Rush to judgment

So, anyway, I was sorta surprised that the cork atop this week’s selection came out of the bottle as easily as it did—if I’d had any kind of grip on its eagerly protruding lip, I probably could have rocked it back and forth and pulled it out without a screw. My know-it-all companion’s voice betrayed her dismissal of the beverage; in clipped, riveted tones, she said the ill-fitting top was evidence of “shoddy manufacture of the wine and/or the cork.” (She didn’t actually say “shoddy”; she used a very naughty word that sounds very much like it, and I edited it here lest I risk anyone’s offense.)

Boy oh boy, did she ever fuck up. Despite the pitfalls, the 2008 Cabergnet Sauvignon from San Benito County’s Vista Verde vineyards is a pleasant a cab-sauv as you’ll find, characteristically alive with the bracing, sugary aftertaste that goes well on a full stomach. Don’t drink this one by itself—it’s heavy with sulfites you can almost taste, and that’s why you’ll need something equally formidable with it, like lamb. As my friend explained, the meat’s fats and proteins diminish some of the potential sugar rush. And as everyone (especially my friend) knows, a sugar rush is to be avoided at all costs, especially with a wine whose obvious purpose, however unintended, is to induce one. (I love my friend almost as much as I do her misguided sense of priorities.)

I bought this one for a paltry $7.99 at Ocean Beach’s Olive Tree Marketplace—the bottle was decked out with an Olive Tree-specific label, and that made me curious. Truth be told, the label’s just a cool marketing gimmick, but that doesn’t take a thing away from this entry’s taste or function. Even my companion had to admit it filled the bill—that is, once she stopped eating the cork. Could a sugar rush have been far behind?