Friday, December 03, 2004

You Forgot Poland!

My husband, Trey Desolay, is the smartest person I have ever met. He has the most integrity of anyone I have ever met. He is literate and funny and has great taste and is also very handsome.

But what I love most about him is that he is incredibly, deeply, honestly, the kindest man in the world. His particular kindness is so deep and present and nuanced that it would seem to have been so highly developed purely as a devious means of manipulation. (To get girls, maybe!) But what makes his kindness extraordinary is that it is completely sincere.

Which makes the following even more ridiculous.

He had gone to the local wine store to buy wine for the week. Another thing I love about him is that he is a guy who really reads things like The Wine Spectator and has a pretty comprehensive knowledge of wine yet is completely NOT that asshole snob kind of person who has to Let You Know that they know about wine -- the kind of person who populates the world of those horrific Sunday New York Times commercials.

Anyway, in the huge liquor store he saw this little old lady wandering around the aisles. Trey overheard her asking one of the employees where the blush wine was. This particular store is run by Polish people, and the counter help speak excellent English but some of the stock guys don't, and this particular guy didn't. So Trey went up to her and asked her if she needed help -- she assented, and he told her that he could show her where there were some very nice rose wines for under 10 dollars a bottle. She seemed happy about this, and he was showing her a bunch of options, when suddenly her demeanor changed and she looked at him strangely.

"Wait a minute -- where are these wines from???"

"Oh! " he said, "they're from France."

"You buy FRENCH wine??!??!?!??" she sneered at him, and turned her back and walked out of the store.

????????

Does she patronize BQE liquors solely to show solidarity with Poland's patricipation in the "coalition of the willing?" I guess so.

12 Comments:

Blogger kender said...

Your husband does indeed sound very nice. My wife and I dabble in wines. We don't read the wine spectator but we are members of a wine club, (not the wine of the month club) and have friends that are very knowledgeable about wine. We take the occasional trip to the Napa Valley and enjoy the wines we find here from California. What are your favorites? I prefer a robust red, dry, and tend to shy away from white unless it is with dinner.

A friend of mine and I brew dark ale and mead. His mead is exceptionally good, and we have been experimenting with making a 'harder' mead. Something with a little more kick, as we tend to take our drinking seriously while at renaissance faires where we perform. We ARE kinda' like fratboys in that respect I guess.

Perhaps your husband would post something wine related? BTW, what is his PhD in anyway? I am not asking to be pissy or mean, I am simply curious, as I have a few friends with Phds, and I like to discuss their fields with them when I have the chance to spend time with them. I love to hear people discuss their fields and absorb there viewpoints and knowledge.

Later, K.

7:04 PM  
Blogger kender said...

Just thought I would post a link you may be interested in seeing. I suspect however that you already have seen it.

http://www.urbanarchipelago.com/

9:44 PM  
Blogger Lillet Langtry said...

Hello K! Sorry it took me a while to respond.

Right now for whites I really like muscades from the Sevres et Maine region (you can get an amazing bottle of it for 7 bucks) and I really like whites from the Alsace region -- they are very perfume-y and great with spicy food.

Stay away from the Beaujolais Nouveau! unless you want to be reminded of drinking wine coolers -- which I don't find unpleasant, but it's very jammy tasting.

I will get him to post -- our hours are really different these days. I would love to go to Napa sometime -- that's one nice thing about being on the West Coast!

What have you been drinking in the wine club?

L.

9:49 AM  
Blogger Lillet Langtry said...

I have seen it, and I pretty much agree with it.

9:50 AM  
Blogger kender said...

There have been quite a few Aussie wines lately...some of those are pretty good. as I said I am far from knowledgeable about the subject, but I know when I like something. There is a vineyard in Paso Robles by the name of Bianchi Vineyards, and I have absolutely fallen in love with their merlot. It is exactly how I imagine wine should be.

BTW, I don't know if you have tried Coppola wines, but I have found I don't like them. I look forward to your husbands post.

K.

12:33 PM  
Blogger Trey Desolay said...

Honey! I told you that that was not a representative Beaujolais Nouveau! But, yeah, of course they remind you of wine coolers.

Kender, I have tried a few Coppola wines and have not liked any of them. Not at all.

I lived in the Bay Area for nearly ten years and this is when I first became interested in wine. Naturally, I came to learn about and love Napa/Sonoma wines.

These days, I am much more inclined towards French, Italian and Spanish wines than towards New World wines, just because I am more interested in subtlety than in power or robustness.

On the other hand, I have had several Oregon wines that I think are just spectacular, exactly because they evince the kind of subtlety most typical of European wines. Lillet and I occasionally fantasize about moving to Oregon and becoming vignerons.

The wine region that most interests me right now is Minervois, in the Languedoc department of France. Wines from this area vary WIDELY in quality, but the reds from Minervois la Livinere - particularly for the last several years - are great and great values.

Although whether values will remain now that a Euro costs us $1.35 is doubtful.

5:29 PM  
Blogger Trey Desolay said...

This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.

5:29 PM  
Blogger Trey Desolay said...

This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.

5:31 PM  
Blogger kender said...

I will have to try those wines, if I can find them. I haven't had an Oregon wine yet, but will keep an eye out for them. Thanks for the advice.

6:23 PM  
Blogger Trey Desolay said...

Kender, take a chance on an Oregon Pinot Noir. The price/value ratio is very low.

The Minervois I mentioned are hard to find even in New York. Have you seen wineaccess.com? Great resource.

10:45 PM  
Blogger John Hamre said...

My wife doesn’t want me to ever purchase wine from France. I know it must sound silly, but because she is from Spain she has this strange anti-France mentality. Something about their shared history I guess. Although we both love to rent foreign films for instance, it can’t be one in French with English subtitles. That leaves me to watch all of the wonderful French films out there secretly after she goes to bed. (When I do that it feels like I’m cheating on her).

I don’t know why that lady felt shocked that she should be shown French wines. It could be for a reason equally silly as my wife holds. More then likely though it is because that lady fell victim to the anti-French propaganda our media has been providing to this nation after France choose to not participate in the Iraq debacle. I don’t recall ever hearing nasty media attention put on Canada after they turned their backs on the United States “Coalition” force in Iraq. Maybe it is because they are just to close to home.

By the way, my favorite wines all come from Australia. I haven’t found a bad one yet. Where wines from the Napa valley, Oregon, Spain, France, and Germany are all hit and miss in my opinion.

Johnny

4:00 PM  
Blogger Lillet Langtry said...

That's funny about your wife, Johnny. Thanks for posting!

3:23 PM  

Post a Comment

<< Home