Why I drink wine

M

MLipton

Mark Lipton
With a dinner of roast chicken, I opened a bottle of 1991 Louis Jadot Chambertin-Clos de Beze which proved to be corked just enough to spoil any enjoyment that might be obtained therefrom. Not to be deterred, back down to the cellar for another bottle: the 2002 Maurice Ècard Savigny-les-Beaune "Les Narbantons", which fulfilled all expectations. Round, red-fruited with lots of umami overlaying it (beef blood, soy sauce, seaweed) and a graphite note too. It was lovely from first drop to last and didn't change much but seemed close to fully mature for my tastes (coming as it did from a passively cooled cellar). I can't say that I really understood much about Burgundy when I bought this wine, but it has surpassed any expectations that I may have had for it on the day of its purchase. Profound? Nah. Satisfying and immensely enjoyable? You'd better believe it.

Mark Lipton
 
From Chambertin to Savigny. Nice.

I had some 02 Savignys from Guillemot earlier this year and they didn't seem at all ready or fulfilling. Different styles I suppose.
 
Imagine wine is speech.

Imagine you are listening to a dude and he is witty, a bit irreverent, entertaining. Maybe there is some scatalogical humor. It's all very much fun. A nice time.

Now imagine Immanuel Kant has you over for a talk. A lecture, really. He wants to prove something, something deeply important, but he isn't just exactly sure how. Of course he doesn't say so. He lays out the thinking before you. There is a precision that is palpable, each moment in which the clock ticks there is a plan. You feel the answers have been provided for you, but also that maybe this isn't the book you thought you had been reading from. There is a sense of purpose behind the reach and the placement of the words. You maybe had not expected that. Maybe you don't want to dismiss the casual in so sweeping a fashion, but when you hear it done just so it does seem, well, IMPRESSIVE. There it is. Impressive.

Or maybe on another day William Carlos Williams comes over. And you listen to him for a moment. And you had never seen the terrace outside your window in just that way before. The importance of that view, until he told you about it. What was out there. He said only a couple words but that was enough. Everything seemed simple until it wasn't.

Churchill elects to join you. "Don't you realize other lives are valuable or your own isn't?" He asks you point blank. Well, yes, yes, you had. "Then do something about it. And doing something about it isn't just sitting there, is it?" And then you go about to something you didn't know possible. Not really.

There are many kinds of speech. Each is appropriate for a different time. For a different you. If you decide to listen to only one, well, that's a fucking shame.

Wine is speech, by the way.
 
Wine is not only speech, wine, like corporations, is people.

The voice of wine in our political process is sadly underfunded. When will wine step up to the plate and create a Super-PAC to give a much-needed voice to wine's political concerns?
 
originally posted by Chris Coad:
Wine is not only speech, wine, like corporations, is people.

The voice of wine in our political process is sadly underfunded. When will wine step up to the plate and create a Super-PAC to give a much-needed voice to wine's political concerns?
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Sounds totally fair!
 
originally posted by MLipton: Why I drink wine2002 Maurice Ècard Savigny-les-Beaune "Les Narbantons"
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Mark, I have always bought a lot (and still have a bunch) of Maurice Ecard's Savigny les Beaunes. Too bad he isn't still producing!

Nice match up with the roast chicken!

. . . . . . Pete
 
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