Duking it out with Father Time

They say age is just a number, but I think that whoever said it must have Dick Clark’s genes or a painting that's aging in their attic. Most likely, they're the same people who had clear skin and straight teeth in high school.



Here’s a trick: by looking at a typical woman's credit card purchases, you can more or less tell her age. In my twenties, my MasterCard bill from my local pharmacy would have read something like this: Bic disposable razors, a bar of Dove soap, a bottle of Herbal Essence shampoo and an industrial-size can of Sebastian hair spray (I believe I single-handedly destroyed the ozone). Add to those the usual haircut and manicure. (But not just a plain file and polish, mind you. No, this was the 80s, when "usual" meant five inch, tree-climbing long RED tips applied with crazy glue and gauze....move over, Lee Press-ons Active Wear...these babies featured a
super-glam length, with that lovely curve to give them a "natural" look!) My only other expense was tanning in the winter at the local tanning salon a couple of times a week which would leave me with a sad white circle on my derriere.



Fast forward twenty five years. Now, my credit card print-out reads like a laundry list. You know the Verizon commercial that has all the employees standing behind the person using his cell phone? Well, if I were to recreate that commercial for myself, my back-up squad would consist of my hairdresser, my colorist (remember the good ol' days when the same person who dyed your hair also cut it?), surgeon, dermatologist, vein doctor, facialist, orthodontist (yes, I had braces in my 40s), optometrist, manicure/pedicure technician, and my newest partner in crime, my eyelash guru. What for, you ask? For my eyelash extensions! Basically, I'm the bionic woman.

It's funny how things that were considered taboo in one generation are now commonplace. In my mother's day, no one dared to admit that they colored their hair! In fact, in the early 19th century, only a “woman of ill repute” manipulated her crown and glory. (What was the question from Gone With the Wind that Mammy asked Scarlett?..."Do you know a dyed haired woman?") Today, things are, thankfully, more relaxed. We feel totally comfortable asking a complete stranger, “Who did your highlights?” With beauty fixes becoming more common, I predict that it won’t be long before we start asking questions like, “Who did your eyes?"




Remember the TV show, Maude? That show was so ahead of its time. Anyway, one of my favorite lines is from a scene where Maude bumps into a childhood friend. The friend is amazed at how good Maude looks and asks her straight out, “Did you have a facelift?” Maude responds with an indigent NO. The friend then asks, “How did you manage to stay so youthful?” Maude says plainly, "By lying about my facelift."



( Maude Pre-facelift)

I remember once sitting in my colorist’s chair, discussing my options. About ten minutes into our conversation, I said to him that I wished I could be one of those women who wears flannel shirts, jeans, no make-up and couldn’t care less about dying her hair. His response: “They're called lesbians.”

Another hallmark of turning the big 5-0h! is that I can't help but look back on birthdays past, especially the ones where wine was the highlight of the party. One of my best wine birthdays was eight years ago. My late husband Steven arranged it for me at our restaurant Veritas. Almost all of the wines were from my birth year, and although I remember most of them as if it were yesterday, the one that was my favorite, the one that stood out from all the others that day (although all the bottles opened that day were stellar wines), the absolute star of the show, was a jeroboam of 1986 DRC Montrachet .



Time out for some trivia questions:

1-DRC stands for which one of the following?

a-Initials for a soft drink
b-Don't Run Cross-eyed
c-Domaine Romanee Conti

2-Which year did Domaine de la Romanée-Conti take ownership of the vineyard ?

a-1966
b-1988
c-1999

3-How old is the vineyard of Romanee Conti?

a-100 years old
b-250 years old
c-700 years old

4- How many cases of Montrachet DRC are produced per year?

a-2500
b-250
c-25

5-True or False; Montrachet DRC is considered by almost all wine critics to be the greatest white burgundy in the world?

6- How many liters is in a jeroboam of wine?
a-1
b-2
c-3


ANS.
1-Domain Romanee Conti
2-1988
3-700 years old
4-250 cases per year
5-true
6-3 liters, which is = to 4 (750 ml/each) bottles of wine

In everyone's “wine life,” there are special moments. There is the moment when you experience your “launch wine,” or as I like to think of it, your “marriage wine.” It's the wine that seduces you into this world and makes you declare, I DO! The wine that got me to tie the knot was the 1985 Margaux.

If you're lucky, there is another wine that comes along during your Juice Journey, a wine that far exceeds your launch wine, more than you even thought possible. Perhaps another way to describe it, and quite possibly a better way at that, is to call it the wine that would make you want to not just cheat but leave ...it's your soul-mate wine. The 1961 Petrus is my soul mate wine. Think Brad Pitt and Jennifer Aniston: she would have been his 1985 Margaux, but Angelina is his 1961 Petrus (and even if they split up, I'm sure she'll forever haunt his heart).

Hostess with the Mostess!

For me, the question of What to Do for New Year’s always has a weird sort of angst to it, although I'd never admit it. When December rolls around, I start to think, “Ugh – here comes New Year’s…” as opposed to, “YEA! It's almost New Year’s! What should I do?” Maybe it has to do with the great expectations placed upon the evening, not in a Dickensian way, but more in a social pressure kinda way. I even received a FB message from a friend which said, "HAPPY NEW YEAR, LOVER! Have a blast tonight! I know you'll be doing something fabulous! xo!" So was it fabulous, you ask? Well, let me first share some memorable Eves Past (keeping with the Charlie D tone).


My first noteworthy New Year’s was in the land of "what happens here stays here.” I must say, if you're up for a night of crrrrrazy and crazies, Viva Las Vegas is the place to be on New Year’s Eve, especially if you're pre-kids. The best part about it is that no reservations are required in order to have fun. Almost every lobby features a live band and dancing, you're allowed to coast from casino to casino (drink in hand!), and at 12AM, the entire town walks onto the Strip to watch the over-the-top display of fireworks, compliments of the hotels. Fun, Fun, Fun with a capital F! (For the record, dinner on that New Year's Eve was not at a 3 star restaurant but rather a burger joint. I had the best burger I've eaten thus far in my beef-eating life, betta than DB Bistro's Burger, which was pretty darn good when they first opened. This simple feast was had at the Burger Bar. So, in case you find yourself in "Sin City" and are cravin' the patty of patties, you'll find it at the Mandalay Bay Hotel!)

Another New Year’s experience was much more laid back. It was with my boys at the Tanque Verde Ranch in Tuscon, AZ. At 9PM, the Ranch hosts a party for the guests in one of their large banquet rooms.
They have a DJ and – wait for it – B-I-N-G-OOOOOOOOOOOOO!

Bingo and bowling are two things that can make you chuckle when you play them, but only if they’re not staples of your typical Saturday night.














Then there was Times Square – bar none, one of my favorite New Year’s Eves ever! The best kept New Year’s Eve secret in NYC is Tony's of Times Square. You don't go to Tony’s for the food (although it's not bad – it's just not Babbo, or my latest and most favorite Italian restaurant in NYC, L'artusi), but food isn’t the draw on New Year’s – action is! And, if you have a bit of wine snobbery in you the way I do, Tony will even allow you to BYOB, which is a great way to ensure that the juice you'll be drinking will be primo


What really makes Tony’s a hot ticket on New Year’s Eve is the entertainment. Tony hires Broadway performers
to dazzle the audience for two hours, then, at 11:45, everyone is escorted to the middle of Times Square, right smack where the million-plus others are standing to watch the ball drop and the confetti float down. Since 2005, the crowd finishes
the moment by singing John Lennon’s “Imagine” (something to be a part of once in your life...it's also one of those moments that makes you feel all warm and fuzzy inside). My year, we kept the party going by heading over to the W NY on Lexington. We hung out in the lounge where a hottie DJ turned the lobby into the nightclub of nightclubs, drank champagne and laughed until the wee hours! The extra bonus was it was only an elevator ride home.

(Quick history lesson: Dropping the ball in Times Square has been taking place since 12/31/1907, and the ball itself is made of Waterford Crystal. The original name of Times Square was Longacre Square; however, the New York Times headquarters was located at One Longacre Square – now One Times Square – which, in 1904, was the second tallest building in Manhattan. The powers that be at the paper convinced the city to rename the triangular "square" after their publication. In1904, they were granted their request, and to celebrate, the paper’s owner decided to shoot off fireworks from the roof on December 31, 1904, with 200,000 people in attendance. By 1907, the ball was added to draw more attention to the newly named landmark, and a tradition was born!)



This New Year’s was low-key. I was invited to my WFF (wine food friend) Marilice's home. Hands down, she wins the award for being the Hostess with the Mostess! Cleverly, she brought together a great mix of people, which is always the main ingredient for a successful party. Then, of course, there's the food and wine. Not having a sit down dinner was also the way to go, but what I loved even more was that she asked her guests, including yours truly, to bring their favorite dish. It was an evening of non-stop tasty goodies…

Here is where I need to take a brief pause. You know how I rave about my meatballs, and how the only other meata-balls I’ve ever liked were Joanie Menachell's mom's? (For those of you who are new to my blog, Joanie is my childhood friend from the Island of Staten.) Well, Debbie-Marilice's buddy - made her meatballs for Marilice's shindig ...I ATE TWO! TWO! I then nonchalantly asked her what was in those marvelous meatballs that threatened my title of The Greatest Meatball-Maker of Them All. It was obvious that she had had quite a bit of the Rosé Billicart-Salmon that I brought, because she divulged her recipe in a snap. I struggled, however, to understand the exact measurements of most of the ingredients. For the record, my lack of comprehension had nothing to do with auditory malfunctioning on my part; instead, her speech seemed to be impaired. (I’m kidding…she wasn't slurring. At least, not so much that anyone else noticed ;-0!)

Since it was unseasonably warm, Wayne, Marilice's husband (and a great man in his own right) barbecued shrimp, lamb and beef skewers. For the third time in 2011, I opened the 2008 Chateau Ducru-Beaucaillou, and it showed just as great as it had the first time. (Btw, it was a nice accompaniment to the beef skewers, and will be the last time I have it for a while as I am curious to see how it will cellar/age over the next five years.) One of Wayne’s friends created a smorgasbord of caviar, salmon, prosciutto and hummus along with a bunch of other wonderful fixins too numerous to recall.
Since I'm dieting, I made my favorite salad with apples, endive, celery, cucumber, etc., all mixed together with an olive oil agave dressing. Feeling a bit playful, I brought my popcorn popper to make truffle popcorn, and, last but not least, a 1970 Taylor Port with dark chocolate for dessert…for me, there is no better end to a meal than a glass of port and a piece of chocolate.

We played pool, ate, drank, talked movies and theater and told jokes. Then, as many American households do, we gathered around the TV (or in this case, flat screen), and watched the ball drop. Not as magical as being there, but very special in its own right... thank you, Wayne and Marilice, for inviting me to your fabulous home, and for giving me a truly special and memorable New Year’s Eve to add to my list of The Greats.