Last year winter just wouldn’t go away and so far this year winter hasn’t been so bad. I know we have another two months to go and the bottom will probably fall out and plunge us into the deep freeze, but so far so good. I’ll take what I can get. One day this past week, the weather was nice enough I even fired up the grill and threw on a couple strip steaks. Even though we have a gas grill and can grill all year long, when the weather is too cold it takes longer the get hot and longer to cook the meat. For pork chops and chicken that’s okay, but I eat my steak rare and cooking too long on the grill makes my steak medium. Yuck.

For the wine choice, I opened a bottle of Pinot Noir from Angeline Vineyards & Winery, Santa Rosa, California. It was a 2013 vintage and had 13.5% alcohol. You can find them at http://www.angelinewinery.com. The wine was not like any other Pinot Noir I ever had. It was a very light pinkish red color in the glass, almost a dark rosé. It had a light strawberry flavor. It had a tart bite at the end with a light finish. It would be a nice summer wine when the weather gets really hot and you want a red wine, but don’t want a big Zin or Cab. I think it would go really good with a grilled chicken salad or lighter fare. It was okay with the steak, but a nice Cabernet Sauvignon or a big jammie Zinfandel would have been much better.

Still I would buy this again in the summer, for something light or just to drink, but not to go with steak.