Wine Wednesday: Finding the Greatest Human Luxury
After last Wednesday’s wine club, I can tell you, without a doubt, how to find the greatest human luxury in your own life.
Malbeca and I felt giddy at our corner table-for-two as we read over the wine list and dinner menu. We stepped out of normal life — where we spend our workweek entering into the darkest corners of other peoples’ lives — to find ourselves in a world where time stood still. We felt decadent.
As usual, we were the youngest people present by twenty years; wine club is not the young folks’ scene. We sometimes feel a bit out of place, but not that night. Malbeca arrived draped in her usual flair, and a woman said I looked stunning (nothing like a chiffon top with no brassiere to do the trick).
Six wines. Four courses. Cultural education. Throwing money around. Discussion on travel to Argentina, France, and Ireland. Sometimes we wonder: who are these women? How did we get here? We love to laugh at what we were like four years ago; we never could have enjoyed evenings like this then…We were too busy with our little schedules — too uptight, too time-anxious, too deadline-driven…
A night like wine club creates something process-oriented, not time-oriented. There is no deadline for the evening; people arrive when they arrive and leave when they leave. People take their time sipping and savoring. Everyone dances through the dinner at their own pace, and no one looks at a phone or a watch.
That is the greatest human luxury — to lose track of time. Four years ago, we couldn’t have created that for ourselves.
Stolpman Sauvignon Blanc | 2014
Practically ivory in color, light-bodied and softly lemon on the nose. A good tangy flavor that becomes creamy as you chew it; this creaminess comes not from the hint of oak but the lees in the aging process. Lees are the dead yeast cells left after the sugar is converted into alcohol. Did not catch a photo of this one — better luck next time.
Served with First Course: pickled shrimp, garden herbs, autumn greens, hoop cheese, smoked remoulade, crispy okra
Avignonesi Rosso di Montepulciano | 2013
Mostly sangiovese, this bright red blend had a cherry fragrance and a zingy flavor three-fourths of the way through. Paired, it opened up better than the Vino Nobile, but it did not stand out to us as much. By the end of the evening, we could not recall its subtleties as well as the others.
Served with Second Course: confit of pheasant, sweet corn and butterbean succotash, spiced sorghum, purple cabbage, cornbread
Avignonesi Vino Nobile di Montepulciano | 2012 *
I deemed this my favorite of the evening. Darker in color, heavier in your hand — a thick luscious swirl — this wine came across as a leathery, muscled standalone wine. As we paired it with our food, it became less rugged, more complex. For the remainder of the dinner it blossomed into a naughty food wine. For those who appreciate visuals, the Vino Nobile made me recall this Buzzfeed article. That’s right, this is man bun wine. Brock O’Hurn would make a fantastic rep.
Served with Second Course.
Bujanda Crianza | 2011 *
This is Kretch’s kind of wine. Even darker than the Vino Nobile — Malbeca named the color “purple raspberry” — we expected the Bujanda to be all dark fruit and tobacco. Surprisingly, we found it to be more medium-to-bright fruit with that rough edge. The red fruit fragrance eased us into an oaky strawberry flavor combined with a less sweet taste of cherry. The Bujanda also opened up with the meal.
Served with Third Course: pork shank braised in apple butter, butternut sage gnocchi, chestnut brown butter, roasted fennel, brassica remolata
Casa Ferreirinha Papas Figos Tinto | 2013 *
Malbeca’s choice of the night. Black cherry color with a deep vanilla scent on the nose. Dark oak and cherry flavors with a soft finish. The strength of the oak disappears with food, making it complement a heavy course very well. The rep told a fun little story about the reason for the wine’s name and the bird on the label…which I can’t for the life of me recall.
Served with Third Course.
Annalisa Malvasia | 2014
The color of a blood orange, this delightful dessert wine almost looks like a strawberry soda — bright and fizzy — and begs the question, “What is happening in my mouth?” Normally, we find dessert wines to be too much, but this one was better balanced. Bright in flavor but not too sweet; it went well with the fruit cake and ice cream. With a low alcohol content, it comes across as refreshing, cleansing the palate. I suggested churches serve the Annalisa Malvasia instead of grape juice for communion.
Served with Fourth Course: fermented fruit cake with burnt sugar ice cream and pecan brittle
* = Took her home
The greatest luxury we can give ourselves is moments without time. Hope you enjoyed one of our favorite ways to find those moments!
How do you lose track of time?
Facebook doesn’t count. That’s called wasting time — not the same thing. Ha.
How do I lose track of time? I’m a beer person. Not a craft, dark, thick, sediment beer kind of a person. Just your everyday normal “Budlight Keystone Light” out of a bottle or can kind of person. Give me six pack of off the shelf buy it anywhere beer and an Ecig with a fresh atomizer and my favorite juice…a comfortable place to sit(like in front of the wood stove on a cold night)…and I can lose myself in a world of imagination, creation and fantasy.
Some might say that imagination, creation and, especially, fantasy are a waste of time. However, the three actually allow you to lose time and space. You are now in a world that doesn’t exist in your day to day grind of time and responsibilities. A place where you are…well…whoever you create to be. A place that no one can judge, alter or apply their own self righteousness towards.
And where would the world be if some people throughout history didn’t lose themselves in thought of things not yet thought of.
Absolutely…Ms. K is correct. Take a moment out of your life to lose time and socially accepted responsibilities. Delve into the world, occasionally, where the concept of time and reality do not exist.