Wine and wine gadget weekend @ The Cave.

I confess, I've never understood the lure of alcohol while lolling under the sun.  This is my prevailing thought while, say, strolling down Venice Walk on a relentless summer's day and observing all the many people at cafes doing just that in the middle of the afternoon.  With my DNA, adding alcohol to the hot burning sun would only exacerbate the misery.  I am jealous of other people's DNA's for many reasons.

Which is the long way of declaring I've not opened a bottle of wine for a good while.  But Los Angeles this week was granted a fortunate reprieve, temperatures less than 90 degrees, and my first goal of celebration was to open a bottle of wine.

I meandered down to Topline (home the the world's worst website) and though Michael suggested a different option, when he wasn't looking I grabbed this. Because you had me at Kermit Lynch.

Yep, I read his book and dig his philosophy on wine, but I've never had anything he's imported.  So when I saw this, at only $999, I couldn't not.

When I got home there was a package in my mailbox from David.  David and I dated in high school, and after many years of regretting not marrying him, I hunted him down and now he and I are FB friends.  Also, he's married.  That might have been the wise choice on his part, now that I think of it.



Inside the envelope was this gadget. It was via an investment firm, so I assumed it both a giveaway and nothing too salacious, but WHAT?


There is a small opening on the bottom that pulls a suction of air through the device when pumped.  A de-zitter? 

 So I emailed David and said, I give up.  He responded that he associated me with wine.  Good association.

Ohhhhhhh, it's a wine stopper/de-airer.  C L E V E R.

 What fun at The Cave today.  Some nice intersections, a lovely bit of conversation and other naughty things. Afterwards, T. was still here and we talked about the idea of removing air to extend the shelf life of the open bottle. I understand this is what civilized people do; I on the other hand, no matter the wine, stick the cork back in and leave it at cellar temperature over three or four days. What I like about this is I get to follow the story of the wine minus intervention.  It's like buying an album versus downloading a song.

T. added that he'd read this past week about how suctioning the air can also possibly remove some of the essence in the wine. That's a curious one.

This wine might be the best young wine I've had.  It's primarily Grenache, with Syrah, Carignan, Cinsault, and Mourvèdre.  For its age and its value, it's got some nice earthiness to it, and also a surprising show of what you usually get in older wine, some subtle leathery/tobacco notes.  Nicely played, Kermit.

Happy Labor Day, you have all tomorrow to enjoy the fruit of your labor.  (Do so at breakfast, it's going to heat up again this week.)