Putting the "Fun" in unFungible
I had an amazing steak the other day. A porterhouse, I think, cooked perfectly, medium-rare, just the right crust from the sear. It was glorious. I had a glass of Cabernet Sauvignon with it, and it was fine. I could have had a glass of Rioja too, and that would have been equally ok.
The day before the steak, I was lucky enough to have dinner with an old friend and had sublimely cooked salmon. Line caught, the perfect temperature. I had a glass of Pinot Noir with it and it was good. My other choice was a glass of Julienas, and that Beaujolais would have been just as nice as the Pinot.
Yesterday, we celebrated my wife’s 40th birthday in the garden of our house in downtown Livermore. The weather was perfect, friends from all over the Bay Area came to celebrate her. We had some good food, and there was a spirit of camaraderie there that just elevated the whole experience. The sunshine gently abated as the orb set over the house, the evening cooled off wonderfully, the timed lights came on and shadows played on the picket fence; people put on coats and sweaters, and the conversation continued rich and intimate deep into the dark. This perfect night ended with glasses of Cab Franc, some of ours and some from our friends.
There was absolutely no substitute for that wine at that moment, no wine that would have connected us more deeply. In the best of times, you can’t just replace one thing with another. It happens more often with Cab Franc than any other wine.