Nicely Named Wines

When people ask me if things are different since being married early this summer, I look back on the nearly four months of wedded bliss, and I realize that yes, things have changed. Foodgoat drinks a lot more.

He claims the visit to California and, especially, the Rosenblum winery, inspired a interest in wine, but I have my suspicions because my mamma always warned me this might happen. Or maybe that was just a bad country song.

Anyway, we've been sampling lots of wine over the past few months. The Norman Vineyards Zinfadel "The Monster" is one of the few to receive multiple tastings, and makes us happy every time. I think of it as a big red wine, although I can't really articulate what I mean by that. Suffice it to say that the Monster is a great everyday wine to sip while cooking dinner (albeit a $22 one) or a nice one to bring over to someone's house, because it tastes lovely with a variety of dishes or just by itself.

I'm not saying that the only reason I wanted to try Kilikanoon Lackey Shiraz was because it was called the Lackey. Or because the label had a nice drawing of boots. But it helped.

No, the reason I wanted to try it was because the Warehouse Beverage, our excellent neighborhood beer and wine store, had a little handwritten sign, noting that it was one of the best in its price range. Over the years, we've found that their little handwritten signs are never wrong.

The Lackey ($13.99) was warm and red and just a little spicy and delicious with Foodgoat's pasta sauce, made from four different types of tomatoes and three different types of peppers in our garden.