Oenophile

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I’d been doing a little online Christmas shopping and also googling some pesky crossword clues when I decided to stop by this blog. I knew darn well I hadn’t posted for a long, long time, so I was surprised to see that some comments had been made anyhow. It was heartwarming. One heartwarming comment in particular has inspired me to consider taking up blogging again. The editor of this blog said that I had served a “nice” Riesling for Thanksgiving dinner. I believe that this is the first time that anyone has ever complimented me on a wine choice. The best comment I’d ever gotten before was, “Well, it’s not too bad.” Ironically, I did not buy this particular Riesling for Thanksgiving. Actually, I had never planned to serve it by itself at all. Early last summer my son and daughter-in-law from International Falls were planning to come for a week-end. I tried to think of a nice drink treat that I could make for my daughter-in-law. This was a challenge. She’s been one of my harshest wine choice critics. At her house she serves and drinks wine with obvious relish. At my house, she takes one little sip and doesn’t finish the rest. I decided on this occasion to try to fool her by making her some May wine strawberry slush. Back in the days when my husband was a pastor, we always knew what we would be doing in the afternoon of Confirmation Sunday. We would have been invited to the homes of most of the confirmands. We’d have dinner at the home of the people who had invited us first, and then go on to snack at the homes of the others. You had to pace yourself with your eating. That is how we happened to stop by the home of a young confirmand whose parents were originally from Michigan . I was offered a little cup of May Wine strawberry slush that had been made with a bottle of May Wine which had been purchased in Frankenmuth , Michigan . My grandparents had lived in Frankenmuth for many years and I had gone there several times a year all the while I was growing up. I, of course, made much of this coincidence. My hostess offered me several refills and I accepted them all eagerly. As a result, the next time she went home to Michigan she bought a bottle of Frankenmuth May Wine for me. It had the recipe for the slush right on the bottle. That was years ago. Well, to make a long story a little bit shorter, my daughter-in-law had to work that week-end this summer and my son came by himself. I figured that neither he nor my husband were the strawberry slush type, so the Riesling was not called upon as a stand in for the Frankenmuth May Wine. Fast forward to Thanksgiving, 2006. First I thought that I had forgotten to buy some wine. Then I thought, “Oh, well. I never have any luck with wine anyhow.” Then I remembered the Riesling that I had down in the cupboard. Imagine my amazement when a son of mine thanked God for a wine that I had chosen in the Thanksgiving Day prayer and later called it “nice” right here on the Internet for anyone in the world to read! I may have learned a lesson here. It doesn’t pay to be cheap with wine. This was no ten dollar bottle of wine. I moved all the way up to fifteen dollars.