Wine-ing: The Tragedies of a Breakup

So my boyfriend and I recently broke up. It was amicable, which in someways is worse because I can’t just hate him and move on – I can’t hate my best friend.  As you can imagine, better months have existed in my life.

Initially, I was going to talk about the fact that I have lost my best wine geek friend. We traveled to Napa Valley and Provence to experience wines together. We always traveled to wine regions for our trips. This is great for three reasons: 1) Wine 2) The weather is generally nice 3) Wine regions seem to have an unhealthy amount of gorgeous landscape.

I was going to talk about how I recently realized another terrible part of a breakup, beyond the unknowing, the painful reminders, and the emotional turmoil.  I was going to talk about something that may seem petty, but really bothered me. This was going to be about how ex-Mr. ReginaChristina bought two bottles of a wine that I could not afford when I worked at the liquor store. Bottles that I would never get to drink now, called Oculus.

The Winery states:

Oculus is Mission Hill Family Estate’s signature Bordeaux inspired wine. This elegant and complex wine represents the pinnacle of everything we do from viticulture to winemaking. Selected clusters from designated blocks within our estates in Osoyoos and Oliver are set aside for this wine. The grapes are hand harvested, hand sorted and destemmed; they are then gravity filled to small French oak fermenters. After 4 weeks extended maceration the free run wine and a small portion of lightly basket pressed wine is aged separately in 100% French oak barrels for 16.5 months. The 2007 Oculus is a triumph of power and purity, with deep, haunting aromas of both red and dark fruits, fresh tobacco leaf, leather, maple and hints of nutmeg. The immense palate shows black raspberry, milk chocolate, cassis and allspice, all framed by ultra fine tannins and balancing acidity. The finish is endless, hinting that this wine will continue to improve over the next five years and last well beyond a decade.

Sounds pretty awesome, eh? I mean it is a “triumph of power and purity.” And I would never get to try it.

Damn.

Mission Hill is one of my favourite wineries in the Okanagan. 2007 was an excellent, excellent year for wine. Guess what vintage those two bottles are? That is right: 2007. It is a very limited release, they sold out of their extremely limited run of it in only a couple of months. This wine is meant to age for a decade or so.

I shared the first article that I wrote with him. He was surprised that I thought I would not get to try that wine, and that I thought this part of our relationship was over. He told me that he wants us to enjoy the wine together. I guess I am really lucky. I may have lost my boyfriend, but at least I did not lose my best friend.  I wonder if the reason why I was so sad about this bottle was exactly that: wine is meant to be shared with the people you love and care for. The joy of drinking a really special bottle of wine is less about the price and so much more about the people enjoying it with you. I was afraid I had lost that, but I guess I didn’t.