Fetzer’s pinot noir you’ll find in stores now is a 2007 from France. As a “real” Burgundy it’s understated according to American tastes, but fruity and nicely balanced and inexpensive. I’ve forgotten what I paid, but it was not a lot.

After a long Sunday of teaching a passage in the Gospel of John which tells us ordinary people are the right ones to lead ordinary people (John 1:35-51), where I memorialized a friend, wife of one of my students, as an example of an angel who without words lived out a lifelong message from God . . . and after her full-scale memorial service later, I brought out the French red Burgundy to accompany our evening supper.

The wine is too subtle for Judy, who likes big kicks from big reds; but it is a warm accompaniment to certain soul foods.

It has unmistakable red raspberry with citric elements and it lingers comfortably as an aftertaste when drunk as an aperitif. To be truthful, we haven’t had supper yet, so I can only tell you that I expect it to taste refreshing with a special hash.

Each serving will feature half a package of frozen chopped spinach, squeezed totally dry and then sauteed in just a teaspoon of bacon fat. Atop the spinach will be a generous layer of crumbled blue cheese. Atop that will be found my hash made from leftover roast chuck beef; pan-friend small cubes of rye bread several days old, with bacon bits, lots of Mediterranean spices and olive oil; and, atop all that, a jumbo over-lightly egg (the eggs are huge, $1.99 a dozen from Trader Joe’s).

Ooh. I can hardly wait. “The Mentalist” will be coming on TV, following the two conference championship NFL football games. Friends die, and are grieved, and life goes on with comfort food and comfort wine. –Bob Cramer, The Fearless Taster.