How Many?

Proof (or something) that nine years of marriage takes its toll: I had a hard time coming up with an anniversary present for Sylvain this year. Finally, at the last minute, I got an idea: a bottle of wine from the year we were married. Monday morning, I set out to get the anniversary gift. I arrived at the wine store, went in, and very confidently asked the salesman for a bottle from 2003. He looked around and came up with a couple of options, most of which were way out of my price range. I finally settled on a nice Sauternes: Château Clos Haut-Peyraguey, 1er Cru Classé, Sauternes 2003. My "oh, duh" moment didn't occur until a few minutes later as I was driving away. It's our ninth anniversary. We were married in 2004, not 2003! I debated going back and looking for a bottle from the appropriate year, but ultimately decided just to keep the bottle I had which was certainly going to be very good. We savored it Tuesday afternoon in our nice suite at Les Gorges du Pennafort and it WAS excellent: rich, slightly sweet, with vanilla and caramel notes. The other part of the gift was a little white ceramic dish. This was just a token to acknowledge the fact that in France, the ninth anniversary is the "noces de faïence." Faïence is a white pottery made in a special region of Italy. The dish I bought isn't real faïence, but it is white pottery, an appropriate symbolic substitute.