The Czech lands is made up of three historical regions- Bohemia, Moravia and Silesia. While the greater part of Silesia spills into Poland and the Czech part mostly gets ignored, Bohemia takes the cake when it comes to representing Czech in the international market with its rich history, folklore and the very fact that Prague is in the heart of it. You could even say that Bohemia is slightly pompous and smug about where it stands. If Bohemia were a sun sign, surely it would be Leo because a Leo knows how to do things and how to get credit for it. Moravia, however, is special. It is the wine belt of the country and while Europe hails Italian and French wines as its best, it would harm no one to give Moravian wines a chance and be surprised by how good they can be. But Moravia is not just about its wines. It’s about a lot more. On the outside, Moravia spells fun- just the way the sun sign Gemini does. Go closer, spend some time with it and it can charm you with a highly intriguing goodness that can take you by surprise.
Moravians are a special breed of people, the kind that are in stark opposition to the stereotypical cold Europeans you would see in western and northern Europe. Even the Bohemians acknowledge it. They say that it is because of the sun Moravia receives throughout the year. Sun is important for grapes, consequently wine. But the Sun is also important, for it makes people happy. They say that a combination of Sun and drinking wine (pretty much all the time) is what turns Moravians into endearing charmers and hospitable hosts.
After the long cold winters here, the arrival of spring is a harbinger of many things, one of which is wine-tasting events. It was in one such event where she found herself wondering what she, who loves wine but knows nothing about it, was doing at a wine festival that was not commercial and understandably for local people who know all about wine. But it had been a long time since she had been out of the city she lived in and she was not going to miss out on a chance to spend time with her friends in Moravia, where she had previously had only good experiences.
On the day of the event, she woke up with a nagging headache, the kind that would have made her go back to sleep hadn’t she paid for this holiday. Nevertheless, she decided to take it slow and sample only two or perhaps even three wines per wine cellar, unlike the rest who sampled all the wines the wine cellars there had to offer.
With each passing wine cellar, she got more convinced that she was not the right person to be present at such an event. While the people who accompanied her were taking copious notes on the scent, composition, the process of making and what not of each wine. All that she could do was figure out whether a particular wine was dry or not, an accomplishment which she, by the way, was proud of! Needless to say, she grew bored. On another day, she would have loved to simply go around sampling wines and grow chirpier by the minute but today was a different day. Her head hurt, she couldn’t speak to anyone and all she wanted to do was sleep the pain off. And that is precisely what she did. She walked away from the wine cellars into the beautiful Moravian countryside and found a clear green patch to sleep amidst the small wild yellow flowers that grew everywhere.
She woke up a few hours later, almost pain-free and headed towards the wine cellars determined not to drink any more wine. It was a relief to be without pain and she hoped to keep it that way. Obviously having no clue where the rest of her group was, she went to a cellar where she saw a vintner-looking old man sitting outside a cellar with the sweetest smile on his face. She sat next to him because she knew that old Moravian men say the nicest things about wine and women and for the next several minutes she wasn’t disappointed. With monologue after monologue he kept charming her with his life stories and the lessons he had learnt. At one point, he asked her “Pretty girl, tell me, are you happy?”. She was amused and puzzled. Having received no answer, he said-
“If you want to be happy for a day get drunk.
If you want to be happy for a year get married
If you want to be happy for life buy a vineyard.”
He asked, “Do you understand what I am saying?”
“No.”
“How would you, unless you have tasted my wines?” he said motioning her to go in.
He took her to the man who oversaw the cellar- a good-looking young person who had a beautiful pointy nose. “Treat her well, she is special”, he told Pointy Nose. Thanks to her obviously foreign looks, she was used to people giving her special treatment. But Moravian people, I tell you! To them, whoever who you are, you're always treated special. Also, don’t they know how to make a woman smile? He left her in charge of the young man who asked her what she preferred, dry or sweet. “Dry”, she said although she preferred sweet, for it seemed fancier to prefer dry over sweet. He made her sample a few wines over the next several minutes.
“I have a feeling you prefer sweet over dry, am I wrong?” he asked at one point smiling quizzically.
“I actually do” she replied sheepishly.
With a smile dangerously turning sly, he made her sample his favourite sweet whites. She might have not known the intricacies of wine tasting but she knew when she liked a wine. Sample after sample, he seemed to get intuitively better at guessing what she liked- as his profession demanded. There was something about him she liked. It might have been the fact that he spoke English. Or that he looked nice. Or that he had a beautiful smile that he knew when to use. Or that he fit the image of the perfect Moravian man she had built in her head after four years of living in the Czech Republic. Maybe it was all of these or something else that she was not aware of. Having had enough friends who worked in pubs and cellars, she knew that these businesses generally kept their most charming employees forward to lure hapless customers into buying their drinks. She was determined not to give him the satisfaction of having charmed her into buying their wines. She thanked him for his service and the good company and moved forward to the next wine cellar.
She went on to many other wine cellars and sampled many wines, forgetting that she had spent half her day trying to get rid of the pain in her head. She found her friends who looked happy and light-hearted thanks to the many wines they had been sampling all day and joined them on what was turning into a wine-cellar-crawl. She tasted many wines and really liked some of them. However, none of the vintners she spoke to came close to Pointy Nose. Probably it was the wine that was getting to her head but by now she had decided that Pointy Nose was indeed a very attractive man.
The event was coming to a close with just half an hour left for it to end. Suzie asked her where she wanted to spend the final minutes. She said “Let’s go to the one with Pointy Nose. Their bread came with the best spreads of the lot and I genuinely liked their wines more.” When they reached the cellar, they found Pointy Nose smoking outside. He grinned when he saw her. It is said that alcohol makes one confident and even flirty but our girl became deeply observing and empathetic. She had earlier noticed a bruise on his hand. She asked if he didn’t mind telling how he got the bruise. What followed was a story that began with how he got the bruise to a tragic accident that changed his life. With the smile no longer on his face, he talked about his injury and the subsequent recovery. She listened with deep sympathy. She felt something change in their equation. “You have very dark eyes”, he said bringing her back from her reverie. “I do” she said. Probably it was the wine that told her that they had indeed established a connection. Probably she was too naïve to think so. Who knows what goes on in a wine-intoxicated mind.
The event officially got over at 7 pm. Their group walked around that beautiful place for another hour. At some point, Pointy Nose invited all of them in. After the event, no vintner was under any obligation to serve wine for free. But Moravian hospitality, sigh! Anything said about it is less. He gave them plenty of samples and bigger ones this time probably because he just wanted to finish the bottles they had kept aside for sampling. She sat at the bench beside the table where he was serving. He kept filling her glass with wines he said were his favourite. She asked him to serve a particular wine that she liked and he said “Don’t have that one! You already bought a bottle of it earlier. Try this. You had liked this a lot.” “You remember which of your wines I bought and liked?” she asked obviously sounding surprised. “I remember what everyone here bought and liked” he said with an expression she couldn’t read. One of her now-drunk friends who was listening to this conversation called him on his bullshit and yelled “What nonsense! Do you remember what I bought or liked? No! You don’t. So, stop lying.” He smiled. That smile! She just could not understand what the smile meant. It would appear she was heavily intoxicated.
By now, his sample bottles were getting over and he had begun to apologise to other customers for not being able to serve them more wine. While these refusals were taking place, she picked up his visiting card and started scribbling something on the back of it. Just as they were about to close, Pointy Nose asked her if he could give her another sample of something she liked. She gave him a preference. His sample bottle for that was over. He said “Let me open a bottle for you” and went inside to procure it. She no longer knew if it was Moravian hospitality or if he had gone out of his way for her. All she did was hope that it might be the beginning of a Roman Holidayesque love story. As he opened a new bottle, she said, “You didn’t have to do that for me.” He just smiled. The smile was of a different kind this time. What did that smile mean? Did it really mean something or was she making it up in her head? While he poured wine into her glass, she poured another wine into his empty glass. They had an optical communion that ran longer than she thought normal. They had their last glass of wine together.
A friend called her by her name and said that their taxi had arrived. She was not pained at the prospect of saying goodbye to him. But it was not a good feeling either. She stood up and put her hand forward for the final handshake. As he took her hand he felt the piece of paper that was between their hands. He looked at the phone number scribbled on it.
She said, “When you feel like coming to my city, let me know if you want someone to show you around.”
He smiled and said, “Thank you, my name is André.”
“My name is on that card. It was nice meeting you André”, she said giving him that final look with those very dark eyes.
She was silent on the way back. Suzie was not used to our girl being silent. Suzie knew she loved talking to her. “Tell me. What’s on your mind?”, Suzie demanded. “I did something. I have never done this before. I am not feeling stupid about it but I am not feeling great either”, she blurted. “What did you do?”, asked Suzie getting worried. “I gave my number to Pointy Nose. I don’t know why I did it. He was nice. And single. Oh God, I’m pathetic”, she said almost lamenting. “You’re joking, right? I am proud of you! You finally grew some tits and did something I approve of! I was beginning to think that there is something wrong with you” she said in the hope of comforting our girl. But nothing you could tell her could console her. Suzie was at pains trying to tell her that it was normal for some people to give their numbers to someone they liked. Our girl just did not want to listen. She was convinced that she had made a fool out of herself, that she was stupid and that Pointy Nose would never call her. It had become the biggest problem of her life at that moment. Not her thesis, which was due by the end of the year or her part-time job that paid very little.
A day passed.
Another day passed.
Suzie got a call on the third evening. She had done everything to tell our girl that she was not stupid. She was afraid this girl would have overthought this, like she generally did. Suzie was worried. She picked up the phone and said “Listen, woman, what you did was not a big deal. I am proud of you. You have done something that’s very normal and ordinary stop overthinking thi….” “Suzie! We have a bigger problem now!” she cut her short. “What happened?” Suzie asked starting to be worried. “He just called!” she said.
Silence.
