Chronic Negress

The is the fourth anniversary of the this webwide virtual tasting, and its founder, Lenndevours, suggested we find a wine that is something of a lynchpin in our love and understanding of the stuff. I grew up in a Mateus/Blue Nun household. I think I now know why that nun was so down. Occasionally my uncle the shrink would drop off a bottle of Sauternes, which appealed to my childish sweet tooth. I knew somehow it was better than Mateus, but the same instinctive critical hierarchy that drew me to be a music critic hadn’t developed for wine just yet.

In college, I once drank a lot of Riunite Lambrusco and ended up seeing everything I had eaten that day. I drank beer with the women’s rugby team, Guinness with anyone who offered and Jack Daniels so often it was my trademark beverage. I drank some wine with a former professor who became my lover, but the wine seemed as much as prop for my nascent bad girl status as something to be savored. I did savor the man, who taught me well about many things. Somewhere out there is a nude picture of me when more was intact and svelte.

But this is about wine memories, so back to it. Since arriving in the best annex of New York, my wine savvy has increased exponentially. When living in Texas and California, I had acquired an interest in Merlot. That doesn’t mean that I actually loved Merlot. But the Cabernets were sort of brutal and overbearing, and I liked the soft tannins of Merlot. But at some point, those tannins got less soft and more linty and I lost interest. This was well before “Sideways,” so I am not an anti-Merlot snob come lately. But the North Fork of Long Island turned my head. my nose and my palate.

Face it, who thinks of terroir in New York? Ice wine and Riesling from the Finger Lakes. Cabernet Franc from the Fork had gained a reputation. But where my heart fell hard was the Merlot from Bedell. Tonight I am drinking the 2005 Reserve. The bottle has been finished as a couple of days have passed. This is a delicious, seductive wine with rich fruit and structure, and notes of ripe red fruit and plummy flavor. This is the kind of wine you can serve to someone who doesn’t know anything about wine and they will have their Helen Keller moment. North Fork Merlot made me understand that there’s a lot more to this than getting it on the shelf and hoping someone will buy it. The earth gets it all started, but how it’s finished is why we all keep writing.

Happy Anniversary WBW. Here’s to to more years and more wines.

I left school, moved down South and drank anything that wasn’t nailed down I was so miserable. Even dropped shots of Galliano into Miller beer. Even kissed people I shouldn’t have after doing that.