Wine Foreplay and Sensual Pleasures!

Yesterday afternoon I had my first wine in three weeks.  As mentioned in yesterday's post "My first wine in three weeks!" I drank the 2006 Coldstream Hills Reserve Cabernet Sauvignon, a beautiful wine to drink on its own while blogging and also to go with dinner, an exceptional mince and cheese casserole that my lovely bride made.

While I was looking forward to the wine drinking with some enthusiasm, I was not prepared for the sensual experience that came from the 'foreplay' or preparation.  The excitement started to ebb by making the choice of what wine to drink, and increased as I proceeded to open the bottle.  Since the bottle had a screw top (instead of a cork), I did not have the sensual pleasure of removing a challenging cork which some of the 'more mature ladies' use in protest of one's advances! 

However, things quickly picked up again when I decanted the bottle through a filter and aerator.  What a joy to visualize the rich, almost purple color of the beautiful liquid spray out through the aerator and cascade down the side of the decanter.  The smell of wine drifting upward as the liquid trickles down providing a tingling to multiple senses.

As the wine continued to decant, I approached my selection of Riedel glasses, choosing to go with the Cabernet Sauvignon Vinum Extreme (a slightly more sensual stem over the Vinum!) and brought it back to the counter.  The excitement mounted as I poured the wine from decanter into glass to the perfect height (the widest part of the globe) and tenderly and slowly swirled the wine to further speed the aeration process and watch the magic liquid go around and around, like the CERN particle accelerator in (very!) slow motion (crikey, I am sounding like I should be writing "50 Shades of Red" or something!)

As I walked to my desk, anticipating my first sip in three weeks, I was trembling and had to be careful to not spill the wine onto my clothes or the floor.  I then placed the glass on my desk and stared at my prize, my possession that I was about to consume, being in total control of the situation.

My God, I am breathless again writing this as I remember the pursuit and the anticipation more than the act itself!  This is the closest I have been to comparing the wine drinking experience to an erotic sexual experience.  However, for now, let's just leave it that drinking wine can be something sensual!

On a final and true physiologic note, what makes wine drinking truly sensual is that it fills and satisfies all of the senses from sight to smell to taste to feeling (the texture of the wine on your palate) and even in some cases hearing (by listening to the decanting and swirling processes).  And you can't do many things that excite the senses more than that!