The Soapbox

This page written 13 December 1998.

In a Glass by Myself

What impressions do I leave?
In response to a dinner invitation, a new acquaintance asked what she might bring to the occasion. "Oh, wine, perhaps?" I casually replied, meaning something additional, not critical or requiring much work. The tone of the reply was distinctly nervous. "Er, ah, I've heard you are something of a wine connoisseur..." came the explanation.

It turned out we have a mutual friend, someone I worked with briefly a few years ago. I wasn't into wine so much even then, but I recall I had formed the opinion that, for people living in the equivalent of the Hunter valley wine area, these Santarosans were woefully ignorant about wine. That opinion has yet to be revised, but I am no longer as interested in wine even as I was then, which was not as much as I was in the 1980s. (Besides, beer and scotch are better value by a mile now that wine has come to the forefront of fashion.)

So you can see it's a bit of a shame that I'm now living literally down the road from vinyards, on the lip of the Napa and Sonoma regions: Kay however is keen to do the rounds of the boutique wineries... potential tourists take note.

Back to the topic of impressions left, I am reminded of one of those party-questions that make good debate across the dinner table. Choosing a word to best sum up so-and-so, what would that word be? In the end, you need one to three words to delineate someone, but the picture painted in so little as one and so much as three is remarkable. (Other good conversation topics include "If you had to live on food of one cuisine only for the rest of your life, what would it be?", and "Which is your favourite deadly sin, and why?", but I digress.) Oenophilic would not have been on my list of words for me, not until a long way down. I will halt this reflection before I am tempted to say things that are bound to offend (for who accepts that one word can be enough, unless you are Mr or Ms "wonderful"). The footer below will cause enough speculation.

lugubrious effervescent prickly accident-prone positive bossy misogynistic honourable ambitious kind earth-motherly ursine driven sexy Dilbertesque demanding secretive practical ascetic priestly sly well-meaning sleazy image-conscious versatile friendly reserved blokey intellectual...

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