Broc Vine Starr Zinfandel, Sonoma, California, USA 2013 (from £25, thewinesociety.com; robersonwine.com) One of the most pleasurable wines I tasted this year was also in many ways one of the most surprising: I've had many enjoyable zinfandels before, but never one as graceful and pretty as this.
In 2007, we published Darwish's poem "Remainder of a Life," which begins: "If I were told: / By evening you will die, / so what will you do until then?" The poet lists a variety of tasks, some quotidian (bathing, shaving), some pleasurable (drinking wine, reading), all described with a rebellious glee.
And yet, as pleasurable as the wines were, I did get a sense of what has moved some to criticize the vintage.
Why? Eating red grapes, blueberries, and pistachios, or having a glass of your favorite red wine, are pleasurable ways to take in resveratrol.
The wine makes a pleasurable accompaniment to picnic fare like turkey sandwiches and potato salad.
More than anyone else, he convinced increasingly affluent Americans that fine wine was a pleasurable and intelligent way to spend their money.
Although most people drink wine because of its pleasurable sensory effects, recent studies suggest that drinking red wine may confer several health benefits.
"Food and wine make it more pleasurable, and help people to stay" during lengthy bidding, said Jamie Ritchie, head of the Sotheby's wine department.
For me, it was an easy-to-swallow lesson in how wine could be both pleasurable and thought-provoking, while performing its basic function of making food taste better.
But even tasting wine for a living has been less pleasurable in 2008.
