Delectations

Every now and then, a splendid revelation will hit a body like manna from heaven. Mine came upon me this last Christmastime and though, heaven knows, it wasn’t anything not revealed to anybody before, it came as a most agreeable surprise to me and those I inveigled into sharing it. The revelation concerns drinking, and specifically, the drinking of wine.

Like most other citizens, we booze it up in the usual manner before and after dinner, keeping the wine for the food. I must say that experience has taught me not to serve my best Bordeaux or Moselles to those with four martinis in them, since by that stage they hardly know what they are drinking, or care, for that matter. For those occasions I reserve a good quality California gallon wine or some inexpensive Italian or Chilean import. I find that these inexpensive wines are far better than the French inexpensive wines, which trade upon American snobbery, and that they more than amply correspond to the “vins du pays” which have made travelers so happy in Europe. I especially recommend the California wines, which come in various low prices and which are as good a wine value as you can find anywhere. Those of us too refined to serve them in their own containers can put them into our best Waterford decanters. The taste is one you have to decide for yourself.

NH

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Nika Hazelton

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Every now and then, a splendid revelation will hit a body like manna from heaven. Mine came upon me this last Christmastime and though, heaven knows, it wasn’t anything not revealed to anybody before, it came as a most agreeable surprise to me and those I inveigled into sharing it. The revelation concerns drinking, and specifically, the drinking of wine.

Like most other citizens, we booze it up in the usual manner before and after dinner, keeping the wine for the food. I must say that experience has taught me not to serve my best Bordeaux or Moselles to those with four martinis in them, since by that stage they hardly know what they are drinking, or care, for that matter. For those occasions I reserve a good quality California gallon wine or some inexpensive Italian or Chilean import. I find that these inexpensive wines are far better than the French inexpensive wines, which trade upon American snobbery, and that they more than amply correspond to the “vins du pays” which have made travelers so happy in Europe. I especially recommend the California wines, which come in various low prices and which are as good a wine value as you can find anywhere. Those of us too refined to serve them in their own containers can put them into our best Waterford decanters. The taste is one you have to decide for yourself.