St. Lucia

I have a tendency to spend all of my vacations in wine regions. Or at least tying the vacation into wine somehow. Even my honeymoon was spent in Tuscany with a few winey visits thrown into the mix. After nearly being together for nearly thirteen years, Kara finally put her foot down and insisted on a tropical vacation where I couldn't focus on wine. St. Lucia - here we come!


What the hell do I have to write about in regards to St. Lucia...?


Believe it or not, the island has some domestic beverages that are quite good. They don't get as much imported liquor and wine as you might think. Common names such as Grey Goose and Ketel One are absent from bars and grocery stores. I asked for a Belvedere martini and the bartender asked what was in it... There are less than ten beers on the island, about four of which are made there.

Here are a few of my new beverage experiences in the Carribean:



Piton is what seems to be the most popular domestic beer on the island. It's one of three lagers available, challenged by Caribe (another Carribean beer) and Heineken. I drank more than my fair share of this on the trip. It was slightly better than your average inexpensive lager, with a pronounced cheap hoppy flavor. Kara and I comiserated that it really just tasted like cheap college keg beer. But very quaffable and at those daily temperatures, I was glad to have a glass or two.



Venturing out to the local markets, I discovered the rest of the beers available on the island. Rooster was a dark, malty ale that tasted like an adult chocolate malt. Super light on hops and barely noticable. Sort of like a less good version of Chimay Blue. It was tough to get through a full bottle, but not bad. I paired it with some local banana chips. The chips were dry and not sweetened so it actually made an interesting contrast and complement to the beer. In the photo, you'll also find the cat Kara adopted: Lucy.



At the store, I also found a Ginger Wine from Jamaica. I'd never heard of Ginger Wine so I picked one up to give it a try. On the nose, it smelled like a Coke when the ice has melted and it's gotten watered down. Sweet on the palate and exceptionally spicy from ginger, it also shows some oxidative notes on the finish that remind me of Oloroso sherry. I couldn't drink more than a few sips of this so I toured it around the resort allowing other guests to try it. One of the locals recommended adding a little soda water to it as a serving option which I thought would be an interesting way to cut the sweetness, but I'd moved back on to beer and didn't try it.

Of course, as one might expect, they distill a number of different styles of rum that are made on the island. I'd intended to make my way over to the facility during the stay, but spent more time scuba diving than I expected. I did, however, grab a few bottles from the store to taste upon returning home. If they are anything to speak of, I will certainly post about them, though I expect they will be fairly standard.

Enjoying wine was a tremendous challenge as there isn't much of note and particularly little from Europe. Argentina and Chile have a fairly strong presence in the market with a little from California, New Zealand and a smattering of French and Italian. We managed to try a couple of wines with dinners: an Orvieto and 'Parallel 45' Cote du Rhone, which is commonly seen here in the States. I also found a bottle of Trimbach Riesling 2007 which we had at one of their nicer French restaurants. It was actually pretty good: lots of lime and green apple, chalk, petrol and white flowers. Very crisp acidity and hardly any residual sugar. This was killer with the appetizers and with the breaded pork entree we ordered. I even had some with the Filet Mignon (because I certainly wasn't drinking the Beringer Stone Cellars Cab they had by the glass).









This was just amazing to see...










All in all, a great time. As soon as we walked back in the door, Kara asked me what I was longing for from home. "A great bottle of wine", I replied. So, as we stumbled in at 2:30 am (which was 5:30 to us coming from the east coast), we popped a bottle of Grand Cru Blanc de Blanc Champagne and welcomed ourselves back to California, great sushi, and world class wines. It's always good to come home!