Great Grapes-Great Wine-Great Guy

Well . . . now that we have your attention, we want to share with you our idea of fun on an unexpected sunny and warm early March Saturday in 'wine country' - Cary style. There is an amazing little wine store at Salt Box Village on Kildaire Farm Road - a stones throw away from Cary's Outback Restaurant - that is aah . . . so very fine. It's named "Great Grapes" and the owner Gene is someone you are (a) happy to meet (b) makes you feel like you have been friends since high school and (c) a human database of wine knowledge.

Back to Saturday . . . Gene had a tent sale outside and it was amazing. There were probably 40 different wines to taste and 7 great wine distributors engaging everyone in great conversation about their selections; taste highlights and serious wine adjectives describing what we should be tasting. But most of all, there were diverse and happy gaggles of wine lovers . . . doing what they best . . . tasting and enjoying the wine.

We enjoyed a wide variety of wines - especially the Amaroni, Zinfandels, Petit Sarahs and big cabs. So many different wines but decided on a few select ones that Gene still had in stock -- because folks were buying everything! Here are our take aways:

• Hey Mambo -- Bistro style every day drinkable red
• Michael David Petit Sirah from Lodi -- similar to Bonnie Doone; they have a lot of fun making their wines and reminded us of the time we drank Switchback's Petit S at the Triangle Wine Experience at Cosmo many moons ago
• Ass Kisser Fine Red Wine -- I hope everyone has an incredibly brilliant red neck friend that you think about when attending serious wine events. This is certainly the case of why we bought this wine (but we didn't buy a case).

So another Saturday; another great wine day; go see Gene and tell him the ApexWiners sent you! He has a new wine to taste just waiting for you to come experience! Cheers!