Of Pork and Pink Eye

My sister called me the other day more upset than I’d heard her sound in a long time. “Dude,” she said to me. “Yes?” I replied. “I’ve got viral pink eye.” Doh! I thought immediately, Homer Simpson’s catchall bummer phrase perfectly appropriate. You see, Claire’s birthday was coming up, and this pink eye thing put a major monkey wrench in her plans. Apparently, pink eye (in both eyes nonetheless) is seriously contagious for at least five to seven days time. Her birthday is this weekend. She’s had to cancel all celebrations and revelry. And, worst of all, she can’t even see anyone for fear of transmitting the virus. Home girl can’t even go to work. It’s sort of like solitary confinement, except that your boss still expects you to electronically transmit your work from your prison cell.

Because I felt excruciatingly badly for her I decided to drop off some vino at her place in an effort to cheer her up. We’re headed to the South of France for a couple of weeks this summer as a family and, I thought, she really ought to bone up on the pink wine of Provence before we go. And so, in an effort to further distract her from what must be total drudgery hanging out solo at home 24/7, I assigned her this task: Write a tasting note for the same wine I’m tasting, and we’ll combine our notes for a report on the Hip Tastes Blog.

I didn’t even realize at the time the magnitude of consolation hiding in this simple task. She was pumped! She wrote back before I even took pen to paper to document my thoughts on the stuff. Here’s the wine’s 411 and what she had to say:

2004 Chateau Val Joanis AC Cotes du Luberon
Grape variety: Blend of Syrah and Grenache
Alcohol: 14 percent

“I realized quite fittingly last night that I was drinking the rose while my eyes were, ahem, quite rose. I was reflecting on my tragic situation when I realized that, with all of my problems, you know—the whole hazmat isolation and walking biohazard bit—that at least I could still drink wine.”—Claire