Woody Cavenaugh

My wife and some friends went a couple of weeks ago to Rioja! A Wine Bar located on 1603-D Battleground Ave. Greensboro across from Rock Ola Grill. They spoke of the experience in excited whispers. It was like evesdropping on a group of tween girls talking about the flavor of the minute boy star. These women were using words and expressions I thought they reserved for talking about sex and other people's husbands. They were smitten.

But I am not so easily impressed. For one, I don't know wine. I was 26 before I had my first taste of alcohol and that was African vodka. I learned enough about hard liquer to know that Scotch was sexual assalt in a glass. Wiskey was better than vodka, and bad tiquila was better than top shelf gin. Next I experimented in beer. I prefer reds, like Killians, and Red Oak. My best experiences in wine (I tasted my first wine about two years ago) were from Duplin Cellars, and my dad's homemade wine. I do not know wine, I can't pronounce most of them. But at least I know what I like, even if I can't always ask for it by name.

Last night was date night, and after dinner we went over to Rioja! so I could see what the fuss was about. The decor was relaxing even if the chair nearly put my tubby butt in a panic when I thought I was going to tumble over backwards. (They did have normal four point chairs and I was ok after switching.) The manager (Jason Hedgecock) strolls over and asks us what we wanted in a very warm and welcoming way. So I leveled with him. I told him what I just told you, I don't know wines, and my favorite wines are sweet wines like scuppernogs and muscadines. I also told him I was ready for any ridacule he might be ready to send my way since I didn't go for the fancy pants dry stuff that the snobs went for by the bottle. Rather than be thrown out for being a wine simpleton he put me at ease and in a minute had two wines for me to try, the first was a riesling that tasted to me like an amusement park ride, I found it exciting and a little scary. The next one was a red desert wine from Italy, he neglected initially to tell me it was carbonated. It was the best wine I think I could possibly have in public and with my cloths on.

When the dust settled I was bring home two bottles of wine and a very positive outlook about wine and the wine scene in general. I look forward to hanging out there again with friends real soon.

If you like wine and good company in a relaxing atmosphere you have to check out Rioja! If you don't know wine (like me), come to Rioja! and tell them you're new to wine, you won't be disappointed by the experience.

I also just found a GoTriad Article about it here. So if you can't take my word for it listen to the other guy. I personally find it hysterical that we both used the phrase "fancy pants", even if we did use to to describe two entirely different things (though enjoyed by the exact same type of people).