Unshelved by Bill Barnes and Gene Ambaum
comic strip overdue media

Thursday, December 22, 2011

I am not a wine connoisseur

In fact, I rarely drink any wine at all, except maybe a taste here and there, or mead, which is honey wine and not from grapes at all.

What I do, however, is often give libations of red wine in thanks for the answering of prayers, as well as my monthly religious observations. I try to give decent wine, but since I'm in no real position to determine that, and because my fortunes are sometimes fickle and it's difficult sometimes to get the wine, the quality may vary.

The other day a friend gave me a ride to the store and I'd mentioned getting wine. The closest place that sold wine was a drugstore, and I went in and quickly got a pinot noir that was at least from Italy, but was about $13 for 1.5 litres, so I figured it was probably passable. What I didn't expect was that it was actually corked. I opened it a little while ago, and although I have a super-duper corkscrew (the type where you screw it in and then push down on things on the side to get it out), it was an abnormally long cork that wound up breaking in half horizontally, but I was able to get it out without getting pieces of cork in the wine. Then I couldn't re-cork it, and so I stole a cork from an empty mead bottle I keep for decoration in the kitchen.

Sometimes I think the Greeks had the right idea with amphorae.

Anyway, it was a pleasant surprise. And the wine has a very nice bouquet. I didn't have any (the tannins in red wine don't go well with my taste buds), but I think it worked out fairly well.

I seem to be having all sorts of trouble opening things of late. Yesterday there was the Classico vodka pasta sauce that I could not break the seal on by dinging with a knife and actually had to pry a tiny bit on the lid with a flathead screwdriver until the seal broke.

This is why I am destined not to rule the world. That and I'm minion material, I'm afraid.

Okay, so the solstice is officially here (it was at 12:3O EST). Here's to longer days to come. Good night.

No comments: