a story line, but come on, the writers and directors spent more than 2/3 of the movie ‘developing’ the story.  The end result was an ‘okay’ movie.

How perfect was it then to come home and try a 2009 Route Stock Cabernet Sauvignon from the Napa Valley region of California.  We opened the bottle and the cork and nose were quite spectacular.  A huge amount of cranberries, raspberries and blackberries were forefront on the nose.  We got hints of cinnamon as well as oak. . .the wine was gorgeous upon opening.  We poured our first glass and were equally impressed with the color.  One of  the things that we’ve come to appreciate with wine is the initial aroma of the wine upon opening and the color of the wine when first poured.  After seeing the wine tonight, we thought we were going to be singing the praises of this little known Napa Valley Cab.

And then we tasted it. . .hmmmm, not exactly what we thought it was going to taste like.  It was tart, tangy, and downright puckery!  Okay…puckery isn’t a word, but you know that feeling you get in your mouth after eating a lemon drop candy?  Yep, this wine is going to give you that feeling.  As it opened up, yes, it mellowed out some, but overall the wine was nothing more than, okay.  In fact, even after it had been open for more than an hour, the taste was the same, okay.  It really wasn’t what we expected from a wine that we bought at Gabriel’s on a “Two-For” deal—yep, buy one at $20.99 or a “Two-For” at $23.99–no brainer, right?  Hey, like the song says. . .”sometimes you win and sometimes you lose!”

Wrapping up tonight, the movie was okay—the wine was okay—and for the term ‘okay’ we need to thank Martin Van Buren.  Yep, according to our search results. . .the Oxford Dictionary best put it this way, “The oldest written references result from its use as a slogan by the Democratic party during the American Presidential election of 1840. Their candidate, President Martin Van Buren, was nicknamed ‘Old Kinderhook’ (after his birthplace in New York State), and his supporters formed the ‘OK Club’. This undoubtedly helped to popularize the term (though it did not get President Van Buren re-elected).”  And, so our response is . . . OK!!!

Please continue to enjoy your favorite wine responsibly and remember to recycle whenever possible!