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Cava in the morning
Sunday, March 15, 2009
Last night was a good night. While it was crazy St. Patrick’s day festivities outside (a drunken celebration over the death of a former Italian slave that brought Catholicism to Ireland; that"s what George called it and we were saying how appropriate that actually was), I was in the calm environs of Bar Amalfi sharing some wine that I picked up with the owners and another customer, Malik. The first wine I brought in was an interesting red from Telavi Wine Cellar, in the country of Georgia. I had purchased their white the previous week, so this week I tried their other wines, which in fact were two different reds. We started with an Akhasheni, which is made from the Saperavi grape, and while it has a tannic level, it also has a very interesting sweetness giving you both cherry and strawberry flavors and a compensating level of acidity. I gave Malik a glass and he asked me about reds, like what I would recommend. At that point he mentioned that he missed the Carmenere that they used to carry, and as luck would have it, I had a bottle of reserve Carmenere in my car which I fetched.Well, the conversation(s) got interesting as we focused on what music was proper to play and Malik and George got into a nice debate regarding which wines were better, those from Chile or those from California. Al and I left them to themselves while we just joked about other things. I consumed some braised short ribs and had some chicken made for me with a Marinara sauce, which went down nicely.I then left them with the remains of the Carmenere and took the rest of my other bottle with me. Comically, two women in a car beeped, stopped and asked me where they could get them some wine; I told them where the state store was.Upon returning home, I watched the movie Religulous, or really, it watched me, as I had gotten into a nice Cava by Catellroig. Cava is the Spanish equivalent of champagne, and this one was both inexpensive and lively. There is nothing like a bubbly in the morning that still has divine effervescence; this one was very lively. While this wine is dry (it’s a brut) it actually is fruity and has some very apple-y hints. If you’ve got someone there, which I don’t, it’s the perfect morning after thing to reach for.
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