Call me crazy-but when Halloween is over and done and the calendar page flips to November it officially begins to feel like the ‘holiday’ season to me. And as we eat our way through Thanksgiving…it is absolutely ‘on’. Maybe it’s because I want the excuse to play Christmas music, watch old holiday movies, or decorate my house with shiny, pretty, Christmasy things. Or maybe it’s because I just want to be able to feel justified in eating more food and drinking more wine than usual. Hmm…..
In the past month I’ve poured a disproportionate amount of the wines I’ve been miserly hoarding in my cellar (aka: living room closet). Disproportionate I mean, to the amount I opened during the rest of the past year. Why do I suddenly feel the need to purge my wine closet of all of it’s best treasures when the holidays creep near? Is it just the cooler weather?
There’s always a reason (aka: excuse).
1st: I need a nice bottle to take home for the weekend to help my little sister start to really appreciate wine. Wait-what am I going to drink? What about Mom-she’s more of a Chardonnay gal….Oh, hell I’ll bring a half-case and we’ll work our way through them all! (there go 3 of my favorite whites and 3 of long-time hoarded reds-)
2nd: I’m visiting my out of town boyfriend and his friends for dinner at their house. I’d really like to impress the wine savvy couple with a bottle of something GREAT! Maybe even 2-just in case their wine choices are suspect (two more nice bottles of red-one ’99 Reserve Michel-Schlumberger Cabernet Sauvignon I got in my Christmas basket last year!). Yes, they WERE impressed.
3rd: My family came up to my neck of the woods this Thanksgiving-finally! Wait….that meant I needed to provide all the wine! They probably expected me to since I work at a winery right? I thought I needed at least 6 bottles for 12 people…boy was that ever not enough!
I’ve polished off almost 2 cases of my 5 case collection in just the past month (not just me-but you know…)! I noticed the waning # of bottles but wasn’t phased a bit-since sharing wine is just so much fun. Now, if anyone asks what they can bring to Christmas I’ll probably have to say, “A good bottle of wine.”
Lesson? I believe the reason we buy more wine than we can drink at one time (call it saving or aging if you’d like) is so that we have enough to share with those we like enough to share it with. Right?
It’s almost as much fun opening the bottles for these friends or family, as it was discovering that wine in the first place. You simply can’t begrudge your spoils when you enjoy them at long last. What’s the nicest wine you’ve ever opened for someone? Why was it your favorite? Was it expensive, rare, limited production, or just a good wine you liked and put away for a nice occasion?
