You deserve a drink.
Times are tough. With the ongoing crises of climate change, mass unemployment, racial injustice and disease, it can feel impossible to go three hours without reading the words “unprecedented” or “apocalypse.”
To be clear, drinking will not solve any of these problems, and if done in excess it can certainly create big problems of its own. But if there were ever a moment to crack open a special bottle or to juice a bunch of citrus for a homemade cocktail — and consume them in moderation — it would be now.
If you live in the Bay Area, the air should be clearing up a bit. You may, like me, have spent most of the past week stuck indoors with all the windows closed, wondering every night if you were going to wake up to another orange sky. Fire season is far from over, but I’m indulging in this little respite we’re getting. I’m opening all my windows, spending evenings on my balcony and tonight I’ll be popping a bottle of Champagne. I invite you to do the same.
Some of the news these days is so extreme that I just have to laugh. How many times has the Giants-Mariners series been postponed now? Any dreams of a fun-filled Halloween in 2020 have been dashed. And, in perhaps the strangest twist of all, it turns out that space aliens are probably already living among us and we just can’t recognize them. I’m not kidding. That’s according to real scientists.
Rather than despairing about the aliens, consider mixing yourself a white negroni: 1 ounce Lillet (or any blanc-style vermouth), 1.5 ounces gin, 1.5 ounces Suze. Stir; serve over ice with a lemon twist. Or, if it’s too early for gin, substitute sparkling wine (and increase its share to 2-3 ounces, depending on how you like it) for a riff on the sbagliato.
These suggestions might sound flippant, but let me explain why they’ve felt helpful to me.
In a strange way, the pile-up of horrific news lately has made me look at sheltering in place with fresh eyes. The crises have been so emotionally exhausting that they’ve left me with no choice but to find coping mechanisms where I can find them. For me, that’s meant taking a little extra time every day to do something that feels good. It’s not just making cocktails and raiding the fancy shelf of my wine fridge. It’s also calling friends on the phone, taking long showers, playing a board game, making pancakes for breakfast.
These indoor pampering activities have brought me back to the early days of the shutdown, when staying home all the time was a novelty and, a lot of the time, kind of fun. Remember that? The excitement of having time at home to cook elaborate dinners, of ending the day with a happy hour drink — I practiced those rituals fastidiously at first, but at some point over the summer I grew tired of trying so hard.
I’m reengaging with those pleasures now. Eating and drinking well is a form of self-care, one of the few forms currently available to us. We have to take delight where we can find it.
In other news
• Normally, Northern California wineries sponsor thousands of international winemaking trainees as harvest interns during this time of year. But this year, restrictions on the J-1 visa program have eliminated these crucial workers from the hiring pool, and it’s left many wineries in a bind.
• My column this week is about Brad and Svetlana Kitson, whose Kitson Wines label offers shockingly great values. The Castro Valley couple sells delicious, low-volume California wines for as little as $10.
• A sports bar owner in the East Bay is facing a misdemeanor for allegedly serving alcohol indoors in violation of health orders. It’s the first instance of a criminal prosecution for a business owner disobeying COVID-19 rules in Contra Costa County.
• A new wine shop and bar is coming to Oakland in early 2021: CoCo Noir, which will stock mostly wines made by women and people of color.
What I’m reading
• Taco Bell now has its own private-label wine, the brilliantly named Jalapeño Noir, designed to pair with its toasted cheesy chalupa. It’s a Pinot Noir made by an Ontario winery, but unfortunately for those of us in the U.S., it’s available only in Canada.
• Agricultural billionaire Gaylon Lawrence, Jr. continues his Napa Valley shopping spree. After purchasing Heitz Cellar, Haynes Vineyard and Wildwood Vineyard, Wine Spectator reports that Lawrence has acquired Howell Mountain estate Burgess Cellars. Meghan Zobeck is coming on board to make the Burgess wines.
• In the Oregonian, Jeff Manning writes about how one Oregon vineyard is grappling with this year’s wildfires, smoke risks and the general threat of climate change.
• Napa is currently the only Bay Area county where indoor dining is allowed, and its high-end restaurants have seen a surge of customers, my colleagues Justin Phillips and Tara Duggan write. The Restaurant at Meadowood had a 140-person wait list on a recent Saturday.
Drinking with Esther is a weekly newsletter from The Chronicle’s wine critic. Follow along on Twitter: @Esther_Mobley and Instagram: @esthermob
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September 17, 2020 at 06:00PM
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The news is bad. You deserve a drink - San Francisco Chronicle
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