Where Have I Been?

It's summer, what can I say? I have a hard time sitting and writing when the weather is nice. I like to go to the lake (White Bear Lake, specifically) and watch the miles of beach, which was lake 3 years ago. My eating and drinking over the summer have been fun but not exceptional. Although last weekend we took part in an annual summer event. The Robert Sinskey Vin Gris Challenge. This is the 4th or 5th summer we've done this. We spend an afternoon on our friends, Link and Anju's, pontoon boat drinking Sinskey Vin Gris and snacking. We are big fans of the Vin Gris, it is in my humble opinion the best rose on the planet. We've been to the winery in Napa with Link and Anju a couple of times. We had a bottle of the 07 and 08 along with a tomato tart and veggie spring rolls. The snacks were fabulous and the wine was awesome. The spring rolls had some zip to them but the rose countered the heat nicely. The winner was the 08, unanimously. The 07 was very nice but the 08 was fresher and cleaner. It wasn't like the 07 was tired, it was still showing nicely but not as well as the 08. The evening wasn't over. We retired to the house and tried a L'Aventure Rose which was stunning, not the usual strawberry notes one finds in rose but bigger bolder berries. It offered a nice segue into dinner. We had grilled, glazed shrimp and rice. Simple fare but it was wonderful with a Fantesca Cabernet. The 04 Fantesca is just hitting it's stride. Rich and delicious, the tannins fading away and letting the flavors of the grape take center stage. It paired wonderfully with the shrimp. After dinner we sat on the deck watching the sunset with a bottle of L'Aventure Syrah. A perfect end to a perfect day.