"What will you drink to toast the end of the Bush era," is the topic picked by dhonig, author of The 2 Days Per Bottle Blog and host of The 89 Project Blog for September's Wine Blogging Wednesday. For me, it won't be a moment for toasts and celebrations, but a moment of contemplation and remembrance. A moment to remember the thousands of Americans and hundreds of thousands of Iraqis that the Bush era has wiped from the face of the earth in our names. To remember that my country joined the ranks of countries like North Korea, China and Russia, where prisoners are tortured. What happened to the America of my childhood? The night of January 19th will be met with a certain melancholy due to the weight and sorrow of the the last eight years. This month's topic made me think of what to drink to mark that last night of Bush and my thoughts drifted my last bottle of 1970 Graham's Vintage Port, as perhaps a wine of meditation is more appropriate than a bottle for celebration as we hopefully close one of the saddest eras of American history.

I'll have to reserve my choice for drinking on January 20th, Inauguration Day. If we enter a new era of hope and integrity and Barack Obama is elected I'll reach for the Champagne, and a lot of it. However, if there will be only more of the same, I'm afraid the bottle will let me down.

"Well I've always had a bottle I could turn to
And lately I've been turning every day
But tonight the wine don't take effect the way it used to
And now I'm hurting in an old familiar way
Tonight the bottle let me down
And let your memory come around
The one true friend I thought I'd found
But tonight the bottle let me down" Merle Haggard