Post by Kate BPost by Nick OdellPost by Kate BPost by Rosie MitchellPost by Serena BlanchflowerPost by Birthday MonitorBirthday News for today, 26 May: Siderius Nuncius.
Raises a mug of tea for the toast "Absent Friends"!
Clinks coffee mug.
Umra has lost some sparkle I think.
Indeed, very much missed. I shall raise a beakerful of the warm south a
little later.
Not the £139 per bottle The Warm South I hope? Not that our dearly
missed Sid isn't worth the money but that, even if I bought a bottle
at such a price I don't think I would dare to open it.
No, a rather nice bottle from the Quercy which I hope he might have
appreciated (Wine Society bargain...). My father was once given a bottle
of Lafite Rothschild and told to bank it, not drink it. It might have
sold for about £139, I suspect. So of course he opened it at the next
opportunity and alas it was a shadow of itself... just a faint ghost of
its former grandeur. I don't think he regretted it, though.
Argentina doesn't pay much attention to AOCs, DOPs or PDOs and the
like so, if I tell you that my proto-BiL kept a case of rather nice
champagne for very many years waiting for that special occasion which
would justify opening it, you probably ought not to take my use of the
word "champagne" at face value.
The convergence of a significant wedding anniversary of his, the
wedding of one of his sons and the wedding of his niece together with
a very significant birthday of an elderly family member was considered
to be that special occasion: there was a huge party and masses of
people came. At the appropriate moment all eyes - and glasses - were
turned towards the proto-BiL as he discarded the foil and the wire on
the first bottle.
But wait! Shouldn't the cork have flown away at the slightest pretext,
risking the eyesight of any one of the assembled guests? So why is
proto-BiL red-faced with exertion with the bottle gripped between his
knees as he tries to force out the stopper?
The amber-coloured, slightly viscous liquid that was eventually coaxed
out of the bottles wasn't unpleasant but it wasn't what anybody had
been expecting. On the other hand, nobody who was present at the time
has ever forgotten the occasion.
Nick