Good Morning!

Olympic fever has consumed my home. I LOVE to watch the games and I taped the opening too. (I loved how personal and intimate the story of England was told, But it was not the pageantry of Beijing’s opening ceremony, just sayin’). I am not that athletic but I have played sports in High School and even had hopes for something bigger, but what the heck, my life was created for a different purpose.

I think we are all in awe of the time and effort these player, coaches and parents put into these sports. I had never seen a handball game or women’s water polo, I miss softball as a sport but it is all good, the sport is now strong enough to support a professional league and that is awesome. Anyway, back to my original thought, We took a break from the back to back event watching and waiting for the women’s swimming heats to begin last night and headed out to eat with some pals.

I have one friend who has become the “expert” wine ordering machine. Her strategy is pretty simple she reads the descriptions on the wine menu and finds the word, berry and if the bottle is over $60, she orders it. Hahaha! I know there are excellent bottles of wine that are much cheaper but she feels like a big wig ordering and honestly I have tried some wines I doubt I would have ordered, but I love the pure joy on her face when she takes the first sip and then says “oh, this will be so good when it opens up”. Every time she says that and it makes me smile because 5-6 years ago, she would not even drink wine, but she has come out of her wine shell and she is intoxicated with the power of ordering wine for us.

Last night we hit up our favorite resturant in San Antonio, TX called Dough, I have been raving about this place for about a year and when I am in Texas, I will eat here at least once a week. Long story short, I saw this on Diners, Drive-ins and Dives and went to check it out and been a HUGE fan since. They are a very high end Italian pizza place. The cheese is to die for, hand made mozz and gourmet real pizza, it takes 90 seconds to cook in this massive oven shipped to Texas from Italy. Well, the wine in this place is pretty spectacular as well, you can drop a little or you can spend some serious cash on the vino.

Last night my pal ordered a bottle of Livio Felluga Sosso, 2006 a Merlot blend and our server brought out a decanter and the show was about to begin. When the first taste happened, You could smell only red raspberries and that was it, when you tasted the wine it was like a slow baked blackberry cobbler. That was awesome, but as my friend always says, just wait for it to open up…she was correct, this wine turned a good night into something special. This wine made me want to slow down, savor every sip, relax and eat more slowly and I just wanted that bottle to last forever. As the wine opened up, it became more viscous, more rich tasting, more baked fruit tasting and honestly, we were at Dough for 2 plus hours and had I not been sharing this wine with others, I might still be there taking some notes and sipping.

I just called my favorite wine shop and they have 6 bottles of this left, guess who is buying herself an early birthday gift?

Go find it and try it and let me know what you think!

Much LOVE and wine,

Tam