Ok, so I get it, some people tend to smoke when they drink. But we are talking about wine tasting here, remember? Not a single person in the world thinks the stench of stale smoke is appealing and it really gets in the way of sensory perception when you are trying to articulate each nuance of a wine. So do the world a favor and if you plan to drink and smoke – go somewhere else – like a trashy bar in Detroit.
I guess life is just a series of moments, lows and highs. We spend a lot of time searching for the high. If we are smart we are aware of our surroundings and can appreciate the moment in front of us. We can create our own highs.
For anyone out there who is suffering today, I want to say, lift your head – you are not alone. Raise your glass and cheers to what is in front of you that you may not see. Cheers to a life worthwhile. Cheers to perspective.
Thank you friends, thank you family. And cheers to 2012 and what it may bring.
Stop right there…
As far as I know the almighty Jesus was the only one who could turn water into wine… so why don’t you take a look before pitching your water… you might be aiming into the water pitcher. And…
Don’t bother rinsing. Tasting is progressive. You taste white, then red. Light to heavy. When you rinse the glass you are adding another substance and diluting your wine! You will want to rinse your glass in between a red wine and a white wine or some dessert wines. You can trust your pourer and refrain from rinsing unless instructed to do so.
That’s all!
Ang
I had a thought concerning my dreams. Concerning my life. Wondering why my brain was nearly dead for a year or more and now is suddenly alive again. No change in my habits other than the daily dose of olive oil. But my dreams are running deep. They are another life, and they are sending me messages that I am unsure how to interpret. But I feel there are definitely messages, signs and symbols hidden within them. I hope I can decode them. Last night my dream was quite strange and imaginative, sort of an Alice in Wonderland (Cheshire Cat and all) experience; enjoy:
(Click below for the dreams theme song…it was playing throughout my dream)
‘This is how I show my love.
I made it in my mind because
I blame it on my ADD baby.
This is how an angel cries
Blame it on my own sick pride
Blame it on my ADD baby
SAIL! SAIL! SAIL! SAIL! SAIL!
Maybe I should cry for help
Maybe I should kill myself
Blame it on my ADD baby
Maybe I’m a different breed
Maybe I’m not listening
So blame it on my ADD baby
la la la la la, oh’
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
I’m aboard a boat with crew of novices. Girls mainly. They are heaving and hoeing like old time pirates, bringing up the heavy anchor. One red-headed girl almost gets crushed by the weight of the giant chain and I stand by and watch in my corner. The neighboring heaver helps rescue her from the massive steel entangled in seaweed as it rises up, making it’s dark, clanking sound.
Once it is lifted from the ocean floor we start to move. The force of the wind installs a fervent speed that adds a certain fear to my mood. My friend is the captain and other friend is the co-captain. For some reason I don’t really trust their judgment. I think I’d make a better captain. I have more sailing experience. I try to tell them about the time that I was sailing in conditions similar to these, with all that wind behind me and how it took 5 days to get back after only going out for a couple of hours. They simply laughed; carelessly. I grew more and more concerned. It seems like we are sailing for a long, long time.
Finally, we arrived at an island where we depart and walked about. I find an ancient wine cellar and climb my way to the top of the walls of wine boxes and pick out a bottle of wine. Then look down and wonder how I will get back down. Then I feel the pain in my arms and wonder how I will hold myself up. It’s high and perilous. I’m tired, too tired to be afraid of the fall. I decide to shimmy down as far as I could then let myself drop. I imagine that the landing won’t hurt too bad. I think of my knees, hoping they won’t hurt much more than they already do. I didn’t care. I felt careless. This place made me feel that way. So I let myself fall. I land with my bottle of wine and continued on.
Everything began to expose itself as a magical encounter. Men, woman and creatures spawned like exceptional sights upon my desert, tropical island that I was, at the moment, walking alone. These creatures bore masks made of fruit and one in particular was cut out of a giant olive. His eyes peering through it, at me, but through me. It was as if these creatures couldn’t see me. It was as if I were dead.
Then I came upon my friends who I shared my bottle of wine with. It was quite good. We commented on it, some Chateau (something with an M in it and red on the label -I’d know if I saw it) blah blah from France. It was fruity but didn’t start off that way… kind of dry and gritty really restrained but it opened up and you could tell there was Grenache in it. It was really good.
Funny huh? Then I looked up in the sky and low and behold there was a Cheshire cat, purple and all smiling down at me – and I thought ‘well that is all I need!’
I wished the world, the real world were as laid back as this world. I wished that in the back of my mind I wasn’t worried about getting to work on time, because I was. I still had an uneasy feeling about where I was and who I was keeping company with. Something wasn’t right. Then another friend of mine (Laurie) showed up. She was there with someone else who seemed to have witnessed the two of us as we shared a night out once. This person had our receipts from that night and on the receipts there was a purchase that we had made: magic. Yes, we bought magic. Well – duh! the woman also goes on to explain that while Laurie was asleep earlier she took a voice recording of her mumbling. Mostly it was incoherent but twice she blatantly said ‘YOU!’.
The End.
I just got a call… “Do you allow children in the tasting room”, she asked as her toddler screamed in the background. “No.” I answered. I was lying. But hey, I did it for the whole. Not just myself. Listen, I love kids, REALLY, I do. Especially well behaved ones. But if you have kids that need to be leashed, don’t tot them along with you while you get schnockered. It just isn’t morally right.
Baby doesn't want you to get drunk and try to hold her
Sometimes I walk into the tasting room and it looks like we just got struck by the cracker monster. Cookie Monster’s cousin who mows through all the crackers in sight leaving crumbs all over the place. Or better yet, I refill the cracker tray for a party-of-two and they clear the plate in 2.5 seconds. Guess what? The crackers are simply there for you to cleanse your palate. Not for you to chow down on. Sorry. And if you ask me where the cheese is, I’m going to tell you it is at the store. Go buy that yourself.
