Coleen Rowley and Rhubarb Wine

Let's see what kind of search strings that post title pulls in....

First, just a note that Coleen Rowley, DFL Endosed candidate for CD 2, will be stopping in to meet the Drinking Liberally crew on Thursday, July 13th. Mark your calendars to meet The Agent For Change...in this particular case, changing John Kline back to a private citizen.

And speaking of Drinking Liberally, I ended up coming home last week not only with a noggin full of political thoughts, but a bottle of Rhubarb Wine courtesy of Soren. Last night smartie and I sat down to try out this original vintage, bottled at Forestedge Winery in Laporte, Minnesota.

My first thought was that it had almost no smell, followed quickly by it having very little taste, other than the alchohol. After a few sips my palate must have adjusted and I had a wine that was sweet like a Reisling, but much much drier, almost in a way that saki is.

It took about half a glass before we realized that the problem was that rhubarb wine desperately requires food on the side to bring out its flavor. Luckily, we discovered the perfect complement - samosas and mango chutney. Something about the bit of spice in the samosa (frozen, it's not like we're fancy folk) brought out the full sweetness of the rhubarb, which was more like a rhubarb crisp than a straight stalk of the fruit (come on, I'm not the only one who's eaten it raw, right?). The mango chutney enhanced the wine's tanginess, as well, which gave it much more depth.

So rhubarb wine good, drinking it without enhancing foods, not so much. But it's a Minnesota wine, and way better than those bottles of Nebraska fruit juice they keep pretending is bottled wine. Hence, my first wine review. How'd I do, Doug?

Final IP convention thoughts in a few.