A Great Summer Rose

I've been off work for a week and had a couple of experiences I should have written about, but alas - it happens.

Second, I've had a number of people tell me the link for this blog didn't work when they first tried it - so I guess I need to 'modestly' re-send it to friends and co-workers!

But I'm writing today - again - about wine. I've bought several dry Rose' this summer and none better than one I picked up Thursday evening at the Massachusetts' Avenue wine shop in Indy.

It's an absolutely fabulous granache-based Spanish Rose. From Cruz De Piedra and Calatayud. I couldn't find a web page for the winery but did find several hits to buy the stuff.

I had purchased two Tavels (the holy grail of Rose from the lower Rhone valley in France) a few weeks ago that were so-so. This wine had a nice fruit taste but retained the characteristic dry finish. The back side had no bitterness, it was a great, great summer evening wine. I had chilled it pretty good - which I'd recommend.
The best part? I only paid $9.99 for it. The Tavels, as I recall, were $16 and $18 each.

If you haven't tried Spanish wines you should try some Crianza Temperanilla from the Roija region. It's great redwine that will hold up to steaks or drink alone year round.

But the best summer evening chilled wine of the summer is Crus De Piedra Granache 2006 Rose!

Cool Job When Boss Goes Out of the Way

In my prior blogging effort more than a year ago and from time to time in our Wabash blog, I write about my job. There are many cool things about working at Wabash College.

Last week I traveled to the Fort Wayne area where I interviewed three students doing very different types of summer jobs. I wrote about that in our Wabash FYI Blog.

Today was a bit of a typical day on campus with just desk work to complete. But in another way it was atypical. A 1973 graduate, Wayne Hoover, was cycling through Crawfordsville to honor a deceased friend. You can read about that on the Wabash homepage.

Today was also the annual admissions' canoe trip. The admissions staff invite incoming freshmen to campus for a canoe trip down Sugar Creek, lunch, and a chance to get to know their new classmates.

The cool thing is there was our CEO - President Patrick White at the college chapel at 8:15 a.m. to greet the cyclist, and then he was present again in the blazing sun to share lunch with the 18 year olds experiencing their new college.
You can call it kissing up if you like - but I think that's pretty cool!

A couple of weekend Pinots

There is nothing like a nice Pinot Noir. My two trips to California in the past 12 months really heightened my appreciation for Pinot. I tasted some great ones, and brought back some crazy good Pinot from Gary Farrell, Arista, and Robert Stemler.

What's tough is finding a good cheap Pinot for a Tuesday evening on the front porch. I had two this weekend to mixed reviews. Saturday evening I opened a bottle of Toasted Head Pinot Noir I bought in a new wine shop on upper Main St. in Lafayette. Toasted Head is probably most famous for its ownership. The winery is owned by comedian Robin Williams' brother. The wine was actually one of the best Pinots I've ever had for under $15. I paid $14.95. It had a nice nose, a good Pinot flavor and balance.

Unfortunately the Sunday night Pinot was not nearly as good. Red Bicyclette is a French company shipping thousands of cases of value wine to the USA. Perhaps you've seen the label in your local grocery store. There was nothing wrong with wine but predictably nothing right with it either. It had little flavor, almost a water-down quality. The label is showing up everywhere so I'll probably give another of their varietals a try - but the Pinot is not worthy of even supermarket prices.