"Spill the wine..."

Wine is an amazing thing. To some it is the very blood of Christ. To others it is forbidden. And to our friends it is the focus of their lives. We either make it or we are there to lap up the latest release. So it may come as no surprise when I recount the story of The Gopher Hole.

It was a typically beautiful Oregon night and about a dozen of us wino's had formed a ring around a little camp fire kettle. The conversation was squarly on the wine being heartily consumed. I sat across the fire from a local wine maker. Suddenly the expression of his face chanced dramatically.

That look of shock that comes from losing your grip on gravity had come over his face. He was going down. Down a gopher hole that is! The leg of his plastic lawn chair had slowly discovered one of many abandoned holes left by the little devils. Now it sank rapidly into the hole.

I am here to witness that his wine glass never lost its level aspect to the ground. All the while he was tousled backward and downward, landing on his back on the lawn, his wine glass gyrated in a perfect plane with the earth. He hadn't spilled a drop!


You can talk a big game but when it comes down to you or the wine, those of us that call ourselves wine enthusiasts know what is valuable on this good earth. Broken bones vs. spilled wine. Just bring me a bottle of wine when you visit me in the hospital!