This post comes under the classification of: flashback, fond memory, or senility, you decide.  As I read through some wine blog comments and replies last night one of them mentioned that they wished there were more really dry (less sweet and/or fruity) white wines out there.  All of a sudden it brought to mind a memory of that period in my wine life when I loved nothing but dry (whatever that word means) wine of any stripe.

It’s the early 1990’s and I am attending a workshop on  finding a balance between your personal life and work (I believe it called it “personal development”).  It was three days long and we spent day and night (except when sleeping) with each other in a very intense and introspective exercise.  I believe there were 10 0r 12 of us with no two from the same profession or industry.  By the way I really learned a lot about myself and personal interactions from the program but that’s not the point of this story.

At dinner the first night I was seated next to a nice gentleman (a little older than me) who introduced himself  as the Controller of Mirassou Wines. Given my love of wine and his occupation wine dominated our conversation for the evening.  Sometime in the conversation it turned to the topic of white wine and I boldly asserted that I only liked really  dry white wine and he gave me a lesson on white wine characteristic and the differences between fruit and sweet.  the evening ended at a reasonable hour and the next morning we hit the program bright and early not to discussion wine again.  After the course ended, we all went our separate ways, but not before exchanging  business cards so we could keep in touch if we liked.

Flash forward about a month, I am sitting in my office and in walks my secretary with a package wrapped in brown paper with no return address.  I opened it and found a personal note card from my acquaintance from Mirassou Winery.  The card read: 

“As I told you that night at dinner finding a really dry white wine is not easy, but you are in luck.  The Mirassou  cellar just happened to have one bottle of an exceptionally dry white wine and I snagged it for you.  Enjoy and let know what you think.” 

Well in my excitement, I literally tore open the box to find a bottle with a very fancy Mirassou Winery Winery label that read – 1973 Vintage, Mirassou Special Reserve, Exceptionally Dry White Wine. The cork was foil sealed with a matching Mirassou crest.  It was a stunning.

The rest of the story – The wine was as dry as they come.  He had the Mirassou bottling line create this special gift of a custom labeled bottle full of absolutely nothing but air.  He was right they don’t come any dryer than that.