MUSICA Y ALCOHOL

Friday night's symphony program:  Bartok--look out!

"The public must sometimes be imposed upon, for it considers itself the composer's equal as soon as things are made too easy for it."

--Robert Schumann

This morning we went to the street behind the market to look for some wine in one of those stores where everything is hidden behind the counter.  It wasn't too crowded, so el sr J took a number and when it was called asked for vino tinto under 100 pesos.  Often the young women who work there don't know the difference between vino and tequila, so there's no telling what they might bring forth and one doesn't want to complicate the subject too much.  When buying wine, el sr J usually studies the bottle for awhile before he decides on choosing a label, especially if it's one he's not familiar with.  The clerk brought out a bottle of Concha y Toro Merlot (which I knew would be instantly relegated back to its shelf) and the label below:

Varietal:  tempranillo.  May be good.  Popular at the moment, but iffy.
Country:  Spain, the home of tempranillo.
Terroire:  Castilla.  Bad.  "Not thought of as a good wine-growing region."
Price:  Ridiculously cheap.  Probably a bad sign.

I'll let you know.

So we took the two bottles to the fruit/vegetable store (see previous post) where the guys always get a box out for us to put our stuff in.  El sr J put the two bottles in and Tony lifted them up to show everybody in the store.  Suddenly the place was alive with men discussing and laughing about alcohol.  Tony pointed to a bottle of Tequila high up in a corner and described the cocktail he makes with it, going so far as to bring out a bottle of grape juice he uses as a mixer.  El sr J responded with a different recipe, emphasizing the virtues of lime juice and mineral water.  Little Juan chimed in and I said to him, "you're not old enough to drink!"  Turns out he's 24.  I escaped to the front of the store to bag up some oranges and an old man followed me to talk about ginebra.

"Gin's expensive here," I said, "and we don't have a car to go to Costco or Walmart."

"No, it's not," he answered.  "There are plenty of places to buy it in the Centro,"  and he proceeded to name stores and the locations of all the places.  El sr J was taking note.  We had been in some of these stores and had not noticed the alcohol.  Where are they hiding it?

In short, this was the most animated market experience we've had (except for the lesson on the Mexican Revolution.)