Drink different
On our recent vacation to the Virgin Islands, Mrs. Vino and I dined at a surprisingly swanky restaurant in St. Thomas that opened directly onto the beach and the black night sea. Presented with the wine list, I was shocked to discover only four red wines available by the glass and a gaping void for the full bottles between the $40 Torres at the low end and the towering Silver Oak for $200 at the high end (and only one Pinot Noir—-I guess Sideways didn’t make it to the island).
The intrepid Mrs. Vino dared a $14 (!!) glass of Estancia Cabernet, which she found short, sharp and worse yet, warm, all of which led to an involuntary wincing after each sip. The atmospheric openings to the beach meant that the wine was served at room temperature or about 80 degrees. This led me to develop a theory of tropical travel for wine geeks: drink different.
I explored a local gourmet shop that had a surprisingly large range of wines available at about 30% above prices in the continental US. While the shop was air conditioned, some of the labels were stained indicating that either that bottle or one near it had leaked possibly because of heat somewhere along the way. In tropical heat, a case of wine doesn’t need too long to cook if it is sitting in a warehouse without climate control. Why even bother taking your chances when there are plenty of local options?
Although the Virgin Islands doesn’t have a brewery, that doesn’t stop buckets of beer from appearing on the beach. Jamaican Red Stripe was less than a dollar a bottle and served chilled. Mmm, refreshing.
But even more local is of course rum. Impervious to the destructiveness of heat, the island rum, Cruzan, is about $3.50 a bottle and forms the base of many drinks from Piña Colada to the local frozen Bushwacker (coconut milk, Kahlua, Baileys, rum and probably more). While mixed drinks and food don’t usually make good pairings they do go great with conch fritters by the ocean!
Although I would have loved to have had a good bottle of red wine at the restaurant, until restaurants and shops in the tropics make a better effort at wine selection, storage and serving, I’m drinking local. When visiting hot spots, I’ll leave even the thought of red wine at home. It’s easier on the wallet and leads to greater satisfaction—-two things essential to a good vacation.
When sea grapes are the local grape, choose rum or beer
tags: wine | food and drink | travel
On January 31st, 2006 at 1:19 pm ,jens at cincinnati wine wrote:
Yes, I concur with that notion. When on a tropical island, drink Rum and cold beer, and skip the Lynch Bages.
On February 3rd, 2006 at 8:48 am ,Moonmuse wrote:
Since I live in the USVI I would love to know the location of the fine dining experience. I can surmise the store location. As I am continually being asked to provide “off the cuff” dining suggestions to tourists it would be useful information. I will concur with the comments about local rum, etc.
On February 3rd, 2006 at 12:05 pm ,Dr. Vino wrote:
sure, drop me a line