This story begins in Mexico City, with a cascade of happy and fortunate events. I could not have invented a story with so many neatly, beautifully connected moments of serendipity, each one feeling like a happy chance too good to be true, except that it is all real.
In time, the story loops back to Mexico City. Along the way, it carries us back to California, moves forward to the University of Cambridge in England—an 800‑year‑old haven of ideas and curiosity—and finally comes to rest in France.
So much can intertwine in our lives, and watching it all unfold in real time, then later connecting the dots in hindsight, feels as if I am witnessing a fabric being woven with magical threads, each one part of a chain of serendipitous events.
It all begins when we say yes to life, yes to the adventure of living.
You see, Mike and I always try to do more than we technically have time for, and we love it. That means we often move from place to place, and our schedule can be unpredictable and complicated, but we love this adventurous life and cherish time with family and friends, whom we try to visit wherever and whenever we can.
One chance encounter, one instant love-at-first-sight kind of friendship, one unexpected gesture can send out gentle ripples of grace, like a stone skipping across a river far more times than you ever imagined it could.
Through the human connections we nurture, the ones we revive, and even the ones we nearly miss, life keeps finding ways to surprise us. When we remain open, we invite magic in. When we choose to reach toward one another, we welcome even more of these moments into our lives.
Recently, we experienced profound serendipity in the most beautiful and magical way, and of course, it involved some very special people and some very special wine. This story has many layers, each one filling me with enormous awe and wonder.
We had just finished watching the second season of the Apple TV+ series Drops of God while we were in California. (If you haven’t seen it yet, I highly recommend saving it for a cozy evening of delicious binge-watching with a good glass of wine in hand.) We absolutely loved it. The story is wildly dramatic and gloriously over the top, yet so much of the wine world it portrays feels surprisingly true and lovingly observed.
The second season of Drops of God takes place mostly in Georgia, the country where archaeological evidence suggests that wine has been produced for around 8,000 years. The show captures so much of the soul of wine there: the ancient traditions, the qvevri (Georgian terracotta vessels that are buried in the ground for making and aging wine), the sense that wine is not just a drink but a way of life. The long, heartfelt toasts, glasses filled to the rim and emptied in one joyful gulp, brought back such vivid memories and transported me straight to those magical days we were privileged to spend in Georgia. It all felt like another beautiful layer of serendipity.
(If you haven’t watched yet, don’t worry, I won’t spoil much except a few minor details.)
In one episode, there is a scene where the main characters, Camille and Issei, are collecting the very best wines they can, and they mention a wine from Valle de Guadalupe in Mexico. Some years ago, we chose that same producer, Dominio de las Abejas, for one of the wines we gifted our guests during the Mexico City Gastronomad Experience. That was the moment when the story began to feel as if it were looping back on itself.
One of the quiet joys of a Gastronomad Experience for me is the gift bag of surprises I get to carefully choose for our guests. Everything, from the bag itself to each item tucked inside, is exquisite, handmade, and of the highest quality. Often, the gifts are one-of-a-kind pieces commissioned from the region’s finest artisans, some edible or drinkable, others functional works of art.
When I heard the winery’s name on the show, it rang a distant bell, so I went digging through my notes. There it was, like a tiny wink from the universe.
Later in the season, there is a scene that features a 1976 Château d’Yquem Sauternes. It appears as the only sweet wine among a group of “Twelve Apostles,” treated as the crème de la crème, a kind of holy grail of pleasure and patience.
At the time, it was simply a beautiful detail in the series. I had no idea how close and real that story was about to come to our own table, or how a domino effect of serendipitous moments would unfold beyond anything I could have imagined, let alone expected.
Loving friends are the true source of magic in our lives.
Not long after we finished the second season of Drops of God last month, we hosted a private Mexico City Gastronomad Experience, and I was left feeling awed, wonder-filled, and profoundly grateful. Before their arrival in Mexico City, our friends asked if we could plan “some kind of apple dessert” for a surprise they were bringing to celebrate the Gastronomad Experience’s tenth anniversary.
I am all about harnessing the joy of surprises, in case you haven’t noticed, so I happily said yes.
On the first day of the Experience, we enjoyed a made-to-order tarte Tatin created just for the occasion. I found a baker to make it for us and hired a driver to go collect it an hour away.
After a delicious gourmet taco dinner at our favorite spot in Mexico City, we all gathered for dessert on the wonderful rooftop terrace of the hotel we had booked exclusively for our group. It overlooks the historic center, a magical view that never lets you forget where you are.
Then the surprise unfolded like the very best kind of magic: our friends revealed two bottles of 1986 Château d’Yquem Sauternes, from the very same estate that had just appeared on our screen as the pinnacle of sweet wine. The generosity of bringing two bottles of a forty‑year‑old Château d’Yquem was beyond my dreams and beyond any words I could find to express our gratitude. (We enjoyed one with the group, and still have the second bottle, which we’ll drink when some gigantically special occasion arises.)
For people like us, who live and breathe food and wine, it was one of the most delightful surprises of all. The timing felt almost impossibly perfect, as though the universe had whispered a hint through a television series and then gently placed the real thing before us, delighting our palates with liquid gold.
We had never had the pleasure or privilege of tasting Sauternes before, so receiving the gift of such meaningful vintage bottles was as exquisite as the wine itself.
Moments like this remind me that what makes life so beautiful and rewarding is, ultimately, people: their thoughtful kindness and generosity, the small, tender actions that fill the heart with profound warmth.
That evening in Mexico City is one I will hold forever, tucked away in a corner of my heart. It was beyond special. It was pure, life-affirming magic.
The story unfolds with yet another layer of serendipity.
A few days after our delicious close encounter with Château d’Yquem in Mexico City, we received a note from a friend who is working on her PhD in Economics at the University of Cambridge. Her skills are remarkably similar to Camille’s, one of the main characters in Drops of God: she is a super-taster and competes in wine-tasting competitions across Europe.
At the heart of these competitions is a blind tasting round, where each team member is given glasses of wine with no labels visible and must assess them using only their senses: color, aroma, flavor profile, and structure. They then have to identify the grape variety, region, appellation, and vintage. It is astonishing what these competitors are expected to do. Their abilities feel almost superhuman.
The incredibly happy chance was what her note contained. She shared a poem she and her teammates had been asked to write and present at the competition. It is called Sauternes, an Ode to Sweetness. Then came the final detail, the drum-roll moment: the competition is going to be held at Château d’Yquem in France this May.
A competition hosted at Château d’Yquem is rare and deeply prestigious. The estate is, without question, one of the most storied places in the world of wine. To think that this legendary 433-year-old domaine, which had just starred in our favorite series and then appeared on our table in Mexico City, is now about to welcome our talented friend for such an important event felt like another luminous thread in this series of happy chances.
I love these small crossings of paths: what is considered one of the world’s most exquisite sweet wines appearing first in a television series I adore, then being poured on a rooftop terrace in Mexico City courtesy of our generous beloved friends, and soon after hosting a rare wine competition where another friend is competing.
Add to that a vineyard in Mexico, whose wine was once enjoyed by a group attending the Mexico City Experience, now seeming to echo from our memories onto a television screen, alongside the genuine on-screen portrayal of our time in Georgia. It is all so neatly and gracefully connected and aligned.
And the series of happy chances continues.
Some dear friends who recently moved from Australia to Paris are hosting a housewarming at their new home, and we had already been talking about visiting. As it happens, we are right next door in Italy, so we will be able to go. (We’re always up for a road trip across Europe.) It also turns out that another friend who owns an apartment in Paris had independently and generously offered for us to stay there, and the place was free for those exact dates. How can so many happy chances align so beautifully, and even so efficiently? It boggles my mind and fills my heart.
These are the moments when life gently reminds us that we are more connected than we realize.
Since we will be driving to France, we will also be visiting Château d’Yquem ourselves for a private tasting.
And that, for now, is where the story pauses, though we never know when serendipity will strike again.
Our human connection is woven from the beautiful threads of genuine friendship.
We keep our hearts open and ready for those wonderful, happy chances, those life‑affirming moments of pure joy that arrive as enchanting and delightful surprises.
It is a beautiful, uplifting web of humanity that holds us within the gift of life and the moments that make it joyful.
In the end, our life is the sum of all the moments that nourish our souls and help us discover the joy in simply being alive.
We only have to remain good listeners and keen observers, and invite in the magic with openness, grace, and warmth of heart.
This piece is dedicated to my beloved friends, whose generosity and friendship fill my heart with abundant joy and gratitude, and who played such a large role in this wonderful series of serendipitous events. I thank you with my whole heart.
Wishing you joy, adventure, and endless happy chances (and a life-affirming Gastronomad Experience in your near future!)
Amira
