"Black Friday" Find, November 23rd

Each Friday we highlight a wine from the Northwest that we think is a real "find." By find we might mean that it's a steal, as all of these wines we'll feature weekly are at or under $20. We might also mean "Hey, you really need to go find this" and it might be a wine that we feel not enough people know about. In any case, with the weekend pending we're hoping to help you "find" a wine to kickoff the weekend right. We'll tell you a little bit about the wine and try to help you track it down here in the Northwest

Black Friday, the term strikes fear in the hearts of men... women too. What is probably one of the most obscene "holidays" on the human calendar. The idea behind "Black Friday" is that it is the first day of the calendar year when retailers actually go into the "black" or make a profit for the year. Which, if you think about that, even using the fiscal year calendar, it's sorta depressing. If the fiscal year starts in July we're looking at damn near December for retailers to get out of the red? That's almost half the year. You can do math.

What further makes Black Friday confounding is how much you just spent on dinner the night before. I mean, turkey, and all the fixings, that isn't cheap, so going out the next day and willfully looking to throw some more loot around is not a state of mind I can necessarily relate to, although wine shops don't typically have crazy blow out deals either.

Over the past several years there have been news stories of people perpetrating acts of violence against one another. People have been shot and pepper sprayed and in probably the most famous case, trampled to death, and here's the kicker, not so people could get something for free. So they could "get a deal on it."  Insane by definition. You're going to kill someone so you can pay for something? That does not compute. Robbery I can at least try to understand.

This Black Friday, why don't you eschew that flagrant consumerism and instead stay home, maybe do some work around the house or go and get a work out in.  Eat left overs and enjoy the day with your family. You can go shopping later. This week's Friday Find is in honor of Black Friday, it's the Trio Vintners Riot.  Chuckle. This is a bit of an outside the box blend for this 2008 Columbia Valley Red Wine, mostly Mouvedre with smaller percentages of Sangiovese and Grenache. Lots of red fruit in the flavor profile of this wine, with aromatics of savory spices and a touch of earthen character.   The wine is comprised of fruit from some very prominent Washington vineyards, den Hoed and Morrison Lane. And the oak makes it'self known, but is not over the top.  The winery, of Walla Walla, has released the 2010 of this wine but I found the 2008 last week. The Trio wines are available at 6th Avenue Wine Cellars, Esquin and Pete's in Seattle and in Portland check at Garrison's and Vinopolis. Its in the $18 neighborhood.

Stay home, and don't get into any riots.  Happy Black Friday, behave yourself.

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