Wine (and other) List.

Beaujolais, especially the growths, especially Julienas. In the end, there is nothing at all like it, summer or winter, sad or happy. Meals at "Au Lyonnais" in the early '70's, refusing no suggestions, salade de pissenlits au lardons, wild boar stew, cheese, cheeses, dessert. And much, much more.

Alentejo, Portugal. The most underrated wine in Europe."O Forno" in a little town in the backland of Algarve, old farm relics on the wall, grilled meats and jugs of wine, dark, dark, black, goes right to your heart.

Cava. On vacation in a little medieval town in Catalunya, bugs came out of the wall at two in the morning and ate you alive, and a war veteran with no powers of speech sat in a chair on a terrace and groaned his nightmares all day long. On the way home we stopped in Saint Sadurni d'Anoia to fill the car with Cava. We asked for an address we had seen on one of the bottles that tasted best. We were send to a little store selling cloth. The lady called someone, and then told us to sit. We waited. five minutes later a little well-dressed man, the owner, came and talked to us in French and English and led us around the corner into a courtyard housing the smallest Cava cellar in Spain, many floors deep. We filled the car.

Beer on an Island. Seybrew, Seychelles. Beer on an island is always exquisite because of the setting. This one was made even more so by ourhosts and by a population with an education and with their teeth intact. Creole spicyness, and a salad dressing marinating itself on little bits of carrot and onion.