2013 DaMa Wines Columbia Valley Grenache

Happy Friday!  I'm so glad it's the weekend!  It's been a long week and tonight I got to leave work a little after 4:00 so I had an hour and a half of daylight to blow leaves before the thunderstorms started.  I made progress and got the patio and deck done, so I'm seeing some light at the end of the tunnel, I just hope it's not an oncoming train!  So once it got dark I had to go to Mishawaka to get a gift for my friend's son who's third birthday party is tomorrow, and since I was out there I decided to stop at Costco (oh what fun!).  More on that later, but since I picked up something good for dinner I've decided to open a bottle of a recent wine club shipment, the 2013 DaMa Wines Columbia Valley Grenache, a 100% Grenache from the Lonesome Spring Vineyard in the Columbia Valley appellation!

The wine is very light, with a bright ruby color in the glass, classic Grenache. The nose presents aromas of dried cherries and raspberries along with hints of leather and tobacco. The taste is just wonderful with subdued red fruit notes at the outset, raspberry and cherry that transition easily to some lovely mineral notes along with some vanilla bean midpalate.  The finish is wonderfully dry and long, with a level of smoothness in the tannins that belies the youth of this wine.

Overall, I would rate this wine a solid 8.5 as it's just a gorgeous example of the varietal.  And of course, since I visited Costco on a Friday evening, the seafood booth was ready for me and I picked up a big bag of fresh mussels, which of course means moules frites for dinner!  I simmered the mussels with some olive oil, garlic and shallots and a bit of dry white wine and then served them with some classic fries seasoned with sea salt, pepper and parmesan.  What a way to end the week!