Theme Song: The Cat Empire – The Wine Song
Before I launch into the story of the Baco Noir from Girardet Wines that my husband and I enjoyed while visiting in Sutherlin, Oregon, I should explain the changes to this blog. I started Not Quite Ally McBeal a year ago, and thought it would be fun to have a blog where I made snarky comments about life events. It turned out that I wound up using the blog as more of a personal blog and I started talking about daily life, relationships, running, and more. I’ve been wanting to focus this blog more, and I thought to myself, “What better way to focus my blog than on one of my favorite beverages – wine!” So, here we are; welcome to the Wining Wife blog. I’ll review different wines, talk about tastings and winery tours I experience, discuss food, write about relationships and running, and basically have a great time.
While my husband, son, and I were on our family vacation to Seattle, we stopped overnight in Sutherlin, Oregon. While in Sutherlin, we visited a great little restaurant – Pedotti’s Italian Restaurant. They had outstanding food, a great atmosphere, friendly service, and a nice wine list. What made this list unique was a little wine we had not previously encountered – a Baco Noir. My husband and I looked at each other. It was decided, ordering a bottle was a necessity. When the waitress brought us the bottle, and poured the taste, it had a full nose with overtones of espresso and berries. Upon tasting, it was definitely unique. It had that rich flavor one expects from a good-quality red wine. It was decadent with a mocha finish. We were most definitely in love!
Upon returning to our hotel room, I looked up the Girardet website. They definitely appeared to be a winery to know and keep track of. We mused more about how we’d never heard of Baco Noir (we both frequent wine tastings), and agreed that we should get a bottle of it should we come across it again. Well, the next morning brought us luck. I had carefully researched various coffee shops – and found the White Horse Coffee Company. This is a really unique coffee shop, in that there are statues of Pegasus in front of it, and a dragon statue through the drive through. That’s not the only thing that made this shop stand out. It has a Scottish theme, outstanding coffee (it was perhaps the best mocha I’ve had in my life), and the service is friendly. Naturally, the best part of the shop is that it’s locally owned, and it appeared that it served as a local hub for wine lovers. Guess what wine we found stocked by them? That’s right – a bottle of the Girardet Baco Noir. We brought it home and added it to our cellar! (And we highly recommend it!)