Drinking With Isaac
A hurricane is coming your way—which wine do you reach for first?
Posted: Sep 13, 2012 1:00pm ET
It was 87 degrees inside my
house. The doors, which we had opened in a futile effort to circulate the
stagnant air, were now too swollen from the humidity to shut properly. The
power had been down for about 48 hours.
"Honey, I'm opening the
Mouton-Rothschild 2000. Grab a glass," I said.
I knew when I moved to New
Orleans that hurricane season was a fact of life. After Katrina, my wife's
parents came home to find that 3 feet of floodwater had ruined much of their
ground floor.
Thankfully, Hurricane Isaac did
not severely challenge New Orleans' newly strengthened levees. Neighboring
parishes outside the levees suffered far more and need our help and prayers.
Still, the local utility spent
days after the storm trying to bring New Orleans back to the 21st century. (We
spent 60 hours without power; other neighborhoods were out for nearly five more
days.) Residents could decide quickly what in the fridge needed to be eaten or
tossed, but for restaurants, retailers and collectors around the city, wine was
a bit of a concern. The French Quarter and the Central Business District enjoy
underground power lines and never lost electricity. Commander's Palace, one of Wine Spectator's newest
Grand Award winners, kept five generators running constantly to keep
its cellar cool. Chef Tory MacPhail, who owns a big enough jeep to not worry
about flooding or storm debris, drove over to the restaurant every 12 hours to
refuel the noisy things.
Inevitably, some wine was lost.
One retailer I spoke to moved his most expensive inventory to a warehouse with
generators. He's asking his insurance company about the rest, since he feels he
can't sell it to customers at full price. But New Orleanians have learned, out
of necessity, to dust themselves off quickly after a storm and rebuild.
Upperline restaurant lost part of its roof during the storm. It's scheduled to
reopen today.
My tiny, humble collection of
bottles was simply housed in a fridge in my office. Unsure how long they could
survive the swelter, I took a few bottles I was worried about out beforehand,
so I wouldn't open the fridge again once the lights went out. As our time in the
dark heat dragged on, I began to pop corks and enjoy the wines with my wife.
The first night we drank Black Kite's Pinot Noir Anderson Valley 2009. The
winds were just picking up, and the lights went out for 20 minutes before
popping back on. I was glad the Pinot Noir could be enjoyed cool.
The power went off for good at 6
a.m. on Wednesday, and later in the day, as the winds howled around my circa
1915 house, we cracked a bottle of Renato Ratti Barolo Rocche 2006. Really
complex and smooth.
On Thursday, Isaac's eye had
moved to the west, but we were still being hit by feeder bands, wondering how
low wind speeds had to drop before Entergy crews headed out to repair power
lines. We were thankful our house was OK, but it was starting to get really hot.
My toddler son was restless. After he fell asleep that night, I opened the
Mouton-Rothschild 2000.
It had been a gift, the first
collectible wine I had ever owned, and I was not a wine writer when I received
it—just a political reporter with a passion for great vino. The Mouton had not
always been stored in pristine conditions—for a while, it lay on the bottom of
my Brooklyn closet. And when I pulled the cork, the wine tasted a tad older
than it should have. But it was still a complex, powerful creature. It was
obviously a special wine. I was glad I could enjoy it with my wife and raise it
to toast the home and good fortune that had kept us safe.
While I think it's important to
drink wine that's had a chance to age and grow more complex in the bottle, wine
should never be so precious that we fear grabbing a corkscrew and having at it.
It's far worse to let a wine die inside the bottle, never to be drunk.
So what would you drink if a
monster storm was coming and your neighbors decided to throw a hurricane party?
I would go for either my 04 Harlan or Massetto, Actually, I guess, probably both.