In Vitis Veritas: Wine, Wisdom & Awakening

I once knew a man in the wine industry who made it his personal goal to, upon retirement, enjoy a glass of fine champagne every night. To him, this simple act must have implied a retirement characterized by relaxation, a certain level of financial soundness, and just a touch of self-indulgent luxury after a lifetime of sweat and toil. A few years ago, I heard from a mutual friend that this man did in fact retire, and did, in fact, enjoy his glass of fine champagne on a nightly basis. My kind of man, right there.

This little story popped into my head the other night while going over my goals for 2010 and beyond. For a lifetime wine lover and someone who made his living off the stuff, it seems a fitting long-term objective, and I wondered if I could steal his idea, change the names and the dates and make it my ultimate goal to work hard enough and be inventive enough and stay healthy enough that I can afford myself a glass of fine wine by the time I retire in, say, 2050 (ambitious, I know…insert Medicare joke here). And this thought, as I glanced at my short tip stack from last night’s shift in the restaurant, led immediately to another: if I plan on drinking the good stuff every night for the last 20 or 30 income-less years of my life, I better stop messing around and start pinching pennies.

If you folks are up for it, I am going to stick with a theme here for a little while. One of my gifts from Thomas this Christmas was a book called The Wine Trials 2010, by Robin Goldstein and Alexis Herschkowitsch (trying saying that after tossing a few back). It is a guide to inexpensive wine: 150 readily available bottles under $15 that apparently beat $50+ bottles in blind tastings. I’m not going to try to pull a “Julie & Julia” thing and document my way through the whole book, but I do plan on checking some of these wines out with you by my side because, honestly, who doesn’t love getting a bang for their buck on a bottle of bliss?

First up, the Bodega Norton Barrel Select Cabernet Sauvignon 2006, Mendoza, Argentina. Now, we (ahem, Tom) actually goofed on this one. The wine in the book is not the “Barrel Select,” but just the plain ol’ Cab. The book also reviews the 2008. Still, the wine in the book is listed as $11, and the “Barrel Select” was snagged at the Cash N’ Check next door for $10.99, so I’m not quite sure of their stated difference. This leads me to a good side-note: beware of inexpensive foreign wines with the words “Barrel Select,” or “Reserve” slapped on the labels; there is no regulation in most places and the words often mean absolutely nothing beyond “Buy Me.”

Anyway, we are going to roll with this one since it fits the (dollar) bill. The wine was dark and youthful, dense, full on the palate, but a little thin in the finish. It reminded me of the Argentinean version of some Italians I met while backpacking in college…A young boy still confused by the hair on his own chest, sauntering a bit over-confidently onto the dance floor to show off the Tango moves he half-heartedly learned in a high-school dance class, hair slicked back with oil and the top four buttons popped on his shiny red shirt. You can tell he’s going to be good looking in a few years—attractive even, once he gets more comfortable in his own skin and loses the silk—but tonight his cologne smells like potpourri made with a bit too many bay leaves, which would be unwelcome if it didn’t help mask the alcohol on his breath. Regardless, when all is said and done, if you think I’m not going to let him buy me a drink, spin me around the floor a few times, you’re mistaken.

Sometimes it’s good to be young.

Next week, the Bogle Old Vine Zinfandel 2007, California, $11.

You can’t walk through a Safeway without tripping over a Bogle display so I don’t want any excuses: buy it, drink it, and next week, we can compare notes.

’Til then, stay thirsty.

Cheers.