Wine on the Fly

I travel frequently – flying predominately.  (Yes, I have very strong arms!)  So, for a wine lover on the road, it is a challenge to find quality wines.  Yet as most of you know, airports have caught up with the trends in expanded wine appreciation on the part of their customers.  Almost every airport has some semblance of a wine bar. Vino Volo now has 33 locations.  I was stunned just last week when I was in the Salt Lake City airport and noticed the very big Vino Volo store/bar/restaurant.  It turns out it is the biggest of their chain.  I say go figure.

It was in the Minneapolis/St. Paul airport that I found the wine of the week on the road.  This was in a jazzy restaurant where the menus are all at the tables on iPads, with games no less.  I opted for the Chateauneuf-du-Pape.  It was pricey – yet as we all know the overhead in airports makes things expensive.  So we all should expect to pay more.  The wine I ordered was supposed to be a French gem from 2003.  With age, I expected price.

The wine came, and it was smooth with sweet cherry and black fruit.  The finish was polished and quite pleasant – beckoning me to take another sip.  It surprised me with great depth and more fruit than I expected for an older wine, so I wanted to take a picture of the bottle.

As it turned out, they had pulled a switch.  What I got was not the 2003, but a 2009 that was a unique Chateauneuf-du-Pape.  It was unique because of the dominant amount of Syrah — this wine was 60% Syrah and 40% Grenache.  It was a really lovely wine, so I was not upset.  It was rated 92 points by Wine Spectator, and Wine Advocate gave it 91 points. I would highly recommend it. Retail cost should be under $50; and, because it’s a 2009, you may be able to find it locally.  The wine is Delas Freres Chateauneuf-du-Pape Haute Pierre 2009.

Châteauneuf-du-Pape is a French wine that comes from an area around the village of Châteauneuf-du-Pape in the Rhône wine region in southeastern France.  This is one of the most renowned appellations of the southern part of the Rhône Valley.  The regulations allow 18 different grapes to be used in the wines coming from this appellation, yet Grenache is the varietal that typically dominates.

Enjoy!