Wines-By-Mood

Posted by Tom Wark on May 11, 2006

How do you know it’s time to break open the Dry Rose?

When your seven day forecast looks like this.

Yesterday I decided to move up my official "Rose Break Out Day" from Memorial Day to, well, yesterday. The opening salvo in my attack on defining "pleasure" was a 2004 Ravenswood Rosato. It was cool, had a darkish hue, brimmed with early raspberry aromas and flavors and the requisite acid backbone necessary to be the quaffer it was designed as.

You see I’ve never been a cloths whore…the kind of person who has just the right outfit for just the right day or occasions. The closet if full. But it’s full of items that just ended up there. No rhyme, no reason. On the contrary, it’s my wine collection that is set up to accommodate
my moods and the world around me.

I know exactly where  my "let”s-get-the-summer-underway-wines are. I have my "drink-for-success" wines in a particular place. The "it’s-a-dreary-and-foggy-day-so-let’s-drink-heavy-reds-wines" are in a corner next to the "these-guests-can’t-tell-the-difference-wines".

It’s a strange way to organize one’s collection of wines, but it can’t be that much different than those people who create i-Pod playlists based on mood (which I tend to do)

So after a long winter/spring filled with rain, overcast and the consumption of lots of "it’s-a-dreary-and-foggy-day-so-let’s-drink-heavy-reds-wines", yesterday was an early entry into the happy side of my cellar.

I think my habit of organizing my cellar by mood and circumstances might be a result of being in wine marketing too long. Wine marketers have a tendency to try to tell our audiences that certain wines are right for certain occasions. Stock in trade, really. Mostly it’s an attempt to associate a wine with happy gatherings. Sometimes you’ll see the Champagne producers suggest that high social occasions can only be undertaken with Champagne on hand. (they’ve been trying to convince us, of late, that Champagne is goes with anything…I’m not so sure.)

I’ve noticed that the Italian Pinot Grigio brands are pushed by showing smiling happy people outdoors, in flowing skirts and linen shirts, always smiling, but always outdoors in a summer setting. Makes sense.

Either way, the section of the Wark Family Cellar that holds the "it’s-summer-let’s-quaff-wines" has been broken into a tad early this year and the my world is better for it.