Wine

A few weeks ago, we visited our friends Kris and Lynda in Washington, DC. Among the many fun things we did over a long weekend was to have dinner at the home of a couple of our hosts' friends one night. As a thank you, we brought a couple of bottles of wine. Because the hosts already had the evening's wines planned out, the bottles we'd brought weren't opened that evening. (For those you wondering, it is not required that the hosts open a gift bottle--they may open them later if they choose; it is, after all, a gift.) We had brunch with the same people the next day, and I explained to them that the Pinot Noir we brought was a special wine to us.

I'd had it in a restaurant one night a couple of years earlier, and liked it so much that I decided later to purchase a couple of bottles at a wine store. It was more expensive than what I usually spend on a bottle, but I felt it was worth it for special occasions. It so happened that a few weeks later, we were going to Game Night at the home of our son's girlfriend, and decided to bring a bottle of wine. Her parents aren't big fans of wine, especially reds, but the only unopened bottle we had on hand was a bottle of the Pinot, so I reluctantly brought it. As it turned out, that was the night that our son and now-daughter-in-law announced their engagement, so it was nice to have a special, splurged-on bottle to toast the news.

When I told this story, the husband, Jeff,  reminded me that they were waiting for their daughter's boyfriend (whom we'd met the night before) to propose to her, and that maybe this wine would work some more magic. I wished him good luck, and said I wasn't sure if they should open it first to make it happen, or save it for when (or if ever) the announcement came. It would age well, so if they had to wait a long time, the wine would still be good anyway.

A couple of weeks later, I was ushering at a concert and Lynda came in. She told me, "They opened the wine". I immediately caught on and said, "You mean...?" and she said, "Yes, he proposed to her last night." The kids had called to tell Jeff and Ellen, and as soon as he got off the phone, Jeff had uncorked the bottle to toast the news.

Well, that made my day. To meet someone once and now have a unique bond through engagements and wine is pretty special. And now I---and the people with whom I've shared the story---have a new catchphrase: when a couple gets engaged, they "opened the wine". Kind of a nice metaphor for starting a life together, too.