Wine Expert

This post would have been Wine Connoisseur but I didn't know how to spell it until I put the word in the body of the post so spell check could correct it.  Some time ago, during an Anglican church convention, I stayed with some folks in Alabama. A bit of explaining here. Anglican has nothing to do with fishing, other than the proverbial fishers of men, it is the denomination our church is affiliated with. The convention happens every year and this particular year it was held in Birmingham, Alabama. My co-worker knew some people from that area and asked if we could stay at a local home instead of a hotel to save some money and it is usually a better experience than a hotel. We were placed in the home of an older couple who met us at the airport and drove us to their home. Upon arrival, I was amazed.  It was one of the larger houses I have ever seen or been inside. We took the service elevator (thats right, service elevator) to the third floor where our private suites were located, complete with a library and workout room in the middle of the suites. A house like this needs to be investigated I thought. The elevator went to the basement. What was in the basement I asked? The wine cellar of course. I wanted to see a true wine cellar so the man of the house took us down to give us a tour. When we arrived at the basement, the door opens to a sitting area where wine tasting and such takes place. Adjacent to the sitting area the wine cooler is a large room of stone walls and ceiling set apart by sliding glass doors. We entered into the humidity and climate controlled room to look at the several hundreds of bottles of wine all nicely laid in wooden racks.  As we walked around and looked, we were told how some bottles had been there to age for many years. About this time I noticed a group of bottles of white wine. Curiously there was a sediment at the bottom of the bottle. I picked up the bottle and began to shake it around a bit to see what the sediment was. I was interrupted by our elder statesman in an urgent voice saying "Uh... sir, you ought not to do that please!" I was then schooled on how wine is set on its side to allow for settling of impurities, and how this process sometimes takes decades to achieve the finest of wines. He was a kind and gracious host to help me understand why wine gets better with age, but that didn't go so well I thought. The bottle I shook up had been sitting for 35 years and our host was 85 years old..whoops.