Spirits

Dreary weekend, once the windy rain had passed. Moped around the house a lot. Didn’t get much done. I should feel better. For the first time in a while I don’t have anything too serious hanging over my head or way behind schedule. It always seems like when I get a little down time that this sluggish moody mood sets in.

I guess feelings of any kind mean at least I’m alive.

The picture above is a snap from our tour of the Domain Chandon facility on Friday, a grand belated birthday outing. We saw the giant tanks, heard a lot about the science and art of making the sparkling and still wines, tasted six champagnes, had a fantastic extended lunch, and then bought a lot of champagne, pinot noir, and pinot meunier.

I’ve just poured a glass of the 2000 Carneros Pinot Noir, which is breathing right now as the bouquet expands under my nose (or the nose expands under the bouquet of fall flowers here on my kitchen table).

The photo (which is also a link to a larger, uncropped version of the image) shows a step in the bottling process, after the bottlenecks are frozen, when the tiny cap containing the yeast is burst off. The next step equalizes the amount of champagne in each bottle.