Monday, April 14, 2014

Palacio Del Conde

Description on the bottle:  We produce Palacio Del Conde in the charming village of La Font De La Figuera in the gentle hills inland from Valencia on Spain's Mediterranean coast.  Here, the hot summer, wet winters and rich soils combine to produce ideal growing conditions for the noble tempranillo grapes in our wine.  Three years aging in American oak barrels add a vanillin flavor to the beautiful ripe fruit in this structured wine.  I recommend you open the bottle and hour before serving and drink with red meat dishes and strong cheeses.  I am proud to present my beautiful gran reserva; please find a special moment in which to enjoy it.

Sarah says:  The wine IS beautiful, unfortunately, the bottle is not.  The description on the back is impossible to read.  One, the font is itty bitty tiny... I'm guessing is a size 5 font or lower.  Two, it's a brown font against a black background.   I literally had to shine a flashlight on it to read it.  It's disappointing, because the words there are quite lovely, and I totally missed the part about opening the bottle an hour early and serving with red meat.  I ate with ham and opened and drank immediately.

Overall rating:  Thumbs down for poor information.

Sarah says:  If you were thinking that this bottle isn't something that I would have chosen for myself, you would be thinking correct.  90% of why I purchase a bottle of wine is because the label intrigued me.  If I can't read it, I'm not intrigued.  This came from the wine club.  Apparently, I didn't cancel it when I meant to a few months ago... I just delayed my next shipment.  I have officially cancelled it now.  The surprise case of wine that showed up Saturday was both good a bad.  A case of wine on a Saturday can't really be frowned upon, but I wasn't really planning on spending $100+ on wine this weekend.  At this point, I have no choice but to make the best of it, and drink up!

Canceling the wine club is harder than I thought, other things I'm having a hard time with lately... letting my Liam grow up.  Liam is my first born, my baby, my little man, my... kid?  Both of my children have had their own set of struggles, Mary's have been more physical (ie, with her vision and small size), Liam's have been more developmental (ie. poor speech and social skills).  This might sound horrible to admit, but I sort of wrote off Liam of having close friendships because of his social awkwardness.  I've never been more happy to be wrong, Liam is making friends like the best of them!  I've discovered that when I try to force Liam into a friendship it just fails miserably, but when I'm not there to "help" him, he somehow manages just fine on his own.  Just this weekend, Jon and I were watching him at the park, he was playing with 3 other boys around his age.  Jon and I observed that Liam was the "leader" of the group, the other kids followed him around and did whatever he said.  That was unexpected.  It literally puts a lump in my throat watching him "be normal".  He's turning into a completely regular kid, I love and hate it!!

Liam has recently made friends with a couple of boys that live within our apartment complex, but not in our building.  Throughout our 20 months living here, Liam's radius of acceptable outdoor playing space has grown, from the just courtyard in front of our apartment, to the "other" side of our building so he could do a complete circle with his bike, now two buildings over to play with his new friends.  Here's the terrifying part... I can't see him when he's outside in front of the other building.  Up until this point, I've been able to see him from the window, or call his name and have him appear within 10 seconds.  Now... I have to walk, out my door, past the neighbors door, past a cluster of 4 garages, past another cluster of 4 garages, and past 2 doors, there I usually find him in that area.  It's terrifying.  I know that the other parents can see him, but still, it's not like he's playing at their house, they are playing outside, in a very open public space.  It's hard letting your kid grow up.  I told him tonight that I'm getting him a watch, with an alarm, and I'm going to set it for 15 minute intervals, and I expect him to come check in with me every time it goes off.

Is that too much?  What would you do?  How do you let your kids grow up a little, but not too much at one time?  I'm seriously at a loss here.  I want him to play and have friends, I'm overjoyed that he communicates with these kids, and I don't want to ruin it by being overprotective, but I still need to protect him.  By the way... for the majority of adults out there that Liam won't speak to, don't take it personally, he definitely communicates better with 6 year old boys than he does me.

How do you let your baby boys turn into kids?  With a bottle of wine at hand!

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