I created a faux pas, or perhaps a total sin, but I can’t be totally to blame, at least in my mind.  My Bride was a sponsor for her niece who was finally finishing her rites and at the same time her friend accomplished all of his rites and became a part of the church as well.  We were sitting up at the front of the congregation, because of what was part of the mass.  The mass was long, of course my Bride didn’t tell me that it was a two-hour event with a cantor that I thought was singing a twenty-minute dirge.  I have also read the Bible years ago and it was a beautiful and well written book, very floral and poetic in parts, I do not know what happened, but the verses read, lacked the appeal to me, as it was about as poetic as a grocery list.  I fell asleep, and as far as I was concerned it was the priest’s fault, but he took umbrage and even though I did wake up before the mass was done, he took a bundle of reeds stuck then in a bucket and was supposed to anoint the congregation with Holy Water, he being a petty man, dowsed me with water, and I really think that my Bride was afraid that I was going to dowse him with the bucket.  Thankfully, I did not have to see him after the service. 

We then all went to one of the other sister’s houses for a dinner and celebration.  There were all sorts of appetizers to start out the night.  I don’t know about you, but I do like appetizers and the casualness of them.  I am sure that I did not taste everything that was there, but there was a smoked (barbecued?) cheese that I thoroughly enjoyed, but my Bride didn’t find out what it was.  I also have to say that my Bride ordered this “Death by Chocolate” cake from a bakery, and she wasn’t sure that the normal size would be ample for the group, so she ordered the bigger version, which was humongous, we gave away portions to the people as they left that evening, and we used the balance of the cake, the next day and we still finally ended up giving away the rest of the cake, otherwise I would have had a sugar attack, I am sure.  It was delightful, but I think the Third Army would not have been able to finish the cake in one setting.  We started off with one of my Bride’s favorite grapes, a magnum of Mezzacorona Forte Alto Pinot Grigio Delle Venezie DOC 2020.   Mezzacorona is a group of co-operative wineries and brands, established in 1904 in Trentino.  The winery is known as the “Citadella del Vino” and they recently built a state-of-the-art facility to better serve their fifteen-hundred growers.  Mezzacorona claims to produce more Pino Grigio and Chardonnay than any other Italian winery.  With the wine being produced by so many small vineyards, the fruit is hand harvested to this day.  There is no production information, but I sure that I may surmise that the fruit is aged in Stainless Steel for a short period.  I say this, because the wine is green and flinty, crisp with a light floral nose and a soft finish.  A perfect wine for food and lots of talking and merriment and it was just the right size for the crowd.

Then for the main entrée, there was going to be pizza, and of course there is always kind of a debate over what pizzeria to choose from, I mean Detroit is actually considered a “pizza town” with a “Detroit-style.”  Actually, I basically always go with a pie covered with everything, just like I first discovered pizza back in the Fifties and Sixties, of course, I settled on Cheese and Pepperoni, out of the assortment of pizzas that were brought in, one of the nephews went with my Bride to carry all the boxes in.  I know that I am a bit of a curmudgeon.  We then had the Roberts + Rogers “Napa 5” Cabernet Sauvignon NV.  In 1999, longtime friends Roger Louer and Robert Young commenced efforts to establish a first-class Cabernet Sauvignon wine brand, sourcing the grapes from Howell Mountain, Napa Valley, California. Located to the east of St. Helena, at an elevation ranging from 1400 to 2200 feet, Howell Mountain is considered one of the most prestigious wine growing regions in the world. Roberts and Rogers sources its grapes for this wonderful wine from the Howell Mountain sub appellation area and for the present vintages from a vineyard jointly developed by Roberts and Rogers in 2000.  The wine came from five different vineyards, all from the rockiest part of the Louer Vineyard.  It is non-Vintage, as it is blended from a couple of vintages and very proprietary for a Cabernet Sauvignon wine.  Hand harvested from the loamy terrain, the wine was aged for a total of eighteen months in French Oak and the initial release was June 2018.  There were three hundred cases produced and all were done with a screw cap.  This was a beautiful red, fruit forward with plenty of deep red fruit and a surprisingly long finish with a lot of terroirs.  They felt that a screw cap was the perfect way to offer this casual wine that could be drank immediately or it could be cellared.  We purchased two cases of this wine, so it will be interesting to observe how it cellars, and yes, my Bride fell in love with this wine.  And the good news is, that I was not burned at the stake as a heretic.