Last night I had the pleasure of attending a Rispoli Event. The event was the 2006-2007 UW PMP CS Masters Graduates Dinner at the Yarrow Bay Grill. I was a graduate. Mr. Rispoli was the organizer of said event. We all had a great time.
Now, Yarrow Bay Grill is a pretty decent resturaunt. Their wine list is mostly Washington and California, with a few other nations represented in small quantities. Their list is a pretty good indicator of who's who in Washington state. They have plenty of DeLille and one of my favorites, the Sequel Syrah. So I was excited to eat their.
Turns out the catered meal came with our choice of red or white. The red was the 2004 Robert Mondavi Private Selection Merlot. It seems these days Mondavi's name is all over the place in the grocery store. This is a $10 wine and I didn't expect much from it. However, as far as $10 Merlots go, you'd be hard pressed to find I better one I think. I'll open nominations now. The wine was completely inoffensive, with just a slight bit of alcohol burn on the back end. There wasn't especially anything complex or interesting going on, but for free I could drink it all night.
I'm just going to take time out and give props to Mondavi. Everything I've had from them has been a quality drop. I haven't ever been super-wowed, even by Opus One (before you jump on my case, realize I haven't tried every vintage ever made), but I've never been sorely disappointed... or mad.
There, glad I got that out of the way. I can't wait to see what I get to drink tonight.
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4 comments:
I don't believe you. A ten dollar Merlot from anywhere scares me.
I'm not saying you should go buy some. I'm just saying as far as these things go, there are certainly more hideious choices.
Ben - be a little more open. There are good and bad wines at all price ranges. It is all situational. Speaking for myself, I can appreciate (on the rare occasions I am offered a glass) a $200 bottle wine, without it being wasted. That is about the gamut of my palate's ability to discern. But I will happily quaff a simple inexpensive wine, with it's own little story to tell.
I get massive headaches from wines with too much preservatives and I drank a bottle of this wine and then tried the cab and loved it!! NO HEADACHE!! It was smooth and very pleasing.. I usually drink the kokopelli wines since they are made with the minimum amount of sulfites required by law and they also do not give me the headaches.. But I will continue to drink the Mondavi Merlot and Cab
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