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Tuesday, December 05, 2006

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Old Wine in New Bottle

We're a family of wine drinkers. Anyone who really knows us, and

the fact that we are absolutely not corruptible (ahem!) will

also know that at a pinch, they might be able to bribe us with a

good red wine. So when guests come in from abroad among the

other gifts they stagger in with, is the usual quota of bottles

- without which they are afraid they might not be accommodated

in the Ranganathan household.





Like vultures we fall on the bounty but then unlike vultures and

more like squirrels, we proceed to hoard it, and hoard it ...

and hoard it and once in a while (actually in the "winter"

months) we decide to open a bottle and enjoy it sitting on the

balcony, watching the sea.





Yesterday was one of those days. My mother decided it was "time"

so she brought out this bottle of French wine from our stock

which looked so good you would be forgiven for ending up with a

shirt front soaking with dribble. So then dad gets out the

bottle opener and sticks it into the cork and twists the handle

and twists and twists and twists and ... nothing happens. (If

you're getting the feeling by now that this is the story of my

life, you might be forgiven - the phrase just seems to describe

me and my life so well).





So Dad twists the handle of the bottle opener some more and I

watch him with bated breath and cross my fingers and continue to

watch and ... nothing happens. He twists some more, some more,

some more and ... the cork begins to crumble.





Disaster! A French wine about to go down the drain before our

eyes? I scold my dad for using the Rs. 25 bottle opener he

bought in Goa, on an expensive bottle of imported wine. "You

should have used a proper French bottle opener," I tell him

crossly.





Dad says sadly, "There are two lying in the drawer." But it is

too late. Anyway, Dad is so used to my furious glares, he has

learnt to cope with them in an expert fashion (the same way he

does with my mother's constant reprimands about his untidiness,

his absent mindedness, his inability to listen and about 687

other major faults) by choosing to ignore it all.





To get back to the bottle. Mum assures us that there is nothing

wrong with the Goan bottle opener, she used it on a bottle of

Indian red wine recently and it worked just fine. So yes, in

fact we do notice now, that the problem has to do with the cork

- and conclude that even seemingly good French wines can

occasionally be plugged with rotten corks.





By now half the cork is lying in little bits on the table and

the rest of it is slowly crumbling into the bottle. It seems

most unlikely that we will be able to pull this one out at all,

at least not with the conventional method. We are finally forced

to somehow wrench out the opener and to use a sharp knife to get

at the remnants of the cork. You can guess the rest. The

moth-eaten bit of cork which remains in the neck of the bottle

quietly disintegrates and sinks in ... And we do the only thing

that is possible for us to do. Strain the wine through a square

of muslin and store it in an empty bottle of "Old Monk" rum.





Dad fills up our glasses and a few minutes after this heart

rending struggle has come to an end, we sit on the balcony with

our wine and take a sip. And we sip on contentedly. Don't know

if it is just that we are tired from our efforts. But the wine

tastes good!











About the author:



Uma is an author, whose book "Bombay to Eternity - Memoirs of a

laidback Rebel" was published by Penguin Books (India) in 2004.

She has worked in various fields from advertising and freelance

journalism to teaching deaf children and adults. Uma currently

conducts courses in self awareness, which include listening

skills. and self expression. Her main interest is in community

building and in networking with like minded people.

df
Do you have a closet or a section of your basement that you may be able to convert into a wine cellar? This might be the perfect place to use as a wine cellar. You can even talk to your local wine merchant to see if they have a place where you can store your wine. That ma sound a little far fetched but many wine merchants actually do have a wine cellar that you can use a part of for a small fee.

Love wine? Join a wine club

Joining a wine club is a great idea if you love wine and if you are always looking for a new wine to test out. You will get to try all kinds of wines as part of a wine club and the price is always much better than other people would have to pay for these same wines. The best part of being in a wine club is that you will have something to look forward to each month as you wait for the new shipment to arrive at your door.
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Bodum So Long Stemless White Wine Glasses, Set of 2


New from Bodum, it's the wine glass entitled "So Long". From now on, it's "good-bye" to the formal stem and "hello" to a new style of glass for casually sipping your white wine. The set includes two glasses, each one with an 8-oz. capacity. Dishwasher-safe.
More Info...




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