Wines without Comets

[Bertil Haggman <bertil.haggman@helsingborg.se>]

Umberto Rossi wrote:

> Bertil, do you really believe that most expensive goods are always
> the best?  On wine market that's patently false.  Often you pay for
> the legend, not for the wine.  Ask any good connoisseur.  The French
> have outstanding wines, and their champagnes cannot be beaten, but on
> still red wine there's much our better winemakers can (and did) teach
> them.  And the person who is writing this message is a lover of
> Sauternes and Montbasillac (hope the spelling of the latter isn't
> wrong).
> 
> In case you still have doubts, go to the nearest wine shop and ask for
> as bottle of Amarone Masi.  In case they have it, prepare a good meat
> dish (I cannot tell you which one because I'm no expert of Swedish
> cuisine), uncork the bottle and decant the wine at least 2 hours before
> dinner, then fasten your seat belt and enjoy the product.
> 
> And the climate is very very very important.  Just tell me the name of
> a famous Norwegian wine, if any...

Umberto,

Appreciated very much your tip on Amarone Masi. Will certainly
try it with your good instructions and as I pointed out earlier:
I  d o  like Italian wines, as I admire Roman culture. Am well
aware of the fact that the Germanic tribes could barely
write runes on stones when Rome had a great literature.
But one should maybe remember that Rome was conquered and sacked
by these tribes in the 5th century AD. 

My comment concerning climate was relevant to wine growing
countries, of course. So your comment on Norwegian wines was
somewhat of a blow below the belt. May I recommend a Norwegian
Loejten Aqua Vita. It has travelled around the world on a ship 
in an oak cascet, is to be served ice cold and drank preferably 
with some excellent German Bitburger beer, for instance.

To establish a motive for this contribution I will end with
a Juenger wine quote and the suggestion that maybe we should continue
this discussion outside the list.

"It struck me as though there had been a third, carefully
observing party in the room who suddenly remarked in a dry tone:

'You have been drinking wine.'

And I heard myself reply in a quiet, angry voice:

'Is there any harm in that?'

I could see the two of us clearly in an old mirror hanging a
little crookedly on the wall as two figures lit by the dim glow
of the fire; like the greenish gauze draped about a puppet 
theater, the tarnished metal frame gave our outlines an air
of distance. And from a great distance, the distance of a dream,
came the answer:

'Oh, yes. There is harm in that. There is harm...a great deal
of harm.'"

("Aus dem Guckkasten", _Das abenteuerliche Herz - zweite Fassung_)

Bertil
bertil.haggman@helsingborg.se