Gessami

Crawling out of my window onto my fire-escape couldn’t save me from my sweltering Brooklyn apartment moreover that hot August evening in New York City. Beverages were surely in order. My roommate and I assessed our lack of funds, asked our selves again why we were too cheap to buy an air-conditioner, and decided dinner and wine were our best options to cool down and satisfy our late summer boredom.

The wine was “Gessami”, a Spanish white from the Penedes Region, and a blend of Muscat and Sauvignon Blanc, and our take-out dinner venue being Fabianes Cafe in Williamsburg. I decided upon my usual—a grilled chicken salad, tossed with jicama, roasted corn, creamy black beans, and mixed greens tossed with a delicious cilantro, pesto vinaigrette.

Firstly the wine, notes of almond, honey, peach, with a slight effervescent finish went perfectly with the earthy yet almost cucumber and celery-like fresh flavors of the jicama. I also added to my plate some of Brooklyn’s finest— mainly some vine-ripened tomatoes grown on my fire-escape. The tomatoes, little bulbous treasures of the summer heat, were bursting at the skin and drizzled with extra virgin olive oil, and topped with sea salt. The sea salt sparkled through the olive oil which shone like rays of sunshine. The vibrant acidity of the tomatoes with a touch of richness from the olive oil added structure to the wine’s soft fruit aromas creating an almost nutty flavor. The sea salt enhanced the wine’s soft acidity just enough to brighten the wines delicate finish.

As we polished off our last glass and began our search for chocolate, we solved our apartment cooling predicament—finding boyfriends with air-conditioners.