I have said it many times before, we have the best friends in the world. S and G have been there for us through thick and thin, both worked tirelessly on helping me get the house ready to put on the market. G digging up and transplanting hundreds of Hostas from his yard to mine and S came over and worked her magic with drywall and laying pavers in the sweltering heat. I know that the best friends do things like that for the simple reason, that is why they are you’re Best Friends. Mitch and I wanted to say thank you knowing we can never repay them in a hundred million years, so I came up with an idea on how to say how much we will truly miss them, since they are also our wine drinking buddies.

Another dear friend gave us a bottle of wine as a going away gift. Not just any old bottle of wine, mind you, but a very special bottle of wine. He gave us a 1998 vintage bottle of Opus One, a Napa Valley Red Wine, produced and bottled by Robert Mondavi and Baron Philippe de Rothschild. It is a red blend of Cabernet Sauvignon 91%, Cabernet Franc 7%, Merlot 1%, Petit Verdot and Malbec 1%. It had an alcohol content of 13.5%. If you are interested and want to check it and many more vintages you can find them at http://www.opusonewinery.com.

I have been saving it for the last two months for a special occasion, thinking that maybe we would open it when I get to Seattle. Since Mitch came into town this weekend to help me and S and G were coming over to see Mitch one last time I thought what would be more perfect than to sit down together one last time and taste a bottle of wine that we hoped would be a memorable experience.

I had not planned a dinner or anything to go with the wine just us and four non-matching wine glasses that hadn’t been packed yet. (I kept some glasses unpacked just to get me through this ordeal.) I grabbed some crackers and string cheese to complement the wine, just in case. G opened the bottle and I poured the wine into a decanter. As I poured the wine I could smell the fruit, dark cherry and berry notes. Mitch could even smell it on the other side of the table.

The color was a dark brickish red, with a slight amber hue and opaque in the decanter. I poured each of us a glass. The wine smelled amazing in the glass, I caught a woody smoky smell to go with the fruit aromas. The wine was dark and full almost totally opaque in the glass and as we swirled it G said, “So that is what legs look like.” S said, “This has so many layers. Each taste is like tasting it for first time.” This was truly a very special bottle of wine. I tasted the wine, it was dry and tart with a smoky taste, then there was the fruit subtle but there about the middle of my mouth. The finish was long and full filling my mouth with a craving for more. Just like the long awaited kiss of a lover gone for months.

Just to add to the experience, we ate a frozen pizza, DiGiorgno, (Italian of course), to go with the wine. As crazy and trashy as it sounds, the wine tasted even better with the pizza. What more could you ask for, crackers, string cheese and pizza to go with a $200 plus bottle of wine? This was truly an amazing wine to experience and savor. I just wish I could drink this all the time, that and take our friends with us.

Just to prove to you that I really did get to taste an amazing bottle of wine I took a picture of the bottle.