Wine pursuits - by choice

This has been a great Saturday.  With minor commitments and a relatively free reign, I could choose to do what I wanted, and much of that involved wine.  I finished Roger Scruton's great book on wine and philosophy entitled I drink, Therefore I am: A Philosopher's Guide to Wine, and in the reading, generated a lot of different ideas, including a dozen different topics on which to blog over the next few weeks.

And then, looking for another book to add to my pile of books to read (I am currently reading about six), I elected another wine and philosophy book!

I also took the time to respond to four different people who sought me out for advice on different wine topics, including choice of decanters, good wine books to read, my thoughts on some selected Penfold's wines, and to help review a wine list for the opening of a new restaurant.  I spent several hours doing so that could have been used elsewhere, but it was a pleasure to be asked and provide advice on wine topics.

I then made a visit to my wine cellar to select a nice Burgundy (the 2007 La Belle Voisine Nuits St George Grand Cru) to go with a meal of pork belly and mash this evening.  My wonderful wife, DAZ in the Kitchen, does a great pork belly and it deserves a great Pinot Noir to go with it.

I also picked out several bottles of wine for my bride's birthday coming up next weekend.  I always take the day off, and this year, we decided to take off two days from work to spend a four-day weekend at our place in The Hunter Valley.  We will be eating at one of our favorite restaurants, Bistro Molines, and I have selected a 2007 Bouchard Pere & Fils Montrachet and a 1999 Penfolds St Henri (these are of course, two of my wife's favorite wines) to bring along and enjoy with our 2.5 - 3 hour lunch this Friday!  I also selected a few more bottles to bring along for the four-day Easter weekend coming up in three weeks.

There were plenty of choices of things to do today, including exercise, reading other material, going shopping, getting a massage, etc., but I spent most of it reading, thinking about, selecting and drinking wine.

Work has taken a lot of energy recently, and we have also had to focus on other life events of importance.  I was great to have an unencumbered day and to spend most of it in the presence of wine-related activities.  I believe that the virtuous drinking of wine provides a continuous form of redemption - it makes you feel great and makes you appreciative of what you have.  (More on this interesting topic in an upcoming post!)

Drink safely, drink well, and enjoy the wine lifestyle - by choice!


Steve Shipley

Twitter: @shipleyaust
My other blog (on business, tech, world issues):  Steve Shouts Out!