kat+ wine = good times

last saturday efe had a "boy's night in" playing play station with his old-roommate on his new flat screen. so i went out. with kat, who amazingly, i hadn't seen for something like 6 months. it's crazy. we met at a little wine bar that was profiled on metromix. just west of andersonville, on balmoral, called Joie de Vine. really really cute place right next to the Ravenswood train and really right in the middle of a neighborhood street. we shared a bottle of Carignane, a type of wine that neither Kat nor I had heard of of. we both really liked it though, and nibbled on a cheese flight (little cheese nibbles with crackers) that went well with the wine. i had such a good time. thanks kat!

oh, and i highly recommend the wine that we tried. it was full-bodied, and kind of peppery and spicy. if you like rioja or syrah, you'll like carignane. unfortunately, i just found out by googling "carignane" that it's a "workhouse" grape and no "good" wines are ever made out of carignane grapes alone (see http://www.cellarnotes.net/carignane_grape.htm ) oh well, i liked it.