Wednesday, October 10, 2007

WAITING FOR A GIRL LIKE YOU

Dearest Family and Friends

57 Cumberland Street, San Francisco CA 94110
Phone Number: +1 415 738 2112
Nadine: 415 595 0023
Colman: 415 871 9920
Skype: nadinemellor

September Highlights

  • Waiting
  • Esme May
  • Babymoon
  • Visitors

    Waiting

    Would this Baby Ever Arrive?
    Weekly check-ups, usual exercise routine, sorting, ticking off the list, packing bags, getting everything required and finishing off work – all constructively occupied the first half of September. The due date of 16th September came and went; as the second half of the month wore on, everything that needed to be done on the list was being ticked off so I had nothing much to do - an odd feeling for me – having finally finished work and went on maternity leave on the 24th.

    We were increasingly impatient to meet Baby, particularly my mother, who was getting very ‘toey’, having arrived to help out 5 days after the due date. Every old wives tale was deployed: hot curries (yes both Thai and Indian), nipple stimulation, sex, pineapple, raspberry tea, hopping around the place, swimming, evening Primrose oil, yoga, cinema outings (3.10 to Yuma (violence), Once (romance), and In the Shadow of the Moon (moonlandings), Mexican food, sesame oil, Pilates, housework, mantras, two sessions of acupuncture, letters to Baby, acupressure, creative visualisations, hypnobirthing exercises, having my membranes stripped twice (not waters broken but doctor's finger up cervix and poking) and sheer will all failed to work… So it was looking ominous that induction would be the outcome.

    Esme arrives!

    Thursday 27th September
    Until Wednesday 26th September when we went to see 2001 A Space Odyssey at the local Castro Theatre – a fabulous art deco emporium which has retro and often camp film schedules. Kubrick’s sci-fi masterpiece is fantastically bizarre and much of his message is cryptically obtuse, but the music and trippy visuals are fabulous. The film ends with a baby in a bubble floating towards the Earth. We went home to the silvery light of the Harvest Full Moon.

    And so I awoke the next morning at 4am with abdominal cramps but thought not much of it. I’d had these before, particularly after the acupuncture sessions. I dozed until 6. I was quietly reading in bed when my waters broke at 7.45. Alarmingly they were dark green, indicating the presence of meconium – the baby had passed a stool in utero. This is potentially dangerous as Baby could ingest it. Our neighbour, Patrick, drove us to St Lukes where we were admitted at 8.30am.

    Contractions started almost immediately - 2 minutes apart and intense from the get go as they seized my body – it is remarkable how much noise one can make in extremis! After examination I was found to be only 1.5cm dilated. We were told we would be here for the long haul and the meconium meant they were watching the baby like a hawk. I was put under constant surveillance with foetal heart, contraction, blood pressure monitors strapped to me, an IV drip inserted so a pole came with me at all times, and another attachment on the baby’s head plus an oxygen mask, and a TENS machine on my back.

    By lunchtime I was dealing with the contractions more efficiently and was more relaxed, breathing through the surges – although had thrown up 3 times. We played music all day, alternating between ‘slow baby’ and ‘fast baby’ playlists, lovingly pre-prepared by Colman. He was simply wonderful throughout - romantic, supportive, thoughtful, loving, good-humoured, unfailing and steadfast. He and our doula, Reise, massaged my feet as I rocked on the nursing chair or bounced on the birthing ball. My favourite position overall proved to be bending right-angled over the bed.

    Our midwife, Emily, was concerned the baby was not reacting appropriately. The medicals want to see the baby’s heart rate increase during contractions, and this wasn’t happening. So she advised Pitocin to induce further, stronger contractions, an amnio wash and forbade a shower as they wanted continual monitoring. Dismayed, Colman and I asked for time out. When she returned we were told that the baby had perked up so no amnio wash nor pitocin was required, and yes we could have a shower – great. After the shower, I was examined at 2.30pm and was now 4cm dilated which was progress but we were again warned it would take a long time and we all mentally prepared ourselves for a midnight delivery.

    So I requested a dose of the opiate Fentanyl. Bliss. I lay down for the first time for an hour while the contractions came and went and I was able to relax between strong surges – still 2 minutes apart. Colman lay beside me and kept up the affirmations and mantras to encourage me to relax and open. After the 1st shot wore off, I had another, expecting more lying on the bed action, but Reise and Colman told me to stand up, keep moving and dance around the room to keep the baby moving and hurry things along. By 6pm Emily came back into the room to say she was finishing her shift and good luck for the rest of the evening. I felt the need to go to the loo or something and the nurse said let’s examine you and see how you’re doing. And to astonishment she said there’s no cervix left – time to push!

    The Birth
    So paediatricians, doctors, baby warmers all came bustling into the room. My mother had originally expressed no wish to be there for the actual birth, as this would be too embarrassing for both of us, and was mentally planning a get away at 6/7pm. But events overtook her. And so the birthing stool was placed between Colman’s legs and I squatted down on it; Reise held my right hand and my mother my left. A new doctor, Dr Li, sat on the floor in front of me and held me with commanding eyes, instructing me to push down on her finger – all the while I was emitting primal whale like bellows. It was 15-20 minutes of pushing before I could feel the head between my legs, hair matted and damp. And then Baby slithered out at 6.47pm – dark pink, covered with vernix and blood with the surprisingly thick blue-white cord attached to the midriff – and yes a girl!

    She was placed on my breast for a minute – Colman cut the cord – enough time to see her wonderful wide dark slaty blue eyes blinking and staring around the room. She was then whisked to the paediatrician who cleaned her up and pronounced her totally fine despite the meconium. When asked what we were calling her, Colman replied Esme May, and then told me I always got my own way! [Picture is of Reise] By 9pm the three of us were alone in the room in slightly dazed amazement just with our new nurse, Erica, who had charming task of clearing up all the blood and gore produced during the birth – I did lose a fair bit of blood and had torn a little.

    Babymoon

    Delight and Wonder
    And we were enraptured by Esme, our little precious bundle – 7lb6oz and 19¼ inches – dark hair with a tuft that stuck up on the crown, a little turned up nose, sweet pointy chin, petite hands, longish slender legs (not Mellor legs at all!!) with a miniature version of Colman’s feet (although without his webbed toes). Esme is named after my mother’s mother’s mother and May for Colman’s great-aunt who was a big presence in his family. She latched on very quickly. That night we slept badly with nurses checking up on us every 3 hours and I felt a little dizzy from the loss of blood and sore from the exertions of labour.

    At Hospital
    Her first full day, Friday 28th, was spent hanging out and dozing with her parents who were getting a handle on feeding, changing, sleeping, photographing our gorgeous bundle, and avoiding panic at every little gurgle, sigh and snort. Mum came for most of the day and soothed Esme who was unsettled in the morning. Early evening our first visitor arrived – Jen Daniel – who said all the right things about Esme being beautiful and perfect.

    Esme passed her hearing test and had her first bath - hilarious as several student nurses were being shown around at the time and their teacher was this characterful lady from the Deep South with exuberant jewellery and nails to match, with a relaxed pronouncement-making mode of speech. That night we slept much better.

    Our final morning in the hospital was spent checking items off the list of facts we needed to know, shamelessly nabbing receiving blankets, applying ice packs to nether regions, and meeting up again with our midwife, Emily, who admitted if she’d known we would give birth so quickly she’d never have gone home - apparently the full moon always sees a spike in births and while we had been in labour another 4 babies had been delivered around us. We also had a message from my pre-natal doctor, Dr Norrell, who was really excited to hear our news. As we prepared to leave the room I burst into tears realising how much love I had for my beautiful baby girl.

    The taxi ride home – all of 7 blocks down Dolores – was wondrous and magical. The sun was shining. The taxi driver was silent. Esme stayed latched on to the breast from the hospital lobby to our front door steps. Colman and I held hands, totally thrilled and amazed and emotional and brimming and delighted to be a brand new family.

    Our thoughts have been with Cindy, Adam and Cain throughout this time and still are.

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    Visitors

    Visitor of the Month
    Mum came to stay 5 days after the due date and had ample time to adjust to the time difference, help clean the apartment, revisit the de Young museum, wander around Crissy Field, do the washing and ironing, go to the Chinese Historical Society of America, cook up a storm, go shopping, treat me to dim sum in Chinatown, and come swimming with me. She was an enormous help, a fount of knowledge and we really appreciated her being here – and it was very special that she stayed for the birth to hold my hand against her original instincts!

    Visitors and Good Wishes
    We spent time with Armani and her charming and friendly parents, Louisa and Ron, in the weeks before Esme’s arrival – they were over from London for the birth of Marcus, due 2 weeks ahead of us, who showed up one week late. Colman took on Geoff, Ron, and their friend Simon at poker, and was pleased he only lost $10, playing against such card sharps.

    Adam and Jen took time out from their busy social schedule our first day back at home (it was a full on weekend of SF activities which we'll partake of next year) and were our first home visitors providing champagne, flowers, cake – yummo – it was lovely to be able to show Esme off. The next day Sophia and Ava came to see her and brought gorgeous alphabet cards. Ava held Esme very carefully as befits such a big girl of 4½.

    We have been really touched at the emails, texts, cards and gifts from you all which are gratefully received and mean a great deal, especially as we are far away from most of our family and friends – THANK YOU. We are overjoyed at our good fortune and how lucky we were during the delivery and that we have such a healthy baby. She is no trouble at all, totally adorable, exquisitely precious, and sleeping and feeding are going well.

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    Labor Day
    A big US public holiday – this year on the 3rd September – and we celebrated by visiting Kristan and Steve and meeting their new perfectly behaved baby, Soren, sleeping beatifically in his bassinet while we had a very jolly brunch. Very apt to be with them on Labor Day!

    Seasonal Event of the Month
    The new annual Park(ing) Day was on the 21st September. Public car parking spaces become temporary parks. If you like the park, feed the meter is the slogan. This installation, Bocce in the Park, is on Valencia outside the Ritual Roasters Café. The idea is to highlight that 70% more time/money/resources are spent on cars and parking than is spent on public parks and green spaces.

    Restaurant of the Month
    I took Colman to the local legendary Italian, Delfina, for a final posh meal the week before Baby due. The restaurant is so popular I could only get a reservation by booking a month in advance and then only for a Monday night. To start with Colman partook of the salt cod mantecato with walnut oil while I went for the prosciutto San Daniele with figs and parmigiano. For mains I enjoyed the California halibut with melted leeks and lemon caper butter – yummmm – while Colman had the Paccheri al Amalfitana with white sea bass – a pasta dish where the sauce was made with a wonderfully delicate fish stock. For pudding I had the signature chocolate pannacotta; Colman chose the dessert wine, Passito Albano di Romyre. We had a lovely romantic dinner and look forward to the next occasion, whenever that may be!

    Wine Tasting of the Month by Mission Boy

    Mural of the Month
    Seen in Balmy Alley, one of the Mission's most famous outdoor art galleries which has lots of political themes - and I thought this one most appropriate!

    Bumper Sticker of the Month
    Bush Deserves a Fair Trial


    Stencil of the Month

    Yours in a Bliss Bubble
    Love and hugs
    Nadine and Colman xxx

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  • Sunday, September 09, 2007

    WOMB WITH A VIEW

    Dearest Family and Friends

    August Highlights

  • Big Chill
  • Surprise Baby Shower
  • Baby Celebration
  • Visitors

    Pregnancy Update
    It is remarkable how public a persona one becomes when up the duff. People I pass in the street beam at me – disconcerting as I know we haven’t met, until I remember the vast appendage which precedes my every move. Drunken tramps, of which there are more than a few hereabouts, shout, ‘Boy!’ at me at every turn. I’ve had only one shout, ‘Girl!’ – I’m somewhat sceptical of their soothsaying but time will tell – very shortly. Taxi drivers become sentimental and full of advice. A disembodied voice yelled ‘Gaad you’re the sexiest pregnant lady I’ve seen’ out of a car window last week. Strangers in shops strike up conversation. Which was fun in the Italian deli when it was the entire contingent of a large SF fire engine. I’m realising the extent to which I will be defined in terms of my offspring for the next few years, and will have to adjust to that.

    I’m told that the baby is head down, the heartbeat is strong, and all looks and feels normal. It is hard not to get stressed out about everything that needs to be done in time for the birth and much ticking-off-the-list activity has been deployed – it does feel as if we are getting there bit by bit.

    To the New Born Parenting Skills class – care and maintenance, cleaning, resale value – where we were treated to gruesome colour handouts of every shade of anal emission, we practised diaper-changing, discussed the merits of disposables, cloth, biodegradables, chemical-free, diaper-free. It was a helpful session overall – learning about swaddling and loud shushing; being San Francisco, we spent more time on how pets will adjust to the arrival of Baby than on common early illnesses.

    Big Chill

    Weekend of the Year
    Our annual expedition to the Big Chill Festival in the beautiful deer park of Eastnor Castle in Herefordshire was extra special this year. The weather had threatened but I was supremely confident that we would have sunshine and no mud as we are charmed – and so (mostly) it was. Colman and I travelled down separately. Crispin and I were the advance party and secured the site, getting there just in time to earmark a big area in our usual field – thanks Crispin. Luckily many of our posse managed to get there on the Thursday so it was easier holding the space than usual. Special thanks to Charlie and Nicola for the ENORMOUS gazebo and bringing a hearth – sterling effort!

    Crispin, Moody and I wandered around the Festival checking out the pre-event buzz including the disco mirrored yacht created by old friends of mine from which Pete Lawrence spun his first set of the Big Chill. Everybody was very hyped up on the first night and the camping field more crowded than normal, cheers and fireworks all night. Although perfectly comfy in my borrowed tent and sleeping bag (thanks Louise & Peter) on the borrowed air mattress (a godsend, thanks Cat), the noise meant I didn’t sleep until 4am which was NOT in the game plan. Although sadly it didn’t deter the tent robbers who came out to play again… We had one victim in our gang.

    On Friday outfits emerged, the vibe was very Big Chill, flags and pennants flew everywhere – ours was a big yellow sun (thanks Gayani & Rob). More friends arrived during the day; our site was getting full. Martin and I treated ourselves to the first of several Grand Bouffes (perfect festival fare of potatoes cooked in white wine topped with a Toulouse sausage) and then I indulged in an hour’s shiatsu massage in the Body and Soul space – bliss. Afterwards I could barely string a sentence together, but somehow managed to stagger back up that hill to the campsite and hang out.

    Our tribe now comprised 30 tents and included 12 kids. Colman had now arrived with Kay and Mellie Mel. And we set off for the evening’s entertainment. First up punk/funk with The Blockheads featuring Chas Jankel on vocals, whose fabulous attitude and old anarchist pro act got the crowd rocking along. The encore was aptly Reasons to be Cheerful Pt3. Followed by Kruder and Dorfmeister who played an excellent and inventive set although I forced myself to leave at 11.30 and climbed the hill slowly with Heather to collapse into bed leaving various people gossiping by the camp fire as flaming lanterns arced across the night sky.

    Thankfully I managed 5 hours sleep so caught up on the previous night; others stayed up partying all night which meant our camp was operating 24 hours as the kids got up from 6.30 onwards. Merriment at the campsite included playing the peg game, teasing Matthew for having lost his voice, and face painting.

    That afternoon Colman and I went down the hill in the afternoon to the Dressing Up Box where we watched Calum, Megan and Elsie perform on the catwalk in increasingly flamboyant outfits and hats. Not to be outdone Charlie and Colman donned vintage dresses and entered the grown up competition – sadly neither won despite their best hip wiggles. We then watched – Colman, Candida, Sloan, Gayani and Zoe partook – of the unfeasibly energetic barn dancing which was great fun.

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    Surprise Baby Shower

    Surprise Baby Shower
    It didn’t strike me as suspicious that Zoe and Colman were in no hurry to get back to the campsite to change for the evning. But as they stopped to buy hats, get dinner, more drinks, it was becoming irksome. And then we chanced upon Matthew and his gang so went to see Seasick Steve with them - an excellent decision. An old Bluesman and former hobo who has only recently achieved recognition and renown (best breakthrough artist 2006), he had the Open Air stage crowd in the palm of his hand – just him, his guitar and a couple of weird home-made instruments constructed from a single string, piece of carpet and old screwdriver. At 7 we assailed the hill again, Gayani, Zoe and Colman pushing me up the gradient.

    And the campsite was transformed – pink and blue balloons everywhere, baby streamers, pink champagne flowed, nibbles passed round – my surprise baby shower organised by Alex & Sonia! Naturally I cried – even more so when I realised how much effort everybody had gone to. Presents materialised, games were played: I bathed a baby doll, put a nappy on, and dressed it while blindfolded to a chorus of children crying like babies. Names chosen by everybody were drawn out of a hat – Matthew very disappointed we rejected Rum and Black as a contender – we chose Murray River and Josephine as the best ones. But the piece de resistance was Kay’s artistic triumph of the painted sun belly – with some help from Jessica – an amazing sight to behold! It was so moving to be with such close friends and celebrate the imminent arrival of Baby at my favourite Festival.

    That night I was determined to have a big night. A group of us (Tom, Charlie, Ben, Zoe, James, Rhona, Heather, Adam, Gayani & Rob) went from Mr Scruff (fun) to Fat Tuesdays to Finlandia to Tom Middleton (interesting, not dancey enough) to Crazy P (infectious soulful dance group) - the perfect way to finish off the night. I was dead chuffed to have lasted until 2! Colman, Zoe, James and Rhona went on until 4 trudging around the festival in search of more fun hooking up with Kay & Mellie Mel among others – disgusted to see that the dance tent past 2 featured a string quartet!

    Sunday was gloriously hot and sunny – as Sundays at the Big Chill always are. Adam, Alf and Jenna managed to get to bed at 11am which drew plaudits. Striking camp and clearing up was very sad. Over half of us had to go; Nikki and Aidan almost distraught at having to leave early for the first time! We had our ritualistic rendezvous with Norman Jay at 1 – Vicki-Ann accompanied me down the hill for the last time – for one final Grand Bouffe before hand. Considering the soaring temperatures and the crowd we did well to get nearly all our posse along to see Norman Jay. Poppy and Rose did brilliantly in the heat; Calum had the time of his life on various shoulders; I danced solidly for 2 hours flashing my still painted belly to all and sundry; Matthew still couldn’t speak; Megan cavorted like a dervish; it was a fitting end to our wonderful joyful weekend. When the time came to say farewell, I wasn’t the only one crying – Sonia, Zoe, Nikki, Cat included – all taking refuge behind sunglasses and stiff upper British lips. Two cartwheels later (sealed the festival, had to be done) we were on our way, racing against the clock to get to London in time for my parents’ 45th wedding anniversary party.

    Colman snoozed, I drove and we made it by 7.30, hopped into the shower – just in time to show Lizzie and Mum my colourful midriff – and changed into something more appropriately sedate. Polite genteel conversation ensued for the next 3 hours – yummy food – thanks Mum. And we said our goodbyes to Louise, Peter, Lizzie and Thomas before they headed to Pakistan for 2 years. And we flew back to San Francisco the next morning.

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    Outing of the Month
    Squeeze in the South Bay. I’d arranged a Surprise for Colman which entailed driving with Gerardo and Sophia down to Mountain View (thanks guys) where we collected him and drove to the Mountain Winery - as the name suggests a winery perched on a mountain slope overlooking Silicon Valley. We met up with Meredith, Adam & Jen for Squeeze, playing together for the first time since 1999, who didn’t disappoint by playing their whole back catalogue, but did let us down by not having fisticuffs on stage – Glenn and Chris having made up seemingly and being best of buddies again – although they did quip that stabbing each other was once a more likely prospect than reuniting at one point.

    Baby Celebration

    Baby Celebration
    Determined to have a party to mark the occasion, we arranged a celebration to be held in our beautiful shared garden, tended with enormous pride and flair by our downstairs neighbour, Kim. For the first time since we moved to No.57 the whole building – there are flats on the ground and middle floors below us – were being social together – which was great.

    Convivial and alcoholic (we had a Bloody Mary bar on the go) it was a perfect hot sunny Sunday afternoon. Kim and her flatmate Tom had prepped the garden; Patrick, Catherine and daughter Caroline also helped out and came up with some really fun and unexpected games - thank you for arranging! These included making names from the letters NADINECOLMAN, which produced a surprising number of contenders. Jason got the longest anagram – CINNAMON; Adam the most amusing – NO IDEA. After guessing nursery rhyme lyrics, we then had a baby food blind tasting. It is no wonder that mothers report difficulty in feeding their children. This stuff was absolutely vile – and it was all highly organic and nutritious according to the labels – yeurgh! The winners with the best combined score after three events were Gerardo and Sophia, who won a bottle of the wine that had come top in the last of The Mission Vintner’s monthly wine tastings, a Zinfandel.

    There were only 3 of us pregnant ladies as Kristan went into labour on the day itself; Tracy brought baby Isis, just under 4 weeks old: the first DLG of the next generation. Special prize of the day goes to the DLG, who true to form, were the first to arrive, were on splendid form all day, and left when it got too dark to see. Thank you all for the generous gifts.

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    Visitors

    Visitors of the Month
    There’s absolutely no truth in the rumour that there were nothing but three in the bed romps and Apple computer maintenance when Luke and Anna came to stay – up from LA for the weekend on their way to wine tasting in Sonoma. Far from it! Friday, we ate a cheap and delicious Thai meal at Suriya on Valencia, joined by Rob. Saturday night we feasted at home. Lovely to see them on such good form.

    It was wonderful to see Wilma and Howie over from Sydney – on cracking form without the kids for the first time in 7 years. We had one night out at dinner; on the Friday night, they treated us to a Beastie Boys concert. Despite the band being older than the total age of the front row of the audience, they were fantastic: energetic, talented, looked cool in suits and ties, and above all, had excellent lighting set. A simple idea – taking the ovoid shapes common to Alexander Calder sculptural mobiles, mounting them at in a row of 4 and 5 above the band, as LED visual and video displays – it was amazing and matched the retro 60s meets 70s funk with loungey electronic beats type music they now produce. Being pregnant we scored a table - superb. THANK YOU Wilma and Howie – we had a fantastic night.

    Poker Game of the Month
    Laurel and John, Armani and Geoff, Colman and I attended a Partners Pregnancy Yoga Workshop together. To compensate the boys for partaking in such hippydippy girly activity, we all came back to ours and played poker for hours – Texas Hold’Em rules. The boys got completely hammered, Laurel proved to be a natural without knowing the rules, it was hilarious playing with Monopoly money and dried beans. I won on the last all in round with 3 6s and scooped the pot!

    Celestial Moments of the Month
    Sleep has not been the best over the last month – turning over in bed is a 10 minute operation involving bolsters and pillows - but we used this to our advantage on the occasion of the Lunar Eclipse on the night of the 27th August, which we had a bullseye view of from our bedroom window.

    The skies have been cloudless, the weather has been hot and all have proclaimed this to be a very untypical San Francisco summer. But we aren’t complaining. Every morning the sun has streamed through our blinds heralding another cloudless day; on the rare days when it starts more typically grey, by mid-morning the sun invariably has broken through. So this mackerel sky dawn last week was less expected and really entrancing.

    Restaurant of the Month
    We revisited Woodward’s Garden with Dan and Dayna, marking the end of our first year in San Francisco – once Baby is here such outings will be fewer no doubt. Colman took me here in my first week; I treated him this time. Colman and Dayna had yellow tomato gazpacho – beautifully concocted – while we all shared the figs stuffed with gorgonzola wrapped in prosciutto. The lamb shank with bean ragout was declared the best main; we shared a plum and nectarine crisp for dessert.

    Bird of the Month by Mission Boy
    The American Goldfinch Carduelis tristis that rammed the window in Inverness – on my last weekend away of solitude. The poor mite spent ten minutes drunkenly slouching against the wall underneath the window ledge, a lazy eye telling us he was not long for this world. Until – flash – up and away and back to play with his mates.



    Mural of the Month

    Wine Tasting of the Month by Mission Boy
    I preach the virtues of Riesling.
    To the unconverted Riesling sounds like its going to be thin, probably sugar, not unlike the Black Towers and Blue Nuns that fatally wounded the credibility of German wine among UK consumers.
    Well guess what: Riesling is wonderful. They are made the world over so when our gang put together six blind bottles four countries were represented. We had two examples each from the ancestral homes: Alsace (France) and the Mosel (Germany), an organic wine from Washington and an Australian, by Yalumba.
    No other grape is the foundation for such a wide variety of styles.
    As you’d expect a wide range of sweetnesses were included. German wines do inhabit the medium sweet spectrum, but don’t let that put you off. The whole point is that good examples offset the sweetness with a juicy, fresh finish, in the way that orange juice does.
    As usual, The Mission Vinters tasted blind, scored and competed for the most outlandish notes (buttered popcorn? Really?).
    Interesting outcomes were aplenty:
    1. The organic wine (Badger Mountain, Columbia Valley), was favourite. This gives the lie to the vast majority of producers who say that sulphites (added since time immemorial) are necessary to stabilise a wine. Also this was a $10 wine.
    2. The driest wines were actually the least favourite. Although most people agreed that they could enjoy all, or nearly all the wines on the night. The two German medium-sweet wines came 2nd or 3rd.
    3. The driest wine was Australian, and this came fifth in preference. The lesson: when Riesling is fully dry, that ‘juiciness’ can turn into sharpness. Use this kind of wine with salty food, like shellfish. Acidity is the antidote to salt (think of the vinegar on your salty chips).

    Stencil of the Month


    Bumper Sticker of the Month
    Don’t Believe All That You Think

    Love and hugs Nadine and Colman xxx

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