I think I’ll have them both, if you don’t mind.  While enjoying a couple of the recipes I’ve posted recently, my friends were so kind as to bring over some great wine to pair with the food!  So, of course we had to open them.

One was simply masked in a nice Williams Sonoma bag.  I pulled it out and could not have opened that bottle fast enough.  It was my favorite varietal — Pinotage, from South Africa, of course!  Oh Pinotage, how I love thee.  I was so happy it was a  screw top to quickly open it.  My only problem was that I did not have a (wine) glass at my fingertips.  It was the Spier (Signature) Pinotage.  It had very nice fruit to it, though it did not hold the traditional smokiness of Pinotage.  It was light and had great character.

Then we decided to open the second bottle to do some comparison.  This was from Spain, the El Burro Kickass Garnacha.  Love the name.  And let me tell you, it lives up to it.  The first thing I tasted was chocolate!  There were also some berries in there.  Nowhere did they mention chocolate on the label, but even having some the next day…chocolate, chocolate, chocolate.  Amazing.

It was a great evening of friends, wine and food.  Can never go wrong with that.