I’m feeling patriotic today. It’s Presidents Day. We used to celebrate Washington’s actual birthday on February 22 and Lincoln’s birthday on February 12. However many years ago the geniuses in Congress got the brilliant idea to make it a “convenient” holiday and lumped them together on a Monday. Now I know three day weekends are great, but let’s think about it. What day do people dislike the most. - Monday! So we honor two of our greatest presidents by celebrating them on the most unpopular day of the week. Now there’s some gratitude.
Why didn’t they consider Tuesday? I know that would screw up the concept of the three day weekend but the Vintage Tuesday gang approves. Having this celebration on Tuesday makes more sense because you could coast through the dreaded Monday, have Tuesday off, and now you only have three more days until the weekend. Better yet, stick a vacation day in there on Monday and you get a Four Day weekend and Tuesday becomes something even more special!
In honor of the father of our country George Washington, we had to visit our friend the Wine Wizard to find an appropriate bottle of wine. Since we were trying to stay with our Presidential theme she lead us to a bottle of St. George 2003 Merlot from Domaine Saint George Healdsburg, CA. I know George Washington was not an “official” saint but perhaps his mom thought he was since most moms think their sons are saints. The real Saint George was a soldier of the Roman Empire but I won’t take that one any further or I’ll confuse my wine tale with actual facts.
The wine is quite fitting for our celebration of President’s day and George Washington because when you open the bottle you can pick up a hint of cherry. Remember the cherry tree? See we did put some thought into this. I can not tell a lie, the wine has a great flavor of fruits and berries. A little bit of oak also comes through but that would also mess up our story since George chopped down the cherry tree and not an oak tree.
This wine has a mellowness to it that would have actually made George Washington smile. I can’t say I have ever seen him smile in any portrait. Must have had something to do with those legendary teeth. I would imagine if George was able to try this wine back in his day, the one dollar bill would have a whole different look. The picture would be of Washington with a huge cheese eating, wine drinking grin and we would have known what those mystery teeth were really made of.
We can’t forget that Presidents Day also honors Abraham Lincoln’s birthday. Lincoln had a distinct advantage over Washington because of his stove pipe hat. The hat was so huge, he could have kept 3 bottles of St. George up there just in case.
Happy Birthday Abe and George! (and anyone else that has a birthday today)
Angus
