after dinner sneeze

t says:  As I had mentioned before, g and I were going to finish off our last bottle of one of our favorite white wines, a Sancerre (Sauvignon Blanc wine from the Loire Valley in France) called La Crele.  We were feeling like jazzing up some take-out sushi after a particularly exhausting week, so we pulled out the bottle and prepared for deliciosity …

come to papa ...

Unfortunately, as soon as I removed the cork, I was filled with fear.  Allow me to show you why:

my-oh-my, the wine seems to have invaded a substantial portion of the cork!

holy crap that's really close to the edge!

As you can see from the above pictures, I was nervous because the bottle/cork/wine was oh-so-close to being compromised!  Had the wine leaked around the cork and made it to the very edge (i.e. all the way to the left in the above pictures), then certainly the wine would have been exposed to air; in short, I would have been left with vinegar.  Upset with the possibility that our last bottle was going to be a dud, I scowled at my glass as I poured the wine.  It looked ok (although I’m not sure it would have looked differently had it been oxidized – or if it did, I wouldn’t have known).  Next, I gave it a “sniffy sniff”.  It smelled ok.  Oxidized wines tend to smell pretty sour, so I had some hope.  I braced myself for an acidic bite to take over my mouth and ventured a sip … and kablammo – I was met with pineapple and apricot/peach and a super-clean finish with florals and a bit of zip – it was just as I had remembered.  Mmmmmmmm.  It was going to be a good dinner – hooray!  … But damn that was close …