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Trip to Boston
Feb. 1st, 2005 09:47 amFriday night we drove up to Boston to visit some friends, attend the Boston Wine Expo, and so Ernie could be in a reading Sunday night for a friend of his who's written a play.
We arrived at our friends' house and just sat around and talked and drank wine and ate yummy things for hours. One of the couple is the same sort of food nerd as I am and the conversation included references to cookbooks, revelling in the Cook's Illustrated new Best Of (it's a peak of food science) and me cathecting his All-clad stainless cookware while he took short envious breaths while I described my cast iron skillets that I use every day that my grandmother got as a wedding present over a 100 years ago and used every day as well.
Saturday we dragged ourselves out of bed and to the Boston Wine Expo. Basically a massive wine-tasting, for $60 you get entry one day (out of the two that it's open), a wine glass, and free pours from hundreds of wine makers and distributors from around the world. Socially, there were several different scene-views going on that I could see: groups of gay men who were confused because Boston men who like wine are apparently all metrosexuals and groomed according to the same standards as a lot of gay men; groups of women in full Maya-from-Sideways post-hippie raphaelite hair, clean makeup, and these sweaters that outlined their breasts Just So, with the neck openings looking like hugely oversized turtlenecks that were pulled to one side or the other to show a lot of taut-skin-covered clavicle; and upscale 30s-40s couples who seemed confused by the crowd because they thought it was going to be just Them and People Like Them.
It was hugely crowded. You couldn't tell what someone was pouring until you've shoved your way up to their table and there was little time to converse. I got tired quickly of the standard cab/zin/chard/sav blancs, so we tried to find interesting things. The most interesting were the carmenere reds from south america, some story about a "lost grape" that everyone thought had been wiped out but was in fact being made in south america but bottled as Merlot, with a rich smoky taste that would be good for when you want a cab sav but know that if you spend only $8-12 on a bottle it's going to be undrinkable. These were predicted to be in the $5-12 range. We also found and enjoyed several late harvest sav blancs from South America as well. We love the sweeter dessert-style reislings and these were similar in that under the sweetness they had an interesting complexity.
Then off to pizza and wings at someplace called Dogwood's near where our friends live, then to bed.
I like Boston. I like it better when it's not covered in 5-foot piles of snow.
On a humorous note, I was told (lots of boston bears at the expo, one introduction resulted in "Oh, I know who you are....") that there's someone who participates/makes appearances/hovers in the NE bear social network who can't stand me and who will leave a place soon after I show up. Now that I know this I understand why - big dumb friendly dog that I am - I would feel a bit lost talking to them (as you do when you run into someone you've met socially), and why when I've seen them on the street they avoid eye contact and hunch away. I always just thought it was that they didn't see me, even though I really knew that they did.
I can't remember since I've had *an enemy* - since elementary school? I find it fascinating. In the greater (even smaller) scheme of things it doesn't affect me at all - being 86'd from the Dugout a few years ago, that was a problem, but this I just don't care about.
But I'm prepared, I watched _Mean Girls_ last night....
We arrived at our friends' house and just sat around and talked and drank wine and ate yummy things for hours. One of the couple is the same sort of food nerd as I am and the conversation included references to cookbooks, revelling in the Cook's Illustrated new Best Of (it's a peak of food science) and me cathecting his All-clad stainless cookware while he took short envious breaths while I described my cast iron skillets that I use every day that my grandmother got as a wedding present over a 100 years ago and used every day as well.
Saturday we dragged ourselves out of bed and to the Boston Wine Expo. Basically a massive wine-tasting, for $60 you get entry one day (out of the two that it's open), a wine glass, and free pours from hundreds of wine makers and distributors from around the world. Socially, there were several different scene-views going on that I could see: groups of gay men who were confused because Boston men who like wine are apparently all metrosexuals and groomed according to the same standards as a lot of gay men; groups of women in full Maya-from-Sideways post-hippie raphaelite hair, clean makeup, and these sweaters that outlined their breasts Just So, with the neck openings looking like hugely oversized turtlenecks that were pulled to one side or the other to show a lot of taut-skin-covered clavicle; and upscale 30s-40s couples who seemed confused by the crowd because they thought it was going to be just Them and People Like Them.
It was hugely crowded. You couldn't tell what someone was pouring until you've shoved your way up to their table and there was little time to converse. I got tired quickly of the standard cab/zin/chard/sav blancs, so we tried to find interesting things. The most interesting were the carmenere reds from south america, some story about a "lost grape" that everyone thought had been wiped out but was in fact being made in south america but bottled as Merlot, with a rich smoky taste that would be good for when you want a cab sav but know that if you spend only $8-12 on a bottle it's going to be undrinkable. These were predicted to be in the $5-12 range. We also found and enjoyed several late harvest sav blancs from South America as well. We love the sweeter dessert-style reislings and these were similar in that under the sweetness they had an interesting complexity.
Then off to pizza and wings at someplace called Dogwood's near where our friends live, then to bed.
I like Boston. I like it better when it's not covered in 5-foot piles of snow.
On a humorous note, I was told (lots of boston bears at the expo, one introduction resulted in "Oh, I know who you are....") that there's someone who participates/makes appearances/hovers in the NE bear social network who can't stand me and who will leave a place soon after I show up. Now that I know this I understand why - big dumb friendly dog that I am - I would feel a bit lost talking to them (as you do when you run into someone you've met socially), and why when I've seen them on the street they avoid eye contact and hunch away. I always just thought it was that they didn't see me, even though I really knew that they did.
I can't remember since I've had *an enemy* - since elementary school? I find it fascinating. In the greater (even smaller) scheme of things it doesn't affect me at all - being 86'd from the Dugout a few years ago, that was a problem, but this I just don't care about.
But I'm prepared, I watched _Mean Girls_ last night....
