This week, I’ve been unpacking some of the wine from my spring wine clubs and allocations. I carefully removed all the bottles from their styrofoam pods, stood them up on my dining room floor, and admired my little wine bottle brigade. And then I thought . . . where am I going to put all of this? My wine cellar is already full — there’s no room in the inn.
Wait. Do I have too much wine?
Mark Twain once quipped, “Too much of anything is bad, but too much good wine* is barely enough.” *Mark Twain didn’t really say that. Twain was talking about whiskey — I put a word in his mouth. But Twain is a good sport . . . he doesn’t mind.
A handful of years ago, I got a piece of advice from Jay McInerney . . . via his book,
A Hedonist in the Cellar (I don’t actually know Jay McInerney). But the advice really stuck with me: Get on as many winery mailing lists as you can. So I did.
Patience and a little bit of stalking paid off, and now I’m a member of half a dozen wine clubs, and somehow I managed to secure allocations form half a dozen more. And you know how allocations work — once you get an allocation, you gotta order . . . or you risk getting black-balled the next year. And the wine accumulates.
But do I have too much wine . . . or barely enough? I have a modest wine cellar. My wine cellar is a basement closet, not a temperature controlled safe-room. And I have hundreds, not thousands of bottles. But sometimes I wonder if I’m already well on my way to becoming one of those people who have more wine in their cellar than they can drink in a lifetime. I hope my kids end up enjoying wine as much as I do . . . their inheritance is going to come with a cork.
In the spirit of moderation, I broke-up with a handful of wine clubs recently. If the wines don’t make my toes curl, it’s time to move on. And already, I’m close to joining a new wine club. Alexana Winery in Oregon has been seducing me with their gorgeous Pinot Noir and Pinot Gris. I’m trying to resist, but . . . who am I kidding? I’m gonna fold like a soft taco.
There’s just so much great wine in this world . . . changing the scenery from time to time is a good thing.
And let’s be honest . . . “too much of a good thing can be wonderful”. ~Mae West
Do you belong to any wine clubs or have wine allocations? Do you have too much wine . . . or barely enough?
Salud!
