Nice is Nice

This one's from just outside of Nice, in Provence:

Clos de Bernarde Tete de Cuvée 1997 - Provence

Mourvedre up front, and grenache and syrah close behind.

What's so deliciously striking about this one is that it most certainly IS a woman I met tonight at my bar. At first whiff, certainly sophisticated (and you know that's not going to go anywhere anytime soon), but still humbly elite. She's not Bordeaux (Greenwich, for these purposes: a more than slight sigh of relief there), but Darien, or even better: Westport. There is ample fruit right up front with luscious, and I mean luscious tart calvados-ed cherries. But strangely, and wonderfully right behind it and pervading is mushroom from a shit-strewn field, without any negative connotation. She is elegant and seductively graceful, but surreptitiously throws in the Waterbury for fun. It keeps her self-aware, and extremely well balanced. And at $25 or so retail, she's a steal. My guess is the metaphor will hold up to the point of the price.

I don't know, I'll find out Sunday. But I'll let you know.