Wine Tasting July 16 ’11 Summer Vacation Mind

Posted at July 14, 2011

In some unconscious way I guess I had vaguely imagined that “retirement” would be pretty much like summer vacation from, oh, something like sixth or seventh grade, when the just-over-two-months between mid-June and early September stretched our Endlessly in front of us.

Sure, we knew that September would come around, and Back to School, and following a routine, but at that age a couple of months seemed like Forever, and so there was this huge Spaciousness about Summer.

The images that come to mind are waking up with the Sun already streaming in the window, throwing yourself into this week’s jeans, Tshirt, and sneakers, gobbling a bowl of cornflakes, and biking down to the ball field with glove, ball and your favorite bat, to hang out, wait for a pickup game, walk up to the corner store for a soda, or just sit around and schmooze about our favorite players (why is it so Impossible to get a Ted Williams baseball card no matter How Much gum you buy?–it’s a Mystery)— or listen to a Red Sox game (it was New England after all) on someone’s new-fangled Transistor Radio, with the familiar and reassuring Voice of Curt Gowdy doing the play by play.

Maybe you grew up somewhere else, with a different Local Team, with different announcer, but I think it’s the same thing, some kind of tribal or family Comfort…..this familiar Voice. Whether the Team was winning or losing, the constant was the Voice… rich, sonorous, familiar as a family member…deeply comforting in retrospect.

So. I guess what I’m saying is that being retired isn’t like that, and that is an interesting koan. It feels like there is too much that needs to be done, and that it won’t be possible to accomplish it all. But when we were nine or ten years old that’s not how we organized our worlds, and that brings us to today’s koan, the Everday koan:….as we get older, how can we recreate the expansiveness and innocence of the ten-year-old mind…? How can we come back to the Present Moment?

But I digress. More importantly, I would like you all to remember that we are now open Thursdays and Friday evenings , as well as our usual Saturday afternoons. That includes a generous tasting of two wines, usually a white and a red, as well as a few munchies.

All you need to know is that you can now drop in Thursday or Friday evenings, pick up a stash for the weekend, and unwind with a generous pour of a great red and a great white wine.

Now, having written about fifteen versions of this post which have all disappeared, I invite you to drop in this weekend!

sometimes people come in for a Wine Emergency and stay for a couple of hours…!

Saturday’s wines

Marchetti Later Harvest  Verdicchio  ’10   (Italy) $14
Full-bodied with lush notes of pear and melon, and  beautiful acidity. An extra month on the vine delivers not sweetness, but rather greater body, structure, and fruit essence. Entirely satisfying!

Marquis Philips Shiraz ’07 (Australia)  $14
These guys wrote the book on Big Shiraz–Fruit forward, with mouth-filling notes of crushed strawberry, blackberry, and dark chocolate.

Can Blau 08 Spain $14 WA89pts
Dark ruby-colored, it reveals a compelling bouquet of mineral, smoke, spice box, black cherry, and plum. Sweet and smooth-textured on the palate, this medium to full-bodied effort has excellent depth, concentration, and length.

Cougar Crest Dedication 4  ’07 Washington $19
44% Syrah, 32% Merlot, 14% Cabernet Franc, 10% Cabernet Sauvignon.  Luch, ripe plums, red currants, black cherries, and a hint of dried roses and herbs on the nose are balanced by acidity and tannins that are smooth and graceful, not overbearing.  Rich on the palate and long on the finish,

Wine Tasting

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