Opening The First Case

I was afraid I'd have to wait another day for my first case of wine from Garagiste. I was crestfallen. The email from UPS said the package would arrive by 7:00 PM and my watch showed 7:03. What went wrong? My wife told me to go pick up some food and maybe by the time I got back the wine would be here. I doubted it. Somehow, when you anticipate something so much, the disappointment of a deley causes you to lose hope.

I went to the car, pressed the garage opener button and expected to be blocked by the UPS van. The driveway was clear. Sighing heavily, I pulled out and then drove off to get a late dinner. Normally we go to my mother's church for dinner on Wednesday night, but I stayed home so as not to miss the delivery. We could have gone.

On the way back I tried to cheer up by thinking about what I'd do tomorrow night when the delivery arrived. I'd slowly open the box and stare at the contents: 12 bottles of special grape juice. A few of the bottles would contain wine made from grapes I'd never tried before. Some would be familiar grapes but made in a way I hadn't tried. Probably some I wouldn't like at all, but I'd enjoy them just the same.

I had created a spreadsheet from the list of my wines on the Garagiste web site. I added notes from the emails with descriptions of each wine that Jon Rimmerman had written. I planned to use these notes in my wine blog when I reported on them. I wondered which wine I'd write a post on first...and then I saw it: the UPS van was parked in front of my house! The driver was getting back into the van! He was driving away. The wine had arrived after all! After parking the car and grabbing the food I made myself walk into the house. There it sat by the front door: my first case of Garagiste wine!

It took a long time to match the wines with the sheet I had printed up. I read each label, learning where each bottle had come from and which grapes each wine was made from. There were ten bottles from Italy (I must have ordered most of these while under the influence of reading Vino Italiano) and two from France. Ten of them were red and two white. I'm glad we don't own a video camera: I'd hate to see the silly grin I had on my face a I loving placed each bottle in the wine fridge.

I didn't drink any of the wine last night (did I eat the food?); that will be for another time. Instead I had a different kind of enjoyment from the wine. To savor the opening of a box will be a rare event. It was a lot like I remember Christmas morning used to be when I was a kid.

Waiting for Wine

Today's the day!

My first shipment from Garagiste is due today. I went a little crazy after finding out about this online wine dealer and bought two cases of wine over a 6 month period. However, I have not had delivery of any of the wine because they don't ship wine during the hot summer months.

I found out about Garagiste from a posting by Dr Debs on her "Great Wine Under $20" blog. What attracted me to Garagiste was:

1. The wine is very well priced (provided you don't order too much)


2. The wines featured were different from wines I normally drink


3. I love shopping by mail

When I was a kid I would eat through a box of cereal as fast as I could so I could cut out the boxtops to save for a prize like a Matchbox car. When I had enough box tops, I'd mail them in and wait for my prize. It seemed to take forever, 6-8 weeks is an eternity to a ten-year-old! The day I opened the mailbox and found that special box from the cereal company was like Christmas!

I feel like that all over again today. It's UPS that will be delivering my 38 pound box, but the feeling is the same. When I open that box it's going to be like I've found a treasure box. Wines from all over the world (Spain, France, Australia, Portugal, Italy) are in that box. Juice from grapes I've never tasted will be present. I've waited so long (6 months is an eternity to a 50 year-old!) for this delivery that I want to relish each bottle.

My wine fridge has just one bottle in it right now. I'm going to have fun tonight as I fill it back up! I hope someone is home when UPS arrives; I can't stand to wait one more day!