Vintage Story

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

BASTILLE DAY            

            Just 218 years ago on July 14, the hungry mobs of Paris stormed the Bastille, rescued seven prisoners, including a lunatic, lost 85 of their own pike-bearing foot soldiers, and gave us cause to drink fine wines on what has become the French national holiday. OK, we’ll be doing it on Friday, July 13, at the Story Inn, but that doesn’t matter, because the Revolutionaries actually started tearing up Paris on the 13^th. Unlucky? Not for us, we have fine wine; unlucky for the Marquis de Launay whose head was carted through the city as a symbol of things to come.

            The only head to roll at Story on the 13^th actually froths – the bubbly champagne. On Bastille Day we drink the real thing, not any of the clones from regions other than Champagne, and we sample a sparkler at its best, a great way to settle the tummy after a day of beer, hot dogs, and baseball on our own National Day.

            Following the champagne we celebrate the nobility of the Loire Valley chateaux with a sancerre followed by a wine with the best- known name and the least known village – Chablis.

            But enough of the whites. The movie Sideways created pinot noir addicts, so we are sampling one from where that grape variety originated and where it is vinified as well as it can be – from the Golden Slopes around Beaune, the wine capital of Burgundy. Pinot noir a bit fragrant and elegant for honoring a revolution? Probably, so we’ll turn to a lusty cabernet from one of the grandest wine districts of all – Margaux in Bordeaux.

            Talk as we do about the true meaning of the U.S. alliance with France, we must never forget that those Gauls set a standard for wine production that everyone else aspires to equal. At Story, we are pleased to offer wines from France all year but especially on the one day of the year when the “other” Red, White, and Blue flies around the world. Liberte, Equalite, et Fraternite! A votre sante.

    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!