Ponitz graduation 2012
Cars and Parts Swap Meet
2012 senior class photos
Home > Blogs > Uncorked > Archives > 2005 > November > 13
Sunday, November 13, 2005
Arrow Wine Hits a Bull’s Eye
So, what did folks think of the Arrow Wine & Spirits Holiday Tasting that was held Sunday night(11-13-05)?
I’ll go first.
Food was plentiful and tasty. Wines were of high quality. And the logistics worked smoothly. All in all, Arrow hit the target.
Since this event takes place 10 days after Dorothy Lane Market’s Holiday tasting, it’s hard not to compare the two. DLM’s holiday show draws larger crowds and is clearly …
…more ambitious, both in the first-rate food preparations and the numbers of wines represented. It also costs twice as much ($60 compared to Arrow’s $30).
But the folks at Arrow ramped it up a bit this year. The food was a cut above previous holiday tastings and included whole poached salmon. And the wines poured mostly by area distributors seemed a bit stronger across the board as well.
Favorites ranged from a tasty, deeply purple-colored Tamari Malbec from Argentina ($11.99) to the consistent line of New Mexican sparklers from Gruet ($15.99) to a smooth, complex 2003 Clio from Spain ($41.99) to a surprising and crowd-pleasing sparkling red (of all things) from Australia, the Black Chook Sparkling Shiraz ($19.99). And the $85 Penfolds Bin 707 Cabernet and the $103 Stag’s Leak SLV Cab were no slouches, either.
No one ran out of the most popular wines, and the food was replenished throughout the evening. The food stations were spread out and duplicated at multiple stations, so there was no waiting for sustenance. Short lines of no more than a half-dozen or so people formed at wine-pouring stations. And most — most — folks got their pour and immediately stepped aside to let the line continue moving.
If someone held hot coals to my toes to come up with something to whine about, the wine selection seems a tad skewed toward sparkling wines at the expense of whites and dessert-style wines, but I guess distributors view the holidays as THE time of year to sell the bubbly.
Let’s face it, we wine enthusiasts in the Dayton area are darn lucky to have events such as the Arrow and DLM holiday tastings. In larger cities, they’d cost more and be even more of a headache to get into and away from. And smaller cities have nothing like this.
Now, what do YOU think?
Cheers!
Mark Fisher
TweetGo to my facebook page and click Like to comment.
