I hope you all had a great Christmas and enjoyed some time with your families. Susie and I had a very quiet Christmas with each other and my brother came over for dinner. As I have mentioned, prime rib is our choice for dinner on Christmas and it is the only day of the year that it finds its way into our oven. The great thing about this noble roast is choosing the wines that will accompany the meal. I go big on this day and so I chose a Chateauneuf-du-Pape, Zinfandel and a red blend from Kukkula, a winery that is in Paso Robles that I am a huge fan of. To be honest, the Kukkula stole the show, even though the CDP got a big score from Robert Parker back in the day.
Barnard Griffin is my “Winery of the Year” in 2020. Check out my article in the Seattle P.I. I think it’s interesting how a winery that has been around as long as B.G. can sometimes disappear in the sea of wineries that are from Washington State. I know that there are a lot of fans of B.G. in Friday Harbor, simply because Rob Griffin has been a part of my wine tasting events several times. In fact, he was my second guest on Zoom back in May of this year. Rob Griffin, winemaker and owner at Barnard Griffin has been making great, affordable wines for many years. His Rose’ of Sangiovese wins gold medal after gold medal. Along with his Signature wines, he has a line of Reserves that are mostly from Red Mountain fruit. The Reserve line although more expensive, is still very reasonable compared to other wineries that produce an upper tier. I will be shooting a couple of episodes on my YouTube channel that will feature the wines from Barnard Griffin. Keep an eye out for them. I recently interviewed Rob at his winery, check that out as well.
I am so looking forward to 2021 and someday being able to see faces without masks. Bring on the New Year!
Cheers!
Stan The Wine Man
