Brightest Young Things

Wine News

• Napoleon is once again hosting their monthly Champagne tasting, this time it's the venerable Piper Heisdeck. Thursday March 26, $20, and you bet your sweet ass some delicious nibbles will be invovled.
• Cleveland Park is getting another wine store. Prince of Petworth sez it's going in the old Blockbuster Video. Weygandt Wines are not cheap; the distributor is big into German and French wines and the superb taste shows. This is more Bacchus Wines in Georgetown, less Best Cellars.
• Equinox is celebrating cherry blossoms a little early with cherry inspired cocktails (even down to the cherry ice cubes). Fridays, 5-7pm through early June.
• Thanks to Alex: Jaleo, Oyamel, and Zaytinya are offering $4 specialty cocktails and beer and $4 appetizing small plates as well as discounted wines by the glass. These specials are available in the bar area only (Sunday through Friday).
• I was going to feature another ice cube tray but this is what I found instead: nerds, unite!
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• Plum Blossom, a sushi place in that precarious area north of Dupont and south of Adams Morgan (can everything from 18th and S up to Florida be renamed Lauriol Plaza?) bills itself as a sake and wine bar in addition to the sushi. I have yet to hear about the sake and wine bar aspect. The menu is scant on this as well. What is up with this? Is it capitalizing on the wine bar name in DC or just kind of forgot to throw in the wine and is hoping people will forget about it? Comment below.
• The Liquid Muse has a fun post with DC bartending wunderkind Derek Brown (and an even more fun quick rendition of the Fifty-Fifty cocktail).

I hope you all saved your bottles of Beaujolais Nouveau from November! Now is the perfect time to sip on some chilled Beaujolais and enjoy the springtime air before the eventual twin hells of high pollen counts and swamp ass come 'round again. Beaujolais isn't the only choice; Chinon, the highly ignored, easily drinkable French bistro staple is perfect for the days where it's warm enough to sit outside yet still cool so you might want to bring that cardigan. And a light bodied Montepulciano d'Abruzzo is like a cute, perfectly fitting dress that you can wear out to the park in the afternoon and is still classy and versitile enough to look good at a nice restaurant for dinner. Just right for any situation. (sorry boys, I'm lacking in the menswear department and have no idea what a suitable dress analogy would be).

Beaujolais

I've covered the wonders of Beaujolais before (the Nouveau, anyways). I don't need to repeat it. However, if you weren't impressed by the taste and the simple thought of it makes your head pound the way it did the day after BYT's Beaujolais party, try Beaujolais Villages (pronounced like "vee-laadge"). Beaujolais Villages uses higher quality Gamay grapes and is sits for at least a little while longer than the extremely hurried Nouveau. The taste is less acidic, more well rounded, and actually like a fruit roll-up. If you are indeed turned off to Nouveau I suggest you give it one more try - it's had time to recover from November's bottle shock and honestly, the weather and a good 30 minute chill on the bottle could potentially make all the difference.

One to Try: Louis Jadot Beaujolais Villages, $9. Everywhere. Seriously, I see this at Giant and Harris Teeter.

Chinon

Not going to lie - I love Cabernet Franc. It's my favorite varietal because it's fussy, it's tempermental, it's hard to do well and White Hall vineyards in Virginia does it extremely well. The other place that knocks it out of the park is the Loire Valley - another love of mine. Cabernet Franc wines in Loire as referred to as Chinon (Chinon is the name of the town in Loire that produces a good amount of surprisingly good red wine. The Loire soil tends to be rocky, full of limestone and typically produces thin, weak red wines). Chinon is the standard house red of French cafes and bistros. The flavor can range from juicy to licorice notes to kind of funky (in the way that good wines can be funky). Cabernet Francs from other areas are good too, but Chinon is a perfect spring time wine because it fits the 60 degree day: fresh but not crisp, a little bit of body without overwhelming.

One to Try: 2006 Colline Chinon, $13 (Schneider's)

Montepulciano

Montepulcianos are a pretty safe bet. I've found that I can walk into any store, find a $10-$15 bottle of Montepulcino, and be satisfied. I can pair it with charcuterie, I can serve it with veggie lasagna (with red sauce), or I can drink it straight up with a bit of bread or nothing at all. Montepulciano (full name: Montepulciano d'Abruzzo) is a type of wine varietal as well as the name of the region because frankly, Italy is weird like that. It can be drunk at 2:00 on a Saturday afternoon while cleaning out your closet or at 8:00pm that night when you're entertaining friends. The taste is light without fruit notes. If you like heavier reds like Merlot but want something lighter for your friends or just want to experiment, try this one as it avoids the fruitier notes that the aforementioned wines have. The best thing I can say about this (besides the taste) is that it's consistent. And really, when you don't know a particular vineyard and are faced with making a choice between two unknown producers, consistency in the grape is key.

One to Try: Il Borgo Montepulciano d'Abruzzo, $9 (Whole Foods and Best Cellars)