Noble Soldier

To celebrate the second anniversary of our wedding, my grandmother asked that my uncle, who used to be in the wine sales business, pull out a treasure -- a bottle of Chateau Lafite-Rosthchild 1969. Now, this could be a wine review here – but seriously, what value would that have? Would you seriously expect me to say that I didn’t like it? It was easily the best glass of wine I’ve ever had. Complex and mild, there were delicate hints of tobacco under the fruit, with a wonderful tannic taste and balanced layers of cherry and flowers.

We’ll never have anything like that again – how much would a bottle of such wine cost, I wonder? We’re leaving behind virtually all of the bottles of wine we’ve drunk in Tennessee; only taking a few very noble soldiers back to California with us to start our display. This one is going to become one of the centerpieces of the collection. Naturally, we owe a huge debt of thanks to my aunt and uncle for letting this noble soldier go to his duty.

My grandmother kept about half a glass in a carafe to make vinegar. Seriously, she did. This is in keeping with what seems to be a tradition of using very expensive, high-quality wine for prosaic purposes; my mother once used half a bottle of one of the princes of my father's collection to make spaghetti sauce and my grandmother's sister used an entire kilogram of Parmaseano Reggiano (not just the heel in the sauce, but the entire wedge) for one of her pasta dishes.