I'd just poured myself a glass of wine on Thursday night, when Carolyn sent me an instant message asking for some computer assistance. I didn't really understand what she was on about, so I rang her. It turned out she was about to pour herself a glass of wine too, so we had a virtual drink together. It's the best we seem to be able to manage these days.
The following conversation took place:
R: Which wine are you drinking?C: It's a posh one with lots of gold thread round the bottle: Marques de Valido… REE-ODJA.R: REE-OCKA, it's pronounced REE-OCKA.C: No, that's a type of cheese!R: No, that's ricotta.[Howls of laughter on both our parts.]C: It's very good: nineteen ninety-nine.R: Bloody hell! It should be… Oh, you don't mean the price, do you? You mean the year.[More howls of laughter.]C: You were really impressed for a moment, then, weren't you?
Of course, Carolyn wasn't quite sure whether to believe me about Rioja being a wine and not a cheese, so she took the precaution of checking with her dad the following morning. He said he was fairly sure it was a wine.