Roland on Wine Enjoy the Best Wine-drinking Year Ever! “Death Cleaning”a good idea for wine enthusiasts

By Marc Roland

Iknow its not spring yet, but it feels like it. I know its still cold, but I feel it coming on. I can’t explain it. Maybe you have to be a Pacific Northwesterner to read the seasons. For me they define my life like nothing else. The present is always a tension between two transitioning seasons. The seasons of nature reflect the seasons of life. As King Solomon said, “For everything there is a season, and a time for every matter under heaven: a time to be born, and a time to die; a time to plant, and a time to pluck up what is planted; a time to kill, and a time to heal; a time to break down, and a time to build up; a time to weep, and a time to laugh; a time to mourn.”

So what is this season for you? If it is not happy, just wait. It will get better. In our household we are reading a book called The Gentle Art of Swedish Death Cleaning by Margaretta Magnusson. The title is a little misleading, because it really is a positive book about cleaning out your house of unwanted and unneeded items that are no longer useful to you, at any stage of life. But for me, more importantly, at my age, it’s being thoughtful of those who may be given the task after you are gone. Like spring, when the fog of winter lifts, there breaks forth a clarity of view and mind. So when you drop the weight of relics that once were important, but not so useful anymore, you feel good. You feel free.

This is a wine column. But it is hard to talk about wine without talking about what wine represents in the way of a metaphor for life. So like life, wine needs a succession plan. I was talking to my friend, Nick Seaver, and he told me that he is going through his wine and reorganizing the bottles. Making sure the older bottles weren’t getting buried under newer bottles. This makes sense even in a modest cellar. What are you saving those bottles for? My succession plan is to drink my wine so its gone relatively close to when I am! Not easy to do, but doable, and you should start now. How about attaching an occasion to some of your older wines. For example, write on the bottle DRINK ON OUR ANNIVERSARY 2023. Get it on the calendar! If you don’t do this you may never get to taste it. Life is short. I assume that the reason you are cellaring wine is to give it a little more time in the bottle to age, thus adding the value of time to a great bottle. Great. I also assume you will drink it some day, most likely for a special occasion with friends or family. Let’s say, generously, there are 12 events each year like birthday, Christmas, New Years, etc. You get the picture. So further assuming that you are adding to your collection each year, the cellar is growing. But let’s say you have a 100-bottle cellar, and you are drinking only 12 bottles a year; it will take you 8 years to drink it all.

Longview resident and former Kelso teacher Marc Roland started making wine in 2008 in his garage. He and his wife, Nancy, now operate Roland Wines at 1106 Florida Street in Longview’s new “barrel district.” For wine tasting hours, call 360-846-7304.

My succession plan to consider:

• Have a special section in your cellar where you can display your prize wines. These wines are wines that you may not ever drink because they could last for decades and they serve the purpose of wowing your wine friends and telling stories. This is legit! Drink on a once-in-a-decade special event.

• Go through your cellar, be judicious about which wines have reached their full potential. If you need help, get the free app Vivino. Take a picture of the bottle, and you should get an honest evaluation with aging recommendations. Either write on the bottle or place a tag on them that says, DRINK NOW, or HOLD.

• Unless you drink expensive and ageworthy wines everyday, keep your cellar at about 80 wines. Enough to have wines age and improve, but not more than you can drink in five years.

Of course, this gives you permission to replace the wines you drink without getting too large.

• Remove wines that may be past their prime from your cellar, and put them in with your everyday drinking wine. Some of them may be gems. If there is any doubt, drink, but don’t let them go to vinegar in your cellar.

• Buy a wine rack for your kitchen that holds 12 bottles. Fill it with your go-to everyday wine and put some of your cellar wines in it, too. Don’t feel guilty about drinking some good bottles on a Monday night!

Remember, just because you spent a lot of money for a wine, doesn’t mean it will last forever. Wine is to drink and enjoy; the spirit of wine is to share. Do your wine “death cleaning’”now and have the best wine drinking year ever.

What are you reading?

Monthly feature coordinated by Alan

By Debra Stewart

This is the perfect book to read at the airport. Recently I was stuck between TSA and boarding, so I chose a new book to immerse myself in on the flight.

Libby and her sister Nora, a book agent, are trying to rekindle their relationship by taking a month-long break from their busy lives in New York City, spending it together in Sunshine Falls, a small town featured in a popular book that was made into a movie. Sunshine Falls has received a small tourist boom as a result of the movie.

Rose

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The story revolves around a list of activities Libby compiled for them to do during their stay, like “do makeovers for each other,” “sleeping under the stars.” Number five on the list is “have two dates with a local.” This item proves to be more complicated when a handsome but troublesome colleague of Nora’s also arrives from New York City. Nora and Charlie, a book editor, have had some unpleasant dealings in the past, along with a sarcastic and grudging appreciation for each other’s talents.

Inexplicably, Charlie turns up in the same small town, in the same lines for coffee, and hanging out at the same bookstore. As the plot unfolds, the complications thicken when Nora and Charlie find themselves aroused by each other in a bookstore closet. Full of spicy twists and turns as the real reason for Libby’s list is revealed, Nora and Charlie discover what they have in common. Near the end, I experienced genuine heartache for the previously antagonistic pair but never fear, the actual ending ties things up nicely. What a wild ride!

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Debra Stewart is a reader and a writer who raised her eight children on a farm on the banks of the Upper Naselle River, a spawning tributary to Willapa Bay. She received her MFA in Creative Writing in 2018. Her love of reading is the main driving force behind her writing. (“They are like favorite twins.”)

HaikuFest 2023 organizers will accept five original (never published) haiku entries per entrant in traditional format: Three lines of 5 syllables, 7 syllables, 5 syllables each. Themes can be nature-based, “pop,” humorous. Other than the precise syllable count, there are no restrictions. Good taste is assumed and judges’ decisions are final. There are no fees. Once submitted, all haiku become the property of CRR. Deadline for submission is 7pm PDT time on April 15. Email submissions are preferred and should be sent to haikucenter@aol.com. Snail mail submissions will also be accepted and can be sent to G. Meyers, 3045 Ala Napuaa Place #1406, Honolulu, HI 96818. Judges’ selections will be announced in the May 15 issue. Announcement of winners in the Centennial category may be postponed to our June 30 “From Page to Stage” Centennial book launch and Variety /show celebrating Longview’s 100th and CRR’s 20th anniversaries.

CRR’s HaikuFest Founder and chief judge, Hawaii resident Gary Meyers, grew up in Longview, Wash., retired from careers with the U.S. Marines, then Northwest Airlines. He enjoys traveling, especially to Japan; He frequently visits CRR territory.