Opus One

It's not often in life (at least in my life) that one is able to open a $120 bottle of wine, but when you do, oh, enjoy it.  When my husband started graduate school, he made a deal with his mother that when he finished, he would like to celebrate with a bottle of Opus One.  Not knowing what she was agreeing to, my mother in law replied, "Sure, why not?".  Fast forward seven and a half years, my husband has finished graduate school and my mother in law realizes that the bottle she agreed to buy was $120 dollars!  Being a fabulous mother who was proud of her son, she bought two bottles, one to drink soon after he graduated, which we drank a few years ago, and one to cellar, which we opened Sunday night.

My mother in law pulled out all the stops Sunday night, fixed a prime rib, creamed spinach, carrots, and a green salad and we reverently opened the bottle she had been storing for a few years now.  I kind of chuckled to myself as I pictured a younger version of my husband just starting graduate school with his wildest desire for celebrating the completion of the next seven and a half years of slave labor in graduate school being a fabulous bottle of wine.  (Can you see why I married him?)  

My husband was like a kid in a candy store Sunday night.  The wine was so smooth and the dinner and conversation lively with our loved ones.

By the way, at the same time my mother in law promised the bottle of Opus One, she also promised that she would take my husband to a celebratory dinner at the French Laundry in the Napa Valley.  I also don't think she knew what she was agreeing to then, and has yet to make good on that promise with my husband being 5 years out of graduate school now, but he won't let her forget.  Moral of the story moms:  Know the price point of what you are promising your foodie sons BEFORE you promise.  Being a foodie can sure get you into trouble sometimes!