The Sublime to the Ridiculous

This is a whisky blog, not a wine blog, of which there are hundreds, maybe thousands. So I have refrained from posting about great wines we have enjoyed, some of which have been quite memorable. But Saturday night, Susan and I had a chance to drink a number of truly incomparable Italian wines, many of which can no longer be found on the open market. And so I’ve decided to make an exception, mainly so that I can record my recollection of these wonderful wines, while they are still fairly fresh in my memory.

The setting was an Italian Wine Dinner, seats at which were auctioned at a charitable fund raiser; Dr. Ron and Trudie purchased four seats, and then were kind enough to invite us. When they first mentioned it, we thought we might be out of town this weekend, but our plans changed, and we accepted. Lucky for us that happened. I don’t feel comfortable disclosing our hosts, but suffice it to say that he has a most impressive cellar, with a particular interest in Italian wines. Dinner was seven courses, each paired with one or more wines.

Before dinner, we had a glass of a sparking wine made from the same grape as Proseco, but with the French champagne method. It was dryer and crisper than most Italian sparkling wines I’ve tasted – light and crisp.

The dinner started off with a bang, as we were served a 1990 Fiorano. I had only heard of Fiorano in the most general sense, a kind of mythical white wine, of very limited production. Online, I’ve learned that Fiorano was made on a tiny vineyard by an eccentric prince, who apparently followed few of the traditional winemaking rules, who refused to commercialize his wines, and who eventually plowed under the vineyard where the white Malvasia and Semillon grapes were grown. The wine has been out of production since 1995, and only about 14,000 bottles were ever made. Readers will know that I’m no fan of white wines, but this white was unlike anything I’ve ever drunk. Most white wines are drunk young, because they don’t age well, but what was distinctive about this Fiorano was that it aged so well. Apparently, the older the wine gets, the fruitier it becomes. In any event, it was gold in color, and tasted rich and complicated. Think of all the layers of flavor in a great ice wine, and then try to imagine that in a dry white. Every taste seemed to have a new surprise for me. It was paired with sea bass served in a garlic and grappa infused seafood broth. (Tony did the cooking.) So the first course ended, and I was already in heaven. And I’d got there from drinking white wine. Imagine that. And imagine where we’re headed with all the reds waiting to be poured.

Before posting about the remaining courses from Saturday night, let me digress to mention Sunday afternoon, when the Orange barely managed to beat William and Mary. When this game started off well, and Cuse ran out to a 12-2 lead after five minutes, I thought that we might get to see one early season game where they performed as predicted. After all, they had played well in the second half of each game; the problem had been the slow starts. However, once W&M shook off their jitters, and started hitting threes over the zone, they climbed back into the game, aided by the fact that the Orange went cold. It was two or three points at the half – the usual. In the second half, they came out of the locker room all energized, ran up a double digit lead, but then went cold again. Just like the first half, W&M began hitting from outside, closed the lead, and then suddenly, with two minutes to go, the Orange trailed by four. It would have been a hell of a game if we had been playing Georgetown, but William & Mary? Somehow, things fell our way at the end. Twice their guys stepped on the end line and turned the ball over; we hit some foul shots, and got a key putback; and in the end, won by three. Maybe it was good preparation for those close conference games, but honestly, I can’t envision any conference team being as small and slow as W&M. We still had no inside game; we had no flow in the halfcourt offense; we ran well when we got turnovers, or long rebounds, but we weren’t able to get out in the break as much as previous games. Melo sat more than he played. Moussa Keita looks like he might contribute on D, or under the boards, but not on the offensive end. It’s still 4 on 5 when either of the freshmen centers are on the court. Coach is playing more and more with a smaller lineup, Jackson in the post and Joseph along with either Southerland or CJ Fair at the forwards. We give up size, but at least it’s 5 on 5. And he also had an entire lineup off the bench in the first half – Moussa Keita, Southerland, Fair, Mookie and Waiters. Those guys played well I thought. They hustled; they rebounded; Waiters had a couple decent drives, one off a steal. No one shot lights out, but in the first half, they played better than the starters. Coach needs to develop more confidence in these guys, and then at least we are ten deep. So from a statistical perspective, it will be easier to find someone, anyone who can hit his jumpers.

They need work. I only hope they improve; that the zone functions better, so they keep opponents’ scores down. They’ll need that because many games they’ll find it hard to score. And maybe they’ll learn to play together better; instead of playing five individual games, maybe guys will look for their teammates cutting underneath. And maybe coach will hire a hypnotist for Fab Melo who will put him under a spell. He’ll wake up with this desire to get his hands on the ball when he’s under the hoop, and instead of watching little guys scramble for boards, he’ll box someone out, and then go grab the ball, not when it’s on the floor, or in an opponent’s hands, but when its above the rim, where his seven foot advantage allows him to be the only rebounder. Right! That will happen next game, I’m sure. Speaking of the next game, on Friday, we play Michigan, then NC State, Cornell (a tournament team these past couple years) and then number 2 Michigan State.

That will be an interesting, and telling stretch. I hope we can win two of those four games. We’re not going to dominate anyone this year, but if we can hang in with a decent team, and play well at the end, as we did on Sunday, who knows? Maybe we can go 500 in the conference. From where I’ve been watching, that would be an accomplishment this year. Oh well.