This episode was recorded before the current climate with Russia and the Ukraine.  We struggled with if we should release this episode and decided that given the storyline of the book, we should move forward.  

Over the last couple of years, many of us can relate to the idea of house arrest, but Count Alexander Rustov was imprisoned in the Metropol Hotel in Moscow for 32 years for an anti-Stalin poem written in 1922. We get to see this slice of life from a 100 square foot room in one of the poshest hotels in Russia where Alexander dines in restaurants, gets his weekly cut and shave and makes friends over the years, especially with Nina, a little girl who grows up around the hotel. Nina ultimately asks the Count to watch her daughter, Sophia, while she goes to extricate her husband from prison in Siberia. There are romances, infidels and intrigue throughout Rustov’s time at the hotel, along with Châteauneuf du Pape, a very special wine; we sipped a 2009 one from Bosquet des Papes. It suits this story well because we see the deepening of Count Alexander Rustov’s character over 32 years just as this wine deepens in complexity over time, developing notes of red fruit, leather, rosemary, sage and scrubland. Aerate this wine and allow its story to unfold as you prepare a feast of sausage, lamb, game or chargrilled cauliflower to pair with it. It’s worth taking the time.