For some reason sharing a glass or two of wine with good friends enhances the flavor – no matter how questionable the vintage may be – with friends wine tastes better!  Today, we got a text from our good friends Pat and Liz urging us to come to Kerrville for lunch and a visit not only with them, but expectant parents Elaine and Sam (aka Pat and Liz’s daughter and son-in-law in from the Dallas area).  A quick glance at our social calendar revealed we were available – so once our chores were done for the day into the jeep we hopped and off we went.  We must admit the drive between San Marcos and Kerrville is a nifty one – about 1.5 hours, but a drive of hills, twists and turns.  We could take the highway, aka 35 – but nope, we enjoy the back roads.  It was a grand day once the sun warmed up – we didn’t take the top off the jeep until our return trip.  Beautiful night – deep blue sky that morphed into a wonderful display of stars – a bit chilly, but nothing that the heater and a jacket couldn’t overcome.

The day was just plain grand – you see, Elaine and Sam have announced they will become parents in October.  Loving these two the way we do makes us feel that we are adding to our family and will be grandparents yet again (for the record, Elaine has two sisters with wee ones that we consider our grandkids – that would be McKenzie and Noah – isn’t it great that we have grandchildren without Daughter #1 and #2 having kids!).  Sitting on the patio embracing the sun makes for a glorious day – add in a fantastic spread for lunch and one can honestly say – it doesn’t get much better than this.

Grandpa Pat pulled out a super wine from Argentina – not sure if in honor of Pope Francis or the fact that he and Liz will be travelling there for a vacation later this week.  Regardless of the reason – the bottle retrieved from the BRWC (Big Red Wine Cabinet) was a 2008 Clos de los Siete and was a wonderful wine from fifty miles south of the city of Mendoza.  From what we can gather, the valley of Tunuyan feels less like a valley and more like a vast, kneeling supplicant to the immediate, looming bulk of the Northern Andes mountains. Though the valley floor is massive — sweeping away from the jagged, snow capped peaks in every possible direction as if it were trying to get out of the way of their falling bulk — you never get the sense that it is very flat. No matter where you stand, the world seems to be constantly tipping up towards (or down away from, as the case may be) the peaks above, leaving the uneasy feeling that somehow if you stopped walking or closed your eyes for a moment, you’d fall over — nudged off balance by a world pushed aside by the Andes.

Dark, opaque ruby in color, this wine has a nose of  blackberry, cherry, and a nice complement of slate – ok, what does slate taste like you may ask – well . . . it adds a bit of mineral taste – enhances the wine flavor.  In the mouth, this wine continued the combination of cherry and blackberry that while enjoyable weren’t too overpowering.  The finish wasn’t overally long – but long enough to make an appearance and remind us that it was there.  Overall this was just a fun little wine – went well with the ribs, beans and coleslaw that Liz “threw” together.

We are hoping that during their upcoming trip that Partick and Liz will visit the region that this wine came from and perhaps find out more about its origin and possible bring home one or two new wines for us to try.  But, we have to admit – it was a fun little wine that we will have to add to the “do over list” – you know, the list of wines that we are gonna have to try again.

As we close up for the night, we can’t say enough about those special people we care so much about – we are blessed with wonderful family members and a few dear close friends – both segments are high on our list of just plain special people . . . look around, bet you’ve got a few around you as well!

Ok, enough for tonight – have a super evening and remember to enjoy responsibly and recycle whenever possible!