From time to time I write about wine but apart from knowing what is nice and what is not nice I don’t have the wine vocabulary to get my point across very well. I leave that to the experts you can see listed over on the right-hand column down towards the bottom of the page. However this is a special wine with a story attached.
In the early nineties a group of us who were friends in college had just been let loose on the real world and were earning money for the first time, some in Cork, myself in Athlone and most in Dublin. During the course of his duties in Dublin one of the group was given an opportunity to own a then seven year old bottle of Lynch Bages. The year was 1992. The opportunity was taken.
The wine was cared for and and moved around Dublin from rented house to rented house all the time managing to stay unopened which was no mean feat living in the some of the places it did. Over the years it travelled around Ireland and and maybe even further afield but all the time it remained protected from the elements. The owner left to work abroad whereupon it was cared for by our buddy Dan. On the occasions when we would all get together the wine would often come up in conversation, usually “Do you still have it?”.
In the ten years between 1992 and 2002 there was engagement, marraige, birth, divorce and a death within the group. Seven years on and everybody fondly remembers our friend Alan who passed away in August 2002 from an asthma attack. A common or garden asthma attack. This year it happened again. Just before Christmas 2009, a week before his 38th birthday, Dan passed away. Another member of the group gone at a stage where we should be celebrating fortieth birthday parties not going to funerals.
This New Years Eve those friends who were in Cork came for dinner where the wine made a surprise appearence. After owning it, and caring for it, for seventeen years it was shared with the small group of friends at the table. We raised a glass and drank to Dan and we drank to Alan. Two friends who left much sooner than they should. The itself wine was superb but sometimes the occassion can be worth a whole lot more. Life is short. Stop and smell the roses (or an ‘85 Lynch Bages if you have a friend good enough to share with you). Don’t let things pass you by. Thanks EB.
Happy 2010.
06/01/2010 at 4:59 pm Permalink
By far the best New Year’s blog post I have read. A lesson well learned by all of us, and a fabulous reminder by you. Next week, I am getting together with a bunch of girls from University, one I haven’t seen since we graduated in 1993 as she moved out of the country. I had planned on serving a casual buffet and a few nice bottles of wine, But I have this really special bottle of bubbly that I have carried around for years. You have convinced me to pull it out, add a few edible hibiscus flowers into the glasses, and share a special bottle with special friends while we are all there to enjoy it! Happy 2010 and keep up the great blog!