vino de España

A couple weeks ago, I aprised the audience of our trip to Branson. I mentioned the Bleu Olive. Let me just reitterate how impressed we were with the service we got: very impressed. Mark worked at Outback for 7 years and I worked in various restaurants...both of us used it as a means to pay our way through school and then the early years of our marriage. One of the places I worked at in college (the Twin City Chop House), while not 5-star, was certainly a fine dining restaurant. It was there that I learned to appreciate good wine. Opus One is a cab I recall being just divine. I cannot afford Opus One or anthing five, six, twelve rungs below it. So I settle for those that your typical Outback will carry. I am not hatin' on Yellow Tail (shiraz in particular). But seriously, people it's not *that* great. But the price tag is right. Are you sensing my dilemma?

Enter: Bleu Olive. It's a Mediterranean restaurant, so our appetizer was a collection of spreads -- hummus, some cream cheese, dill and garlic deal, pureed Kalamatta olives. You get the picture. Awesome! ...well, the wine list was just as intriguing. So we needed help differentiating. There is nothing I love more than when I ask one) do you have hot tea and they bring me an organized and decent selection, and 2) when there is someone in-house who can teach me about the wine list. Don't know the guy's name, but he was so good. So good. So refreshing. So worth it.

He suggested Garnacha de Fuego, a Spanish wine. I guess "garnacha" is one of two grapes (tempranilla being the other) that are grown only in Spain. (I am sure other places *can* grow them, but not like they do in Spain...kind of like you can't really get better a chardonnay than one from Simi Valley, California.) The bottle sold for a retail price of $27 at Bleu Olive. So we come home, check out MacADoodles (which is also a fabulous place to shop because of the incredible customer service), and, sure enough, the Garnacha de Fuego is only $10. Sweet! We've also given Borsao a try, which is 75% garnacha, 25% tempranilla. We are now in the midst of a trying a Tempranilla made by Spanish Sons.

So if you're in the mood to do a little venturing out, give some Spanish wines a go. They're really really fun!

Side note: this former Spanish teacher is getting a TOTAL kick out of how fun Spanish wines are!