Wednesday, October 22, 2008

Scene from the Domaine Select Tasting

Scene A: Int. LARGE OPEN DINING ROOM IN THE FOUR SEASONS RESTAURANT.

A ring of white-clothed tables lines the perimeter of the room, several bottles of wine, a spit bucket, and various pamphlets on each table. The room is crowded with well dressed people. Everyone holds a wine glass, sips wine, chats with their companions, shuffles on to the next table.

Brooklynguy stands to one side and thumbs through the tasting book. A slight frown crosses his face as he continues to thumb through the book. He reaches a certain page, his face lights up, and he purposefully strides across the room looking at the table numbers as he walks. He approaches Table 75 in the corner of the room. Two women stand behind the table looking bored, although there are three men in suits standing there tasting wine. Brooklynguy waits his turn and fixes his gaze on the women, hoping one of them will notice him standing there with an empty glass.

Vesna Kristančič
(IN SLOVENIAN ACCENTED ENGLISH) Hello, how are you?

Brooklynguy
Fine, thank you. I'd like to taste through the whole Movia lineup.

Vesna Kristančič
Yes. Here is 2006 Pinot Grigio (POURS).

Brooklynguy
Are you Aleš' wife?

Vesna Kristančič
Yes.

Brooklynguy
My name is Neil. I'm friendly with Jeremy Parzen he told me...

Vesna Kristančič
(INTERRUPTS, SMILING) Oh yes, Jeremy. We just saw him in San Francisco. Okay, you taste my wines.

A rather short and skinny Japanese man approaches the table. He has long gray hair and is wearing a yellow suit jacket, a black tie, and a large brown felt hat with a partridge feather in the band.

Japanese Man
Can I taste Lunar please.

Vesna Kristančič
(POURS) Yes, of course.

Brooklynguy
What exactly is Lunar?

Japanese Man
(DRINKS, FACE LIGHTS UP) Oh, this is very different from everything else, very delicious.

Vesna Kristančič
Thank you. (TURNS TO BROOKLYNGUY) Lunar is Ribolla made from whole grape clusters and Aleš leave it alone until he put it in the bottle.

Japanese Man
(RAISES GLASS TO TOAST, LAUGHING LOUDLY) This is really different. You gonna make a whole lotta money. Prada, Versace, Louis Vuitton, right? Yeah!

Vesna Kristančič
(BLINKING) Yes, well, it's not like this.

Japanese Man
A whole lotta money! Versace!

FADE OUT.


I've been to a few tastings recently, as you may have guessed. A weird scene, lemme tell you. Some truly great wines though - I'll share some impressions soon.

9 comments:

Anonymous said...

hah yeah tell me about it went to a tasting everyone dress you know men in jackets etc. aGuy moving around the room in a old t-shirt and old pants half loaded when I showed up. I say to myself who let this guy in haha

Tasting sure are fun especially when you find those people behind the table who you can talk to who arn't their to sell you the stuff like a saleman

Debra Morgan said...

Ribolla? I can't think of a one-act starring one of my favorite grapes, ever, THANKS

Anonymous said...

"Ver-sach-e, Ver-sach-e, ah, ah, Ver-sach-e!" - Pet Shop Boys

Anonymous said...

ROFL.

David McDuff said...

You've set quite a stage here, my friend. Looking forward to your further commentary on the tastings.

Marcus said...

You had me at Ribolla. Even when it is not made for whole grape clusters, it's too rare. Need to make a Ribolla run to New York soon!

Lyle Fass said...

Welcome to my life.

Brooklynguy said...

This really was a surreal moment. Glad that you feel me on this.

Anonymous said...

hey, I'm just catching up on blog reading. This is hilarious... we gotta taste Movia together one of these days man... great post...