Excerpts from 'Dry'
James sits alone with a glass and a bottle of wine:
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"Once more- glass half empty - glass half full (Fill glass).
Greetings my friend (Toasts) so glad you could drop by! (Kisses glass)
Please! Lead me to that safe pinot place that’s mine.
Where pissed old farts we rant and wank in wine. Yes!
Where work is done, life is good, I am grape! (Hollow laugh). Hah! It fucking scans!
Of Life! We rail, ask why, give in… drink (Sees label on bottle) Cape! (Tops up glass)
Slow down, switch off, zone out, cheer up, crash… Burn.
Now dawn, eyes stuck, head pounds, knife twists, wrong… turn…
Chase the genie, unlock the tears, become… Lost.
Chateau Shit, Pinot Poison what fucking cost! Pores sweat, nerves twang, brain begs, bowels drop.
Again glass filled seduced By grape and hop.
Oblivion oh sweet oblivion,
Sweet elixir of life, nectar of death."
Ellen and James in the kitchen:
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ELLEN:
Look at the state of you already.
JAMES:
Anyway it’s tea time where this wine is from! ……This Pinot Noir is Tannic: A red wine that is firm and leaves the mouth feeling dry. So you need another drink…self-fulfilling, cos you’re sure as hell not going to fill it! (Laughing. Stops himself, reads) “Tannins alone can taste bitter, but some tannins in wine are less bitter than others. Depending on the amount and nature of its tannin, you can describe a red wine as astringent, firm, or soft.”
ELLEN:
I can’t find my keys not that you/
JAMES:
/ I think you are behaving like an astringent wine Ellen! Yes! A bottle of 2016 Monte Baixo Vino Verdhi. Me I’m a fruit forward. A Campo Veiejo Tempranillo. I’m learning how to taste wine.
ELLEN:
You certainly know how to do that/
JAMES:
/ No, really taste wine. Once you’ve let the wine breathe it needs to you know because it’s been shut up in that bottle for years…it ‘unwinds. Then you check out the wine legs (Testing his own) that’s the colour visco…viscosity and opacic- ticity.
ELLEN:
Now where’s my bloody purse gone?