Wednesday, December 31 2008
Out With the Old . . .
There must be something between us, even if it's only an ocean of wine.
Another year on it's way out, and a busy one it was: national elections in Canada and the USA (yes, America had one too, believe it or not), total financial meltdown (apparently I'll be retiring when I'm one hundred and sixty-five), grape harvests, the Wine Spectator spoofed, mergers and acquisitions in the kit industry wine running from water fountains (and vice versa) and Victoria British Columbia, Canada's Riviera, had the most snow of any city in Canada on December 25th.
Whew!
We had a nice, quiet holiday season at Winexpert and at my house. Limited Edition orders were put to bed, the kits hung by the chimney with care and we started planning for next year. I celebrated midwinter with friends and family, and wound up having three turkey dinners, only two of which I cooked myself.
Tonight we're celebrating as we usually do at my house, with lobsters and sparkling wine. I've never been much for going out on new year's eve. Not only can I not really hear in crowded rooms (common, but getting worse as I get older) but also I don't drink if I'm going to drive, and there aren't that many exciting venues within walking distance. We've been carefully hoarding a lovely bottle of Gloria Ferrer sparkling wine (Napa) and I found a couple of nice little lobsters (and a dozen oysters) at Granville Island.
Snow? What snow? This is Vancouver!
It was beautiful on Granville Island today--a wee bit crowded, but everyone was smiling and in a jolly mood. I stopped for a bowl of soup (the Stock Market makes the best fish soup) and wound up with a crowd of admirers.
Hey mister, you gonna eat all that bread?
I've got a bit of work to do, what with cleaning out the hot tub for the aftermath of the Polar Bear Swim tomorrow. I've conned my old pal David into swimming with me this year (misery loves company, plus I think he knows CPR) I've got to prep some things for dinner tonight (fingerling potatoes, asparagus, shuck oysters) and I'm doing some lamb shanks for tomorrow's dinner:
Lamb shanks render me zombie-like: braise, braise!
I browned the shanks just with salt, pepper and a little garlic, and then made up some braising liquid with Sandhill Cabernet/Syrah and bits of this and that (star anise, garlic, shallots, demi-glace, secret sauce, yadda yadda) and it'll cook in the oven for 24 hours or so, and I'm planning on making a mushroom risotto and some grilled asparagus to go with, along with a precious bottle of Sandhill 1. It's a tough life.
Little things to keep in mind about 2009:
- It's the International Year of Astronomy, celebrating the 400th anniversary of Galileo using a telescope for astronomical purposes. Yay stargazing!
- Be sure to add one second to your clocks tonight at midnight: it's a leap-second year
- Limited Edition kits are coming! If you ordered either the New Zealand Merlot or the Gewurztraminer, clean your equipment and make you sacrifices to the gods of fermentation!
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