This time of year, no libation pleases me more than a glass of red wine. More specifically, a dry red like Chianti. Throughout the other seasons, I prefer my wheat beers or my bourbon neat. But come that first early sunset, red wine jut hits my tongue the way I imagine it does for aficionados.
Last week, I visited Look Out Winery & Wood Oven Pizza in Guild, Tenn. The day that I made the drive, I was having a particularly stressful time; with assignments collecting and deadlines looming, I was feeling overwhelmed. The afternoon was gray, but warm - though I refused to see any silver-lining. I wanted to feel pitiful.
So I took the long way to the winery: down Highway 299, past the clapboard churches and north onto Highway 134, where Nickajack Lake comes into view. The water's surface bobbed with hundreds, perhaps thousands, of tiny white specs - a flock of migrating ring-billed gulls.
The following day, those birds would have to continue their journey. But that afternoon, they were just floating, ignoring the hulking barges that drifted nearby.
The scene unfolded as quickly as the sun reappears after hiding behind a cloud: the birds, the barges, my bad mood. In an instant, I remembered that the world is bigger than me. And the way that made me feel - refreshed, almost giddy - is the same way a glass of red wine makes me feel in the winter.