It’s the Fourth Friday Challenge for August. My friend Paul and I, both posting daily in 2011, decided to give each other a job once a month to keep things spicy. In his words, “we want to push ourselves to do something more interesting than we might otherwise.” I will put his challenge to me at the bottom of this post — it’s your choice to read the challenge or my response first.

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When I was struggling to transition from a hard-living art-school degenerate to a socialized grownup, I gussied up and went with my friend David to La Folie, a fancy French restaurant in San Francisco. We saved up for weeks for this event. We dressed in our best, somewhat classy clothes. Somehow, when David and I got to the restaurant (via the 21 Polk bus), the maitre d’ thought that we were newlyweds. This made us chuckle, but we played along.

The meal absolutely sang. I had nothing like it before — or since, really. In the middle of this feast, the sommelier approached us and asked us if we’d like to try a very special wine. Apparently, someone else had ordered less than a bottle, so there were two glasses worth of wine for us, gratis. I believe he offered it up to us as congratulations to the happy couple.

I remember that it was a cabernet sauvignon, but I remember nothing else. Except that there was an explosion of pure flavor as soon as the wine touched my lips — I actually saw stars as I experienced the full taste of the grape. I looked at David and there were tears in his eyes.

In that moment, I saw the full potential of food, of wine, of love, and of adulthood.

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This post was in response to Paul’s Fourth Friday Challenge to me, August 2011:

Tell me about your favoritist drink.

Read Paul’s response to my challenge here.