*** I received this wine as a sample. ***

While my job often requires staying at the office long past the time that normal people are home eating dinner, I almost never have to work on the weekends.  It’s not my favorite way to spend the evening, but I normally don’t mind.  Working on weekends is entirely different story, though, and on the rare occasions it happens, I’m usually kicking and screaming.  A few weekends ago, I was stuck working and it was particularly painful.

Going into the weekend, I knew I had a little work to do, but hoped it wouldn’t take more than an hour.  Instead, everything took twice as long as it should have.  I tried to logon the wireless network with my work laptop, but the computer wouldn’t recognize the connection.  After 45 minutes, I finally was on the Internet, but couldn’t sign-on to work’s secure network using my VPN connection.  After another 30 minutes of failed attempts, I realized I needed a software update from the IT guy at work, which wasn’t going to happen over the weekend.  I resorted to bouncing emails back and forth between my Gmail account and my work Blackberry.  At this point, I realized the person who was supposed to put together data for me to do my part of the project failed to do so.  Therefore, instead of being able to jump into my work, I had to do someone else’s part of the project first.

While I was grumbling over my laptop, Hubby made a Thanksgiving-in-March feast because I mentioned earlier in the week that I wanted a turkey dinner.  Six hours later, when I finally finished my piece of the project, I was ready to do nothing for the rest of the evening by enjoy my turkey food-coma and drink some red wine.

The 2009 Vivi Primitivo (winery, snooth) was a bright, deep ruby color.  On the nose, there were blackberries, blueberries, and cherries, followed by a hint of nutmeg, cumin, cloves and the slightest bit of cinnamon.  In the mouth, there were cherries, nutmeg, and cinnamon with something slightly medicinal on the finish.  The wine had smooth tannins, medium acidity, and a medium body.

Is this worth a glass after work? Sure…you won’t be drinking anything out of the ordinary, but you’ll have a decent, reliable glass of wine. At a suggested retail price of $10, this wine offered a surprising amount of complexity.  I admit that I enjoyed it far more with food than I did on its own.  It was the perfect with the Thanksgiving-in-March feast and definitely helped ease the pain of working over the weekend.  If you’re looking for an inexpensive red that is a little different, this is a wine worth checking out, particularly if you’re having turkey.

Suggested Retail Price: $10
Received as a sample.
Overall: 3 Corks