We had to go up to Frederick, Maryland, on the Friday before Memorial Day weekend to do some personal business. We like Frederick - it has become a very cool town with excellent restaurants, refurbished buildings, and a great canal area that feels so refreshing on a hot day.

We finished our business, then decided to have lunch overlooking the canal at The Wine Kitchen. This is a great little restaurant - there is one in Leesburg, Virginia, that we tried out a few years ago and now the one in Frederick. They have a number of different flights of wine from which one can choose, or even more full glass selections. The wine flights range from $12-17, and they have some great combinations, to include a flight of wines from local vineyards.

On this particular day, I decided to try “Pinot Evil”, consisting of three types of Pinot Noir from three different areas. Since I decided to go with the Pinot, I ordered a carrot-ginger soup, and then a mushroom strudel with a side of mixed greens. My three wines were a 2012 Noble Vines, 667 from Monterey, California; a 2011 Louis Latour from Marsannay, France; and a 2010 David Hill Estate from Willamette Valley, Oregon. The differences between them were amazing - the California wine being very fruit-forward with notes of black cherry; the French wine being much more earthy with strong notes of eucalyptus and mushrooms; and the Oregon wine being somewhere in the middle of the other two with heavier notes of mushrooms, but definitely flavors of cranberries and cinnamon. All three went very well with the carrot-ginger soup. The mushroom strudel was made most definitely like a traditional sweet strudel but with the earthy mushrooms. On the edges of the strudel, however, there was a slight drizzle of sweetness to remind one of the origins of the dish, which went better with the California Pinot. Just yummy!

Ernie chose to go with the “Full Bloom”, which had a rosé from Provence, a Riesling, and a Valpolicella. To accompany his wine selection, he ordered a baby beet salad with arugula, apples, and a mascarpone mousse, and then a plate of six Rappahannock oysters. Ernie loved the rosé, which was a 2012 L’Opale de la Presqîle from Côte de Provence, France (made from Grenache, Cinsault, and Carignan) - it went perfectly with his salad. The Riesling was a 2011 Schloss Vollrads from Rheingau, Germany, which was a super accompaniment to the oysters. And then the 2011 Rafael Tommasi Valpollicella Classico Superiore from Veneto, Italy, which went with both dishes very well.

The really fun thing about The Wine Kitchen are the write-ups that accompany the wine flights. There is truly an accomplished writer who works for the restaurant - the descriptions matched our wines completely, and they are so much fun to read. For one of my Pinot Noirs, the description read “… Bright notes of raspberry and cranberry add a switch stick of acidity to accentuate the distinct notes of rhubarb and eucalyptus in the middle of this wine. A wine like this creates its own story through sheer personality, vigor, and panache…” A different write-up included this statement, “…The brooding nature coupled with the finesse of this wine reminds you of a bearded lady. So beautiful in its polished unusual ruggedness, you can’t seem to turn away.” We thought these were really clever, and the descriptions of the flavors were dead-on with what we were tasting. (Although Ernie had a slight thought about his third-grade teacher and hoped he wouldn’t dream about her that night…)

The day was just perfect - brilliant sunshine with only a few clouds, a light breeze to keep the temperature cool, and the lovely canal and lots of people and their children and dogs just enjoying the day. What a delightful way to start the Memorial Day weekend!