Vacation is always an interesting topic in my house. Do we want an active location or somewhere we can just hang out? If it’s somewhere warm, is it Hawaii, Mexico, or the East Coast beaches like North Carolina’s beautiful Outer Banks? And while the kids still don’t ask this question, the one I always have in the back of my mind is, “Where can I get some good food and wine while I’m on vacation?” It seems sad that you would have to trade a fun location for a decent meal and a bottle of good vino.
Well, I finally made that trade and went to Puerto Vallarta, Mexico. I stayed at a beautiful hotel (not sure if it fit the definition of “resort”), which had two restaurants of its own, and a sister hotel next door with two restaurants, one being a pizza place literally overlooking the beach and the amazing nightly sunsets.
How was the food? Amazingly, we ate pretty well. From New Zealand Lamb to Mahi Mahi to Pacific Shrimp prepared many different ways, all of it was much better than expected. And the wine selection? Before I answer that and lest you think I am fixated on drinking wine all the time, I did consume a lot of cerveza and more than my share of tequila and mixed tequila drinks. And I enjoyed them all—even the cans of lightly flavored Mexican beer that would never make it anywhere near my fridge at home (I still couldn’t bring myself to add the limes, though).
Considering the quality of the food was pretty high, there were several occasions to enjoy a good wine to enhance the meal, but that was difficult primarily due to the selection. I’m not sure if it is a matter of import duties—wines from most countries were priced pretty high, save for Spain which I hear gets favorable duties from the Mexican government—or distribution, or the skill of the hotel wine buyer. The Mexican wine selection was weak and prices were high to boot—26% VAT on domestic wines doesn’t exactly help the local producers.
I did manage to eke out some enjoyable selections with my seafood, with a 2007 Muga Rioja Blanco and even a fairly fresh 2008 Errazuriz Sauvignon Blanc. A not so smart (price-wise), but delicious, wine was the 2004 Antinori Toscana Rosso which they had floating around the beachside pizza place!
By mid-week, I had given in to “drinking local”. I even started to enjoy the fancy table-side beer service which was Modelo in a can, on crushed ice in its own cute, silver ice bucket with lime slices on top (I still wouldn’t use them). So I managed to have a great vacation, some decent meals, and a satisfying week of beverages.
But the night after I got home, I couldn’t resist ordering a beautiful, inexpensive bottle of Nero d’Avola at my local pizza place (Pizza Antica) for about one-third the price of the Mexican Antinori. Fun vacation, but good to be home.
Tags: Aninori Toscana Rosso, Errazuriz Sauvignon Blanc, Muga Rioja Blanco, Nero d'Avola, Puerto Vallarta, wine blogger, Wine Importer
