Celebration

Every once and a while I'll buy a bottle of wine with the intent of saving it for a special occasion. This particular one, a 2003 Clos Du Mont-Olivet Chateauneuf-du-Pape, I purchased 2 or 3 years ago to break out when I finally got my dissertation. Well, the week of my defense came -- I successfully survived (relatively unscathed no less), and then last Friday night, we broke out this bottle:


We've been into "Rhone style" wines (Chateauneuf-du-Pape is an appellation in the southern Rhone region of France) lately, so I figured this one would be quite tasty. I'll have to admit, I was a little disappointed because my expectations were so high. The wine was quite good, don't get me wrong, but it didn't have the body I was expecting - it was lighter, both in color and taste, than I typically prefer. I'm glad I waited a few years to drink this, because I think if I'd consumed it right away it would have been too "jammy." It went surprisingly well with chicken on the grill (I used an "Asian" marinate of some sort).