2003 Anjou Villages Brissac

I opened a 10 year old bottle of wine this weekend that I've been saving for almost 7 years.  What was I saving it for?  I have no idea.  When I bought it I was newly single and in France, in the town where I studied in 2002, hanging with my parents and my aunt. I smuggled it back to the States and put it in my wine rack.  When I think back, any number of occasions have passed on which I could have imbibed this bottle, an Anjou Villages Brissac from 2003...Brissac being a chateau that I visited during my study abroad trip all those years ago.  The bottle itself was one of which I had bought a 1996 vintage back in 2002 on that trip and drank relatively soon after returning to the States.  So, sure, it's got a little bit of sentimental value and that, but ultimately, I kept pushing back when I was supposedly going to open it. In fact, I actually never really assigned it any special occasion on which I would potentially open it.

I felt a little like Paul Giamatti's character in "Sideways" with his 1961 Cheval Blanc that he saves and saves, saying it was supposed to be for his 10th wedding anniversary but ultimately ends up drinking it out of a paper cup in a White Castle at the end of the movie.  He supposedly does this in response to a line by Virginia Madsen's character: "The day you open a '61 Cheval Blanc, that's the occasion."  So I kept thinking about that.  My weirdly oenophile boss at NY1 would always point out that a 10 year old wine that's been moved as many times as this one has is as likely as not to be peaking and/or past its prime, perhaps even spoiled.  So, the pressure has been on for a while to hurry up and just open the damned thing, occasion or not.

I could have picked any milestone along the way in my career(s).  First paid music gig (happened years ago), moving to NY (also happened years ago, with not nearly as much fanfare as you'd think), first paid voice over gig (been there, done that), first time getting two VO gigs in one month (also, knocked that one out last year), getting a voice over agent (who knows?), getting a music agent (also who knows?), the time I got a contract with a licensing agency (also barely any fanfare).   Hell, I could have even waited just slightly longer to see what happens with "The Life" and if it gets picked up and if they use my music and/or hire me as the composer.

But I opted to open it with a friend, during the day on a work day to celebrate our shared birth month. I think the point was to share it with someone versus just celebrating by myself.  That's the sad part about the end of Sideways.  Even though he finally just drinks his Cheval Blanc, he's alone whilst doing it and in the saddest of places: a fast food joint.

But let me tell you, I do have something to celebrate.  It's been a damned good month so far.  That voice over gig I had on April 1st?  I knocked it out of the park.  There were three different directions I was given to go in and on the third and final one ("tight with tension," a direction they weren't sure how else to describe), I nailed it, eliciting wide eyed excitement from the director and a woman from the publishing company who sat in on the session.

That afternoon, I was rushing over to NY1 after the job to try and knock out another audition for this same client, borrowing a mic from the head editor and using the tracking booth to do it.  This promo for a sequel to "The Bone Collector," I managed to really hit the mark, coming off the "Bourne Ascendancy" gig early that day with a lot of energy and a good sense of what works for these kinds of jobs.  So the next morning, I had an email from the director saying they liked my read and wanted to book me for the job and get me in the studio the very next day.  So, that's two VO gigs in one week, better than I've done to date.  And the money? Let's just say I made enough for my rent and then some in the space of two hours of hard work.  I'd say that's reason enough to open any bottle of wine at any time of the day.

And sure there'll be other occasions, other milestones.  But I'll go out and buy more bottles of good wine to celebrate them when I get there.  For now, you guessed it, I gotta go to sleep.