Wine Warehouse, New Smyrna Beach, Florida
A wonderful little wine shop in a strip mall. We thought we might give it a whirl before winding up at the usual ABC Liquor store, where we were certain to pay too much for wine. Never having been in the place, we walked in and looked around the large, open room with rack after four-foot-high rack of wine made for five aisles through the store. Of course, there were a few relatively common favorites, including the Cardinal Zin and CMS. In addition, I discovered a few makes of Beaujolais Nouveau, one of which I promptly purchased. In addition, I picked up a Côte du Rhône, and Italian red table wine.
The selection was nice, surprisingly so for a store as small as this. The pricing was good; akin to the per-bottle price after a discount has been applied at a wine store like MacLaren's for purchasing a case.
Before dinner afterward, we had a bit of brie with a toasted baguette. Having spent the entirety of the previous night travelling to New Smyrna Beach, we figured that we weren't likely to be up terribly late or to be much interested in a big, formal dinner. It had been unusually cool in this part of Florida lately and the day's high temperature was in the fifties, with the weather waffling between overcast and drizzling. While this isn't exactly the sort of weather that many people consider to be optimal beach weather, I am quite happy in such an environment. As it turns out, this sort of weather makes a balcony a perfect place to chill a bottle of Beaujolais Nouveau to just the right temperature.
As noted earlier, my experience with Nouveau is quite limited so I cannot make any meaningful comparisons to other years. Since I didn't compare the Beringer's to the present bottle while trying them both, I'm not sure that my memory is good enough to make meaningful comparisons. That caveat put aside, however, I believe that it is relatively safe to observe that although I enjoyed this bottle, I preferred the Beringer's. Though this was perfectly pleasant, it was not remarkable.