Anyway, this one is about tasting wine. (You know who you are!) Quite a few years ago, I went to a wine-tasting at my friend P’s. He was, at the time, a stakeholder in a small mail-order wine merchant, and he’d organised this event, ostensibly for promotional purposes. P lives just round a few corners, so I was able to walk there and (theoretically) back. This was a Saturday evening.
The guy who ran the show was absolutely brilliant. As C (Mrs P) supplied suitable snacks and canapés, he took us through fifteen wines, carefully and informatively leading us from the lightest of light Loires to a dense, almost treacly Barolo, and you really did taste the differences as we progressed. It was a memorable evening, or would have been had the ‘no swallowing’ rule been rigorously imposed. As it was, I wanted to order a case of something or other, but the order form somehow became indecipherable. I seem to remember dancing later on. And the journey home was, well, staggering.
What I really wanted to say was, it’s impossible to quaff in those quantities nowadays. Obviously age and degeneration are factors here, but it’s also very hard to find a wine under 14% these days. I forgot my glasses a while back, so couldn’t read the small print and accidentally came back with two bottles of something which proudly claimed to contain sixteen per cent alcohol. Sixteen per cent! That’s practically sherry. I don’t want to swig near-sherry with my dinner. Do the producers honestly believe that all we want from our wine is ever-increasing amounts of alcohol?
Anyway anyway, talking of glasses, I found two of these
at the back of the sideboard, and now I’m going to be sleeping all night with that infuriating jingle.
Oh, and whoever is constantly hitting my blog with Googlebot, please stop doing it, it's really annoying. Thank you.
The Sage could provide an 18th century cuspidor, if required.
ReplyDeleteI put "Ideative Plagiarism" into Google and guess what came up first?
ReplyDeleteAgreed about the wine - we need to gradually reduce the percentage of everything as we get older.
Strange, the things one finds at the back of the sideboard.
ReplyDelete"The journey home was staggering"
ReplyDeleteCan I use that line without being accused of ideative plagiarism?
Oh, and I've got another couple of babycham glasses at the back of my cupboard too if you're planning a cocktail party.
Z - 18c? I hope it's been emptied and rinsed.
ReplyDeleteRog - so I've invented a whole new school of, um, something or other. I have however renamed it (as one does) as 'Ideative Re-Creativity'. That should hold them off for a bit.
Martin - no, that's your lot mate! (I think)
Macy, there's an idea ...
ReplyDeleteI just noticed how that Bambi seems to have its head up over the rim of the glass. How did that happen, then? Trompe de camera, I suppose.
You'll see, next time you call by.
ReplyDeleteI think that either Bambi or the camera has been sampling the wine.
ReplyDeleteI've never thought to examine the alcohol percentage in my wine but you're right, there's nothing in my wine rack under 14.5 percent. It's all very nice though.
Hmm, that cuspidor looks a tad small to me, Z. I might miss. No, I think I'd better carry on swallowing.
ReplyDelete