The day started out, slightly different, I was going to get an inoculation, actually it was the vaccine for the virus that originated from China. The virus has gotten a bit of press over the last year or so, and the last President pushed for and had two different companies create a way to combat it, and since then at least one more company, if not more have developed more potential ways to combat it. In Michigan, it has been a mess trying to get the vaccine to the public, for some odd reason politicians were getting immunized before a lot of the people that were supposed to be treated first.  Also, it was kind of a joke, people in the last month or so, were scrambling to fill out multiple series of forms from several different hospitals, counties, municipalities and pharmacies trying to get a series of two shots (from the initial two companies).  Then it was a random luck of the draw for the people, and the vaccines were allotted by politics and there was a lot of discussions about it. My Bride was fortunate that one of the hospital chains that she has multiple physicians at, was selected by their random selection and she was one of the first.  Then she made it a mission to get me the vaccine as well.  I have to admit that I was a bit more laid back, compared to her, but I figure that I do want to see our children and grandchildren in Las Vegas, and I am sure that the “Nanny State” would eventually force the airlines to only allow those that have had the vaccine to fly.  It may become the most valuable document in a person’s wallet, far superior to a voter registration card.

It was ironic that my municipality was administering the vaccine at a Senior Citizen Center, since I am now a Senior Citizen and supposedly, we were in the first group to get the vaccine, after First Responders. Let me say, that it worked rather smoothly, outside of watching one of the workers get surly with two women, one with a quad cane and the other with a walker, that were forced to leave the line, because the line was only for the 9:00 – 9:30 group and the women were in the 9:30-10:00 group.  Now, I am old enough to remember when physicians administered shots, then nurses, now pharmacists and that morning it was Fire Department EMT employees from all appearances.  It flowed smoothly and then they made us wait for fifteen minutes in case there were immediate reactions.

All of this is leading to the fact that I was going to go to my wine shop, the Fine Wine Source in Livonia afterwards, because there was a wine that I had tasted the week before and I was so enamored with it, that I bought a couple of bottles, was on the phone with Ms. Yoga, who asked if I could get her some, and then I thought, I should get some more as well.  The Cupertinum Cantina Social Cooperativa Copertino DOC Riserva 2011 was the wine that was haunting me.  The Cupertinum Cantina Social Cooperativa was founded in 1935, along the lines of many of wine cooperatives that were forming in Italy. The Cupertinum cooperative have even planted a micro vineyard in the ramparts of the old Copertino castle.  Copertino DOC is in the Puglia region of Italy, the area that most people like to refer to it as the boot, for easy visualization. The main grape for Copertino DOC, whether for the Rosso or Rosato is the Negroamaro variety.  Negroamaro must account for seventy percent of the wine, and the balance may have Malvasia Nera, Montepulciano and/or Sangiovese (but only up to fifteen percent Sangiovese). The DOC was classified in 1976 and today there is one-hundred-fifty-eight hectares and about thirty-one-thousand cases of wine are produced.  This wine is a blend of ninety-five percent Negroamaro and five percent Malvasia Nera.  Maceration on the skins takes about seven days, and then because this was their Riserva, the wine was aged for twenty-four months in Stainless Steel.  This wine had the benefit of being an eleven-year-old, so there were already layers of taste to appreciate.  The wine was a nice Ruby red in color with nose of black fruit, the tannin had mellowed and matured and offered still ripe fruit and hints of almonds, black currants and leather, with a nice finish.  I could think of all sorts of dishes that this wine would work with, and I knew that getting some more of it, was smart on my part.