since I started blogging. Taking the time to admire a package…

before ripping it open. Taking long sips of cold champagne…

and photos so I can keep tasting it.

This is the bottle of champagne that was waiting for me behind the concierge desk of the Hotel Vancouver. Part of my champagne-infused race around town before I found Ash, crystal flutes in hand, in the middle of a UBC field (talk about flavour-infused).

Champagne, real champagne, has a lightness that makes even the best sparkling wine taste cloudy. And after last week’s rendezvous with Veuve Cliqout, and this week’s affair with Pol Roger, I am really starting to think I should get engaged every month.

This particular French champagne is the Pol Roger Extra Cuvee de Reserve. Right away, you’ll take on an air of elegance, which is only proper since it comes in its own silver box (doesn’t champagne feel like a gift anyway?) and has one of those irresitable “by appointment of the Queen” stamps. I think it’s what you’d call “dry.” Definitely not sweet, teetering on the verge of tart, but overall resting on crisp and airy and a royal pain when you find the bottle is done all too quickly.

For us, it will always be special though. The cork went into my drawer full of other special corks. Looking back, I wish I’d thought to save labels instead.

PS: the package is from my current focus of crafting-envy , Lovely Design. I saw her address files on Apartment Therapy and then in the one-and-only Martha Stewart Wedding magazine. I seized the moment to indulge in my e-commerce addiction, and found these card packs to be one of her only items in stock. Can you believe my surprise (and smile) when I got the package and the return address was Surrey, BC??? I was so excited for her! Let me introduce you…

Alright, off to work!

Jen