AficioNada

Speaking of finding humor in wine, this weekend a friend lent us the keys to his place in Tahoe. Five us giddily trekked up the mountain Saturday evening. The sky had darkened and the stars had disappeared by the time we made it to the condo, and we were all eagerly anticipating a fireside supper, perhaps too much wine and a good night's sleep before two days of hard core skiing.

So, you can imagine our dismay when the house key we'd been given didn't work. What was a hungry, cold, locked out crew to do? Well, when you're this particular crew, you throw the Franciacorta in the snow, open the already chilled German Riesling stashed in your cooler, kick yourself for not packing cups,  and pass the bottle around while you wait for the Australian realty agent to grumpily show up with the spare key (seriously, she was the first Aussie I've met who didn't see the humor in the situation). 

Strangely, this same "friend" lent us the same wrong key last year. Talk about situational irony...made actually quite delightful by being among folks who all enjoy good wine - even when its being pulled straight from the bottle - and who enjoy a good story even more. We'll be passing this one around among our friends for months. And people say the oral tradition is dead!

We'll pick up soon with Doug Pike, cartoonist for the online Wine Advocate. In the meantime, I've included another Doug Pike original below, along with a smashing new wine & food match up: Chick-fil-A nuggets and Gewurztraminer. Blew last year's Chick-fil-A - Beaujolais pairing right out of the water. The Kiwi Gewurz, a 2006 from Vinoptima, we opened this weekend had a whopping 14% alcohol, but the wine tasted refreshing, had lively acidity and seemed to hint at fruity, residual sugar. Dangerously good.