Vintage Sixty-Six

An older Lakenvelder rooster with a white body, a black hackle and a black tail, seated upright on a bentwood chair at a small marble table in an old Italian bar, in a brown suede jacket over a pale blue shirt, an unlabelled green wine bottle, its cork and two glasses of red wine on the table, an espresso machine and a vintage radio on the counter behind and a tree-lined street through the open door

Opened at Last

He put a bottle aside in 1966 for the next time a local boy won here, and has dusted it every September since. This afternoon he opened it. It has kept well, and so has he.

6 September 2026