Retiring a Notebook

I bought this little Moleskine notebook on January 13, 2008, en route to a legendary Barolo tasting. Four and a half years later, it's full.

Now, I haven't taken all of my wine notes in it since then, though it did go with me to Sonoma (as seen in the photo). Most of the time I take notes on the back of envelopes, post-its, or whatever else is lying around. I often use the blank backs of the numerous pieces of paper that arrive with each set of wine samples. But this humble black notebook has accompanied me to many tastings and dinner parties. I'm not going to toss it out--there are phone numbers and stains and little notes scribbled in by various mischievous young ladies who enjoyed swiping my notebook sometime around the third course of wine. There are plenty of pages torn out, never from regretted reviews, but when I had to scribble a recipe or write down the address of my blog. In fact, just a few months after getting the notebook I got tired of ripping out back pages and got business cards to hand out instead.

I've got a few other wine journals of varying elegance and size, but I think this weekend it's time for another Moleskine. After all this time it still feels just right.