So close and yet so far...(PB)

It's Sept.28, the sun is shining and I am blogging as I wait for my wife and daughter--my daughter who, as we learned on arrival here in L.A. is expecting our 6th grandchild! Where's the champagne when you need that pop and splash of a celebrative quaff? The joys of life...

I've been here for over 36 hours and haven't even been to a real wine store yet. What California treasures await; treasures found nowhere else outside the mecca of American wine.

Even the Trader Joe's I breezed through yesterday had some unheard of wines (unheard of in my neck of the woods) some for as little as $2.99 a bottle (J.W. Morris Gewurtztraminer and chenin Blanc) and of course there was the ubiquitous "Two Buck Chuck" the MD 20-20 of Napadom.

I helped an elder gentleman locate a few bottles of "Chateau something-or-other" his wife assigned him to find probably to get him out of her hair for a few minutes. He lamented his failing faculties and wondered aloud with me--in good humor--how long they would let him "out" on his own. We both laughed as I reminded him that we all were moving forward and ther wasn't much we could do about it. Seizing the opportunity, I took my shot at significance and said, "Ya just have to make sure you're ready for what awaits on the other side." He mumbeled an expletive and left in haste. "Too bad," I thought, to be that close to the end of the road and to be utterly oblivious to the reality of the hereafter...

But this is a wine blog, not a religion blog and I'm less than four hours away from the wineries of Santa Barbara where the movie "Sideways" popularized "Pinot Noir" and disparaged the great grape of the Medoc--Merlot.

But in a few minutes we'll be visiting the San Antonio Winery right here in L.A., the home of the Riboli family wines.

I remind myself we're here to see family, not vineyards, but of course along the way of life the beverage of the fruit of the vine has been the escort on the arm of every momentous occassion in human history. Even before Jesus lifted the cup in thanksgiving at the last supper, Lot, and Abraham, Solomon and Boaz had poured the fermented juice--sometimes in excess--into thier goblets and raised a glass. Now go do the same!