First, we got a piñata shaped like a wine bottle and then we tried to knock it down with an empty wine bottle, all while blindfolded, except we didn’t use a normal blindfold, we used a wine bottle. And when Tom finally broke it open, everyone was super excited to find that it wasn’t filled with candy; it was filled with bottles of wine!
Then we did a White Elephant gift exchange, which started off tame but got pretty feisty as we went along. It all ended when Nancy stole the gift that Chris had picked, which was a bottle of wine, and so Chris stole the gift Jill had picked, also a bottle of wine, so Jill had to take the last gift left in the middle, which just happened to be another bottle of wine.
Then it was time for dinner. To start us off, we had some small glasses of wine, and then for the main course, we had bigger glasses of wine, and now it’s time for dessert, which will also be wine – a Woot Cellars wine, in fact!
What’s that you say? A Woot Cellars dessert wine? You better believe it! The Vinito del Finito, a Late Harvest Zin. Originally, we were going to just make it ourselves, but when we asked our pal Peter Wellington how much maple syrup we add to normal Zinfandel to make it sufficiently desserty, he told us that’s not how it’s done. So we were all like, “fine, Peter Wellington, if you’re such a wine expert, why don’t you just go ahead and make it for us?” So he did, and boy did it come out nice!
Take a sip and BAM! You’re hit with raspberry, blackberry, currant, blueberry, dried cherry, along with black pepper and an intense dark chocolate aroma. And what’s more, the shriveling of the grapes, concentrated flavor, tannins, and acid balance out the residual sugar, giving it a nice tart finish and keeping it from tasting too syrupy (definitely unlike the batch we tried to make on our own).
We have a feeling you’re going to love this stuff. So get your tiny glasses out, fill ‘em with some Vinito del Finito, and join us in toasting Wine.Woot’s first five years!
Vinito del Finito 2010 Late Harvest Zinfandel - Produced and bottles by Wellington Vineyards
Deep purple robe – quite dark for a pure Zinfandel. A veritable cornucopia of red and black fruits: raspberry, blackberry, currant, blueberry, dried cherry, along with black pepper and an intense dark chocolate aroma. Great concentration and power in the mouth. The shriveling of the grapes concentrated flavor, tannin and acid, which all balance the residual sugar nicely. This gives it a clean, slightly tart finish, not at all cloying or syrupy. Aging potential of several years at the least.
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