Back from a drive, stop at Bottle Barn where I picked up 4 bottles to study. Just poured a little of the Chardonnay from Neyers. Not sure I’ve ever had their wine before. And, haven’t done any research. Need to be better about that when I open a bottle and if I’m so needing and demanding of life on the page. Don’t I tell 1A and English 5 students to go get it on their own, through RESEARCH?
Anyway, pistachios paired with the glass. Going to website, and….. Napa. St. Helena more specifically, Cabs and Chardonnay, family owned…. Will more thoroughly survey the site later. Need to close AE day so I get some wine writing work logged. When I got out of the car after parking at Bottle Barn I remembered how someone once praise me for my, as he called them, wild wine writings. Wine needs that, more of that.. the free spirited sense and step set.
Wine looks cloudy and thick but doesn’t give off scents of such, much. Interesting, on the site they invite you to leave a review. This has me thinking more as well… should I start, like, “reviewing” wines? No, don’t do that, I tell myself. Keep doing what you’ve been doing, writing about them all, even if you don’t like them or care for them much. No numbers, no scores, no grades. That’s not what I do.
She has me thinking of escape, vacation, some Thievery Corporation by a lake, or river, or just on a deck enjoying a view. At the beach house….I’m brought somewhere, many places, sipping this…
Other wines bought at BB…. A PlumpJack Merlot, a wine I’ve had my eye on for months if not longer and always wanted to buy but didn’t, for some reason. Today I decided to treat myself, and on a day where I’m remembering how many people have told me to JUST write about wine in the way I do, I remember that dinner with Dad and I at Monti’s years before the pandemic, where he told me to write about wine… we were sharing a PlumpJack Merlot.
Another sip…. Banana, apple, pear, a subtle stroke of mint, maybe…. Crushed salt, maybe lavender, or a white flower pedal of some kind. Imagining me pouring it for someone, out of state at some big pouring, tasting… me there as a writer but as well a writer with his own wines being shown. Wine is everything, I’m seeing. Not planning on going back to a tasting room, or a winery, no. I’m making this my own.. even when I’m selling internet and telecom solutions I’ll be coming from this – this Chardonnay, that Merlot, my wild vino notes.
Making every bottle count. More than “count”. Each is an essay, a reflective parcel, marshal. She starts to show room temp influence and contour…. More fleshy melon and peach skin, vanilla and thyme…. Sub-currents I can’t conclude. Evasive, bewitching, magic leap and purview. And, a Chardonnay! Surprising for me, as we have never really agreed. On anything.