When Disasters Create Opportunities

Sometimes an event that on the surface appears to be a disaster becomes a great memory if you can look a little deeper.  My husband and I have always loved wine, wine tastings, wine dinners and wine auctions.  At an auction in Dallas, a 1908 vintage port was purchased in honor of my Grandmother-in-law’s birth year.  It was carefully stored for years awaiting an event special enough to warrant it’s uncorking. 

In 1993, we prepared to move the family to a new house that we had designed and built, would this event warrant the opening of the port?  In the heat of the Texas summer while packing, I looked up to see my two-year-old daughter tottering towards me with the bottle of port. I soon realized that her little toddler thumbs had pushed the cork into the port bottle and she was carrying an open bottle of the infamous port.   I hurried to her while trying to remain calm so that she did not drop the bottle, took the bottle from her and then call my husband to break the bad news to him. 

We then called our good friends who owned a wine shop for advice, we tasted the port as instructed, reported that it tasted like a Sherry, stored it in a dark cabinet, as further instructed and invited our wine friends to dinner. They arrived with Chinese Spare Ribs as the food pairing.  We were not convinced that this was going to be a memorable or even a decent meal.  Still feeling sad to be drinking our prized bottle of port on a weeknight with Chinese food, we sat down to dinner.  To our surprise, it was the best wine and food paring we have experienced and a memorable evening with good friends.   What only hours earlier appeared to be a disaster turned into a memorable night full of great food, wine and friends.