One of these days, I may actually get my blog into real time, at the moment I will be happy when I have my blog and Instagram on real time, that may be more doable.  We had an extremely busy day that day, and in the old days, it was not a day that one wanted to be driving all over town, but I guess with the advent of a new generation that doesn’t drive, and all of these “hale systems” it isn’t that dangerous.  It is also an easy day to remember the birthdays of one of our grandsons and one of our in-laws. 

We went to a tavern to have lunch and if it is important to you, that this year the Saint Day was also on a Friday during Lent.  Some of the Archdioceses around the country made exceptions and other’s didn’t and some left it to the local priest, who might come up with an alternative way for atonement on that day.  My Bride is Old School, though she doesn’t go to a Latin Mass, she also doesn’t condone Communion for hypocrites, unless it is for Last Rites.  She had a Tuna Salad Sandwich, because the other fish dishes were fried.  I don’t have the same rules for Lent, so I decided to have a Corned Beef and Swiss with a side of Breaded Onion Rings.  The Onion Rings were enormous, and the sandwich was the smallest example I have ever seen, it was like three shavings of meat.  I showed our waiter the meme I had made for the holiday with the directions to make a “Black Velvet” cocktail.  It fell on deaf ears, as it seemed that our waiter did not even know that some people really celebrate the day. 

Later that evening we were meeting for a big family celebration and not for Saint Patrick’s Day and one of my wife’s sisters had ordered a special personalized gift for her son (next story), the order, the invoice, the packing slip and the address label had the right spelling, the personalized gift was mis-spelled and it took almost a month to get.  My Bride was on a mission to find something, and she did, and we stopped to get a bottle of wine to take to her sister’s house until we all went out for dinner.  I saw a bottle of Vietti Roero Arneis DOCG 2021 and my curiosity was piqued.  Vietti is a famed wine producer in the Piedmont, receiving plenty of accolades over the years and they began producing under the family name in 1919.  Vietti was one of the first to send Barolo wines to America, and one of the first to create single-vineyard (Cru) wines in Barolo.  He is famed for his assorted Barolo and Barbera wines and is regarded as the “Father of Arneis” as he basically single-handedly restored interest in the almost lost and forgotten variety in the late Sixties.  This wine is pure Arneis in the heart of Roero region, around the village of Santo Stefano Roero on soils of calcareous marl (with a high count of marine fossils) and the vines are an average age of thirty years.  The fruit is hand-picked, destemmed, and gently pressed.  The Initial Fermentation takes place in Stainless Steel to maintain the fruit aromas and flavors.  Halfway through the fermentation process, the tank is sealed to reabsorb a small quantity of natural CO2, and does not undergo Malolactic Fermentation.  It is aged in the Stainless Steel tanks on fine lees, until they determine it is ready to be bottled.  The wine was a pretty straw-yellow color and offered notes of melon, citrus, flowers, and minerals.  On the palate tones of mixed fruit, a tinge of almonds, and minerals in a crisp and balanced wine with a decently long finish of terroir and salinity for a refreshing glass of wine, that beckoned for another glass.