Last week, in a post on the 7 Deadly Zins 2007 Lodi Zinfandel, I included the poem that was on the back label of the bottle. It reminded me of this poem that used to appear on the back label of Cline’s always reliable California appellation Zins:

Know me, stranger, for I am thy
blood and thy nectar.
I shall wet thy lips, parched
by the winds of deprivation.
And nourished shall be thy body,
desiccated by the scorching
inferno of temperance.
Rest thy head upon my busom,
Lose thyself in the ecstasy of
my caresses,
And know me, For I am
ZINFANDEL!

— Author Unknown

Incidentally, I have a t-shirt with this poem on the back, purchased from the Cline tasting room.

According to this article, Cline removed the poem from the label after drawing the attention of some bureaucrat claiming that “nourished shall be they body” was some sort of health claim. Ridiculous of course, but that never stopped a bureaucrat.

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The last line — “And know me, For I am ZINFANDEL” — reminds me of an uber-geeky reference from my high school days. In the book Magician: Master by Raymond E. Feist, the main character Pug/Milamber (if you haven’t read it, it will take too long to explain why he has two names) goes into a fit of rage over an injustice he is witnessing. Just before he lays waste to everyone and everything in sight with his magical powers, he launches into a scathing monologue that ends with…

“Tremble and despair, for I AM POWER!”

I know it won’t seem particularly impressive if you haven’t read the book, but when you’re reading it the first time as a pimply teenager, it’s epic. Trust me.

I want to see which of my readers was a D&D/fantasy novel geek like me! If you read the novel and/or remember this quote, PLEASE leave a comment.