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WEDNESDAY February 11, 2004 - Subscribe - Contact Us - Rate Card Valley&State Backpage O&E Sports Archives Classifieds Faith&Beliefs Obituaries Revels Off the Vine A gift of nectar to remember Lorn Razzano It was one of those evenings where time seemed to sit like a brick on the minute hand. I was working the 6 p.m. to 2 a.m. shift at my father's non-air-conditioned liquor store/wine shop in the San Francisco Bay Area. Lafayette, some 30 years ago, was a sleepy yet upscale community that turned into a virtual furnace during the summer months. This evening had not cooled off from the scorcher day. Both front doors were set wide open to let the heat-tired, now cooler August evening creep into the shop. My only company was a whining ceiling fan hanging over the long wooden sales counter and the flickering hum of an old Pabst neon in the display window. It was with some relief that a huge, older black Mercedes pulled up to the curb. Out stepped Mrs. Rossi, bearing gifts. Mrs. Rossi was an elderly widow who had lived with her brother, recently deceased, for many years after losing her husband in Italy. She insisted in speaking to me only in Italian. Every so often she baked lovely Italian treats and dropped them by the shop where we would sit on sleepy evenings and talk. This evening, over coffee and pastry she had a specific request for me. Would I come by her home and evaluate her brother's wine collection for her? Yes, of course I would. We set a time and she pulled heavily away from the curb with a wave. As agreed, a few days later, Mrs. Rossi picked me up at the shop and drove me to her rambling estate next to Saint Mary's College in Moraga. As we drove the two-ton pre-seat-belt Benz along the windy road to Moraga, she never once used a turn signal. She admitted that she had never applied for a driver's license and was tiny enough to drive looking between the dashboard and the top of the steering wheel! After showing me around the estate we took a circular staircase from the library down to the cool expanse of the cellar. Every step dropped a few degrees of temperature. By the time we hit the concrete floor it was a cool 55 degrees according to the round gauge on the wall next to the staircase. Mrs. Rossi began methodically flipping switches in a gray panel on the wall. One by one panels of light thumped and buzzed along the length of the cellar. I was unprepared for what I was about to see. Before me sat over 100 wooden cases of wine! Between each row of ten cases was a neat walkway. Attached to a top case in each stack was a small chalkboard where, in a steady, firm hand was written the vintage dates, amount and producer of each case in the stack. Invoices were neatly set in envelopes next to the chalkboards. By the porcelain sink was a desk with a ledger written in the same fine hand. Wine glasses, corkscrews and decanters were firmly set upon dowels on the wall above the sink. Mrs. Rossi's brother had been an importer since the 1920s. He was a quiet, unassuming gentleman. Wine collecting had been a passion of his. Sitting before me was a treasure trove of great estates throughout Europe, vintage dates long forgotten but to a few. I connected Mrs. Rossi to a fine and honorable wine distributor who purchased the collection from Mrs. Rossi for a generous price. I was delighted to see Mrs. Rossi a few weeks after the sale. She motioned for me to go to her car. In the back seat was a wooden case of wine for me as a thank you. The distributor had selected a mixed case of gems as by her request. It was just a few years ago when I drank the last bottle and thought fondly of the kindly Mrs. Rossi, her brother's foresight and the amazing world of wine. Lorn Razzano is a commercial wine and spirits judge and is a co-founder of KSOR wine tasting. He was on winery staffs of various Italian and French wineries in the 1970s and has owned Ashland Wine Cellar since 1980. DailyTidings.com Home Page Valley&State | Backpage | O&E | Sports | Archives | Weather | Classifieds Columnists | Faith&Beliefs | Obituaries | Revels | Subscribe | Contact Us Copyright 2004 Ashland Daily Tidings and Ottaway Newspapers All Rights Reserved Site Search: A new improved archive search is coming! Look for it in mid-February! .:Advertisements:. RESOURCES - ODOT Road Cams