Friday morning and it was pissing down in Nuova Lazio.

The weather up in Whangarei was a bit better, though there had been a storm that had buggered up a pavement path somewhere near The Heads. The Curmudgeon, the guy who had built the path, was up early because he had some Cleanskin wine bottles he wanted to put out in the shed before The Old Girl saw them.

Unlike his friend, The Wine Guy, The Curmudgeon didn't have a great knowledge of wine and tended to buy the cheapest bottles he could find at the supermarket. His favourite was Corban's White Label Chardonnay. He also liked Chardonnays from Marlborough but tended to consult his friend Richard (of RBB) when he was unsure about which wine to buy. It was Richard (of RBB) who had put him onto the cleanskins. Richard (of RBB) had explained to him that there were three things that could go wrong with a bottle of white wine.

1. It could break (the bottle, that is).
2. Someone else could take sips from it and finish half the bottle before you even knew what was going on. This was a problem made worse by screw caps.
3. In the supermarket you could have picked up a bottle of Sav. by mistake.

The Curmudgeon respected Richard (of RBB)'s wine knowledge and always listened carefully to his advice. This is why he got upset in a restaurant one evening when the waiter brought a chilled bottle of red wine. Richard (of RBB) had taught him that it was better to put a dash of lemonade in the bottle once it was opened but not to chill it. 

The Curmudgeon put the bottles in a cardboard carton with some others and put paper between the bottles so that they wouldn't clank as he carried them out to the shed.