Pale gold color. Nose--key lime and apricot, with hints of guava and pineapple. Very fruit forward--all the same flavors. Medium bodied, slightly sweeter than I expected from a Sauvi-B. It's enjoyable, but not at all what I was expecting. This wine feels very summery. Which fits with this week's re-release of And Shadows Have Their Ending, but is entirely wrong for Christmas week.
I think I was swayed by the name. Gott's Roadside is an institution in Napa--a classic burger joint right on the side of HWY 29. I think I was expecting a drier wine, one that could stand up to burgers and BBQ. This ain't it.
I think, if I were having a salad--mixed spring greens with Chèvre and dried cranberries; or maybe a Cajun fried chicken salad with buttermilk dressing and peppered pecans (I'm looking at you, Gumbo Pot) this would be a good choice. Other than that, I'm drawing a blank. It's nice on its own, however, so maybe that's all I need? Although, now that I'm thinking of it, I could really go for a salad.
Here's an excerpt from And Shadows Have Their Ending. Seth is having a similar problem...well, sort of.
The girls were giggling together like old friends when Seth arrived back at the inn that evening. Surprised and relieved, he followed the sound of their laughter to the lounge and abruptly lost his temper. “Jesus. Cara– Crap. What the fuck are you doing?” he demanded.
There was an open bottle of wine on the coffee table, once again, and each of the girls held a full glass in her hand. “I thought we talked about this last night? I thought you weren’t gonna do this anymore?”
“Oh, just chill!” Cara waved a hand at him dismissively. “What’s one bottle more gonna hurt? Anyway—check it—I figured out what we can do. I’m gonna tell Sinead that I took all the wine out of the cooler in the kitchen ‘cause I wanted to sort it. From light to dark—you know, like they do at the tastings? I’ll tell her I had all the bottles lined up on the floor when you came in with the dogs and startled me. I got up too quick and tripped, ’cause of my bad leg, and four of the bottles got broken.”
“Four?” There’d been two bottles last night, one now...what was he missing? His math skills weren’t that bad. And neither were hers.
“Or, however many,” Cara said with another negligent wave. “I’ll tell her she can take the cost of the wine out of my pay, she’ll probably say no, and that will be that. And, don’t worry, I’ll make sure she knows you didn’t drink any of them. You just have to back me up about the dogs, ’kay?”
“You mean you want me to lie to her?” he demanded, growing angrier by the second.
“Oh, like you weren’t gonna do that already?” Cara was quick to point out. “You were gonna let her think you drank them just to keep me from getting fired. How’s this any different, other than it’s a much better story and no one gets in any trouble?”
“I guess,” he muttered, annoyed with how relieved he felt. It was a better story and he didn’t want to get kicked out so soon. Still, this was an actual lie. It wasn’t just fudging the truth to protect a friend. And it laid the fault on his dogs—who already had enough shit talked about them!
“Do you need help with the cooking?” Deirdre asked, smiling sweetly.
Seth scowled. “No. Why don’t you two just…just set the table or something?”
He’d known too many girls who got turned on and horny after a couple of drinks. If Deirdre turned out to be one of those, he’d lose his mind for sure.
He went back to the kitchen and got rice started in the rice cooker. Then he went out to the terrace to fire up the grill. He’d bought strip steak and chicken tenderloins to go with the vegetables his uncle had given him: Japanese eggplants, zucchini, Portobello mushrooms, Visalia onions, teardrop tomatoes, along with four kinds of pepper and two types of Summer squash. Served with the rice and a Thai peanut dipping sauce that was just spicy enough to be interesting, he figured it would make a simple, festive meal.
When he went back to the kitchen to mix up the sauce he could hear the girls murmuring together in the dining room. He supposed he should be happy that they were getting along so well, but it was hard when he had the nasty suspicion that he was the topic of much of their whispered conversation.
And Shadows Have Their Ending
Oberon Book 9.0
The last two years have not been kind to Seth Cavanaugh. But, he's suffered and grown and he finally feels ready to put his troubled past behind him. So, doesn't it just figure that the girl who caused all the trouble in the first place should pick now to return and cause him even more torment?
Deirdre Delaney Shelton-Cooper has spent the past two years trying to forget the events that marked her first visit to Oberon, but can you ever really forget the memory of your first love, no matter how painful those memories are? It's just her luck the boy she put herself through hell for has turned out to be such a loser.
After a disastrous reunion, they'd both be content to have nothing more to do with each other, if only fate--and one very determined angel--were not conspiring against them.
There are some wounds that time can't heal. There are some dreams that won't come true. But, sometimes, if you're lucky, shadows have their ending. And the love you'd just about given up on returns.
