I wanted to get the perfect wine to go with the meal and felt a bit stuck. Generally I go with red when I am doing tomato sauces, but I felt that the citrus flavors in a sav blanc or chardonnay would be better with the crisp. I the end I just went with what was closest (I try to be a wino, but I end up just being someone who likes a nice glass). I grabbed the bottle of Primitivo from Black Mesa Winery in New Mexico. Chris had left it on my coffee table from the evening before, and there it was - looking at me and asking to be sampled.
Initially the wine was very tart, full of ripe cherry with a lingering floral-ness. Greg described it as sour. As we ate our main course the wine's flavors broadened to blackberry and some of the high acid flavors mellowed. I enjoyed this pairing. I poured myself a second glass with dessert, and enjoyed how the acid in the wine balanced with the tart rhubarb. I was worried that this wine might overpower our dessert, but it ended up being a lovely compliment.
I surely don't think of wine when I think of New Mexico, but this one was a lovely surprise.
New Mexico sparkler Gruet (owned and operated by the same Gruet family with a small operation in the Champagne region of France) still is a great value and regularly beats bubblies costing twice the price. Something about the microclimate in their vineyards near Truth or Consequences. A wine steward who never steered me wrong urged me to seek out Gruet's Pinot Noir and told me I was in for a treat. I still haven't gotten around to tracking down that Pinot (it's not in my top 5 reds), but I can tell you that everything else from this winery in New Mexico has bang-for-your-buck that simply can't be beat.
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