Celebrating this Dormant Season

In January, wine lovers celebrate the feast day of St. Vincent, patron saint of wine growers. It is a chance to salute the “dormant season of the vines.” It’s no coincidence that St. Vincent’s Day is officially January 22, historically the coldest day of the year in the United States. Why not celebrate our own dormant season with the gift of wine?

January, February, and March compose the heart of our Minnesota winters. It’s not a bad time to stay in our dens and reflect on our souls—individually or collectively. Why just this past weekend I was blessed with the gift of drink. A long post-holiday work week ended with an impromptu gathering at the home of some friends. Children played knee hockey in the basement and we stood around the kitchen island, drinking inexpensive Red Truck® wine and eating venison sausage. It was a perfect ending to a long week. I agree with many who say that Americans worry too much about buying the perfect wine. Just have some decent bottles in the house and bring them out for friends whenever you can.

Then Saturday I got awful nostalgic as I put away the tree and the ornaments and the mantel decorations. I thought about how much I missed my snowbird parents and how fast my kids were growing. I had no plans for the evening and felt myself getting blue and forlorn. And then I remembered one of my Christmas gifts, a 2004 Catena Malbec. Each year I exchange wine with my good friend. Our limit is $25 and often I save her delicious bottles for special occasions. But both she and I agree that a special occasion can be anytime when a good bottle will make things better. I sipped a couple of glasses of this Argentine wine alone by the window and watched the stars come out for the night.

Books and wine have a long history. Some say most great authors are also great drinkers. There’s a new book out by Mark Bailey and illustrator Edward Hemingway, grandson of the infamous drinker Ernest Hemingway: Hemingway & Bailey’s Bartending Guide to Great American Writers (Algonquin Books, 2006). In it they describe the drinking rituals and favorite libations of some of our most beloved authors. For instance, one of Ernest Hemingway’s most favorite drinks was the mojito, not surprising given his love of all things Cuban. And Carson McCullers’ favorite drink while writing was a mixture of hot tea and sherry that she kept in a thermos, drank all through her writing day, and called her “sonnie boy.” At Yaddo, the famous writers' colony, she began with a beer at the typewriter just after breakfast, then moved on to her "sonnie boy," and finished with cocktails in the evening.

I once waited anxiously for an ocean liner to deliver bound books from Hong Kong. Jan Karon, author of the well-known Mitford series, was the author of those books and her tour was soon to begin and the books were late. Headlines of a freighter going under made the evening news: a vessel coming across the Pacific had sunk. Its cargo: books and wine. What a relief it wasn’t my vessel and those weren’t our books. But what a sunken treasure, a pairing that might beat all those of Noah's choosing: books and wine, books and wine!

I had my first real drink at Whitey’s Bar, the famous old speakeasy next to the Red River in East Grand Forks—an after-dinner shot of Drambuie. Of course I was underage but the esteemed father of my boyfriend at the time bought it for us so I felt safe. And very grown up. I tried my first martini before a Shakespeare class taught by the inimitable Dr. Nichols at Winona State. Unwittingly, I drank three of those gin martinis before wobbling on my bike to that night class up in Minne Hall. My first really good bottle of wine was a wedding gift from one of my first bosses at West Publishing Company. It was a Chateauneuf-du-Pape and instead of saving it dutifully while it aged further, we drank it on the second night of our honeymoon. I remember clearly the way that secret elixer made me want to dance naked with the gods. Really. (I settled for dancing naked with the groom!)

I learned to drink huge quantities of Scotch on ice with the biblical and theological scholars from Harvard and Yale and Princeton at the annual Society of Biblical Literature meetings when I was with Fortress Press. That's definitely where I learned to get drunk standing up.

And, of course, I’ve ended many a long day of word-wrangling with a good drink at some of my local favorites: W. A Frost’s, Moscow on the Hill, The Happy Gnome, even Groveland Tap. Recently, I treated myself to a little birthday lunch at Frost’s and the very handsome waiter brought me a glass on the house: a 2004 Gruner Veltliner Hopler. For those of you in St. Paul, you can find it at Thomas Liquors. Another good white wine is the unoaked Lanoble from France. They carry cases of it at Solo Vino on Selby. It will taste even better if you buy it as a treat for yourself on these cold, dark days.

Publishers Weekly reports that there is a new book forthcoming called Crush: A Clerk’s Tale. It will combine memoir and reporting to tell the story of American wine from the colonial era to today. The author, New Yorker staffer Field Maloney, plans to immerse himself in all aspects of wine culture, from working in a Napa winery to drinking with the wine buyer at the Olive Garden. Now here's a prime example of why we should all take the George Plimpton/immerse yourself-approach to publishing. "Sorry, I can't come in today. I'm nursing a headache from all that research I've been doing."

So back to that celebration of St. Vincent. Here’s advice--from an average reader at Amazon. com--for a grand night of the soul: “Really what more can be said [about Garrison Keillor’s book, Good Poems]? I am a blue-collar poem reader. I don’t want to understand the free form or debate why the writer used a certain word over another. I like poems that take me away to a familiar memory or experience and most of these poems do just that. This is a book best experienced by candlelight with a special someone and/or a great bottle of wine.” Well said! Here’s to St. Vincent! Here's to this dark and dormant season!