The joys of modern travel.  After scrambling off the plane with each of us carrying two bags, we made our way to the baggage area, to get our other luggage.  I have no idea, how people can do a flight with one bag.  Then we now each had three bags in tow and proceeded to the rental car agency to pick up a car.  We were kind of lucky that we got an upgrade, because I said that and showed that we were from Detroit, and I thought we should have an “American” car made by the Big Three.  Off we went to our hotel for the next week, and thankfully now the phones have GPS, so we don’t have to rely on memory.  I mean, I need as much memory space that I have left for wine information, since there is still so much to learn, as a rank amateur.

The other most important thing was to stop at a wine shop, before we got to the hotel.  I mean we did have to maintain a small oasis for relaxation.  Our room has a refrigerator, so that calls for wine, and in our checked luggage was a cork screw and some rubber corks for resealing the bottles.  We also had to buy a case of bottled water, as I discovered years ago, even in the homes, bottled water is the norm, and even the restaurants use it when serving glasses of water on the table.  Since we were getting wine, it was also only natural that we would get some wedges of cheese and of course some crackers.  One can’t be a heathen, even in the dessert.

I picked up a couple of easy drinking wines to get us started.  The first bottle was Domaine Chatelain Petit Chablis 2016, as I have read about the designation, but I had not tried one.   It is the lowest classification for Chablis, as most of it is for local consumption, because it is from the outlying areas of Chablis.  It had a nice crisp Chardonnay color and nose, without any oak and very easy to drink, when one is trying to maintain the lifestyle of Nick and Nora Charles.  The other wine that I picked up was for easy drinking as well.  The Chateau de Nages Cuvee JT Blanc Costiers de Nimes 2015 was just perfect, as it has our initials on it, though in reality the JT stands for Joseph Torres.  The wine is a blend of Roussanne, Viognier and Grenache Blanc.  The different juices spent eight months on the lees, before blending in French Oak.  The Costier de Nimes is the southern most designation of the Rhone, originally it was part of the Languedoc with the VDQS Costieres du Gard until 2004, so I thought it would be fun to try it.  It was very refreshing and the Viognier gave it the little extra plus to the nose.  We were off to a good start.