1978 Monterey Vineyard Classic California Red

When the grapes were harvested for the 1978 Classic California Red I savored on Thanksgiving, I was just 7 years old. At age 7, my hair was bleached almost white from the Saudi Arabian sun – I was living half way around the world from my native country of the United States of America. My Dad was a Colonel in the Army, and he was in charge of building the King Khalid Military City – a self contained city, that tied the bind between two allies, built in the middle of the desert for the king of Saudi Arabia, King Khalid.

My Mom and Dad standing next to an etched marble blueprint of King Khalid Military City – Riyadh, Saudi Arabia

When I think of our two and a half years spent in Saudi Arabia, I have childhood memories that are certainly unlike most other American’s. We spent the first year in Riyadh, the capital and the largest city of Saudi Arabia, living in a walled compound that kept us out of the mainstream Saudi lifestyle. Our compound had a recreation center, pool, and loads of desert caves that housed packs of howling dogs and hundreds of scorpions – caves we kids would explore on a regular basis. Some Saudi Arabian workers helped maintain the compound grounds, like a gardening guy we nicknamed Flash Flood. He would always lift up his Thobe (the traditional white robe worn by men and boys) and flash us. Yep, Flash Flood never wore underwear, and we all knew it. For fun, we’d climb date palms to collect sweetly ripened dates for a snack, or if the dates were all gone, we’d dig holes in the sand and collect scarab beetles in jars. I remember, quite vividly, the time I packed up my suitcase, ready to head back to the States to be with my best friend – I was going to run away. Within just twenty feet of my journey back home, as my Mom watched from the front door, a small Toyota truck pulled up next to me. The man driving rolled down his window and said, in heavily accented English, “you…for my son and 200 camels, yes?” I decided running away wasn’t the answer; besides, what would my parents have done with a young Saudi boy and 200 camels?

Me, 7 years old, climbing a date palm to collect a sweet snack – Riyadh, Saudi Arabia

After our year in Riyadh, we moved to another American compound in Saudi, one that was smack dab in the middle of the desert, in Al Batin. Before getting dressed in the morning, we would need to shake out our clothing to make sure there were no scorpions in our shirts, pants or shoes. At night, we would pull all of our sheets off for the same reason – to make sure there were no scorpions in our beds. One day, we came home to a donkey eating trash out of our kitchen trash can, and later that afternoon we watched a scorpion fight a camel spider (an even deadlier scorpion that is brown instead of black) in the same kitchen where the donkey was eating earlier – the camel spider won. Another time, we fried eggs on a rock behind our house about an hour before a major “sand devil” whipped through our compound like a small tornado. It was in interesting life, indeed.

Now that I’m a parent of two kids of my own, that are the same ages as my brother and I were when we were in Saudi Arabia, I often wonder how in the world my parents kept their poise, in addition to remaining…sane.

Me collecting Scarab beetles – Al Batin, Saudi Arabia

My parents calm demeanor may have had a little something to do with this memory in particular: A home made winemaking system that worked a little magic inside the pantry in our kitchen. My Dad, being the engineer that he was, designed and constructed, from scratch, a contraption that made homemade wine. This enabled my parents and other adults in our compound to enjoy a glass wine during holidays and celebrations, something that was totally (and still is) forbidden in Saudi Arabia – no alcohol of any sort was allowed into, or sold in, the country. Perhaps that wine was what calmed my parents nerves while keeping sanity in tact.

So, as I pulled the cork from the 1978 Monterey Vineyard Classic California Red, an abundance of 1978 and 1979 memories flooded my mind. I suddenly realized how precious this bottle of wine would have been for my parents back in 1979 Saudi Arabia- it would have been cherished like a bag of gold.

Riding my bike in the B-2 American compound – Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. B-2 was bombed by terrorists in 2003, killing many residents and destroying most of the homes.

As memories of sand devils and date palms rolled through my head, the Monterey Vineyard 1978 Classic California Red was deep maroon in color and boasted a beautiful rusty bronze halo in the glass. Intense and mouthwatering aromas of leather, tobacco and dates were followed through on to the palate. Dates! I was amazed with the date aromas and flavors after having just remembered my days of climbing date palms. The silky, creamy, buttery mouthfeel was simply luxurious, and the first sip was seamless from start to finish. Oxidation was setting in quickly, so we raised our glasses while I gave a special Thanksgiving toast to my Mom and Dad, who are, without a doubt, the bravest and most perfectly poised parents to have ever graced this earth. I never felt, not even for a second, scared of my surroundings. No matter where we were, it was always home.