Sunday, December 14, 2003

Any Bandol in a Storm. . . . One of my favorite passages in Jim Harrison's book The Raw and the Cooked is his description of how, after a terrifying plane flight through a thunderstorm, he finally got home -- and the first thing he did was open a bottle of Domaine Tempier Bandol "La Migoua," followed by a bottle of their "La Tourtine" by way of recovery.  Anyhow, this little story took on even greater meaning for me today. . . sure, there was a winter storm forecast, but we really needed to get up to our little house to make sure everything was ship-shape after the first onslaught of really cold weather and snow.  And Saturday was marvelous. . . . Sunday morning dawned cloudy, loomingly about-to-snow cloudy, but not snowing yet.  How clever we felt to be departing from our ship-shape little house before the storm began, we thought. . . and then proceeded to drive smack into a yawing mouth of swirling, heavy snow! Hour one, swirling snow, road clear, a little nervous but -- hey, our car does well in the snow, she's a good little Swedish car, it isn't too deep yet. . . hour 1.5, um, it's getting quite snowy.  We have to pee, the exit ramps look a bit tricky though and you really can't see too well. . .hour 2, gosh, not too many cars out here, several by the side of the road. . . but at least we're behind a plow truck. .  who -- oops -- exited at "Tuckahoe Road" -- gosh, it's deep.  And there are yahoos out here driving fast in big SUV's insisting on their right to drive in three lanes at 50 mph. . .  Hour 2.5 involved some death-defying moments on the Deegan Slush - no I mean --Express-way but MAN, WE HAVE TO PEE and we made it this far. . . we are going to make it!  So we finally made it back to Harlem in one piece, or make that three including the intrepid Saab and her brave French driver!  I immediately (well, just after a quick stop in the bathroom -- at last!) unpacked the leftover leg of lamb from last night and started making mushroom pilaf with some black Japonica rice that was left in a bowl in the fridge.  Philippe made a beeline to the wine fridge. . . First he came up with a bottle of Lirac.  Somehow that didn't strike the right note after a death-defying three-hour drive in a blizzard (yep, the second this year already).  Back he went. .  . and up came a bottle of Gros Nore Bandol.  Black soulful wine from the warm south (also the land of soul-scorching winter Mistrals. . . ). A bottle of that, some lunch, and everyone (including the cat, who's never been outside in a snowstorm so doesn't really count on this one but she was glad to see us anyhow) lay down for a bit of a nap.  We think we'll make it now.  And it could have been worse -- now, after a goodly amount of snow, it's RAINING.  Imagine the ice if we'd waited a while to leave. . . . Bacon and onion quiche is on the menu for dinner, and I tell you what -- I'm not setting foot out my door again until this storm is over!     4:31:20 PM    comment []