Thought it was impossible, eh?  Well, I want to let you know, finding a decent boxed wine is quite possible indeed!  That’s right, I said boxed wine.  After opening the last bottle of nice wine left over from our housewarming party the other night, I wished that I had a better stock of everyday wines on hand so that I could save the nicer bottles for special occasions.  Plus it was the third bottle opened during our late night Godfather marathon, so who really even tastes the wine at that point…  The next day I spotted an adorable little box of wine with a French bistro cartoon on the side.  The wine is produced by J.P. Chenet and it is a Cabernet-Syrah blend.  I was surprised to find an imported wine in a box.  It was labeled as a “Vin de Pays,” or a standard table wine.  Now come on, what is better than enjoying a carafe of unlabeled wine in a dark corner bar in St. Germaine?  You don’t care that you don’t know what the wine is, you just know that it is good enough to be consumed by the French so that means it’s good enough for me.  So I bought a box of this French table wine and decanted about half a liter for a few hours.  Now I can’t say the wine was spectacular.  But that’s just the point!  The wine was smooth and subtle, a great table wine.  Great to have on hand for low-key winter nights at home, I highly recommend you try it out!  Best part – I bought the box for about $18, it is the equivalent of 4 bottles!  Now that’s something we can all get excited about…

Ok, no excuses, I haven’t been taking this much time off because I have NOT been drinking any wine.  Quite the opposite, I have been drinking quite a bit of wine and bubbly due to a very exciting development in my personal life – I’m engaged!  Being a bit of a planner, I have spent the past weeks in an absolute frenzy of wedding scheming.  But fear not, I am intent on recounting all of the fabulous wines we have been sharing during these celebratory times – starting with our engagement dinner!  Naturally, the engagement dinner occurred the day after the Davio’s event, and amazingly enough it consisted of even MORE courses.  Needless to say, I couldn’t eat for at least a week afterward…  We enjoyed a 10 course (TEN!) at our favorite restaurant in the city, L’Espalier accompanied by wine pairings.  I must admit, I do not recall at least 6 of the ten courses because I very tastefully freaked out once my now fiancé popped the question, but let me start with one pairing I do remember.  Our first course was a Maine lobster tail poached in butter with grilled shitake mushroom and with a touch of pesto.  This was accompanied by a delicious, slightly sweet white Muscat wine from the island of Samos.  The wine was smooth and delicious, excellent match with the buttery lobster meat.  Now, I am not precisely sure what this particular wine retails for, but I have found similar wines that go for around $12 a bottle.  I think this wine would be delightful with a variety of seafood dishes, so try it out if you’re game!  I promise to share more soon, thanks for being patient with me!