Oscar was a bit of a wild-card. Not wild in the sense that he was always a shoe-in to throw you off-guard with his speech or behaviour, he was just different. He was Southern born and bred, and when I say southern, he was the epitome of the deep south. Born and raised in Charleston, he was our resident chef during our late nites of drunken candor.

Charleston and other cities in the deep south are known for their seafood, gumbo, corn bread and biscuits, gravy, and their desserts. Oscar was more than adept at cooking them all and he did so with pride and joy.

Oscar's affiliation with wine was at the outset mostly proficient with dry to semi-sweet whites. He appreciated the Chardonnays, Rieslings and Sauvignon Blancs. What stood out in the crowd of these was his knowledge of German Rieslings. He had spent two full semesters of college in Germany, and had tasted some of their finest offerings while visiting Germany and the neighboring countries.

He had spent most of his time in Cologne, but also traveled north to Hamburg; northeast to Berlin and directly south to Munich. In addition, he had been to Prague, Paris and Milan. While he spent only two weeks in Paris over his summer break, he did have the chance to "meet" a few wines while visiting, which made him not too unfamiliar with France and French wine.

Oscar was the quiet one in the bunch, but you could always tell he was thinking. I could appreciate his ability to be calculating; always learning and desiring to learn new things. He would provide his opinion when asked, but for the most part learned from doing and experiencing, and spoke little. However, when he spoke, it was worth listening.