A close call, indeed

I was picking up some bottles of wine at the grocery store from a higher shelf, when my elbow tipped over a Lindeman's cab sav on a lower display area. The vision is burned into my memory. I had turned to my grocery cart with my two bottles and saw--in slow motion--the Lindeman's fall over the edge and head toward the ceramic tile floor about three feet below. It finally hit the floor with a clatter that reverberated throughout the store. I was expecting an explosion of some sort, but nothing happened. It had landed flat on its side. A store clerk arrived and said, "Lucky fall, huh?" Indeed.

And it's amazing how everything happened in such slow motion.

Back in my bartending days I had a similar experience. Dropped a fifth of Scotch and it didn't break. We concluded that there were two factors. One was how the bottle landed, which was in a way that the impact was not focused on a point but rather dispersed in a larger area. The second was the level of fullness, that is since the bottle was full and sealed, the shock wave or whatever was internalized. Much like dropping a brick....and a full 750 is very much akin to a brick.....nothing much happens to the brick upon impact.

The wine cellar in my house is a basement room with a concrete floor -- it passively stays cool all year round.

When I go down to fetch something to drink, I often take down a "wine bag" -- a shoulder length strap and a central bag with two wine bottle sized pockets. Sometimes I am not paying enough attention, I think I have put the bottle into the bag but the top was folded onto itself and when I let go of the bottle it falls to the floor. This is rare. But in the last few weeks it happened with a bottle of Brunello, a 750, which made a loud noise when it hit but did not break.

The only other time I recall that happening was a disaster -- it was a 375 of Avignonesi Vin Santo. There is not enough of that stuff around in the world to waste any of it, and I felt really bad when I broke it...

F

I was picking up some bottles of wine at the grocery store from a higher shelf, when my elbow tipped over a Lindeman's cab sav on a lower display area. The vision is burned into my memory. I had turned to my grocery cart with my two bottles and saw--in slow motion--the Lindeman's fall over the edge and head toward the ceramic tile floor about three feet below. It finally hit the floor with a clatter that reverberated throughout the store. I was expecting an explosion of some sort, but nothing happened. It had landed flat on its side. A store clerk arrived and said, "Lucky fall, huh?" Indeed.

And it's amazing how everything happened in such slow motion.

I love reading your experiences in grocery stores. Is this the only place you have interesting things happen to you or are you just lucky (unlucky?) that way?

it was a 375 of Avignonesi Vin Santo. There is not enough of that stuff around in the world to waste any of it, and I felt really bad when I broke it...

Did you lick it up?

I love reading your experiences in grocery stores. Is this the only place you have interesting things happen to you or are you just lucky (unlucky?) that way?

The universe has a way of focusing on me everywhere, everywhere. There's always a big hand in a cloud ready to snap me like an ant. Makes for an interesting life, though.

I walk to work every day and have started noticing grocery carts from the aforementioned grocery piling up every few days in an arroyo (once there were four carts). I periodically call the store manager to come get them because they're expensive and someone's too lazy to return them.

Walking home yesterday, I rounded a corner and almost ran into a big guy pushing a grocery cart. Aha! I watched him go into an apartment across the street, unload his groceries and then push the empty cart into the arroyo. Now, at least, the grocery store and I know the address of the perp.

Several years ago, the very first time I bought a jar of peanut butter in a plastic (unbreakable?) jar, I knocked it off the counter and it broke.

it was a 375 of Avignonesi Vin Santo.

Frank,

Is there an interesting story behind how you acquired that bottle? I was told at the winery that they produce the Vin Santo but never sell it.

[Jenise]

You're a lucky man, Larry. I've dropped three bottles in my life--and they ALL broke. Alas, I remember the victims: a Kistler chardonnay, a 92 Quilceda Creek Cab and a Billecart Salmon Brut Reserve. I never drop the cheap shit.

it was a 375 of Avignonesi Vin Santo.

Frank,

Is there an interesting story behind how you acquired that bottle? I was told at the winery that they produce the Vin Santo but never sell it.

I used to attend the gambero rosso tre bicchieri tastings in New York City. I still would go but they keep scheduling it on evenings when I have to teach. I get an invitation each year still. I went with my wife and there was a guy at a table offering generous free pours of the A.V.S. Louise and I had a glass, and ten minutes later we looked at each other and said "I'm STILL tasting that WINE." We went back and got another glass each. They have had it off and on at the tasting, the very best was a bottle of the Occhio del Pernice, partridge eye. I think whoever told you that was exaggerating, I see the regular Avignonesi Vin Santo at good wine shops in New York all the time. I've never seen Occhio del Pernice for sale, maybe that is what he meant. I bought one of my 375's in Rome, in 2000, for the equivalent of $50 (this was in Lire not Euros but I forget the conversion. A million Lire??) The others I bought in New York.

I have often thought that if there is a Heaven for Italian wine lovers it probably looks like this

http://www.rci.rutgers.edu/~deis/vinsanto.html

Frank

ps http://www.wine-searcher.com shows many sources, especially for the 1995. Very pricey though. You can even find the "Occhio"

You're a lucky man, Larry. I've dropped three bottles in my life--and they ALL broke. Alas, I remember the victims: a Kistler chardonnay, a 92 Quilceda Creek Cab and a Billecart Salmon Brut Reserve. I never drop the cheap shit.

LANGUAGE POLICE! LANGUAGE POLICE!

You're a lucky man, Larry. I've dropped three bottles in my life--and they ALL broke. Alas, I remember the victims: a Kistler chardonnay, a 92 Quilceda Creek Cab and a Billecart Salmon Brut Reserve. I never drop the cheap shit.

LANGUAGE POLICE! LANGUAGE POLICE!

Use "schiess" to confuse them, Bob.

That still doesn't match my all-time wine calamity. I got word at my office that there was a leak in my house. I came home to find the washer hose had sprung a leak and was shooting at jet of water at the top of my upright freezer. On top of said freezer was a whole case of wine on its side. The cardboard had collapsed and the remains of the wine were on the floor--mixed in with broken glass and a couple of inches of water. Tasty.

The wine cellar in my house is a basement room with a concrete floor -- it passively stays cool all year round......

A good friend of mine has made a career of running high-end country clubs. While I have been inside every club he has ever run, for some reason I never visited the wine cellars. In discussion one day, I discovered that the floor of the wine cellar in his club was gravel. Because if a bottle is dropped, it is far less likely to break than if the floor were any kind of firm material. (I imagine the cleanup is a lot easier too if one does break...the liquid drains away, you pick up the big pieces of glass while the little pieces just merge with the gravel.)

Anyone have knowledge of similar flooring installations in commercial or personal wine cellars?

I've seen a gravel floor in the cellar of one friend. I always wondered why it was there....

My worst 'falling object' story did not involve wine. It was May 1990, just shortly after the Berlin Wall came down. I made a day-trip to East Berlin and was returning through Checkpoint Charley. Just as I passed through the passport check, a chisel fell out of my backpack and clattered to the floor.

Yes, a chisel. Like a lot of Good American Boys, my friend and I had bought hammers and chisels to go bang on the Berlin wall. A piece of history for me, and one less piece of concrete still standing.

Anyway, if you know Checkpoint Charley, it is an underground passageway -- a long, echo-y hallway.

CLATTER! BANG! Bang-bang-bang-bang tinkle-tinkle-tinkle clink.

Every head snapped around to look at me. For a brief moment, I held my breath... would the Stasi run out to me?

Pfft. I picked up the chisel and kept going.

I haven't broken a bottle yet, though I have an interesting story.

I was away with a girlfriend for a weekend vacation. One of my good friends gave me a 97 Tignanello and a 97 I Capitelli to consume over said weekend..

The Tig was safely consumed with supper. Afterwards, the Cap was opened and poured while preparing the hot tub in the bathroom. Just after having opened the taps, my girlfriend knocked her full glass over. Into the bathtub. The glass shattered. Wine and glass in the tub.

Aaaargh. Especially if you've had the I Capitelli.

A very good old friend of mine dropped a 1.75 of good scotch in Memphis. Asphalt. It broke. Back at the liquor store the guy told her they would replace it as long at the stamp was intact. Amazing.