Monday, June 2, 2008

Gratitude - Day 123

Gratitude - Day 123
I'm grateful for a wine so heavenly that it defies description. Is it the color caramel? Butter? Pure Gold??? This is a sauterne which was served at a dinner after a recent performance. None other than the Baroness Rothschild, herself, furnished the wine for the amazing dinner, and this particular glass sent me over the moon. It was the perfect pairing for the fois gras (I know - I'm not writing this to be mean, I swear!)

Must. Go. Wine. Shopping.

The kicker of this evening was that I was seated across from the charming Baroness, herself, and she was the most delightful dinner companion imaginable. I was actually able to share with her several of my earliest encounters with her wine - not as a drinker, but as a server!

Several (don't make me say "many") years ago in college, I worked as a waitress for the best restaurant in Wichita, Kansas - the only real "fine dining" establishment in town. (Oh, the lamb chops - sweet papaya, they were good!) It was a great job, and helped me pay my way through college during tough days. On the rare occasion someone REALLY felt like celebrating, it meant opening an astonishing bottle of wine - and without fail, that meant only one possibility: Rothschild. Of course, I also had to admit that the first time I was called on to OPEN a bottle of the heavenly elixir, I discovered in the WORST WAY that these great wines contained extra long corks: yes, I broke it on the first try. Classy, I know! Never again, mind you, but I'm sure it was due to my hand shaking with excitement and nerves! Happily, I think the patrons took pity on me and didn't garnish my tip too much.

She got a kick out of the story, and I got a kick out of connecting beautiful, random dots in my life.

PS - it will be a miracle if I still fit into my costume at the end of this run! Thankfully, the pants are quite "roomy" to say the least! I might, however, have a harder time fitting into these:

Vintage shopping in Paris - oh yeah!

1 comment:

marcillac said...

I'm glad you enjoyed the Sauternes (since its Rothschild I'm guessing Rieussec) you certainly deserve multiple cases for the performance I saw last Wednesday. This was my second C&M in less than two months (and second ever - we saw it in Vienna in April and actually enjoyed it more than the Salome and Rosenkavalier at the Staatsoper even though those are normally much more my cup of tea...err...einspanner). Obviously the staged performance had a great deal more to offer and although the whole cast was excellent you really did kinda steal the show.

I'm "stuck" here in Paris for work for the next few weeks and time and ticket availability permitting might catch another performance.

Getting back to the Sauternes they really can quite unctuous - the texture - especially if it gets a little air can seem like farily thick cream. Cheers!!!