The Omnivorous Fish

Stop me if you heard it: guy travels all over the world, eating, drinking and shopping for gastronomic oddities. Lives in New York City and does extensive shopping online. He walks into a wine store in Greenville, SC and…

finds the second-best wine store he has ever been to.

Now listen, I am not one of those people who thinks that anything worth seeing/doing/eating is in NYC/Northeast/East Coast/West Coast. There are little nuggets of genius and culinary miracles EVERYWHERE, but, to be fair, there are some impressive things and stores in NYC, SF, LA, London, Paris, Rome, etc. Well, today I can tell you that there is an incredible, world-class wine store in Greenville called Northhampton Wines. It also has an in-store wine bar and restaurant that I can’t wait to try (hopefully Saturday between shows).

I won’t go on and on, but here’s what I picked up today, in addition to a cheap corkscrew, extra vacu-vin caps and some raw-milk Manchego:

Cline Ancient Vines Carignane 04
Rosenblum Redwood Valley Zinfandel, Annette’s Reserve 04
Louis Jadot Capelle aux Loups Saint-Veran 02
Chameleon Charbono 02
Provenance Napa Valley Rutherford Cab 03

Not exactly stuff lying around the corner store. They also had a remarkable selection of half bottles, including Domaine Serene and Martinelli.

Tasting notes to come. FYI, 24 hours later, the blackberry fruit did come out on the Rosenblum Eagle Point. I’m sure it would have after an hour or so of aggressive aeration. I’ll write about that in a while, too (aggressive aeration, that is).

Listening: Fire Water by the Jazz Crusaders from the The Best Of the Jazz Crusaders