Wine tasting

Ria and I stopped at a wine tasting booth on the side of a mountain road, and I joined the men standing there. Apparently it wasn't open yet; they were just friends having a drink together, and they welcomed me with several small pours of sweet white, dry red, and some god-awful hard alcohol that they said isn't ouzo but is a local drink, specific to Rhodes. They didn't speak much English, but were kind and friendly. We stayed until sunset, Ria climbing trees and the man who owned the booth foisting gift after gift on me — preserved grapes (he claims that a spoonful every morning is like Viagara), dried sage, dried rosemary, fresh mint, and a bottle of dessert wine which I finally insisted on paying for. He tacked my five-euro note to the wall next to a one-million Turkish lira note, which he claimed was worth only one euro (but XE tells me otherwise). 

Yanis, Theo, Yanis, and Stavros, with the wine glass