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Health & Fitness

A Message In A Bottle

I have lost my taste of wine; can this love that can be rekindled? I went into downtown Walnut Creek searching for my long lost love.

  Love’s lost and love’s found. This scene unfolds every Friday and Saturday night in Downtown Walnut Creek as people search for what they once had, want to have, never had, or are trying to get back.  The main character in my novel falls into the lost love category, sending him on an adventure of sorts equally as self deprecating as it is self discovery. His journey becomes pivotal while visiting Spain.  Some 60 million tourists set foot in Spain last year making it the second most visited country in the world.  To me Spain is sexy and seductive with its spicy food, delicious wines and its sultry flamenco music.  My character visits Priorato, a region in Spain located just southwest of Catalonia over the mountains of Barcelona.  The land is filled with black slate soil.   People both indigenous and foreign have said the land looks like the moonscape.  The terrain itself has been rendered completely useless to grow anything other than grapevines. The idea of visiting a land destined only to grow grapes sounds so poetic.  While one can appreciate the soils commitment to the vine, my personal love affair with wine is lost.

  Over the last 6 years I developed a wonderful and mutual love affair with wine. It was a strong love, a love that grew and flourished with each passing year.  I invested time, money and I gave a lot to this relationship.  Then disaster struck the other night while at dinner with friends. I found myself in the midst of an unexpected and very public break up with wine. My standard “entertainment” wines had lost their luster and just like that, it was over. I immediately found myself working through the stages of a breakup; first the initial shock, followed by grief and then finally the growing pit of insecurity deep in my stomach. I was left with several lingering thoughts and unanswered questions. What had gone wrong? Was it me? Was it the wine? Was it just bad timing?

  I decided first to experiment and see if the problem was me. I tried several wines that I knew I once loved but when this experiment failed it was obvious that I was in trouble. Maybe it really WAS me.  I expanded the variables in my experiment by trying wines recommended by close friends but still I felt nothing. As the reasons surrounding my breakup remained a mystery, I sought guidance in the crowds of other love-seekers in downtown Walnut Creek

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  I set up a small private wine crawl here in Walnut Creek to find the best glass of wine to make me fall in love again.  My first stop was Residual Sugar where I was met with wonderful service by the entire staff.  I sat on a nice comfy chaise lounge where I had a full view of the entire place.  The bar was dark and the fixtures were highlighted by luminous amber hues.  I closed my eyes to absorb the atmosphere.  I felt cozy and calm as the ambience enveloped me.  My senses brought me to a place that was familiar, a friend’s party maybe, the air filled with laughter and the gentle motion of friendly gestures, wine corks popping in the background. Simply, it was just a wonderful mix of comfort and elegance.  My wine matchmaker was Nate, he discussed the wines he poured with the love that I was searching for. I was in the right place.  As I explained to Nate the nature of my quest, his confident recommendation of a Spanish wine began to assuage my doubts and insecurities. I found comfort in the irony of his choice given the recent developments in my novel. Like the character in my story, I found myself exploring my failed relationship and was now searching for answers in bottles of Spanish wine.  This was serendipitous.

  My matchmaker introduced me to my first date Cava, a sparkling, romantic and fun wine.  This was the wonderful beginning of a new courtship with Spanish wines.  The label on the Naveran Cava was as vintage looking as the Brut itself.  The next wine was the Cellar Vinos Pinol Blanc from Terra Alta in Spain. This wine was delicious as well and my belief that I could find love again was growing stronger.  It was indeed a perfect unpredictability of spicy herbs and a smooth buttery finish.  As my server explained the complexities of the wine and the reasons he was so passionate about it I agreed that if this wasn’t love it was definitely infatuation. 

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  As I drank my Spanish wines I watched the other patrons many of whom seemed to be looking for love too.  I observed a young woman interacting with men who had just approached her.   She hurriedly gave the men the once over and liking what she saw, she nodded her head yes to a glass of wine and to the company.  She laughed as one of the men talked but carefully watched his friend and monitored his reaction. Although she was laughing it appeared to be for the amusement or validation of the two men.   Her body language revealed a twinge of awkwardness and uncertainty that went unnoticed as her companions pressed on.  I imagined this woman was interested in finding love too and thought of the different dating possibilities she might have.  Perhaps she had been dating the wrong people over and over again, or going out Friday and looking for new love, longing for an old love, or has no idea of what love actually feels like.  This observation led me to realize that the problem didn’t lie with the wine that I was drinking but with my mindset and my expectations.  The love for wine never left me, my tastes and preferences had evolved and I desired more complexity than I once required.  This is true with wine and dating alike.  The love that lies ahead takes time and introspection and we must delve into the blueprints of our choices to construct our own happiness.  Perhaps you are like the land in Priorato, Spain meant only to harvest grapes; and after all your hard work, sacrifice and long journey you plant the right seed, the only seed that will cultivate and grow.  Now that’s romantic.

 

 

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