Thanksgiving Left Overs

Almost came as a surprise.  We were leaving on a bicycle ride like we have done countless times since November 24, 2016.  In fact, my wife and daughter and myself walk on our back deck several times a day yet we have missed this.  In a blue tub that I used to keep booze chilled for our Thanksgiving Feast we discovered one bottle left behind.  A bottle of Cook's champagne, Brut, sitting at the bottom of the tub.  A small layer of ice floating on top.

Seeing that it was still sealed I grabbed it.  Tiny bubbles floated to the top.  "Still good, maybe.  Most likely temperatured abused but still sealed."  Almost a month after the bottle was placed into the tub the winter's first cold snap hit with temperatures dropping to -4F, -12F and a warm up to -1F.  We had another cold stretch at the first of the year that had lows at 5F, 4F, -3F and such for a few days.  On the other end of the spectrum, we have had several days in the 50s, upper 40s and one day it was 62F. Yet the bottle survived.

Aged in aplastic bucket with natural cooling and leaves.

I placed the bottle on the table to wait until we returned before testing it.  Since it was 40F outside it would be alright.  The cork was rather wet.  The foil did little to keep the elements away.  In fact, it appeared that there was some leakage.  The lack of floaties other than bubbles made my decision to taste it.

It was an effort to uncork the bottle because the cork was wet.  No spectacular pop off, just a hand  tug.  As the video shows, not my best effort.  No gushing champagne supernova.

The taste.  A little off, a little flat tasting.  yet plenty of bubbles in the flutes.  I poured three.  One for my daughter who filmed the proceedings, my wife and myself.  My other adult children, who happened to drop in, declined.  No one refilled and later that afternoon Mary poured it down the drain.  She does not care for Brut.  Should have purchased orange juice while we were away.  Another funny thing is that at a party we were at someone brought a bottle of bubbly, Brut!  No one liked it either.  Me, I was drinking Founder's All Day IPA.

Documentation in process.  NOTE Katie, the auxiliary documentarian can be seen in the reflection of the the mirror in the china cabinet.

That bottle was an interesting part of our day.  Shame we did not find it on Black Friday.  On black Friday we took all the partial bottles of booze for bicycle ride and drank them on a bridge over the Raccoon River.  I would have put the Cook's in the fridge.

I really wanted to launch it!