My Swiss grandfather taught me the art of wine. For him the countryside, the vineyard side, the grapes and barrels, the talkativeness of the land, the dependency on the weather conditions, the picking and piling, the colors and aromas, the sitting around the table with crystal glasses and spittoons, the taking notes based on the year, the dust on old bottles…all of the above. My grandfather was the equivalent of Shakespeare, for wine.
He joined the eternal kingdom of the heavens not very long ago, but his wine spirit, is always -quite loudly- with us on the family table reminding us to ‘hold the wine glass properly’, to ‘let the wine breathe first’, to ‘always smell first’, to ‘ah, the strawberries in this one’ or ‘the vanilla scents on that’.
He and I have always had a special relationship, one that went beyond wine and feelings, but one that definitely revolved around them. On my 22nd birthday, his gift to me was a registration to an advanced Sommelier’s course in Bordeaux. I had to combine my regular Master’s courses with this intense series of mind-blowing, nose-experimenting, tongue-advancing courses on the wine-making, the wine-tasting and the wine-drinking.
It took all that I had not to hate him for all the excess hours on the train, the sleepless nights and weekends, the pressure, the sneezing, the hanging around snobbish wine masters, but all of that…would dissolve instantly, as soon as I’d find myself walking down the ‘aisles’ of Cabernet Sauvignon, Cabernet Franc, Merlot.
Today is Thanksgiving – a very important celebration for every American around the world. Had I been back in New York, I would be probably joining my aunt and her family into tasting the turkey, the stuffing, the cranberry sauce etc. Here, in Greece, none of the above will occur today: today is just like any other Thursday. I somehow wish I was in New York -or Texas, that’s where Phillip, my aunt’s husband is from- and where I spent my first Thanksgiving a couple of years ago. I will never forget that day: not only because I, then, bought my first original cowboy hat (yeap, I was one of those kids that grew up watching the All-American movies, daydreaming of walking into a remote diner, sitting on the bar, and telling the fat lady who’ll be pouring me some black coffee by then ‘you know, scrambled eggs an’ all’) but mainly because of the mixture of antithetic tastes in my mouth: salty and sweet, sour and creamy, bitter and inexplicably desserty.
As my heart today will be with Phillip’s mum -who warned Phillip back then that I should have been her son, and that he should do everything within his powers to always feed me because I was too skinny for Texan standards- it will also be with my beloved grandparents and my memories of their home in Geneva.
My grandfather was the person who taught me how to properly sit on the table, how to cross the utensils as I continue my meal, how to hold the glass and set up the dinner table, how to greet a woman, how to get the door for her, how to pull the chair for her to sit, how to treat her like a delicate rose with occasional thorns that are “only there to remind you with occasional pains just how much you love her”, the ’savoir-vivre’ at its extreme.
I miss him terribly, but I sit bits and pieces of him in Natalie, my father, little Marie, even myself. Even with his passing, he’s brought me closer to my best friend. And the months that followed his death, there were a zillion times I wish I could spend just one more night in his study, with him, talking about my fears and concerns with him, while sipping a 1989 Merlot from his Eurocave cabinet.
So this being the second Thursday of our Lists conquest, and this being Thanksgiving, when all Americans will be sitting around the table, enjoying their huge meal and being thankful for all they’ve been given, and all that they love, I cannot help but to want to dedicate my second list, to the man who’s taught me so much and still does.
List II: Let’s Talk About Wine. Don’t run away just yet: this is not a list that just addresses the experts. My grandfather’s golden rule was that Wine is for everyone- super nose, normal nose or no nose- wine is to be enjoyed by every single person on the planet. As a graduate student in Paris, I used to work to two different wine bars, as their wine expert- and although no French person can ever claim ignorance when it came to wine, often times people (especially women) would be very concerned with appearing too illiterate in its tasting. I would always tell them that wine is yours, just like your heart is yours. It tastes what you want it to taste. If you’re happy, it’s happy, if you’re sad, it’s sad and so on and so forth.
There are numerous fine wines around the world (I need to admit that with the years, the Italian wine became my favorite one in contrast to the French varieties) but what makes a wine bottle a masterpiece, is the moment in which you drink it: the person you share it with, the decision you just made about your job or your relationship, the landscape in which you are, the country you are traveling to, the mood on the table, the moment while you are writing your book, while talking to your lover on the phone, while staring into his eyes, while you’re about to propose, while you’re writing the longest letter you’ll never send, while you’re sitting vis-a-vis your grandfather, dressed in a white t-shirt and a pair of navy pants and a bow-tie in your little neck pretending to be the waiter of your ‘La Maison De Junior” restaurant (that sadly only served potato chips, cheese, ice-cream and berries.)
If you had to make a list of the world’s finest beverages (wine or no wine, it’s up to you) of those moments you’ll never forget for reasons that are purely your own…what would it be? What year would your beverage have? What color? What would its origin be? What would be its quality? What glass would you drink it in? Would you decant it? Where would you be drinking it in an ideal scenario and with whom? And would it be accompanied by food or not? And most importantly…what would you three (you, him/her and the wine) be talking about?
Fabricate your own wine- just tell us why…
[This list shall run from today, Thursday November 26, 2009 for a week]
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