I brought a bottle of Maxime Blin's Son Naturale Optimiste Champagne to MusicInCommon's first rehearsal of the year yesterday. It was a perfect post-rehearsal and pre-dinner refreshment.
The Optimiste is made of 90% Pinot Noir and 10% Chardonnay. From blind tastings, the percentages of blending between the black (Pinot Noir) and white (Chardonnay) grape varietals don't seem to matter much in the perceived taste and aroma.
The champagne-maker Maxime Blin does, however, feature each of its three grape varieties (Pinot Noir, Chardonnay, and Meunier) distinctly in its fundamental series "Les Fondamentales". The Optimiste spotlights Pinot Noir grown in a terroir traditionally known for Meunier. For a relatively young bottle (bottled in 2019), the Optimiste has a plenty of nose of honey and does not feel too light to be taken any less seriously. I thought it was the perfect bottle to inspire a bright collective outlook for the new year beginning. 2023 was not an easy year for some of us. Life has its offer of experiences, not all cheerful moments. I have read somewhere that a pessimist may be a happier person — facing no disappointment from the lack of high hopes. But I could not imagine living with a mind full of worst case scenarios. No disappointment means no pain. But it will not elevate you to a state of joy. Have a glass of optimistic bubbles, continue to dream and aspire, never lose faith, never give up hope, in everyone and everything.
In addition to the fundamentals, Maxime Blin also curates a premium collection called "Les Poétiques", which features selected vintages and millésimé. The name tempts the little poet in me. One of bottles in the collection is Le Présent. It brings to memory one of T. S. Eliot's poems from The Four Quartet, which I have recently read. These poems were musical experiments to the poet. How appropriate the thought in the context of our music rehearsal, during which we discussed and experimented with different music forms. I wonder how subjects as varied as champagne, music and poetry could all come together so randomly but naturally in a serendipitous way.
Quoting an extract from the poem Burnt Norton from the first quartet:
"Time present and time past
Are both perhaps present in time future
And time future contained in time past.
If all time is eternally present
All time is unredeemable.
What might have been is an abstraction
Remaining a perpetual possibility
Only in a world of speculation.
What might have been and what has been
Point to one end, which is always present.
Footfalls echo in the memory
Down the passage which we did not take
Towards the door we never opened
Into the rose-garden. My words echo
Thus, in your mind.
But to what purpose
Disturbing the dust on a bowl of rose-leaves
I do not know.
..."
The poem not only talks about the present but also reminds me of a not-too-distant breakup, and a conversation which we had over the eternity of what could have been. Somewhere in a parallel universe, where one minor difference was all that was needed to open that door into the rose-garden.
But to what purpose? As the poet rightly asked. Recognizing that there is only one life to experience in the present of only one reality, and to live that fully with hopes and without regrets, is the message at the end of the day from both an Optimist and a Poet.
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