Wine with a View: Alfresco Sipping at Coolidge Point, Manchester-by-the-Sea
Posted 04/18/2008 at 12:00 AM by Cathy
Cape Ann, April 18
Depending on the weather, you could see all the way to Boston. Depending on the time of day, you could watch birds migrating from the mainland to one of the islands peeking up from the surf. Depending on what you tuck inside your shoulder bag, you could enjoy a spring afternoon sipping wine at one of the most extraordinary and little-known vantage points in eastern Massachusetts.
Coolidge Reservation is one of 100 properties The Trustees of Reservations preserves and opens, free of charge, to the public. Ocean Lawn, a wide-open grassy expanse studded only by a few gorgeous shade trees, overlooks Magnolia Harbor and wins my vote as THE perfect springtime hide-out for daytime picnics, casual carousing, and sips of a bright, fresh, fruity wine that’s light enough for a pleasurable (not impossible) return to productive behavior later on.
A Riesling from Château Ste. Michelle would be a perfect choice. Sauvignon Blanc from New Zealand would be even lighter-bodied; try the Tohu label from Marlborough. For something more unusual, try an Albariño: I enjoyed a bottle recently from Nessa winery in Rias Baixas that I’d gladly pop open and share, sitting on a blanket or a bench, lazily watching the seagulls glide by and the waves roll in.
Then I’d raise a toast to the Coolidge family, for donating this land.
And to The Trustees of Reservations, for opening it up to the public.
And to eastern Massachusetts.
This is where we live.
Soak it up.
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About the Author
Cathy Huyghe
Cathy Huyghe writes about drinking wine every day in the Boston area. She finds the quirky characters, the after-hours events, and the surprising stories that make up Boston's vibrant local wine scene. But no matter where she is, what she's doing, or who she's with, she mostly just wants to drink the stuff.
Her first restaurant gig was at Chez Panisse, when she knocked on the kitchen's back door and asked if she could work there. She's also worked for Jean-Pierre Vigato in Paris and Thomas Keller in Las Vegas. She went to graduate school at Harvard (twice), and her writing has run in Boston magazine, the Boston Globe, the Washington Post, Edible Boston, and on Nevada Public Radio and Grist.org.
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