CorkTale | Wine Reviews

Javier's wine tasting

It was a hot Mexican night. The sun had set about an hour ago, but the heat from the summer still radiated throughout the dry land. It was now approaching 8 pm, and still Javier had not been served the Barbacoa de Puerto and Sterling Vintner's Collection Zinfandel he requested.

Javier had spent years masterminding his ascent to the top of the Mexican drug cartel. The notches on his belt were impressive, but his true genius was his ability to get new recruits to follow him blindly into the future. Now at the top of the underground mountain, wine flowed like water and Javier was king.

His staff, which included a personal chef, a driver who was also his bodyguard, a personal assistant, and a full time personal lawyer had all retired for the evening. All except the chef, Ricardo. Ricardo was Venezuelan, extremely pretentious with his wine, and made Javier nervous. It had taken Javier nearly two years to fully accept Ricardo, and allow him into the inner sanctum.

Javier's villa was not only large, but extremely secure. The 10 foot perimeter fence was over two feet thick, and had a hard stucco exterior. The 5 doberman's rested quietly in their pen. Security guards were fully armed, and on duty outside the gates of the villa. The lanai in the central courtyard however, was were Javier was able to relax, review wine, and eat his meals. Tonight was no different as the last drop of his glass of Chardonnay disappeared into his mouth.

"Here you are, Javier" Ricardo stated plainly as he placed the dish in front of Javier and began pouring the Zinfandel into a fresh Riedel crystal wine glass.
"Thank you Ricardo, your Barbaco de Puerto is damn good, I can't wait to eat it." Javier responded as Ricardo turned away and lit a cigarette.

"I can't believe he has a roller coaster at his party," Elisa said.
"I can," Wayne stated angrily.
It wasn't a surprise that Art had spent all that he had on his birthday party. The real surprise was the fact that she was more interested in Art than she was in her date. If anything, Wayne was more surprised at the level of wine he had at this party. The fact that he was served the Alamos Mabec 2005 from Argentina was remarkable. It was a full bodied wine with mild tannins and an obvious oak undertone. The wine tasted ambiguously of red fruit and raspberries. The hints of blueberries were obvious, but at the same time disappointing. The complexity of this Malbec wine wasn't very impressive, but overall the wine was a delicious opportunity to reflect on his environment. Unfortunately, he could not... he was distracted by her...

"I can't believe you thought this was a good idea," he stated, "you know I don't like this chump."
"Awww c'mon, he's harmless," she replied, "I dated him in high school."

"At least the wine is drinkable"
"Whatever," she said as she turned and walked away.

Wayne removed himself from the situation, and waltzed back to the wine and alcohol table. He felt confident in himself and his woman. Unfortunately for Wayne, he didn't understand the complexity of his date.

Elisa had always been interested in Wayne. She knew that Wayne was a decent guy with a decent job, decent car, decent future... Wayne was decent, and she knew it. The problem was, she wanted more than decent. She wanted a wine lover with the works, and she was struggling with less.

Art wouldn't speak to her. Art had kissed her at a party nearly three years ago, and still had not made any attempt to speak to her. She really didn't know what to think about it. Was he mad at her? Was he uninterested? She wanted to find out, without acting like an infatuated school girl.