EST! EST!! EST!!!

If you wish to learn a great deal about wine and, at the same time, have a good time, a trip to Topper’s Cellar in Helena, Montana might be your best choice.  Topper is a large man.  He is also gregarious and passionate.  His knowledge of wine and beer is vast and he loves sharing all that he knows.  He is exactly how you might picture a connoisseur of wine and beer.

The other day, I took that girl to Topper’s so we could purchase wine.  We found Topper behind the sales counter.   I said to him: “We are having lobster for dinner tonight, what do you suggest for wine?”

That led to a pleasant twenty-minute trip around the wine racks of Topper’s store.  The trip included Topper conducting a limited discourse on the history of Old Europe; including a discussion about a few varieties of the grapes found there.  France and Italy were of special interest.

“Wine is a gift,” Topper assured us.  “We should drink wine every night.”

Eventually, we gathered around a rack at the very front of the store.  Topper pulled a bottle of EST! EST!! EST!!! from the rack—a dry white wine from Italy.  Topper felt that this white had the perfect level of “acidity” and the proper flavor for the meal we were planning.  Cradling the bottle the way a person might cradle a newborn, Topper shared what he knew about this particular wine.

A legend of sorts stands behind the wine’s name.  This legend holds that in the year 1111 a Bavarian bishop named Johannes Defuc was traveling to Rome to see the coronation of the Pope.  The bishop loved wine.  To assure he imbibed only the best that the countryside had to offer, he sent an emissary out ahead of his party to let him know if the local wine was good.  If the emissary found the wine served by the local inn worthy, he was to mark “Est” (It is) above the inn’s door. Upon reaching Montefiascone, the emissary found the wine so good, he marked Est! Est!! Est!!! above the door of the inn.

The wine adopted that name.

We purchased a bottle of Est! Est!! Est!!!   Later that evening, we sipped the white wine while eating lobster I grilled inside the split shell.  Normally I do not enjoy white wines.  I make great exception for this white.

It is!

--Mitchell Hegman