The Deanster Cometh.

The Cave, er, The World Famous Cave Wine Storage, can comfortably boast not only a national, but international clientele.  The guy from the Netherlands recently relocated to Florida, but we can still claim Hong Kong, Shanghai, somewhere in Germany, London and more. None of these to be mistaken for Dean from Indiana. 

The Deanster, when in town - and he is that - becomes The Cave mascot for that time, or as it's been previously noted, furniture.  So a Dean tradition has evolved, some combination of presence, Chipotle and wine.

Chipotle makes a lot of profit off the likes of myself who prefer simpler fare.  A burrito with every last scrap of food on it is probably the way to go, but I get three hard-shell tacos with cheese, hot sauce, and lime.  NO MAS!  Which I think is the same price as the burrito and about one/16th the amount of food.

Dean was good enough to open this, 2013 Alban Vineyards Viognier.  I had no idea what a Viognier was.  It's a grape!  On its very minimal website, Alban Vineyards claims itself, "The first American Winery and Vineyard established exclusively for Rhone varieties."  Which the Viognier grape is: tres Rhone.

WAY back in 2004, Lettie Teague writes about the Viognier boom, which sounds like these wines can be as diverse, varied, as California Pinot Noirs, which I've discovered to be diverse and varied.

This one opened sharp and citrusy, but by taco number three, there were some heavy butterscotch notes on the back end.  It played heavier with the tacos.

 When I told Dean I thought this was a "lovely" wine, which it was, he said, That's what everyone says, that it's 'lovely!'

Your resident Troglodyte is a cliche.  Also, deeply grateful for all the generous and kindly people I've had the good fortune to know all these years.

                                                                    Cheers, Dean!