Ever since hubby and I went down to the Burgundy region for his 30th, we’ve gone sort of …. wine-crazy.
It’s been slowly but constantly progressing and we realized this weekend that we’re now up to buying TWO bottles of wine every weekend!!! (no, we don’t drink two bottles of wine every weekend… we haven’t become a couple of winos if that’s what you’re thinking…. )
How did we get here? It used to be we’d buy a nice bottle once in a while to celebrate a special occasion but now it’s become sort of a recurrent thing… and in recurrent I mean: every weekend.
We simply find ourselves going out every weekend checking out the caves à vin (traditional wine stores) all over the city in search of interesting bottles and surprise, surprise… there is quite a choice out there.
Since we came back from Burgundy we kinnda had a deal going on: on Saturday we’d go out on our customary Paris walk and if along the way we saw anything we were curious to taste we’d get it, make a nice diner around it and have a glass or two in the evening. Whatever was left would be drunk during the remaining days of the week.
But suddenly last weekend and again this weekend we couldn’t make up our mind and ended up getting more than one bottle! (This weekend we got 3!!!). We still just open one with diner, but now we’re slowly accumulating a surplus in wine.
See, you just can’t help it. Once you've walked into a little cave à vin, it’s pretty hard to resist that sudden tingle of curiosity you get when looking up at all those bottles, each with their own tantalizing allure: a good year? A vineyard you’ve visited already? A premier cru you’re dying to taste? A name you’ve heard someone mention as being remarkable? While all these questions are going through your mind, the little woman behind the counter is quietly observing you closely. Once she’s made up her mind that you aren’t just another tourist out on the lookout for a quick souvenir with the word Bordeaux stamped on it, she comes over and discretely suggests one or two bottles that you haven’t yet noticed but that are certainly promising. You’ll get talking and she’ll explain why this particular Gevry-Chambertin is good for keeping another 8 years but that it will be just as tasty if you let it set in a caraf for 1 hour before tasting…. Or that the Nuit-Saint-Georges 2003 sitting in the back will let out a wonderfully smoked flavor that is sure to go well with cocquilles st jacques. Or that if you’re looking for something with stronger tannin than this discreet Haute-Côtes-de-Beaune is the thing for you. You suddenly can’t help it… you want to taste them all!!!
Having not foreseen this sudden rise in wine interest, we’d been keeping our bottles in our pantry and over the fridge. Not the best of places and certainly an embarrassment waiting to happen if a Frenchman should walk into our place.
So yesterday we got a wine rack. How cool is that? I now have a wine rack!!
Ok, granted, it's in our pantry next to the ironing board and the vacum cleaner, but it's still a wine rack, right?
Hehehehe, I feel so….. French.
Fned.
10 comments:
Nice rack Fned. I haven't given in to the recurring temptation to buy a wine rack yet. So our wine always ends up in a drawer... Maybe I'll go look for one.
I thought your apartment came equipped with a wine cave? Wouldn't it be ironic if you were the only couple in the building to actually store wine in it? I used to live in Sonoma County, California and good wine was so inexpensive there, especially compared to Mexico!
regards,
Theresa
Hello. This post is likeable, and your blog is very interesting, congratulations :-). I will add in my blogroll =). If possible gives a last there on my blog, it is about the Monitor de LCD, I hope you enjoy. The address is http://monitor-de-lcd.blogspot.com. A hug.
Rivergirl: Thanks! ;) hey, a drawer is much better than over the fridge. At least your wine bottles are kept someplace dark and at room temperature, where as ours were getting the full blast of the fridge's back radiator. NOT GOOD. LOL
Theresa: It does!!! But basically our cave is an empty storage room underground with a wooden door and closed by a simple lock. Hubby is not very confident that our "treasures" are safe in such a place, so instead we use it to store any junk that we can't fit (read: don't want) in our appartment and use the appliance cubboard for our wine. ;D
Monitor de LCD: Huh???
Fned.
How very French of you to have a wine rack! :) I used to have a side table that was made of a wine rack on the bottom with a piece of wood on top. I really love white wine, so one of these days (perhaps when we're living somewhere where electricity is cheaper) I'd like to have one of those wine refrigerators that goes under the counter. That's what I call civilized... lol.
Fned, I love your new wine rack! Very cute! We have just a single bottle holder. I usually buy one bottle to drink and then one bottle to put in our single holder for decoration...
And then it usually ends up getting drank anyways! My next wine to try is one made out of blueberries. Probably won't be very good, but I am always up for trying new things, you never know :) The other options were wine made out of limes, red peppers, strawberries or raspberries. All sound pretty...ummm...interesting?
But yeah, I understand the fascination with wine completely. Chile is a huge wine producer and I love that wine here is SO cheap. I mean, if I am really going to splurge on a nice bottle I spend seven dollars. How ridiculous is that?!?
Oooh Oooh Ooooh. Pick me. Pick me. I'll help you go wine tasting and pick out some fine bottles.
I love trying new wines. I can't actually remember at what point in my life I switched from the sweet white wines to red, but I'll never go back.
I personally enjoy Malbecs. There are a couple of good ones from Argentina; Los Cardos and a new one I tried last week, I think it was called Terraza.
Ooh, I miss my wine racks! Yes, plural. For a few years I worked for wineries in the Niagara Region of Canada and later for the Liquor Control Board in their fine wine department. I am soooooo envious of you. Good wine is hard to find here, at least at a reasonable price and there you are with piles and piles of great little wine shops and wineries to go to. Que suerte!
Salud!
Mexpat: Ooohhh, a portable wine "fridge" (that's what they call them here)... it's hubby and mine's ultimate wish if we had a place to put it (and could afford it of course!)
Mamacita: It's funny... the other day we went to a restaurant that had a chilean wine tasting going on... hubby and I both got a glass of red chilean wine (sorry I can't remember the name) and we were sooooo amazed at how different it tastes to french wine! We so want to go Chile one day, in great part to taste all those lovely wines!! ;)
Ritamae: We can go winetasting anytime you want! I'm with you on the red wine over white. White dry wines used to be my favorites but now I love red Burgundy like Homer Simpson loves his beer!! ;)
Cancun: It's true that Mexico unfortunetly doesn't have a big wine culture (although I think it's starting to change though)... I never even used to like the stuff until I came here. But hey... YOU have micheladas over there.... I'd trade ya my burgundy wine for a good old 'chelada right now!!! ;)
Fned.
yep, we luuuuve wine!
and the wonderful week end we've spent in Beaunes was my birthday gift ;)
Post a Comment