She's Baaack....

"The Art of French Cooking" by Fernande Garvin intrigued and amused me (as I hope it did you) so here are her thoughts on wine.  Incidentally, her book is still sold at amazon.com if you want a copy for yourself.

Admittedly, it came as something of a surprise to learn that she considers wine a living thing.  "Even more important to remember is the fact that wine is living.  It has a birth, a youth, a maturity, an old age and a death.  Like human beings, it is sometimes interesting when young, really at its best in maturity and declining in its old age." 

She writes that the French are surprised at the interest Americans show in the wine's year.  "Was 1967 a good year?" they enquire.  A French person would shrug and tell you that one cannot tell if it was a good season or a bad one for any given wine unless you live next door to the vineyard.  Sunny in the city may mean rain  in the country. 

Continuing her fine use of rhetoric, she goes on to say that wine can also be compared to a beautiful woman.  A great beauty may once have been an ugly little girl who finally grew into her beauty.  Conversely, a pretty child may mature to ugliness as an adult. 

Garvin flatly states that the French drink wine with all meals which is wildly incorrect.  Maybe a worker headed for work might dash into a bar on the way, but it's for one of the lethal little coffees so popular in France and not a shot of wine.  Depending on what the lunch is, a beer taken with it may be more conducive to digestion than a glass of wine.

She seems equally sure of herself here:  A French housewife would be outraged if people were to drink water with a meal she has cooked.  "A fine meal without wine is like a beautiful diamond presented wrapped in a piece of brown paper."  The clue here is a "fine meal."  Not every meal in France could be described as "fine" by any means.

We are to open any wine half an hour before we drink it and to use bell-shaped glasses to drink it.  "This is because as soon as it comes in contact with air, wine begins to breathe and the oxygen develops the full strength of the bouquet" which is an unnerving thought to many including me.   I wonder if it gasps, falters and then begins "breathing" normally.

In fact this whole thing with wine is turning out to be considerably more activy than the passive liquid in a glass I'm accustomed to seeing.  Birthing, teen years,  middloe age, breathing -- it's enough to make me give up my Pinot Grigio!