The Divorce

54

"The grapes here are a blend of chardonnay and shiraz. We didn't do too well this season with these grapes and we just made this by accident. It's not sweet, even though it has this gorgeous pink colour, and it's on the dry style. You can taste hints of orange, because they were planted next to our orange trees, as well as strawberry, peach and the tiniest touch of oak."

Two glasses were pushed towards us and I looked up, catching eyes with Gabriel who had a slight smile on his face.

"What?" I asked.

His eyes flickered away from me to our waitress, and waited for her to leave before he looked back at me. He leaned closer, not that he needed to as we were shoved at the bar counter, even though every single table here was free, and our knees were almost touching from the swivel chairs moving every two seconds because they weren't flat on the bottom.

"I saw you roll your eyes as she spoke."

I rolled them again.

"That's because she keeps telling me you can taste, this and that, and this, and this, and all I can taste is like sourness."

I lifted my glass, clinking it with the other and took a sip, trying not to grimace.

"See...it's gross."

Gabriel reached for his glass, without moving his eyes off me, and even though I had clinked it already, he clinked it again and took a sip. It didn't look like he held his breath, like I did, when I drink wine. If anything it looked like he breathed in, trying to smell the notes. 

He took another sip and raised the glass to his eye level looking at the liquid. I had to admit the liquid was a pretty pink colour, a little lighter than rosé and darker than a pinot Grigio.

"Well?" I asked.

"You're right." He placed his glass down, his fingers still on the base, "It's disgusting."

"Thank you!"

This was the second winery we had gotten too, and it could be worse than the first. Gabriel was right, there were so many wineries walking distance away from each other that we could probably spend the whole weekend just here. 

I looked at the clock behind him and it brought me a little sadness that we had to go back soon. We had two hours left and we were almost finished at this tasting.

I had to admit, getting out of our accomodation had been a good idea, and Gabriel and surprisingly been...good company. He didn't ask me any questions, merely made conversation and went with the flow. A side that perhaps I didn't pay that much attention to before.

"Come on, drink up. We have one more place to get to," he reminded me as he finished the rest of his glass in a sip. The wine tastings were small, not a full glass as it was merely a sample, but still more than I wanted to drink when it was bad wine.

I pushed my wine glass towards him.

"I can't...this is a 'you job'. I can't taste oak, or oranges but I can taste vinegar. It tastes like rotten fruit."

And perhaps I said this a little too loudly as I caught one of the wait staff turn to look at me.

Oops...

Gabriel reached for my glass, his fingers brushing mine as he took it from me. 

"You owe me Rodriguez," he said as he raised the glass, swirling the liquid inside, causing the glass to rotate slightly, as he lifted it to his lips. 

Before I could point out that he should rotate the glass one more time, so he doesn't get my cooties, as I could see the slight greasy texture my lip balm left on the glass, he placed his lips right over it and drained it in one sip.