Excerpt Forty Four

I gave a few more hugs and elated hello’s to some of my other classmates and then we moved into the restaurant to take our seats and start a truly unforgettable evening. In fact, our professor had a close relationship with the owner of this restaurant, L’envers du Decor, and had closed the place down for us.

It would just be the twenty of us, dining on delectable French food, five courses long. Mr. Ramage announced that he would be selecting seven bottles of wine for that evening and we would all start blind tasting them. Blind tasting was when we did not know what the wine was, and had to guess what it was based on taste. We had learned a tasting technique in school and through this tasting technique the taster should be able to determine the grape varietal, the country of origin, the year it was harvested, price and aging potential, foods to pair with it, among other things. With this statement, you could feel the competitiveness in the room. Everyone wanted to be able to call the wine correctly. Everyone wanted to be the best taster. Who would have the guts to take a wild guess?

As the night went on, this turned into a fun game. I analyzed Mr. Ramage frequently. He was so eloquent and perfectly intently spoken. He was tall in stature, always well dressed, thin and well kept. Everything from his fingernails, to his skin was taken care of. When he walked into a room, he demanded respect and attention just by his energy, not with words. He was downright sexy, and every female in our class had a soft spot for him while at the same time not wanting to disappoint him. Especially when he said statements like, “Being drunk in the french culture is unacceptable. Being drunk means you equal less than nothing.”

I quietly chuckled and had to look down at my plate of food to keep from laughing out loud when this was stated to all twenty of us. I’m not sure if he realized how offensive this statement sounded in english “less than nothing” but in any case whether he meant the harshness or not, it was a true Ramage-ism and we all smiled and of course didn’t want to let him down by appearing drunk that evening. I completely agreed in the sense that your level of intellect or sophistication goes right out the window once you are intoxicated… but I couldn’t help but giggle when he stated this…. It was so deliberate and blunt. Everyone sat up a little straighter at that moment. It was just an awkward truth and I am in agreement but “less than nothing” is a little harsh and intense. This just goes back to the relationship with wine that the french have. It really, truly is meant to complement a meal. It is not meant as an intoxicant whatsoever. Once you feel the effects of alcohol, you are no longer aware of the nuances and the essence of the wine as far as flavor profile, aroma, pairing. So forget it. I believe a time and place for everything ~ having a party and letting loose is lovely sometimes … but not the place when you are dropping decent money to pay for the pleasure and education of a food and wine pairing.

Suddenly a large carafe with a spout about a foot long lightly clinked the rim of my glass. Wine number one was being poured…