This wine takes the cake

Our friends Bob & Nicole invited us over to partake in Bob’s birthday cake Friday night. (OK, this is how it really happened: Nicole posted something on Facebook Thursday night about a cake she was making and I made an “Oh my god I want some of that” comment and she felt obligated to say “Come on over.” So we did.)

So Friday afternoon I’m at the credit union, which is right around the corner from Bottles in Millwood. And I think to myself, “If I bring a tasty bottle of wine to the cake encroachment, it might make us seem less like mooches!”

I also think, “If we bring Bob some beer he might think we’re actually showing up to celebrate his birthday, and not just horn in on the cake.”

I walk in and head directly to the refrigerated cases. I grab a few bottles of Irish Death (Happy Birthday to Bob!), mosey up to the counter and say, “Also, I need a bottle of wine. Whattaya got that’ll go with a cake called ‘Lime in the Coconut?’”

And the conversations goes on, something like this:
Him (who’s name I don’t know but who I refer to as “That awesome guy at Bottles who always knows exactly what we need” …) : Well, you probably want something white.
Me (Sounding far more wine-literate than I have a right to) : Oh, yeah, totally.
Him: OK, do you want something that will showcase the sweetness, like a riesling? Or something that might temper the sweetness, like a pinot?
Me: Hmmm. I think the cake will be sweet enough. (Then, taking a giant step toward letting Awesome Guy realize that I really don’t know much …) Plus, pinot is way more fun to say, don’t you think?
Him: OK (expertly sidestepping my cluelessness) let’s take a look at what we have over here …

We’re standing in the midst of hundreds of glossy glass vessels. He’s presenting bottles to me, briefly describing their attributes. But in my head I hear only the garbled voice of Charlie Brown’s teacher.

And before Awesome Guy wastes any more time on me I spit out: “Look here’s the deal – I buy wine by the label. Like that one up there (pointing to a label that looks like a periodic table “Pg” element), to me that looks like a really good wine.”

He looks at the bottle I pointed to and says it is, indeed, a good choice. But then he grabs a bottle of pinot a few shelves down and turns the bottle around so I can see the label that really matters – the $8.99 price tag – and says, “But this one will probably be perfect with your cake.”

He was, of course, absolutely correct.

You’ll find Bottles at 3319 N. Argonne Road, next to the Rocket Bakery in Millwood. Their number is 509.443.4027