Like someone flipped a switch, shipping season arrived. One day I was sitting here contemplating the lint in my navel and the next day people showed up in droves, boxes of long awaited acquisitions in tow. The Cave lost few people last year to the economy, but little wine came in, too. This year is different, busy, vibrant, lots of people, lots of boxes. It's nice.And the holidays loom.
About once, maybe twice a year I hear it: the sound of a bottle breaking. Maze-like and convoluted this place can be, it is a sound that travels unimpeded and pure, and it is awful to hear. Unprecedented, yesterday we lost two on one day, the real heart-breaker being the 1974 Heitz Cellars "Cellar Treasure Angelica" Rare, highly rated, widely touted, this is a real loss.
I also see a lot of these bottles here, usually intact. A loss indeed, but the optimist owner conceded there were other bottles in the box he dropped that, if broken, would have been worse.I, less gracious, would be lying on the floor with a straw.
Could the waxing gibbous be blamed? The excitement of season? Let us hope the yearly quota of this sound is exhausted.