Pelican on Alcoholiday

[Pelican]

" He occasionally takes an alcoholiday " Oscar Wilde.

I think Wilde meant a holiday from reality courtesy of booze when he referred to an alcoholiday. For me I am on an alcoholiday from booze itself which means no Wine. My partner , Pelicanette , has taken a year off work and the Pelican household razor gang soon identified spending on Grog as a major way to economise.

I have now had 6 weeks off booze altogether and besides some birthday periods in April and October and holidays in July we are not buying any booze which means no Fine Wine for much of 2005 !

BFW you may say ( Big F%$##% Whoopee ) and rightly so. Well sometimes going without can cast light on a topic more keenly than when , er , submerged in it. Based on this I offer the following observations :

* The first weekend on the wagon we looked at one another and were bored without any nice wine. We were in bed by 9pm ! How embarassing ! Interesting to note how much of our weekends are based around nice bottles of wine.

* Re supposed health benefits of not drinking - it has not made much difference for me - what I thought was a small but regular dull hangover appears to just be your bog standard existential anxiety. Although I am losing a bit of weight which is handy for bike riding. This is based on previously consuming one bottle of wine 4 or 5 times a week.

* Good God it saves $$$ not buying wine - bloody hell ! At this rate I may well be able to buy some stuff for the cellar later in the year.

* I tried " downshifting " to a cheaper level of wine. I pushed a trolley around a Mega booze shop/barn and bought a mixed doz. for under $100. These were a mixture of cleanskins , labelled wines and even some European wines in stelvin. These were mostly clean and competently made but did not offer any real interest to be frank. I must admit I did at times appreciate the soothing warmth of alcohol but overall it was a dreary characterless experience. So I decided that extended abstinence was better and certainly cheaper.

* Having cellared wine at a storage facility for 7 years now we will be able to have some Fine Wine on special occasions in 2005. So this shows that cellaring wine can assist with spreading the cost and availability of wine over time and provide some interesting imbibing even in lean financial periods. Another reason to go to the trouble of cellaring wine as the financial pain here is in the past.

* Without really suffering too much in the present I am really looking forward to Pelicanettes birthday in mid April as we will do a small raid on the cellar. This illustrates the " anticipation " factor involved in fine wine. This factor used to be more short term in anticipating that weekends wine - now it is just a bit longer ! Well , that's what I'm trying to tell myself anyway.............

* You can get just too obsessed with wine but perhaps do not realise until going without. For example the usual faux pas to avoid when drinking fine wines do not need to be worried about. This means , amongst other things , we can eat lots of chilli as our palates don't need protecting , we can wear perfume when we want and the fridge can be turned up a bit colder as there's no whites to not overchill. We can now " relax "....

* I have saved hours each week not having to clean and polish the Riedels - they are in hibernation in our lovely wall unit.

* One of the true " pleasing " things I have noticed is that I feel a certain calmness about the possibility of missing out on some fine wines this year. Only a few years ago I'd be in a semi-panic about not getting the new Penfold's Bin releases or whatever. I put this down to experience. I know those wines may be procurable later anyway via auction or there will be others just as interesting around in the future. No need to panic here at all. Although the real test will come later in the year when a few favourite Mailing Lists arrive in the mail !!!

* Reading about Wine. When taking periods off drinking I have noticed that I have perhaps read more about wine than when partaking ! So I will still " lurk " this good forum if not contribute very much.

* Do I miss Wine - bloody oath I do .....but I'll be back.


Anyway I hope you all have a good fine wine year in 2005 and I'll try to remember that jealousy is a curse.

Regards

PELICAN

[Gary W]

What an excellent post!
GW

[markg]

we can wear perfume when we want

I prefer cologne myself...

[Barney guest]

What an excellent post!
GW

Can only agree, not sure whether I'm ready to take the same step myself though, would be an interesting test of resolve.

[Josephine]

Pelican,

A brilliant post !

Wine can consume a great deal of our time and social lives because of the enjoyment we derive from it. At the same time, too much of a good thing can often make you appreciate it less than you should. The antici....pation of a special bottle can almost be as much fun (or sometimes more..) as the wine in question ! Sounds like you have some wonderful things to look forward to in 2005

JP