If you ask the question in the title of a group of friends the answer might be “she is in the powder room.” Or if you ask a truck driver he would probably answer, it is north of Florida, and if you asked a native of east Europe they would answer between Turkey and Russia. What does it matter? Not a damn thing. It is just one of those rhetorical questions that fall into the category of trivia depending upon what your ethnic roots are.
Recently Lovely and I shopped at a deli of her ethnicity. She loves food from her own country or region. As a curious by-stander, I shopped the shelves of liquor and wine. I noticed a large selection of wines from places like Armenia, Moldava, Georgia, but none from the country that this deli was fronting. Since Georgia the country is geographically close to Ukraine and Russia, and since Ukraine is currently kicking Russia’s ass in a war no one seems to understand, I purchased a bottle of cabernet wine from Georgia the country. The idea was to understand just what was being consumed in that region that would want to make them go to war.
I presented the bottle to my club with a challenge, “open your taste buds to try this rich red wine and tell me what you think.” To my surprise several members jumped at the chance. three of them thought the wine was good, one thought it to be average. I thought it to be smooth. That could mean the the wine was well aged and the tannins had softened the harshness of a young cabernet. After reading the label I learned that it is a blend of 50% Cabernet and 50% Saperavi. What the heck is Saperavi? Most likely it is a local variety of grape that doesn’t grow any where else in the world.
The bottle of Georgian wine went empty in record time as several members liked it so much they went for seconds. I was one of them. On my next trip to this deli, I will sample wine from Armenia and Moldava, two more postage stamp sized countries in the region. These countries have existed for centuries. Their people have been making wine for just as long, and they must know how to make it good.
Nevertheless, I will enjoy drinking wine with my friends on Tuesday nights for as long as I am able.
Filed under: family | Tagged: georgia, Wine | 2 Comments »
