Friday, September 23, 2016

Our Wine For Our Vacation, A Tale by Philip S. Kampe



                                      The Journey's Preparation Begins


Who would have ever thought that on an upcoming twelve day New England ‘Foliage Tour’ that the wines that our small group of four were going to bring with us were going to be controversial?  To analyze that statement, let’s look at the facts. We will travel, give or take, for twelve days, viewing foliage from Massachusetts to Vermont to New Hampshire to Maine and back to Massachusetts.

Our group of four consists of two focused wine geeks, one generic wine drinker and the ‘Wild Card’, a woman who likes Caribbean flavors and Spanish flavors, sort of sweet, flavorful, focusing on pineapple, guava and other exotic fruits. Wine was not her thing, at least, that was my gut feeling. My job was to find a wine that all of us could drink during the journey.

She was the factor that determined our wine experience for the trip.

We booked only Airhub condos and private houses for the journey, hence we had easy access to a refrigerator.

So, my job was to acquaint her with wines and flavors that may be universal to everyone. Ten days is a lot of time and drinking the right beverage is essential.

Sometimes, one must give up their wine drinking habits to make others happy.

This is one of those situations.

Three days before we packed the car for the journey, a wine test was the practical way of determining what wines to purchase for the trip.

 Seven bottled wines and two wines from the box were presented to our palate determining friend. After tasting the nine possibilities with panache and with zero contemplation, she chose the two wines in the box as the ‘mantra for the trip’.

The winner was Beso del Sol, white and red Sangria ($18.99 for 3 liters).

Since the wine in the box travels better then glass bottles, the choice was certainly the best choice for the trip, even for wine geeks. The rational is simple, the wine stays fresh, the cost is low and traveling with a wine that has been opened causes no problems with the police if you were pulled over. An open wine bottle could be a potential problem.

Let me tell you about Beso del Sol Sangria.

From Susan’s choice, as the wine for the trip, many ideas about why she chose, Beso del Sol, with the bag-in-a-box concept,  as optimum for our journey.

The three-liter box is airtight, there are no corks to fall out during transport, it is low in alcohol, 8.5%, so it won’t cause much havoc versus a 16% Malbec. Since the pouch is airtight, the sangria will always be fresh. It is convenient to use and travels easily for the spontaneous picnics and stops along the foliage trail.

Sangria, now, one of the hottest trends, like rose wine has been, is pleasantly sweet, without going over the top. It is light, fruity and certainly a food and snack wine.

We are traveling with both the traditional red and non-traditional white Sangrias from Beso del Sol.

More to follow….




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