What a blast we had this past weekend. My dearest and oldest friend’s daughter got married up in the Berkshires, and along with all of her friends, a bunch of us geezers were invited as well. I got the wine assignment, naturally. BTW, two great wines that are crowd and wallet pleasers — the Barbi Aboccato Orvieto and the Monte Oton Garnacha.
Anyway, the plan was for an outdoor, open-air service, followed by dining al fresco on the front lawn of the bride’s grandfather’s house, with the sunset as our backdrop. That was the plan. Mother Nature had another plan (2-3″ of torrential rains in the forecast) so it was off to Plan B. A tent was put up at the bottom of a hill, and a number of improvisations were made to accommodate the food and the bar. Okay, we could all live with that, and we all hoped that the weathermen were going to be wrong as usual. Not this time, unfortunately. It didn’t stop downpouring from 5pm on.
So onward and upward, the ceremony begins, and it’s wonderful. If you’ve never been to a wiccan wedding, take the opportunity if and when it comes. It is the most natural, real, honest ceremony two people can have, and you can see where all the other religions got, or stole, their ceremonial traditions…straight from these guys. The bride was incredibly upbeat as she and her husband-to-be shouted their vows over the rain pounding down on the tent roof. The elements just didn’t matter to them, or to any of us. Slowly the rain came running down the hill as the service progressed, until you could see large water masses forming on the tent floor, which was (or used to be) grass. By the end of the night, we were all up to our ankles in mud, but it still didn’t matter. The fun overrode the muck. Fantastic Irish music played all night, there was dancing, singing, eating, drinking, laughing and lots of enjoying. AND, the geezers were the there until the end, while even some of the youngsters found it too tough to hang out. Hah! Oddly enought the worse it got meteorlogically, the more we threw ourselves into the joyousness of the event. Some say that a deluge is the surest sign of good luck and prosperity for the newlyweds. If that’s the case, these two will be married for a century and will hit the powerball lotto three times. Mazel tov, guys! It was a blast.
For some reason, lately I’ve have been asked a lot about what’s going on out there in trend land. And it’s both customers and suppliers doing the asking. Now, I kind of expect it of suppliers, but customers? I wouldn’t think of choosing/buying a wine because it’s hot. But as we can all imagine, there is a current stampede toward “value” wines. Keeping that in mind as part of the equation, here’s what’s rocking from where I’m sitting. 
