Last week I once again traveled for work, but this time I was doing my annual visit to our North Carolina branches. Not only did I get to enjoy memorable food in Chapel Hill (Lantern), heady pizza in Greensboro (Sticks ‘n Stones), and numerous chopped pork sandwiches, I was also able to swing by my parents’ house Tuesday evening and have a belated Father’s Day dinner with my dad.
He’s the guy showing off this tomato plants above. They’re already very tall, huh? He’s somewhat fanatic about them. The plastic poles he was using to grow the plants were bending and falling over from the excessive weight, so a couple of years ago some guys at work took 4/8″ reinforcing steel rods (rebar), welded cross sections every few feet, and spray painted them green. Those suckers aren’t going anywhere.
We had a nice dinner of bruschetta (utilizing first tomatoes from the garden), arugula salad, red snapper, asparagus, and corn. A real taste of summer.
I brought a (allegedly) nice bottle of ’02 Roumier Corton-Charlemagne to celebrate. Dad brought the Chassagne-Montrachet. Turns out his was the winner (and saving grace) as the Grand Cru Corton was oxidized. I knew premature oxidation was a potential risk with white Burgundy, but damn I was still disappointed. This was my first three figure wine failure, and at my budget, it’s a loss that carries quite a sting. To put it eloquently, it’s a major bummer. I’m not shying away though, because I still crave them and think they’re some of the most exciting wines to drink, white wine or otherwise. Part of the Burg allure is their hit-and-miss nature…
We’ll see if I still feel the same way if my next few splurge bottles end up being bunk. :)
