Getting to Friday night was a heck of an accomplishment. After a week of teaching days and nights, meetings, covering for absent teachers, coaching, and all of the rest of the day-to-day activities that are equally rewarding and exhausting, a text message from our neighbor Travis on Friday afternoon was well-recieved.

We always attempt to watch these shows live with our good friends across the street, but so often their lives or ours don’t allow for such consistency, and we fall back on our Roku and play catch-up when we can. We had the most recent episode of This Is Us and the season finale of Nashville still left in the queue, both of which we were eager to see. Friday night was shaping up to be a nice end to a long week.

After dinner and my first experience with cauliflower rice (I liked it), we put the kids to bed and I sought out some wine. Baron and Travis always graciously provide a bottle, so we started with theirs, a Cabernet made of North Coast fruit, vinted in Sonoma, which I thought was a really solid QPR. When it came my turn, I yet again went for a Dave Phinney wine, and dug out this Locations P4 from the cellar.

The terroir of Duoro leaves an inedible mark upon the palate; this wine tasted familiar for its origins, I thought, but it also had Dave’s unmistakable panache to set it apart. A sort of velvety mouthfeel, engorged by plush purple fruits and faint herbal qualities, this is Phinney’s first Locations label from Portugal, a blend of Touriga Nacional, Trincadeira, and Touriga Franca (say that three times fast). Rich and full bodied, it boasts beautiful black fruits, with subtle layers of cocoa, more herbal qualities, notes of spice, and more. 15% ABV gives it a touch of heat, which is tempered by the soft mouthfeel. Complex, beautiful, and artistic, I still cannot believe these wines are available under $20.

A long week deserves good friends and a good bottle of wine to wrap it up and put a bow on it. Fortunately, both of those precious life commodities were readily available on a rainy Friday night. Let the weekend begin!

Cheers,