Wine and the Bard

Shakespeare Festival
Nickel and Nickel PonzoVineyard Zinfandel, $45.00
Tablas Creek Cotes de Tablas, $23.00
Shane's Notes

We always imbibe premium wine on our annual trip to the Shakespeare Festival in Orinda, so we brought a Nickel and Nickel and a Tablas Creek. These two wineries are definitely among our favorite California wineries. The Nickel and Nickel Zinfandel is true to their style and especially stunning for a Zinfandel. This one has a heavier flavor palate than some of Nickel and Nickel’s other offerings – juicy black fruit and raspberries with a hint of white pepper at the end. The Cotes de Tablas, a Rhone style blend, is also amazing for its price range. The flavors are subtle and include plums and licorice. The Cotes de Tablas has a much longer finish than the Nickel and Nickel as the flavors keep expanding on the palate. Both wines have firm, hidden tannins and both are extraordinarily well-crafted. You could easily spend twice as much as we did and not find wines of this quality.

On a theatrical note, we highly recommend going to the Shakespeare Festival in Orinda – it can be a bit chilly, but it is a great outdoor venue complete with picnic grounds. We usually have a bottle of wine with a light snack before the play, and then we have another bottle during the play (yes, you can actually bring wine and snacks into the theater!). I have been going for over 7 years now and the productions are usually excellent. My only complaint is that they are starting to slip in some non-Shakespeare plays, but I suppose the Bard just doesn’t fill the seats.

There was even some post-production entertainment at this play. After the play, the man next to me loudly exclaimed to his female companion, “You are so uptight that I couldn’t get a needle up your ass with a jackhammer.” A very funny comment after a few bottles of wine.

For more information on the Shakespeare Festival, go to their website at www.calshakes.org.