I love knowing where my wine comes from, which is why this wine annoys me. All Line 39 will say about its location is that it's in California at the 39th parallel. Which, I think puts it somewhere near Lake Tahoe? Not a huge wine growing region, AFAIK.
Unless, thanks to climate change, it now is?
Anyway, it's a decent enough Cab--from somewhere in California. It's a dark, inky red with good tannins and nice legs. It's dry and full-bodied with a pronounced blackberry flavor. The nose is filled with dried fruit and baking spices--dried fig, dried cherry, caramel, vanilla. There are hints of black tea in the finish, but there's a creaminess to the mouth feel, so it's more like milk tea...which I'll admit makes it sound awful. But it's not. I'd say it's surprisingly good, except, since I don't know where it actually comes from, might not be surprising, at all.
Here's another excerpt from A Taste of Honey. This passage can also be found in the FREE prequel novella, Such Fleeting Pleasures. I'll post links to both, below.
Lucy gestured at the cluttered countertop. “What’s all this?”
“Dinner.” Dan motioned her towards one of the stools pushed beneath the breakfast bar. “Here. Sit down.”
“Are you a vegetarian or something?” she asked as she surveyed the platter he’d arranged on the counter. Her friend Marsha had recently embraced a vegetarian lifestyle, and she certainly didn’t have anything against the occasional meatless meal, but he sure didn’t seem like the type.
Dan grimaced. “No, I’m not. But I wasn’t exactly planning on entertaining anyone here tonight, either. So we’re just gonna have to make do with what I’ve got on hand. Okay?” He’d picked up a slice of avocado as he spoke, and now he held it out to her.
“Yeah, sure. Whatever,” she replied as she reached for it, but he pulled it away from her hand.
“Uh-uh.” He shook his head, a tiny smile just teasing the corners of his mouth. “Not like that. Open up.”
Lucy felt her stomach tense. He had to be kidding? He wanted to feed it to her? She frowned at him again, but his smile didn’t waver and his eyes held a challenge she couldn’t back away from. Reluctantly, she opened her mouth and he gently slid the slippery green-gold chunk inside. It was perfectly ripened; soft and buttery, with just a hint of balsamic vinegar.2 Her taste buds—traitorous little beasts who couldn’t care less how the food got to them, it seemed—immediately went into ecstasy.
“Good?” he asked popping a piece into his own mouth.
“Mm,” she murmured, noncommittally. She helped herself to another piece.
“Here, try the tomatoes next.” He picked up a tiny orange cherry tomato, and once again held it inches from her mouth. Lucy sighed, and rolled her eyes, but this time she opened her mouth for him just a little more willingly. The tomato was also delicious, and just slightly warm, as if it still retained some trace of sunshine. She bit down on it and it burst inside her mouth with a rush of flavor.
The second tomato was as good as the first, but this time, instead of popping it into her mouth he brushed it back and forth across her lower lip teasingly, until she grew impatient and took it between her teeth and tugged it free of his fingers. She smiled at him, triumphant at having beaten him at his own game. But Dan was smiling too, as if she’d done exactly as he’d wanted her to. His blue eyes gleamed wickedly, and she felt her breath go as she caught sight of the heat that smoldered there. She was no longer certain she understood the rules they were playing by.
“My turn,” she announced recklessly, picking up a tomato and dangling it in front of his face. He leaned forward and took it into his mouth. His lips and tongue briefly caressed her fingertips. A tiny tremor ran through her at the touch and she felt a flush of heat spread across her face.
When he turned to remove something from the oven, Lucy took the opportunity to gather her wits, slipping another piece of avocado into her mouth with trembling fingers.
The rest of the meal went much the same way. They fed each other from the wheel of melted Brie that Dan had heated in the oven. The soft cheese stuck to their fingers and had to be scraped away with their teeth, as well as their tongues. A surprisingly time-consuming process, Lucy discovered, and one which left her fingers tingling from his touch. Next, he’d produced artichokes dripping with melted butter and firm, briny, black olives; sweet, peppered pecans, and last of all, a whole can of smoked oysters. All of it washed down with several glasses of a locally produced Cabernet that was deeply dark, almost earthy in flavor, with an elusive cedar scent. It tasted like a summer night in a pine forest, Lucy thought, feeling dizzy after a couple of glasses.
A Taste of Honey
Oberon Book 4
Buy links: TasteOfHoney
For Lucy Greco Cavanaugh, life is a dream come true. She has it all. The perfect family. The perfect husband. The perfect marriage. What more could she wish for? Other than the chance to do it all again. To experience once more the agony and ecstasy of falling in love with the man of her dreams. To recapture the joy and uncertainty that comes with starting over.
As far as Dan Cavanaugh is concerned, his life has become a nightmare. His storybook marriage is on the line when Deirdre Shelton-Cooper, the runaway daughter of a former girlfriend arrives in Oberon intent on proving Dan is her father. Even though he's convinced the girl's claims are false, Dan decides his only chance to keep from losing everything lies in keeping her very existence a secret from his wife and family.
But, sometimes, what you don't know can hurt you—and those you love. When Deirdre, masquerading as a surfer girl named Monica, accidentally hooks up with their son, Seth, Lucy and Dan are left to wonder: has their perfect, fairy-tale romance, turned into a classic Greek tragedy?
Sometimes you get exactly what you wish for. And it's more than you'd ever dreamed.
Such Fleeting Pleasures
An Oberon Prequel Novella
Download link: https://dl.bookfunnel.com/gw5pntz7zp
Love wasn't always strawberries and cream for Lucy and Dan Cavanaugh...or was it? In this Oberon prequel, we travel back in time to see how it all began.
Most of the material in this prequel novella (set some eighteen years before the series begins) also appears as flashback scenes in A Taste of Honey.
