Aging with Grace...

What started out being a planned blog about Pizza, ended up with a blog about wine.


Last night with MFO still working away in Wisconsin, I decided I was going to try the “new” Pizza place nearby in the “new” shopping center that contains Kohl’s and the sporting good place (and, incidentally, the newly opened golden whatever chicken place). That will have to wait.

I also decided since we’ve had a lovely moon rise lately I would try to get some shots of that, and dragged the tripod downstairs to hold the camera. Just as I was getting ready to do that, I got a call from a friend who sort of needed something to do. So he came over and since he also takes pictures we decided to do the moon together. Besides being a photographer he enjoys the glass of wine and has a great palate I already had a Pinot selected,

So I opened up my cellar and told him to find another wine to try.

At this point I have to admit that as a wine collector, I am of the “not now” school. If I have what I consider an exceptional bottle, I will end up essentially hoarding it, because every occasion is “not now”, and we’ll just wait for a better time. Well, that results in a cellar full of wine that may or may not be “over the hill”, passing their peak while waiting for the “now”. Anyway, my friend is good at goading me to not do that; and convincing me that indeed it IS time for “now”. So when he returned he had chosen:

Stifling a gasp, I shut up. Alert readers will know that Chateau Montelena is a legendary California winery and is the one that stunned the wine world by winning the gold medal against a bevy of French wines in the 1976 Paris Tasting (as recounted in the movie “Bottle Shock”).

We began with the Pinot, which proved to be luscious, probably in its prime. Gorgeous nose, lovely fruit, good structure, great balance. Over a period of time we managed to finish off that, and then (mentally) genuflected and pulled the cork on the Montelena). This wine had lived in St. Louis for a while, then eventually was ferried to Maryland where it endured probably not optimum storage conditions for a while. None the less, it was in great shape. No hint of brick on the edges, lovely color, and the nose left no doubt it was a big boy Cab and still “there”, 23 years later. Amazing. So when the evening was done, the generations were standing shoulder to shoulder..

Oh, see the little yellow square on the Montelena? That’s the price tag. In case you can’t read it, here it is (and there is a period in the middle lest you're confused)

Oh yeah, sometime in there we did go out and shoot the moon, where I had mixed results.  Getting the right balance of the bright moon, reflections in the water, clouds, and lights on Solomon's isn't easy.  Apparently.   It’s going to take me more practice to get some worthy shots of that. Here’s one that was okay..

Anyway, it was a fun, unplanned, unexpected evening.. and, there are more elderly wines in the cellar. So when we get back to the Pizza, we’ll worry about

DFD