SIMPLE PLEASURES

It is an ancient root originating thousands of years before my past and extending thousand of years beyond my future.

It is one of the few bridges spanning the immense voids that separate us all.

What is this joining force?

Where is this powerful catalyst?

It’s in the glass.

Wine, how do I love thee? Let me count the ways. Is there anything that man has produced through the ages that has resulted in more quality human interaction than wine? Perhaps the love made between a man and woman who are mentally, physically and emotionally connected? There is the love and interaction between a parent and a child, and the joy of music. But on to simple pleasures: The joy of sediment in a just decanted bottle. The explosion behind my eyebrows as the most powerful and primal sense is jammed into gear by the scent of licorice and dark fruit wafting up from a just poured wine. The distinct taste that comes only from truly fine cabernet based wines. That taste is recognizable immediately. It is comfortable and familiar like that uncle, who’s not really an Uncle, yet is part of the family. How about the joy of young Zinfandel and your first really stellar bottle of an unfamiliar varietal or blend? Discovering an old region, like the Rhone, that’s new to you. Finding out that you really like acidic, lightly oaked Sauvignon Blanc wines even though you don’t really like white wine. Having had enough mediocre Pinot Noir based wines that the rare, excellent Pinot is a pure delight. You know you’re really hooked when even the endless parade of mediocre Pinots is still an interesting part of the wine journey. The bittersweet rush of years passing before my eyes as an older red Burgundy swells with mature authority only to crumble, too quickly, within minutes. To experience decades in minutes through the sense of taste and smell can be a profound mental experience. How often in life is time experienced through the oral and nasal cavities? This can be a ripe and exotic experience - praise the heavens! A multitude of great wine and people experiences can be had with hundreds of different wines- for example, the ’86 Notarpanaro (from Dr. Cosmo Taurino) for $8 per bottle. Brazos and I initially thought the wine closed, bad or worse. We set it aside and moved on. Two bottles (of other wines) later, the kids, women and knuckle draggers (i.e. men) were all fed. Brazos and I returned to the sterile corpse we had previously rejected. The Notarpanaro had miraculously evolved into a rich vibrant wine of Schwartzenageresque proportions - needless to say we all enjoyed the wine immensely. That wine has since become a favorite of mine. That one obscure wine from Southern Italy has brought me friends, enjoyment and WAH (Korean for Circle and harmony). There are thousands of wines out there - virtually unlimited possibilities. Discovering and experiencing these wines is a journey best accompanied by family, friends and good food. This journey is my lifetime. I, like the living food product wine, will become a link in the human chain that reaches forward from the past through my life and into the future. Wine is an integral part of that human chain.