My Bride’s tour of duty as the executor of her mother’s estate is almost completed.  She did it without renumeration, as it was all in the family.  Trust me, if you ever, unfortunately are in this situation, take some form of renumeration, it was like a full-time job for periods of time.  We were going through the final harrowing period of waiting for the house to be sold, after all the furniture removal, along with the removal of a woman’s life. 

My wife was in continuous contact with the real estate agent, and he mentioned that there were still a few things that were still in the house.  We couldn’t believe it.  After getting everything divided up, as well as possible, getting the house completely refinished, which is a shame that their mother could never lived in the finished project and that was her first and only home, and it was brand new when it was bought.  With every room getting an overhaul of paint, new flooring and whatever else was needed, I couldn’t believe that anything was missed.  I mean it is a slow project to get everything to merge everything she brought here, with what we already have.  My Bride also took all the photos to digitalize them and make a complete history for everyone that wants a copy, including second and third cousins, as she was the surviving matriarch of a very large family. 

My Bride can home from the last trip to the house with a small step ladder that was constantly being used and three full bottles.  There was a fifth of Canadian Club and a fifth of Crown Royal, both symbolizing the cottage that the family had on Lake Huron in Ontario, Canada and was visited by all the extended family for decades.  The other was really a curio, that my Bride doesn’t recall, but it made sense that she probably brought a bottle home, because both of her parents were avid hockey fans, but her parents really didn’t drink wine and only a couple of sisters really do.  I am looking at a bottle of Detroit Red Wings “Red” Merlot North Coast 2007; cellared and bottled by Wine World Estates of St. Helena. Wine World Estates had its origins when Jacob and Frederick Beringer purchased property in St. Helena, California in 1875.  And they were known even back then as a producer of premium table wines.  They survived Prohibition by producing “communion wines.”  They were the first to open their doors to the public in 1934, and they were named an Historical Landmark by the state of California in 1967.  In 1971 they were purchased by Nestle and a side company was created Wine World Estates and they were purchasing, leasing, and developing acreage in northern California, and were able to control the costs distinction.  I have to surmise that they must have had a division that could produce small runs of wines for different entities.  The Detroit Red Wings utilizing the team colors had a “Red” and a “White” wine; Merlot, and a Chardonnay, that they began selling at the Olympia Club and in the Executive Suites at Joe Louis Arena.  The labels uniquely mimic the base color of the home jersey of the Red Wings and their famed “winged-wheel.”  The wine has been described as having “aromas and flavors of raspberry and blackberry.  Expressions of coffee and cocoa frame the mid-palate, while a supporting spiciness balances out the soft-velvety finish.”