Olympian Picnics

Every year we go to the Olympic Music Festival just off highway 104 on the road to Quilcene. We almost always bring friends, a picnic and a bottle of wine. Wine is available by the glass and bottle at the festival and this year wines were generously donated by at least three wineries including Cadence, Reininger, and Hoodsport. We usually bring our own bottle as do most concertgoers. Our best picnics are always with our good friends Sam and Carol, but last week we enjoyed a wonderful Italian antipasto picnic, always al fresco, of course, with our cousins Connie and Frank. I brought a bottle of 2004 Chateau Saint Saveur, a Cotes du Ventoux which I purchased for only eight dollars. This proved to be an amazing value. Dark red, round, with a good raspberry nose and raspberry flavors, the little bit of tannin made this the perfect picnic wine especially with spicy Italian cold cuts and olives. My cousin Connie described it as like honey without the sweetness which makes total sense since it was 14% alcohol. With Connie and Frank we also had Santa Margarita Pinot Griglio with mussels the perfect wine /food pairing. We had Willamette Valley Vineyards Pinot Gris with sauteed oysters and Abanica "Shiraz" from the La Mancha region of Spain with Salmon. It tasted like a light Zin and went exceptionally well with the Salmon which had been mainated in a dry rub of Tamarind Tandoori spice. In a future post I will write about why wine goes so well with music and art. For now, we'll just enjoy our Olympian Picnics in the Dionysian fields of the Olympic Music Festival.