Asking which was the stand-out wine of the evening is similar to asking someone which child is their favorite. In the wine world, the pundit says, "Whatever wine is in my glass right now."
What do I remember days later? The 1982 Mouton-Rothschild was wonderful. I think in images: this wine was at a mature peak. It's a wine that makes me think of Pierce Brosnan: smooth, supple, sexy, sophisticated, masculine, and brooding. It satisfies all appetites. The 1929 Leoville-Poyferre (generously supplied by our host) was remarkable. One expects a dead, dusty old soldier, "interesting" is usually the polite murmuring you hear among the tasters. This wine was ALIVE, a Sean Connery kind of wine. Despite the evident aging going on, it had the lively flavors of decades of quiet maturity, surprising forwardness, and well-balanced charm. The 1983 Chateau d'Yquem was, indeed, a sweet wine. It was the Angelina Jolie of wines - voluptuous, sensuous, forward in flavor, but capable of greater complexity as it sat in the glass.
It lived up to the reputation of its superb vintage.
Marla is a victim of heat prostration. She is lying languidly in the knitting nook, waiting for me to drop down a stitch and switch a knit to a purl in two places. That will happen ..... someday. Someday soon. Probably. To illustrate my lassitude, my current new cast-on is this:
I'm ashamed. It's garter stitch. Brown Sheep, Lamb's Pride worsted, color #57 Brite Blue. The pattern is BoogaJ's Elizabeth bag. Garter guilt. But how lovely to just let my fingers run.
The contest is still active, and there will be a winner by tomorrow. I really love hearing from you.
I love this morning glory. Ipomoea patensis looks JUST like a paper flower opening up. You can see all the crinkles from when it was a budlet. It stays fresh longer than most morning glories, has beautiful stellate leaves, and is a wild woman in the world. It's putting out tendrils, grabbing onto all its neighbors, and there are buds everywhere. It's my kind of plant.
The wine sounds delicious, the morning glory looks beautiful and garter stitch knitting is so simple - sounds like a good summer combo to me.
Posted by: Brenda | Tuesday, July 12, 2005 at 04:30 PM
Just a local reader checking in for your comments contest. I used to be able to walk from work to the Newton - Washington St. Bread & Circus where you & Julia were spinning a few weeks ago. I love your garden pix as well as the knitting news.
Posted by: DeanB | Tuesday, July 12, 2005 at 04:52 PM
Apropos of nothing, today I am wearing a top the color of your Morning Glory.
Posted by: claudia | Tuesday, July 12, 2005 at 04:57 PM
Neat flower. :)
Posted by: Andrea | Tuesday, July 12, 2005 at 04:58 PM
The Morning Glory is breathtakingly beautiful. I love Morning Glories, but have been unable to grow them despite years of trying. Thanks for the pic....and the wine review. :)
Posted by: Annie | Tuesday, July 12, 2005 at 04:59 PM
The morning glory looks like fabric...so beautiful, too.
Go Garter!!
Posted by: margene | Tuesday, July 12, 2005 at 05:12 PM
I love morning glories also, but am not allowed to have them here. They take over the yard, and then move on to your neighbor's yard. Sort of like the plant in Little Shop of Horrors.
Pierce Brosnan in a glass. Mmmmm....I may never look at old bordeaux in the same way.
Posted by: Lorette | Tuesday, July 12, 2005 at 06:07 PM
ha ha! What Lorette said.
Off to find some red wine and dream about Remington Steele....
Posted by: Liz | Tuesday, July 12, 2005 at 06:11 PM
(insert big sigh here)
The morning glory is wonderful; I'm "home" at my parents house now, and love seeing how flowers "unfold" just before blooming, and how they usually grow out of the creases. (The best examples of this are the hibiscus that start the morning off as buds, then by mid-afternoon are in show-off mode, and it doesn't seem possible that they'll ever fold up again into a small-ish bud. But they do!)
The wines sound amazing; I'm fairly new to the world of good (read: some expensive, some much more affordable) wines, and look forward to someday having people who can appreciate it enjoy them with me. I'll be back to take notes.
Posted by: Kristen | Tuesday, July 12, 2005 at 07:01 PM
(it was a contented sigh, really! :) )
Posted by: Kristen | Tuesday, July 12, 2005 at 07:02 PM
Frankly, my dear, I'd rather have one of those actors than the wine!
Posted by: Kendra | Tuesday, July 12, 2005 at 07:44 PM
As always a beautiful flower. I have that Elizabeth pattern as well and picked up some Patons Classic Merino in a brick red color for it. Someday it will perc up to the top of my ever lengthening queue. Looking forward to seeing yours progress.
Posted by: Risa | Tuesday, July 12, 2005 at 08:27 PM
You are most poetic today! Now I want some wine...or some Pierce Brosnan. Either/or.
Posted by: Andrea | Tuesday, July 12, 2005 at 09:24 PM
Oh I love the Morning Glory! Thank you so much for the inspiration & iamges.
Posted by: Colleen P | Tuesday, July 12, 2005 at 10:34 PM
I am partial to the moonflower myself. Or..do you have nicotiana alata in that garden somewhere? There's a scent to make one reckless in the dark of a summer night.
Posted by: Juno | Tuesday, July 12, 2005 at 11:43 PM
Gorgeous morning glory! Hmmm i wonder if it could fight off the blummin mile-a-minute which keeps trying to enter my garden?
Posted by: Sarah | Wednesday, July 13, 2005 at 05:33 AM
I can't stand Pierce Brosnan but that wine, I'd do :-)
The Elizabeth bag's colour is really gorgeous!
Spinning anything lately? Get a...package...lately?
Posted by: Lee Ann | Wednesday, July 13, 2005 at 07:26 AM
That morning glory is beautiful! I love the way you can still see the folds from where it opened up!
Posted by: Carole | Wednesday, July 13, 2005 at 07:51 AM
I'm with Lorette. No morning glories for us cos they never get knocked down by winter cold cos it doesn't get cold enough here.
Posted by: Lynne S of Oz | Wednesday, July 13, 2005 at 08:39 AM
What a pretty flower! I love how it looks like crumpled paper. Morning glories are banned in my garden too, until I find a way to keep them penned in a little...
Posted by: Cordelia | Wednesday, July 13, 2005 at 11:18 AM
Alas, I have no idea what you are talking about where the wine is concerned. My husband, however, would, although I don't know about the Pierce Brosnan thing. I am what my husband calls a "cheap date." I was born without the tastebuds for good wine (the "better" it is, the more like vinegar in my mouth) and prefer White Zinfandel. Mixed with Diet Sprite. Over ice. (Strangely, while I don't LIKE it, I can taste the most incredible things in the aforementioned "good wine" that hubby and the boys drink. Which drives them all mad.)
Posted by: Marcia | Wednesday, July 13, 2005 at 12:28 PM
I think this is a kind of wine commentary that could, and should, catch on. And I am going to keep my eyes peeled for ipomoea patensis because you describe it luciously and the picture agrees.
Posted by: Laura J | Wednesday, July 13, 2005 at 07:35 PM
That look like a catalogue shot of a morning glory...beautiful. Makes me really wish my digital camera wasn't dead.
Posted by: Nina | Thursday, July 14, 2005 at 12:41 AM
Why, oh WHY are you "ashamed" and "guilty" about knitting garter? Geesh, you people.
I love, love, LOVE the morning glory. Is it an annual? And the spider lily! I must look into that. Do you know its planting zones? I'm a marginal 4/3.
Posted by: Norma | Thursday, July 14, 2005 at 08:49 AM