I looked in the mirror this morning and was horrified to think I was actually turning green. Not Incredible Hulk green (I don’t even have that kind of body style), more like Martian green. Trixie is forcing me to become green and Earth Day is a not so subtle reminder. Green, of course is to be environmentally conscious. I am happy just to be conscious let alone the environmental kind. Recycle this, conserve that, set the thermostat back in the winter so I turn blue, etc. etc.…. Come on! I recycle corks, I can turn them into hot pads, bulletin boards and all kinds of cool things.
We now even recycle glass wine bottles which I think, due to our Vintage Tuesday “research projects” has been enough to make windows for every house in a small country - although the windows would have a green tint. Hey wait a minute! Many wine bottles are already green, does this mean they are eco-friendly? …. probably not.
Trixie has gotten so obsessed with this green thing that she is now riding a bicycle to run errands near by. She mumbles something about the #&% oil companies and how they can stick their almost $4.00 a gallon gasoline up their…. uh… …well I’ll just say the suggested location is not a natural gasoline storage receptacle.
This whole green thing is to save the earth from all of us humans. Most of us may be good natured people (especially the wine drinking crowd) but I guess we are a bunch of pigs with our planet. The first Earth Day was celebrated in 1970 and was begun partly because of a photo taken by the first astronauts to orbit the moon. As they swung around from Pink Floyd’s Dark Side of the Moon (technical astronomical term) they took the first ever photos of the entire earth from the moon’s perspective. Shocked at how small the earth looked (it’s an object that is much larger in the rear view mirror) the photo quickly made us realize we better take care of it because you can’t plant grapes on the moon.
Apollo 8 astronaut Bill Anders was quoted as saying “We came all this way to explore the moon, and the most important thing is that we discovered the Earth” They also finally confirmed the moon was not made of green cheese! What kind of wine goes with green cheese anyway?
So… enough of the history lesson, I’m wasting way too much energy! The real question - what kind of wine do we have to celebrate Earth Day? To satisfy Trixie’s recent green streak, we picked up a bottle of organic wine - no pesticides or chemicals - Not a bad idea. We picked up a bottle of Natura from Emiliana of Chile. At around $9.00 a bottle, this is a mix of 87% Carmenere 4% Syrah, 4% Petite Verdot and 1% Malbec. Organic wine is something new for me so I was not sure what to expect - essence of pine cones?. I wasn’t even sure if I was suppose to be wearing Birkenstocks and laying under a tree somewhere. The wine had a flavor of heavy berries and darker fruits. I think there was some chocolate in there too. Remember, Mother Earth says clean up after yourself (and recycle those wine bottles!)
Cheers,
Angus
