Yesterday my husband and his best friend went on one of their 'field trips' that usually ends in casino gambling. This field trip was to the jar factory, where they went to seek out the perfect size and shape vessel for their...no never mind, it might still be a secret, so I'll tell you later.
Anyway, their absence meant that I got to spend the evening with the lovely Karen M., who offered to pick up my children from school/daycare (I don't drive, never have). "Why not come over for dinner?" she suggested. We can order pizza and watch a movie. You had me at hello.
Karen M. is a lovely, petite creature with large blue eyes, long tresses and elegant, tapered fingers. If you met her in the woods on a misty night, you'd be forgiven if you thought she's part fairy. She is also part tease. "I picked up a wine for us" she texts me at work, "shall I start decanting it now?" Yes!
Karen brings out a crystal jug from the cabinet in her living room, apologising that it's not really a decanter. I remind her that at my house she drinks from a Mason jar. "Try it, I want to see what you say about it" she says, coyly handing me a glass. There's no information on the bottle as to what the wine tastes like, or suggestions on what food to pair it with; instead it has been printed on a little card, which Karen has read and is concealing from me.
I love this game! I am excited by the challenge and am not afraid to be wrong. I hold my nose to the bottle and whoo! I can't make anything out as the fragrance punches me in the nose. I stick my head in the jug when Karen isn't looking, and inhale. Oh. Cherry. The first taste confirms it for me: cherry, cherry, cherry. Not yucky sweet cherries either. Real cherries, not sweet. I make my cherry declaration and Karen smiles and gives me a verbal check mark.
There's something else there too. I think of burning twigs in the woods. "Charcoal. Smoke." are the words that fall out of my mouth. "Ahhh" Karen raises an eyebrow and says, "you're close." She reads the words on the little card aloud: "Cherry, cranberry, tobacco, earth."
We drank the wine with our artichoke heart, sun-dried tomato, mushroom and chicken pizza, and although it was a constellation of distinctive flavours, I have to say it really was very enjoyable. We were having a sensory evening, filled with conversation of Tuscany and chocolate and men and food. In the end I sent a very saucy text to our boys (who by then were in the local pub), insisting that my husband come home immediately, put the children to bed and ravage his wife. They came roaring up the driveway soon after. Viva lusty Italian wine!
Lento Cellars 2004 Lamezia Riserva, $18.95, purchased at the LCBO.
The movie was Enchanted April, highly recommended if you have Tuscan ambitions.
Til next time,
Barb
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