Sweltering Friday: Meet Surprise wine tasting at Azul Tapas Lounge!

Ahh...Alas the week is over and today officially marks the beginning of another weekend in Shanghai.
Today's surprise tasting - kindly offered to my sister and I ("secret diners" for the TV show "Independent Inspector") was a perfect way to kick off the weekend...and to head full on into a heady weekend of lovely wine, fabulous people, and painting the town red. Eduardo Vargas of Azul Tapas Lounge brought over the glasses, and we did the tasting.

To begin our journey through the eight open bottles that are kept in an airtight contraption to preserve freshness and are expressly for customer tasting (I love how Eduardo insists the customer taste before purchasing a bottle,) we had a well-balanced Argentinian Malbec, which I thought (emphasis on the "I") found perfectly soft and fruity with just enough tannin and fruit to balance it out...but what Eduardo REALLY wanted us to try was this:

 A 100% Grenache that had was oh so much more complex! Some nice metallic notes to it with a rustic feel in the mouth. A grape that is typically used for blending, this pure Grenache version was everything a Friday evening Tapas dinner needs: A little soothing, a little spice, and just enough pizzazz to match the array of dishes you might order - and to send you off well for another Friday night out in Shanghai.

Several more tastes and I lost track...no notebook = dealing with Kristin's short term memory! That's ok, I have the bigger memory of a lovely dinner...and after all, every part of a wine daze should have it's pure moments of enjoyment...right? Right.

If you go:
Azul

Address

Ferguson Lane 8/F, 378 Wukang Lu, near Hunan Lu

武康路378号8楼, 近湖南路

Phone

5405 2252