These days there's no pasttime more fruitful than thinking what pairs with wine. This weekend we've chosen the moon. Yes, this weekend will be our New Moon Weekend. Out here on the farms we look up to the skies often, and recently we've thought yes, no, almost, but....
Exactly when the New Moon occurs is 3:20 AM Saturday, March 1st.
In celebration of this lovely New Moon so welcomed in the month that will also bring us Spring, we have paired the new moon with a new wine drink to help the "lunatics" among us (yes the very etymology implies a correlation between human behavior and 'lune" or moon cycles).
On the tasting bar this weekend we'll share with you a taste of our own Li Bai New Moon Sparkler in tribute to the Tang Dynasty Chinese poet Li Bai (701 –762) whose prodigious poetry about nature, love, the moon, friendships and wine is still celebrated today. Among his most celebrated is Drinking Alone Under the Moon, with my favorite English translation shared below:
Drinking Alone Under The Moon (Translation Ian B.)
Among the flowers from a pot of wine
I drink alone beneath the bright moonshine.
I raise my cup to invite the moon, who blends
Her light with my shadow and we're three friends.
The moon does not know how to drink her share;
In vain my shadow follows me here and there.
Together with them for the time I stay
And make merry before spring's spend away.
I sing the moon to linger with my song;
My shadow disperses as I dance along.
Sober, we three remain cheerful and gay;
Drunken, we part and each goes his way.
Our friendship will outshine all earthly love;
Next time we'll meet beyond the stars above.
Come and join us for a New Moon weekend with Li Bai's poetry and our Li Bai New Moon Sparkler.
