An Angelic Wine

Today I walked into a Whole Foods store before going to a Mass at Florida Atlantic University, and I've been dieting and staying from my first love, the brown bubbly, know to the mortal world as beer  (how I miss your frothy flavor) and  I decided to take up a healthier, red-blooded, fruit, and happened to turn down the aisle where these dark, earthen, glassy, bottles of this mysterious liquid filled the metallic garden, and went immediately to the Napa region (because, as my father says, you can never go wrong with Napa). After spending some delightful moments, scanning the hedges of wine, I came across a  marked off bottle of a wine named after the Angelic Doctor of the Church himself, Saint Thomas Aquinas. The bottle was created by the Vintners known as “Don Sebastiani & Son” Winery.  So I bought the bottle ($16.99 on sale) and took it home with me.

 I said my prayers for the evening and opened the bottle, and then posted on facebook that I had just bought a curious bottle of wine, named after a very Catholic, Doctor of the Church, and then heard a knock on my collegial door. Opening it, I found a class mate (we will call him Augustine for anonymity) and he just noticed that I posted a very interesting thing on facebook (56 seconds ago), and asked if he could take part in the festivities. Who am I to reject a friend in partaking of the goodness of the vine, so I said of course and welcomed him in to my humble abode.

The bottle I had opened about 15 minutes before, to allow time for oxygen to enter into the wine’s blood stream. After pulling out the cork, I looked at it to see how much the wine had bled into the cork, and saw it was a thing of beauty. This cork not only was in scripted with a quote by the Angelic Doctor "For it is written that wine makes glad the heart of man" but it had the letter A – in a font of script, that would have made the Scarlet Letter seamstress herself (Heather Prynne) extremely proud! But the bottom of the Cork was what was exceptionally fascinating. The wine marker on the cork had infused only slightly, making it look as though it had been turned into a signet-ring marker. It was something striking to behold, and I couldn’t help but stare at its masterful craftsmanship. I wanted to turn it into a ring and say that any letter, whose wax would be sealed with its mark, would be marked as an indelible mark would be to the soul. Breathtaking and beauty would be only simpleton words to add to such a site.

 The wine was then poured, and at first taste, did not seem to be much. It was surprisingly smooth for a Cabernet, and the flavor was that of a very soft port, but velvety smooth. Plum, black cherry, and  truffle were on the palate, and there was a light after taste that appeased the sense. That was the first glass and a half.

45 minutes to an hour later, the nature of the wine changed completely. Smelling the notes of the wine, one couldn't help but think of a deliciously chocolate covered truffle, whose taste was rich, exciting, and defiantly not chastely. It was an aroma of pure love, with hints of lust and coffee. When taking a sip, the texture had changed from something thin in value, to thick and smooth, almost like a red-velvet cushion, contouring to the touch, that beautifully frames a couch which it lays upon.

The taste was rich and exciting. Like separating a long kiss from a forbidden lover. It was a luscious, bolder, thicker in flavor, the flavor as that which one enjoys while biting into a juicy nectarine. A nectarine that had been crossbred with a plum, a pomegranate and some black cherries. Asking Augustine his thoughts he exclaimed, “It’s like walking through a dark, exotic, rose garden on Mid-summer nights eve.” So go out and buy it, and maybe Titania, Queen of the Summer faye will grace you with her presence!