Drinking
This is a wine blog, so you need a “drinking” page, don’t you? I wasn’t going to add one. My drinking journey has declined in the last few years. I stopped drinking for seventy-five days a few years back, and I never quite returned. (75 Hard Challenge by Andy Frisella - changed my life in many ways. Check it out here - not sponsored, just something I did and grew from. )
BUUUUTTTTTTTTT I love the stuff. I study, I watch, I listen, and I experience wine around me every day, and I love it. I have a co-worker who breaks down processes and wine regions like no other and helps you connect to the vision or the story that the wine is trying to tell you. I enjoyed a French wine with him a few weeks back, and he had me understanding the Burgundy wine region as if it could naturally roll off my abused wine brain. All of a sudden, we were comparing Santenay to his three-year-old’s morning habits - “Sometimes Ben is all knowing, sometimes he cuddles, sometimes he wants to punch me in the face - just like this Pinot Noir.” I get it.
The wine pictured outlining this section is a wine requested by a Chilean wine supplier as we were working the market in August. We were tired of drinking really BIG reds, and found ourselves in a pretty lavish restaurant hosting buyers. We both knew we had this sale in the bag if we played our cards right. ‘Let’s take a moment to just be people, and have a lovely bottle of wine,” she expressed. I couldn’t have agreed more. Did I think she would choose the Chassagne Montrachet? Nope, and I don’t think she knew where we were headed. This is Chardonnay, and everything it should be. From your nose in the glass to the round and opulant, but not over done, textures and flavors - just a masterpiece. It was more about the choice of this bottle, anticipating it’s arrival at the table, and SHARING a glass with slight strangers that made this a memorable moment. Can we talk about moments with wine rather than the technical stuff? I’ll throw some wine blah blah in, but let me share what motivates my choices. More interesting, don’t you think?
