Angst Loves Spinach: Yellow Tail: taste the rainbow

Maybe you've seen this, if you're in the habit of wandering around wine stores: Yellow Tail wines are color-coded. I have mixed feelings about this. On the one hand, it sure does make the specific wine I want easier to find. For example, it is much easier to spot RED far away than it is to read the words "Cabernet Sauvignon." On the other hand, color-coded things are generally marketed to people who are...well...perhaps less than gifted, intellectually speaking. So, it kind of feels like Wine For Complete Idiots, but it's also really convenient.

In any case, I thought I was being quite clever tonight, while ruminating aloud to my dear husband about the color-coded wine and its implications for my intelligence. I made a comment about wanting to "taste the rainbow" a la Skittles candy.

So far, I've tasted Yellow (Shiraz), Red (Cabernet), Fuschia (Shiraz-Grenache), and Blue (Cabernet-Merlot). I also had a glass of their Sparkling White at Greek Christmas this year and I was completely impressed with it. I've been a huge fan of Moet Chandon for years and though not exactly classy, Martini & Rossi Asti is fun to drink on St Patty's day with a drop of green food coloring. Honestly, though, Yellow Tail's sparkler may have unseated them for both class and affordability.

Rainbows left to taste include Orange (Merlot), Purple (Shiraz-Cabernet), Magenta (Pinot Noir), and though I'm not all that into whites (actually, I don't like them much at all), I may have to try their Riesling (Yellow) and possibly Green (Pinot Grigio).

The reason I want to "taste the rainbow" is two-fold. For one, they have some really unique wine blends, but more importantly, Yellow Tail makes vegan wine and I want to support them. Vegan wine, you say? It comes from grapes, what wouldn't be vegan, you say? Alarming, but true - most wines/alcohols are filtered using animal products - I'm going to share an excerpt from The Vegan Table that will probably make even meat-eating readers' stomachs turn, but it's easier to give it to you verbatim than to try to paraphrase:

Examples include gelatin (the boiled bones and tissue of slaughterhouse animals), isinglass (obtained from the swim bladders of fish), chitosan (derived from the exoskeleton of crustaceans such as crabs and shrimp), casein (from cow's milk), and egg albumen (from chickens).

Now, with those lovely thoughts and pictures floating around your brain, let's move on to dinner! I have to work tomorrow, and the restaurant I want to go to is closed for dinner on Sundays anyway, so we were going to go out for Valentines Day tonight. Unfortunately, the rust-colored drops of water suspended from our bedroom ceiling put a nix on those plans. Don't get me wrong - there's nothing we [or apparently our maintenance men] can do about the slow leak threatening my piano and Mister's side of the bed, other than wait for Monday when the roofer is coming to fix the hole in the roof. In case time-travel isn't your thing, Monday is about 36 hours away and at least two nights in aforementioned threatened bed. Mister and I are somewhat convinced that the roofer will find the hole close to the site where the inept maintenance men fixed our air conditioning this summer... What held us back was waiting for the maintenance guy to return our phone call until it was too late to go out, so we'll be headed out for our Valentine dinner on Monday, as long as I make it through the day at work...I'm sure I'll be full of fun stories that night.

I changed my mind a few times tonight, trying to decide what to make [besides reservations]. At first, I thought I'd make the Two-Tofu Shepherd's Pie, but I decided it was actually too late to start something that labor-intensive, and most of the ingredients are pantry stuff anyway. Then I thought I would make Curried Udon Noodle Stir-Fry since it is the most fresh-vegetable-intense meal on the menu. What made me choose Garlic and Greens Soup was the simple fact that Mister finally made it down to the amazing Sarcone's before they ran out of bread (no later than 3 PM, but normally earlier) and we wanted to eat it up before it went stale. What to do with day-old crusty bread? Dip it in a brothy soup, of course!