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Message in a Bottle: Nantucket, Day One

Posted 05/14/2008 at 08:42 PM by Cathy

If you don't have vertigo upon arrival at the dock in Nantucket, you'll get it as soon as you start walking or, worse, driving the cobblestone streets. There is not a single right angle in the landscape of the entire island. Not one. And that includes the human-made landscapes of streets, sidewalks, alleys and country roads.

But that, of course, is the charm. It's a relief to stroll with shortened strides rather than lope along rapidly. It's a relief to browse in small shops rather than giant megastores. It's a relief to look out the window at 10 p.m. and see, really see, the night sky. The relief of Nantucket, in a word, is its scale.

The Nantucket Wine Festival, in terms of scale, is an anomaly of life on this island. It has grown into something large, and significant, and imposing, and its attendees (particularly the larger-than-life winemakers and guest chefs) are like foreigners here. But what makes this Festival so intriguing to me is the mix of local residents who show up, in droves, and keep their guests grounded.

They come to simply enjoy.

Whether it's the cooking demonstrations or the seminars or the tastings or the auction, each Festival event shakes the winter dust off Nantucket's shoes.

For the next four days Festival attendees will take boat trips and visit local homes where owners have opened their doors for tastings. We'll tuck in at night in rented rooms or houses, and cruise around during the day in rented bicycles or cars. And we'll drink wine, freely and happily.

Because we've come, too, to simply enjoy.

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About the Author

Cathy Huyghe
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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