August 29, 2019

The Prisoner Blend and Queen

This wine has been on my “list” for a while.  It’s outside of the price range for this blog, but it was a special night, nothing had gone right so far, and I splurged.

Last December, I purchased Queen tickets for my husband for Christmas.  It’s one of his favorite bands; one we’d seen before when they toured with Paul Rodgers.  Last time, the show was at a smaller arena about thirty minutes from our house.  The show this year is downtown Atlanta at one of the large arenas. 

We booked a hotel in April.  Yes, April, folks.  We arrive to find out they overbooked, and we’re being moved to another hotel.  All of this wouldn’t have been so bad except the new hotel had no idea what to do with our reservation because the old hotel was going to pick up the bill.  Fifteen minutes later, we’re still waiting for a manager to pull himself off of his cell phone to try and help us.

Thank you to The Glenn in Atlanta for picking up the tab.  We won’t be booking with you again, but we appreciate the gesture.  We’ll also not be booking with The Omni downtown thanks to the manager named Sam.  An apology for taking so long would have been nice and saved the experience.

When we finally make it to dinner with our friends (only about ten minutes late), I ordered this wine and enjoyed.  Lots of fruit, not too heavy, and not too much oak.  I haven’t loved California reds as of late; this one was phenomenal.

Queen, with Adam Lambert, was also phenomenal.  I don’t care if it’s because of the movie or because of a true love of their music – the show was packed, and the energy of the crowd added to the experience.    It was a production from start to finish and worth every penny of the ticket price.

Honestly one of the best productions I’ve ever seen, and I’ve seen enough concerts to be embarrassed.  (Also, I’m sad tickets are now electronic and on your phone.  I have every ticket stub saved in a photo album.  They just aren’t the same when printed on a sheet of regular paper.)

If you want to splurge on a great red from California, give this one a try.  There isn’t much not to like about it.  From the fruit forward nose to the raspberries and currants on the palate, it didn’t disappoint.