A Fine Whine
The wine industry is one of the world's great con games. Don't get me wrong, I like to lift a glass, though I can assure my friend il professore I try to stop short before I risk acid reflux. But the very best wines I've ever had, better than every Chateau-this and Cuvee-that, are the young Tuscan wines I get direct from the grape growers in and around the Chianti region who make their own. It's wine so pure that it won't age because it's free of additives. I used to buy it from a friend, a local trattoria owner, when my wife and I had our place in Volterra not far from San Gimigniano. I got it in big demi-johns, hauled it back to Rome, and bottled it myself, enough to last the coming year. It always left the kitchen floor awash with wine. I find that with the so-called "fine wines," the really expensive stuff, the first sips are transcendant, but they begin to taste like metal shavings around the third glass. You can drink a novello all night and it will still be delicious. It doesn't get you drunk either, just blissfully high, but it does stain your mouth purple.
posted by John M Crowther @ 7:11 AM
9 Comments:
>>find that with the so-called "fine wines," the really expensive stuff, the first sips are transcendant, but they begin to taste like metal shavings around the third glass.<<
I’m always deeply touched by these nostalgic trips John takes us down the roads of Old Toscana before Acid ReDux set in and changed him into less acidic but saner and more productive artist. And yes, I couldn’t agree with him more about the appalling snobbery that has come into the drinking of what is only alcohol. (I blame it all on the English who imported French wines and called them clarets instead of what they really were.) Absinthe, once the drink of paupers, is now legal again here on the eastern seaboard and may cost you 50 bucks a bottle if you are foolish enough to fall for the marketing campaign. On the other hand, I shall never forget the taste of a cheap “vino locale” available in a tiny coastal town on the Amalfi Coast, accessible only by boat. The first taste was divine, but by the second sip those ferrous shavings John’s delicate palette discerned took over, and by the third sip you were ready to throw the whole fiasco (and yourself) overboard.
Just love the way you two bounce off one another! Another entertaining commentary John... another hilarious retort Il Prof!
Nothing else to say except West Australian wines are the "finest" in the world if ever you get the chance.
I have done two trips on the Canal du Midi and made a friend who owns a small vineyard and the local wine shop in Trebes. I love the languedoc wines and also the spanish Riojas. WE have a good local winestore here in Lansing and I generally buy at about $6 a bottle. I have ony failed to finish one bottle of wine in my life a pink catawba from put-in bay ohio. By the way the Canal du midi is a wonderful trip. Roger
Jean I like the wines from Oz as well but as others have discovered them their prices have gone up. roger
I have a wealthy businessman friend who is raising three young daughters, mostly on his own. When my daughter isn't watching them, they are usually with me.
To show his gratitude, my friend likes to bring $200 and up bottles of wine when I have them over to dinner. He goes to Europe several times a month, mostly to Spain and Italy and brings them back. I haven't the heart to tell him I can't tell the difference between those incredibly expensive wines and the $15-$20 bottles most of my friends drink. I think it's all equally nasty. If I decide that I want to risk the consequences of having a drink or two I want something I really enjoy.. like a Samuel Adams Cream Stout, Scotch and soda, or a screwdriver with fresh squeezed orange juice.
I'll take the loaf of bread, just hold the jug of wine.
I have never been a wine drinker. There is a vineyard about 15 miles from me and I have gone out there several times for wine tastings to try to learn what makes a good wine, but am not making any progress. My sister and her husband love wine and are presently building a wine celler in their basement. They love wines from Israel. Katherine
As many of our subscribers are displaying abnormal sensitivities these days, perhaps due to the season, I would like to go on record as saying that I may have mistakenly given some the impression that I believed that it was the absence of Acid Redux in John’s physical constitution that was solely responsible for a shift in John’s artistic accomplishment. Far from it! Talent is talent. However, let us not forget the golden mean –all things in moderation—including moderation.
... and which quadrant would you like all that moderation in Il Prof? (((chuckles)))
Crikey now I'm REALLY confused! There are so many "anonymous" posts lately I'm getting my anonymous's outta wack... ah dang it... time for another drink!(hang the acid redux) LOL
If beauty is in the eye of the beholder, then surely moderation is in the throat of the imbiber. One good rule I’ve learned is this: repeating the same hilarious anecdote you told the night before is questionable, but repeating it twice in the same hour is definitely unacceptable. Cheers!
Post a Comment
<< Home