A Lost Wine

"I am rather sad today,

My favorite wine has gone away.

It was not one wine-lovers love,

But fit my pallat like a glove.

 

It went with everything I made,

From chick to pork to steak saute'd.

It thoroughly did suit my taste

And now I'll find no more of it.

 

The winery has closed, it seems

To end 10 years of vinous dreams.

I'm sure this hits them harder, though

I'll also miss them, don't you know."

 

   .................

 

Seriously, I started drinking wine 20 years ago.  I graduated from "too much beer all day" to "just enough wine with dinner".  I tried beaujolais, merlot, cab, burgundy, other red wines before discovering zinfandel.  I liked that best for the fruity but complex flavor.  And, as I said in the poem, it suited my cooking style.  I tend toward small amounts of roasted meats, some stir-fried veggies, or spaghetti with meatloaf tomato sauce, and vinegary tossed salads (heavy on the tomatoes).

 

I was originally able to get it from my friendly local deli/meat/alcohol store.  Then they stopped stocking it, but would special-order multiple cases for me.

 

Then their distributor stopped offering it several years ago.  I found a store in NY that did and would ship to me.  Shipping wasn't exactly free (cost an additional $5 per bottle) but that wasn't the point.  I liked the wine.

 

That place hasn't had it available for a few weeks.  I found another place and ordered some, but they just emailed me to say that the winery had closed.  

 

I feel like I did back when Coca-Cola introduced "New Coke". 

 

So, now I need to try to find a new wine for dinnertime.  It can't be just any Zinfandel.  The Twisted Wine Cellars version was from "old vines" and that affects the taste.  

 

And it's not like I'm going to buy $20 wine.  I refuse to pay more  for wine than the dinner costs.  On the other hand, I only have 12 bottles left.  While that will last 36 meals, a month is not really a long time.  

 

One time years ago, I found a place that was based on "if you like this, you will like that".  It had charts that compared products for similarity (by user reviews).  One of them was wine.  I now wish I had saved the graph or bookmark.  I didn't find it tonight, but I will look again tomorrow.

 

Meanwhile, I'll be talking to the wine guy at the local store and see what he recommends.

 

Farewell, Twisted Wine Cellars Twisted Zin...