New York Moments - From Tango to Trills

Late this afternoon, I spent a few hours savoring some succulent, tasty, and approachable Argentines (wines of course!). Plentiful eye candy was an added bonus.

In the majestic New York State Theater at Lincoln Center, wine flowed as Tango music filtered through the crowd and sunlight flowed in through the windows. Wow, if only I could have paddled through Patagonia as an encore.

I sipped lovely, aromatic Torrontes (whites), surprisingly, refined Pinot Noirs (though there were a couple overblown ones), and the usual Sauv Blancs, Chards, Cabs, Merlots, and even a Tempranillo (huh?). Of course, Argentina’s claim to wine fame is the Malbec grape. I enjoyed structured, yet smooth and juicy Malbecs from Mendoza (one of Argentina’s most well-known wine regions) and other parts of the country. Quite a departure from the rip out your tongue wines I tried a few years ago (where have I been?). For those of you whose eyes just glazed over during that last bit of geekiness, just know that much of this wine costs around $9 a bottle and it’s yummy. And some of it’s even made by French people. So drink some! Ok, that ends the wine pontification portion of this posting.

Upon leaving the tasting, I was greeted by the glorious strains of Puccini's Madame Butterfly, broadcast far and wide in front of Lincoln Center Plaza (and in Times Square, as I later found out after a bit of Googling.)

The staging, which marks director Anthony Minghella's Met debut (more Googling), was magnificent to my absolutely untrained eye (I’ve never been to the Opera – gasp!) as was the music to my tone-deaf ear. But the more glam, and probably savvier crowd also seemed thrilled.

This unexpected pleasure turned a glorious Indian summer evening into a true New York moment, sigh.

Thanks for reading! Ciao ciao or should I say, hasta luego...