After returning from a recent business trip, we’ve had a busy weekend. First it was a day of wine and chocolate tasting on Saturday on Bainbridge Island. We tasted our way through the island, seven wineries offering up some of their wines along with chocolatiers letting us sample some gourmet chocolates. We drove to the island on one side of the island, then winding our way across the island then took the ferry back across Puget Sound to Seattle.

Tonight, for dinner, I fixed an early Valentine’s Day dinner. I made a shrimp dish, Garlic Seared Shrimp with Smoke Paprika and oven roasted vegetables. For the wine, I opened a red blend, Radius, 2014 from Walla Walla, Washington.

The wine is a wonderful red blend that is soft and smooth, fruit forward, with cherry notes and a hint of oak. The wine just fills the mouth and tastes of dark fruit and ripe cherry, with a lingering finish. The wine went along very well with the shrimp and vegetables.