Breaking Bread
Winter Solstice Wine
I'm not a big fan of the Big Three: Christmas, Hanukkah, and Kwanzaa.
The first, frankly, bewilders me. It's a sweeping tsunami of tradition - that lynch pin of winter culture and our national economy - that is based on a clearly ridiculous myth. The fact that nations stop producing for a week and people all over the world obey the dictates of random retailers, buying things no one needs which they cannot afford. . . . I puzzle over this each and every year.
As a Jew, I can tell you Hanukkah is no great shakes, but rather a holiday that was expanded to fill the void many of my fellow tribe members felt at this time of year. It has little significance - certainly nothing like Yom Kippur or Rosh Hashanah - but it makes everyone feel fair and ecumenical about shutting down the world around December 25. . . .
As for Kwanzaa. Well, tell me honestly? Does anyone even really know what this is?
In my family, we've bucked the trends by celebrating only two winter holidays: the solstice and New Year's Eve. The latter is our Christmas Eve-ish equivalent. We make a meal and exchange presents and generally just welcome the opportunity to live together for another year.
But the former - the winter solstice - is a slippery one. The way we observe this changes each year, depending upon the day of the week and who's around. Unlike on New Year's Day, companies don't close on December 21, so our revelry tends to be short-lived if it happens to fall on a weekday night. If it's on a Friday or Saturday, I might throw a big, outdoor, bonfire party (I did this one year when we lived out east; as a bonus, it was a good 30 degrees).
This year, the solstice came on a Sunday and it occurred to me that this was a perfect evening to do something festive but reverent. So I invited nine of the best women I know, put out a buffet of simple foods such as cured fish, cheese, nuts, and fruit. And I brought in a case of Manyana Tempranillo 2007.
This is a Spanish wine: clean, light, a little juicier and more candylike than most made from Tempranillo grapes. It's definitely not dry, but it's not sweet either. Wholesome with notes of cherry and strawberry and a nice, quick finish. To a woman, my guests (who ranged in age from 39 to 81) enjoyed it. Even better, it didn't break the bank. I found this wine on sale at Byerly's for a mere $7.99 - and if you buy in bulk, there's an additional case discount of 5%.
I would highly recommend a quiet solstice celebration over the mercenary Sturm and Drang of Christmas. We ten women talked about politics, religion, food, children, men, and sex. . . .pretty much in that order. And the wisdom in the room was incredibly high, even before the wine started to flow.sun
