… and he’s chained to a palm tree.
No, I haven’t had too much. But I have been drinking more Rhone than usual – most of it is under $20 a bottle, approachable, and loves food. I’ve been studying a Rhone course online and have a penchant for drinking along, particularly when they speak French because the more I drink, the more fluent I think become. There’s also the fact that I’m a geek and love taking quizzes, particularly while drinking. Never in my wildest dreams, however, did I ever envision a quiz question about a symbol on the exact bottle I just so happened to have been drinking this week. What WAS that symbol on a bottle of Costieres de Nimes? I clicked “false” to the question about it being a bull and trundled downstairs to retrieve the bottle.
Well, I had just finished the bottle and hadn’t noted any bovine creatures despite that Nimes had many bullfights in giant Roman arenas back in the day. The bottle itself was still on the counter, so I brought it back up, and read the correct answer on my screen. This city of Nimes does bear the emblem of a crocodile chained to a palm tree.
Why? Logical question. Roman coins were bearing this coat of arms in the 2nd century because Julius Caesar used to send his legionnaires in Egypt to Nimes for R&R. When the veterans came to Nimes they also came bearing palm trees from Egypt … and a crocodile. According to this site (www.elearning.vins-rhone.com), the town of Nimes still has four crocodiles they received over the years hanging in their town hall above the stairs (kinda like the toy stuffed camels from various Middle Eastern countries I have stationed on my own stairs, but not. Really.)
And that is why there is a palm tree with a crocodile chained to it on my bottle.
Obviously I thought this was cool enough to stop taking quizzes and spew forth my amazement at learning something about an appellation I’d never even had my lips on before this week. Motivation? Keep drinking and pay attention to the bottle glass, labels and keep learning.
(Originally Published 2015/04/29)
