Drink Charitably!

We all every once in a while fall into the ‘the grass is always greener on the other side of the fence’ syndrome.  I’m not immune to this at all.  In fact, just the other day I fell into a funk — the economy, the environment, my 401K performance (!) — which automatically led to a hangover onto my shabby house, my 220,000 mile Honda, my lack of time & money for vacations — which began a spiral into how I don’t spend enough ‘quality’ time with my family…blah…blah…blah.   It just feeds on itself.

Snap out of it, Man!  Clearly I have the weight of the world on my shoulders that no one else has…yeah right!  Then the words of Stephen Stills blared across the radio:

“When you’re down…and confused.  And you don’t remember…who you’re talkin’ to.”

And…

“Don’t be angry, don’t be sad, and don’t sit cryin’ over good times you’ve had.”

And the payoff line…

“And if you can’t be with the one you love, honey, love the one you’re with.”

I realized that this song is really a metaphor for politics, life, and most assuredly…wine!  That’s right — time to stop critiquing wines for what they aren’t…and start praising them for what they are.  Time to stop living in fantasy…and live for the moment.  Appreciate what you have…not what you don’t have.

Ronn Weigand’s ‘Restaurant Wine’ is like this.  He doesn’t blast wines.  He doesn’t really even rate them.  Instead, he evaluates wines and gives his thoughts on how this wine might best fit into a restaurant’s program.  How positive is that!  Good job, Ronn.

I was thinking about how easy it is to berate say…white zinfandel.  We all have.  But I also remember many, many summers ago driving down the Pacific Coast Highway in my white 1970 ragtop MGB with Springsteen blaring on the radio and the sun going down over the Malibu surf with a 22 year old UCLA co-ed in the passenger seat (I, by the way, was 23).  We decided to watch the sunset together and felt a bottle of wine would add to the ambiance.  Problem was, the local liquor store on PCH only had beer and a certain famous white zinfandel chilled. 

We opted for the white zin, and let me tell you, in that situation — the beach, the sunset, the music, the girl — I don’t think I’ve ever tasted a better wine! 

Moral of the story — I never saw the girl again.  Never really drank the wine again.  But the memory is immortal — so I got that going for me.  And the lesson learned — there is a time, a place, a situation — that lends itself well to most any wine…or person…or meal…or party…or whatever that has the opportunity for a postive experience.  You just have to drop the barriers and let it happen.

“Love the WINE you’re with!”