banyuls, banyuls, banyuls

one of the wonders of getting paid is, well, having money. i stepped into binny's express yesterday (a block from my apartment) and i discovered again that i know nothing about wine, despite having taken linn hobbs' class last iap. the visit was really a reconnaissance mission: i wanted to mentally catalogue what they have there, and to see what kinds of out-of-the ordinary stuff that they had.

mary once said that if she doesn't buy anything in a store, she has gotten in and out for free - a very apt observation. i escaped from binny's not unscathed, but with a half-bottle of a sweet red dessert wine (domaine du mas blanc, banyuls) and a bottle of creme de framboise. i forget the exact name of the guy who made the creme de framboise, but i'm a sucker for it. it was lucien something, and whether or not my suspicion that i'd heard that it was supposed to be good is actually true, it will be fun to drink. i opened the banyuls last night and had probably what amounted to two glasses, while making some pesto in a semi-operational blender, without a grater for the parmesan cheese. the pesto turned out ok, and the wine is pretty good. it's not earth-shattering, and for sure the one that i had in my wine-tasting class was approximately one million times better, but it was nice to have in the evening.

and if celina is reading this - they have an enormous selection of sauternes! ok, maybe not enormous, but it's the biggest selection i've ever seen - full bottles and half bottles.