CARCASSONNE & ABBESSE SAUVIGNON BLANC

Sometimes these pairings just fall into my lap. A few months ago, a friend of mine was clearing out their liquor cabinet, and they offered me some of their surplus wine. As I was going through the box, I noticed the bottle of Abbesse Sauvignon Blanc. Right on the spot, the label reminded me of Carcassonne. I felt that a Sauvignon Blanc would also probably pair pretty well with the board game: light crisp and green, much like the fields that you build with the tiles. So I took it home, tried it out, and lo and behold, it was a fitting pairing. Abbesse Sauvignon Blanc is crisp and refreshing, with notes of lemon, grass and green apple. It's an easy-drinking crowd-pleasing wine, and thus the perfect pairing for a classic game like Carcassonne. The thought of sipping this wine while casually playing a round of Carcassonne on a quiet afternoon sounds wonderfully relaxing and refreshing to me. I also really love the French heritage going on here. Abbesse Sauvignon Blanc hails from the Loire Valley of France, while Carcassonne is inspired by the similarly named medieval fortress in the south of France. Carcassonne was one of the first board games I played when I started getting into modern board games. We played it almost as much as we played Settlers of Catan. Maybe the cat remembered it fondly when I was taking this photograph, as this is probably one of the games he has sprawled out on (to our dismay) the most.

I love Carcassonne. It's a simple classic game, and almost everyone will happily sit down for a round. It's easy to jump into and play a quick, casual yet stimulating game. I put off posting this pairing for a while. I've literally had the empty bottle on my shelf for months. I was afraid that it wouldn't be flashy enough, and that it wouldn't get me a lot of traction on social media. Carcassonne is great...but...wouldn't it be better to be posting about trendy games like Root and Wingspan? Maybe it would, but its not easy and its not realistic for me. It's time to put thoughts like that behind me. Worrying about numbers, timing and popularity is more of a hindrance than it is strategy at this point. I've wanted to be more consistent with my pairings for a long time, and I've wanted to start writing blog posts along with my Instagram and Twitter posts. So today, all of that changes. From here on out, I am going to start a new trend of posting on the first and third Wednesday of every month (Wine Wednesday alliteration!). I'm going to focus on writing more blog posts, with an attempt to do a cross between a review and a journal entry for each post. I have good old Carcassone to thank for this. It was the only pairing I had on the backburner after another pairing fell through (the wine I had bought just didn't work, it happens!). Carcassonne reminded me that in the end, reliability is what I'd like to start achieving. So here's to tried and true board games, second-hand wines, and reliability. Maybe this post isn't as flashy as some of the other visually overloaded content out there, but I'll be damned if I didn't have just as good of a time sipping this Sauv Blanc and trying to shoo my cat away from the Carcassonne meeples. Happy Wine Wednesday everyone!