Vintage Story

Epistemological epiphany:
Life must be lived forwards,
but can only be understood backwards
Mercifully, life may be enjoyed sideways!

Full Moon: December 5, 2006. Allen Dale Olson a/k/a the Pontiff of Palate, Story Inn’s Wine Connoisseur. Copyright 2006 Story Bed & Breakfast, LLP, d/b/a Story Inn, all rights reserved.

SPARKLING HOLIDAYS

I drink it when I’m happy and when I am sad.

Sometimes I drink it when I’m alone.

When I have company, I consider it obligatory.

I trifle with it if I’m not hungry, and I drink it when I am.

Otherwise I never touch it, unless I am thirsty.

            Madam Lily Bollinger, several generations ago, talking about her family’s champagne, could have been speaking about Story’s Pontiff of Palate, who never considers any occasion unworthy of a glass of champagne, especially during the festive winter holidays. Champagne works with the joyful aura of Christmas and with the raucous celebration of a new year – and with any food or snack you can throw at it.

            Sure it’s a little expensive. It’s been expensive for 300 years. But what’s $25 or $30 – even $40 – for a non-vintage elixir that can transform even the most ordinary of events into a gala party. (Or if you’re a Costco member, go for one of their $19.99 bottles of real, honest-to-goodness champagne. Costco has prevailed on those rigorous champagne producers in France to label a deliciously dry authentic champagne for under twenty bucks!)

            That’s a great price for 250 million bubbles, or so the experts say is the number of bubbles in a single bottle of champagne. It’s the bubbles, they say, that make you feel good, raise your testosterone levels, increase your blood alcohol content, and keep you buoyant longer.

            Those bubbles also indicate pressure inside that bottle, lots of pressure, 80 pounds per square inch (three times what’s in your car tires), requiring thick glass for the bottle and a wire trap for the cork. They also mean you should be careful once you remove the wire, as the cork could shoot out at your favorite chandelier or mother-in-law. Best to wrap a napkin around the neck of the bottle, grasp the cork firmly, and twist the bottle, making sure it isn’t pointing at anything or anyone of value.

            Without doubt, champagne is the super star of the sparkling wines and is produced only in a small viticultural area a hundred miles or so east of Paris. But the producers have discovered other locations for their champagne skills. Many champagne houses produce fine sparkling wines in the Napa Valley – Mumm, Moet, Taittenger, to name a few – and in Argentina (Moet & Chandon) and put them on the market at half the price of the real stuff. Even New Mexico gets into the quality sparkling act because of the French Gruet Family and their really good sparkler produced in their winery in Albuquerque. If, however, you insist on a French sparkler but don’t want to “pop” for a real champagne, go for a Cremant d’Alsace for about $20 or cheaper still, a Blanquette de Limoux for $10. How good is it? The folks in Limoux have put bubbles in their wines for 200 years longer than their more prestigious cousins in champagne. By now, they’ve got it just about right.

            Whether your champagne is sweet, medium, or dry and you’ve popped the cork but find you can’t finish the bottle, don’t worry. Put it in the fridge where the cold temperature will work with the bubbles to stay fizzy for days. However, most of the Pontiff’s flock have little need to be concerned about not finishing a bottle.            

JOIN THE PONTIFF ON FRIDAY, DECEMBER 15, AT THE STORY INN FOR AN ODE TO BUBBLES!  Seating by reservation only, 7:00 p.m.  Call (800) 881-1183. 

Vintage Story is an e-newsletter authored by Ole Olson and published by the Story Inn, and is available free of charge to all who appreciate good wine. Vintage Story is published at each full moon. The author and the Story Inn specifically authorize the republication, reprinting and circulation of any issue Vintage Story so long as due credit is given to the author and to the Story Inn (which holds the copyright).

If any newspaper or website desires to make use of any issue of Vintage Story, we do request that you notify us. Thanks, and here's to your health!