Whilst discussing the condition of the world and its being out of kelter, Barleycorn and I were sipping on one of our favored rye whiskies.
That would, of course, be the Van Winkle Family Reserve 13 YO Rye. It is a very fine whiskey. Like all VW products, it does not lack for subtlety.
It is a sly whiskey and never carries out a direct frontal assault on any of your tasting apparatus. It seeps its way in and puts a smile on your face without your being aware of it. The Van Winkles are masters of subtlety in whiskey, I wonder if it is in their genes.
The Van Winkle rye, such a delightful and nuanced whiskey, induces a thougthful reverie in both man and dog.........unlike Wild Turkey whiskies, which are calls to action, Van Winkle whiskies are more settled and thought provoking. They do not ping the senses for alertness, they seduce them into compliance.
So, as Barleycorn and I are entranced by the VW rye, who should appear but Mark Twain his own self. Knowing, of course, that he has been dead these many years, we are taken aback by his appearance. But his restless spirit is seeking temporary company with a couple of very ordinary whiskey drinkers whose reverie is congenial to his spirit(ual) cravings.
I am at a complete loss as to what to say, other than to offer him a glass of VW rye and tell him that we hope such an illustrious personage will find it to his satisfaction.
Mark Twain forthwith takes a sip and allows as how it suits his spirit powerfully. I mumble something about his being my favorite author and he is pleased by that. Barleycorn, ever the cool one, gets to more mundane matters and asks about a deceased friend of his..........a certain mutt that was killed in an untimely accident. Mark Twain says there are just too many dogs and folks entering the 'great beyond' for him to track, and asks for another sip.
Here we are, my dog and me, in company with the greatest American writer, and I cannot think of anything to ask of or to say to him. I am not dumbstruck, it is just the realization that sipping the rye together is a great pleasure.
His companionship, real or imagined, is enough. What could I possibly ask him that would matter to me, or to him?.......the future?.........to know it is to die from it, it is so uninteresting (yet so full)...... the past?...... it has gone wherever the past goes and is irretrieveable........the meaning of life?.........is that not for each to decipher for himself?.......if he can.
Is Van Winkle Family Reserve 13 YO Rye a great whiskey?.......of course it is.
Did Mark Twain really visit me and Barleycorn?.........of course he did.
Does it matter?.........of course not.