The plan had been to go to dinner with our friends, Todd and Michelle, and then to go to the Broadway show Dear Evan Hansen, which we have been excited to see for quite some time. Of course, like most of our other plans in the foreseeable future, those had to be changed, er… cancelled. Sometime midday yesterday, we got the idea to still hang out with our friends, and so we dropped off a bottle of our favorite wine at their house and made a plan to Facetime after all of us had had a chance to put our kids to bed.

After putting Titus and Zooey down, we made another video blog. Sonja is really getting into making these, which in turn makes it a lot more fun for me. My only hope is that she’ll eventually want to star in them and let my ugly mug run the camera!

Done shooting, we seated ourselves on the couch and began listening to the soundtrack to Dear Evan Hansen.  After a short while, our friends rang us and we spent the next two hours sitting around talking about everything from politics and life in quarantine to elective surgery and the awkwardness of distancing ourselves from our elderly parents. The conversation was diverse, and brought with it a lot of laughter — something I greatly appreciated.  This social interaction, odd though it would have seemed to me even a few weeks ago, scratched an itch. We raised our glasses in appreciation of the evening well spent.

In those glasses was Tom Meadowcroft’s Louvau Vineyard Zinfandel, 2015, from Sonoma’s Dry Creek Valley AVA. For a single vineyard Zin from a producer as talented as Tom to cost under $40 is absurd, but this one is typically in that price range.  The herbal qualities, in particular thyme, are undeniable and add complexity, while fine layers of dusty tannins carry with them some gorgeous chocolatey notes on top of dried black fruits and more. Tom made 224 cases of this wine out of the harvest of 2015, and I’ve probably shared at least one of those with good friends. I highly recommend it.

It was a good night, as strange as nights seem to be right now — no stranger than the days, of course, but as surreal as everything else about the world around us. We didn’t get to see Dear Evan Hansen, but we did other great things instead.  We are learning that we can do a lot more than mope and feel frustrated or sorry for ourselves. Last night’s socialization with good friends, the making of video blogs, the great wine we’ve been drinking, the additional time we’re spending with our children, and the fact that we aren’t out there spreading a deadly disease around, all of this feels oddly like a net positive in may ways. As always, thanks for joining us. I’ll see what I can do about getting Sonja to star in one of our video blogs soon!

Cheers,

Mark (& Sonja)