My wine-soaked frontal lobe

Wine has a way of connecting itself to memory. An aroma, a flavour, a sip, and you're back in that special place again.

Dinner tonight was spaghetti with meatballs. (I actually made it home in time to cook!) Still dressed for work, I flitted about the kitchen making my homemade sauce, chopping up mushrooms and sprinkling in herbs and spice. The meatballs were PC-Easy, just ran them through the nuke and then tossed them into the sauce as it burbled on the stove.

"Know what this needs?" I thought to myself. "WINE." Doesn't it always?

Down to the cellar I go, where a bottle of Castello di Meleto 2007 Chianti Classico waited. Just found it again recently at the LCBO; it immediately brought back memories of my millennium trip to Italy. That part of the trip where I biked uphill in Chianti for what seemed like an eternity, to be rewarded with a fine lunch and lots of wine on the sun-drenched terrazza.

It was just as lovely as I remembered. Soft, plush, smooth. Cherries and slightly sour raspberries, with a dusty mouthfeel. Easy sipping on a weeknight, a good match with my sauce. Maybe not the best expression of the region, but it's worth more in sentimental value than anything else. I'd say it places third on my Best of Chianti list, after Brolio and Ruffino Ducale. For the memories.

Speaking of flashbacks (and that's the only segue you're gonna get for this completely non-wine-related tangent), I was chatting with my cousin over FB, thinking back on days spent playing with Strawberry Shortcake dolls. I came across a 30th anniversary "retro" set of the dolls at toysRus, and had to chuckle to myself. Back in the day, I'm sure they cost something like four or five bucks each, if that. This revived "antique" is now retailing at $35. The original dolls (mint in the box only) are going on eBay for $50 and up!

I can remember the Christmas morning I found Sour Grapes in my stocking. She was a piece of work. Arch enemy (along with the Purple Pieman) of Shortcake and her gang, she was a tall, lanky thing with a grape-print dress and long, green gloves. The best part was her snake, Dregs, whom she often wore as a scarf.

DREGS. How fitting. An omen, methinks?