Now here’s an investment for the kids to celebrate…
We just bought 2 crates of port… one for each year of the children’s birth, 2001 and 2005.. Nature was kind and both ended up being more than decent vintages. OK, it wasn’t cheap but it only gets opened when the kids are 21 … so we should have recovered financially by then.
Our wine merchant is Dutch, his wife is Portuguese and they were going on a visit to Portugal. Before we invested in these Ports, Hubby recommended several varieties for our wine merchant to try whilst they were there and I must admit that I blushed… …because well, recommending Ports to a PORTUGUESE????(rolling my eyes) should surely be viewed a just plain rude, wouldn’t it ?…
But miracles happen and a) they weren’t offended and b) and they hadn’t actually tried these ones before… and they were so delighted with the taste of their new discoveries that more bottles will be finding their way into their shop soonest.
That’s good news on the whole I think,… but bad when it comes to our grocery budget when the excellent-but-definitely-pricier stuff will be all to available just around the corner instead of in another country and in the ” special occasion, we are on holiday, so this is a treat” budget.
Our excellent downstairs neighbour has a wine cellar under the house, the crates are stashed there, he scored a (bottled) something for the storage ” fee” and an invite to taste a bottle together of our stash once it’s matured.
Now THAT’s a great investment for the kids… because if they turn out to hate an excellent vintage of aged Port when they are 21, then well Heck, then your Father and I will just have to put the stuff out of it’s misery… by the way… that’s parental compensation for getting to eat the ” ugly food”, the experimental food… ( Yes children…, chocolate spread with chocolate sprinkles and doused in golden syrup did SEEM like a good idea at the time, but, it does indeed taste ghastly) and reheating and eating your wrinkled cold leftovers etc for our lunch in our efforts to save us throwing out yet more food that you little fussy-breeches-food-philistines turned up their noses at.
For us therefore, these crates of Port are the Perfect Gift… if you turn 21 and find you love it then Good for You ! Proost ! If not, Tough for you… we tried and will willingly give your not-at-all sour grapes the appreciation that they deserve.
..so if they DO end up being connoisseurs of fine Port, then we will have done a half decent job as parents. For once in a very very long time with kids, instead of gifts that are ridiculously noisy, irritating, too hard to assemble, have parts that get lost or which break on their first outing, or which is cheap rubbish marketed with an inflated price tag, this gift might actually turn out to be the perfect win-win situation.
Cheers to that!
