Bilge Treasures

 “The Cask of Amontillado” by Edgar Allen Poe came to mind when I found these bottles of grape juice, lying helter skelter, in the basement. These are not Amontillado, they are vintage grape juice. Purchased about 20 years ago as I was fitting out the “Millennium Falcon” for her circumnavigation.

I was looking for stores to squirrel away in the boat as a hedge against misfortune. In a local grocery store I found a sale on Sparkling Grape Juice. Liter bottles that normally sold for $2.75 were being offered at $1 a bottle! I sensed an opportunity here..... They were getting rid of their older stock! I called the bottler and I asked what would happen to them when they went out of date and was told they might ferment. To which I responded, “And that is bad?.....”.

I asked the manager if I could make an offer of 25 cents a bottle and I would take ALL he had. At first he balked, but 10 minutes later he accepted the offer. I had no idea how many bottles he had!   We began loading the XJ6 first in the trunk then into the back seat. When all were loaded the rear bumper of the Jaguar was only an inch off the ground! I don't remember now how many bottles there were, but it was more than 300.

We took them home and carefully loaded them into the bilge of the “Millennium Falcon” packed in layers of straw. It served as excellent ballast and we would not die of thirst when becalmed in the Sargasso Sea.

Later when the circumnavigation was abandoned we took the grape juice to the basement and just stashed it there. After 20 years, just before my marriage to Misale, I rediscovered the stash and we opened two for testing. They were fine and we enjoyed them. I toyed with the idea of serving them at the wedding on New Years Day, but didn't want to open each one to test it. They will be savored as time goes by. We plan to drink the last one on our first anniversary. 

Edgar Allen Poe is my favorite Poet and Author. He lived only 40 years and his works will, all, fit in a single volume. But he was a literary genius that died too young. I used to read his short stories to my daughters as bedtime stories.

“Fortunato had hurt me a thousand times and I had suffered quietly. but then I learned that he had laughed at my proud name, Montresor, the name of an old and honored family. I promised myself that I would make him pay for this — that I would have revenge. “ 

…..and then.....

“I put the old bones again in a pile against the wall. For half a century now no human hand has touched them. May he rest in peace! “