Good Cheap Wine Guide

Hi everyone! I wrote a few days ago about a MO winery, Mount Pleasant Winery. I ran across a business friend of mine a while back and lo and behold, the business card he gave me was not what I expected. The dirty dog gave me a card naming Bethlehem Valley, a winery in Marthasville, MO! “What is this all about?”, I asked both surprised and excited. Dan Burkhardt was a wine man. How cool is that?! I had forgotten about the meeting until I wrote about Mount Pleasant and had to dig furiously through archives to find Dan’s card again.

I tried a bottle of his Norton (I know…Norton? but had Pinot characteristics to me.) at a local restaurant before I knew Dan was involved. (Don’t you HATE paying restaurant prices for a bottle of wine….AAGGGH! Could the service possibly be THAT good?) Bethlehem’s Norton had a really full taste with no bitter aftertaste. Rolled on the tongue nicely without that “side of the tongue” tang that can hit me with some Pinots ( I don’t know about other Nortons). Again, remember that this is my bruised and damaged tongue I am talking about so no real expertise here but my dinner guests complimented the wine as well. Experiment yourself though with the Behlehem Valley offerings and I think you will find them pleasant.

I need to check out some Bethlehem wines after Lent is over. It’s more of a Whole Foods wine (or as my brother in law calls it “Whole Paycheck”) than it is a Trader Joe wine. No offense Trader Joe zealots.

Hope your wine tasting is going well during this cold February!

Cheers.