huevos con vino

I was shopping today in the urban hellzone known as Whole Foods, where the other patrons seemed bent on reliving the creepy “skeletons falling on top of Karen Allen” scene in Raiders of the Lost Ark, by which I mean I felt like Karen Allen as I tried to wade past the ossifying shoppers squeezed like me into cramped antechamber-sized spaces.  I think I actually touched one of them, those “others” who always look through or past me as they wallow after their ill-mannered children, jostling me as I try to do my best Walter Payton impersonation through each aisle.  Happily, my beard makes the smaller children cry, which is always a nice point of distraction as I grab the final bag of dried organic morel mushrooms. Clearly, I love Whole Foods.

But today, as I looked in vain for fresh corn, I noticed something interesting.  They had many bunches of organic, California-grown Carignane grapes and a scant few bunches of Colombard grapes.

Usually when I find “wine” grapes around here, they are either Muscat grapes (good, but major stomachaches ensue) or “champagne” grapes (which means they’re tiny grapes, that’s about all).  But these grapes today were formidable, especially the Carignane.  I selected a good, firm bunch that looked ready to be pressed into a vat over at Jessie’s Grove Winery.  I tasted a grape after I left the store…very juicy, sweet, firmly ripe…wow!  Amazing.  I want several more.

The good people at Appellation America have cool descriptions of the Carignane and Colombard grapes in their illustrated varietal chart.  That’s a lot of links in one sentence.  Sorry about that.  But each link is worth it, trust me.

Anyway, if you have a Whole Foods near you, I feel bad for you if you don’t have dedicated parking for your SUV.  But if you can walk to your local Whole Foods, I encourage you to look for organic Carignane grapes.  They’re quite tasty!  No word on which vineyard sold their fruit to Whole Foods, but I assume there are plenty of grapes to go around….