by David R. Darrow
6" x 6" (15.24cm x 15.24cm)Oil on Stretched Canvas SOLD Collection of Donna Tetmeir
Incline Village, NV – USA
About This Painting
The first ever taste of wine and cheese I can remember was on a New Years morning when I was about 10. Maybe younger.
No, my parents didn't serve wine and cheese. There was just some kind of a cheese thing... not a log... not a jar... it was a wad — and they claimed it was Cheddar and Port, as I recall. I seriously doubt it was real wine in there.
Doesn't matter. I hated it. It looked like someone stirred purple cheese into orange cheese, like that brilliant idea to sell peanut butter and jelly in one jar.
And it did not taste good with chocolate.
My family always had a tradition of rising New Years Morning and watching the Pasadena Rose Parade together. (Until I moved away to go to college, I never saw it in color – we only had a black and white TV). We would watch the parade and, as a tradition, eat the weirdest snacks a boy could ever be served: wheat thins, chocolate, cheeses, smoked oysters, kippered herring — we called them "kipper snacks" — and nuts that had to be cracked out of the shells. Then there were the cheese balls coated with nuts, and this cheddar-port wad.
It wasn't until I was an adult that I discovered how cheese and wine actually bring out the best in each other. Cheese alone is one thing, but after a sip of wine, it's altogether better! Wine alone is one thing, but after a bite of cheese? It's just better.
It's fascinating to walk down the wine aisle at the supermarket, or favorite wine store. It's also deeply puzzling. Since I don't read wine reviews or periodicals, I never know what to pick out as far as the name goes.
I tend to go by the variety first, then the label art and then the date. I guess that makes me a consumer. I tend toward labels that have names that either work with or adjust my mood. Usually, it's the ones that make me laugh, or have good art.
I find that just about any of them, red or white, and regardless of their label, go quite nicely with cheese.
To subscribe to my free "Art In Your InBox" Newsletter, just click here.
2 comments:
Ah! the things one remembers. "Wine without cheese is like a kiss without a squeeze."
Great story, the part about the cheese wad made me laugh out loud. I've been to enought get-togethers where unidentifiable cheese logs/balls were served!
Post a Comment