Oscar Peterson and Damien Casten, backstage at Birdland in NY, months before Peterson passed away.
describing great wine
you look good to me.

Great wine is hard to describe.  How to
capture the emotions and memories that great
wine evokes?  The challenge is to create a
description that inspires similar awe and
admiration.  No easy task to be sure.  

The most eloquent description of truly great
wine I have ever heard is in fact a song with
no lyrics.

Pianist Oscar Peterson (pictured here), bassist
Ray Brown and drummer Ed Thigpen
recorded "You Look Good To Me" as The
Oscar Peterson Trio in 1964 on their album
"We Get Requests".

The song contains everything I hope to find in
a bottle of wine; a seductive, enticing
beginning, tension and purity in the middle,
and a finish that makes you want to start all
over again.  

Woven through each section is a certain
sadness, hope, a sense of mourning and
happiness all at the same time.  Come to think
of it, the only way to describe this song and
capture its emotion might be to open a bottle
of, say 1966 Richebourg.  Talk about a
virtuous circle.

Warning!  If you have never heard this song,
please do not google "You Look Good To Me"  
and listen to it on cheap speakers while sitting
at your desk.  You wouldn't just pop open
that Richebourg at work would you?  No, go
buy the album, open a bottle of great wine,
dim the lights and share the experience with
someone special.   

Oscar Peterson is a master at making music
lovers, wine lovers, and any other sort of
lovers, truly happy.

I bet you'll agree.
Oscar Peterson backstage at Birdland in
NYC, August 2006.  
Read the story behind these pictures.
The chance to hear Oscar play live was
fantastic.  Meeting him and being able
to shake his hand was truly special.  It
came about due to some good advice
from one of our favorite customers.  
Click here to read the story.


A few links to Oscar Peterson's music.