New Year's

I have to be straight with you: I celebrate New Year's on the solstice, when the seasons start to change. New Year's Eve ... well, I'm not a fan of sloppy drunks or dangerous drivers. We tend to just kick it at home. Since it was Wednesday, our local wine shop hosted the weekly tasting - sparkling wines for the occasion. After 5 small pours for $2, we picked up a couple of bubbly bottles and walked home.

A friend was in from out of town and joined us for dinner and some games of takaradi (aka jenga), which was really nothing more than our regular menu. We didn't cook Tuesday, so we made both Tuesday's salad (pears fried in butter, brown sugar, black pepper and cilantro over arugula, red onion, and cucumber with goat cheese) and Wednesday's soup (yuccatan crab soup with tequila and lime), and threw in a fancy french cheese, some slices of baked sweet potato, and baguette.

Special drinks were our nod to the occasion. The wonderful, delightful, and ever-generous Nat brought us the pacharan back from Spain (among other incredible gifts), and told us how it was generally imbibed in Iberia. So when I saw this cava at Trader Joe's, I snapped it up, figuring we'd toast the new year in Spanish style. It's a pretty incredible pairing. A shot of pacharan lends a beautiful floral-herbal bouquet to this slightly sweet sparkling wine.

And the cava itself, by the way, is so good that I'm going back to buy several more bottles to stock up. No joke! This bottle was only 7 or 8 dollars and it's a pinot noir and mourvedre blend. If I remember correctly, it's 70% Mourvedre, which is awesome. I usually have a hard time finding Mourvedre or Cab Franc (two of my favorite varietals) by themselves or in more than trace amounts (5-15%) in blends. Big thumbs up for this cute pink sparkler.