What is a poor guy to do when his wife and son decamp for Florida for
the weekend and the temperature drops to single digits? Take himself
out to the local wine bar, a surprisingly good place, for a late dinner
and a few wines, naturally. This wine bar, the only such place in town,
is somewhat whimsically named "Windows on the Levee," but to me it is
always "Windows on the Wabash" for purely esthetic reasons. They have a
Wine Spectator Award, but I don't hold that against them. With a light
meal of various dips with bread, I got a flight of 3 red wines chosen
from their list of 50+ wines by the glass:

2004 Anime Valpolicella
nose: classic Valpo cherries and tar, with more than a hint of Brett
palate: medium body, good acidity, Brett in the finish

2005 Cusumano Nero D'Avola IGT
nose: muted, with a touch of oak
palate: light tannins, plums, sour cherries, good structure

2004 Montes Alpha Clos Apalta Syrah
nose: ethyl acetate and berries
palate: vinyl, berries, moderate tannins, oak, rounded, soft

This latter wine was advertised as a WS Top 100 wine, so perhaps it
stands to reason that it was my least favorite and way too modern for my
tastes. The Valpo was good but ultimately a bit too Bretty even for my
Brett-tolerant palate. The Nero D'Avola, though by no means a complex
wine, was still appealing in a simple way and went very well with the
food, with which the tannins were tamed.

To add to the evening, I returned home to find a $10 gift certificate
from Sam's in my mailbox. Life is good!

Mark Lipton
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