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How many lives for a blog?
This blog has died several times but the Twilight Zone just played the Happiness Arizona episode and suddenly it’s resurrected.
http://www.latimes.com/news/opinion/la-oew-debord12-2008may12,0,6289192.sto
A Momentous Occasion
Friend –
I’m about to take the stage in St. Paul and announce that we have won the Democratic nomination for President of the United States.
It’s been a long journey, and we should all pause to thank Hillary Clinton, who made history in this campaign. Our party and our country are better off because of her.
I want to make sure you understand what’s ahead of us. Earlier tonight, John McCain outlined a vision of America that’s very different from ours — a vision that continues the disastrous policies of George W. Bush.
But this is our moment. This is our time. Our time to turn the page on the policies of the past and bring new energy and new ideas to the challenges we face. Our time to offer a new direction for the country we love.
It’s going to take hard work, but thanks to you and millions of other donors and volunteers, no one has ever been more prepared for such a challenge.
Thank you for everything you’ve done to get us here. Let’s keep making history.
Barack
Breathable Screw Cap
Associated Press
DAVIS - University of California, Davis students have invented a way to bottle wine that combines the breathability of cork with the reliability and convenience of a screw cap.
The invention won the university’s annual Big Bang business plan contest and $15,000 in startup funding this week.
The patent-pending design is a 5-cent plastic and metal disk beneath a screw cap. Like cork, the cap lets in just enough oxygen so the wine can age properly.
Winemaker and business school student Tim Keller says his team’s invention can be adjusted for different wines. For instance, pinot noir needs a little oxygen, while cabernet sauvignon needs a lot.
Vintners want cork alternatives because cork can produce a musty-smelling compound.
Holy Ship! He Signed It.
Effective July 1, Georgia residents may order up to 12 cases of wine a year from any winery in the country, including Georgia. Surprisingly, Sony Perdue signed House Bill 1061 into law on May 13 and the Wine & Spirits Wholesalers of Georgia didn’t oppose it.
Fred Kitchens, president and general counsel for the Wine & Spirits Wholesalers of Georgia, while officially neutral on the bill, did not oppose it. “We felt that it was an agreement between the Wine Institute and the Georgia farm winegrowers, and we thought it was a good compromise,” Kitchens said. “It’s a good, consumer-friendly bill. Wholesalers have been the target of a lot of bad publicity and accusations, but the wholesalers in Georgia are realistic and progressive.”
Which leaves me suspicious… what kinds of hurdles do you suppose are built into it? How difficult or expensive will the permitting process be? I’ll forward this article to a couple of wineries I’ve been unable to order wine from and see what they say.
update - Silly me. The bill allows wineries to ship to Georgia, not retailers. Hence the “progressive” stance by the local wholesalers. It’s a step in the right direction but I’d still like to be able to buy wine from web retailers.
Whatchagonna do Sonny Perdue?
08 LC 36 0995S/AP
House Bill 1061 (AS PASSED HOUSE AND SENATE)
By: Representatives Stephens of the 164th, Ehrhart of the 36th, Amerson of the 9th, Williams of the 4th, Tumlin of the 38th, and others
A BILL TO BE ENTITLED
AN ACT
To amend Chapter 6 of Title 3 of the Official Code of Georgia Annotated, relating to wine, so as to amend certain provisions relating to special order shipping licenses; to define a term; to limit the number of cases of wine shipped to any one consumer; to provide for certain taxes to be paid by the shipper of the wine; to provide for related matters; to repeal conflicting laws; and for other purposes.
BE IT ENACTED BY THE GENERAL ASSEMBLY OF GEORGIA:
SECTION 1.
Chapter 6 of Title 3 of the Official Code of Georgia Annotated, relating to wine, is amended by revising Code Section 3-6-31, relating to special order shipping license requirements and regulations, as follows:
“3-6-31.
(a) For purposes of this Code section, the term ‘winery’ means any maker or producer of wine whether in this state or in any other state, who holds a valid federal basic wine manufacturing permit.
(a)(b)Notwithstanding any other provision of this title to the contrary, a shipper, without complying with the provisions of Code Section 3-6-22, any shipper which is also a winery may be authorized to make direct shipments of wine to consumers in this state, without complying with the provisions of Code Section 3-6-22, upon obtaining a special order shipping license from the commissioner pursuant to this Code section.
(b)(c)A special order shipping license shall only be issued to a person who holds a valid federal basic wine manufacturing permit and who is not otherwise licensed under this title, wineryupon compliance with all applicable provisions of this title and the regulations promulgated pursuant to this title, and upon payment of the license fee designated for retail dealers in Code Section 3-6-20.
(c)(d)A special order shipping license shall entitle the shipperwineryto ship wine upon order directly to consumers for personal or household use in this state without designating wholesalers as required by Code Section 3-6-22, provided that:
(1) The holder of a special order shipping license shall only ship brands of wine for whichhe or she the holderhas submitted labels to the commissioner;
(2) No holder of a special order shipping license shall be permitted to ship in excess of5012 standard cases of wine of one brand or a combination of brands into this stateor in excess of five cases of wine of one brand or a combination of brands to any one consumer or address per calendar year;
(3) Before accepting an order from a consumer in this state, the holder of a special order shipping license shall require that the person placing the order state affirmatively that he or she is of the age required by Code Section 3-3-23 and shall verify the age of such person placing the order either by the physical examination of an approved government issued form of identification or by utilizing an Internet based age and identification service;
(4) No holder of a special order shipping license shall accept any order for any wine that is otherwise registered and designated pursuant to this title or from a person who is licensed under A special order shipping license shall not authorize the shipment of any wine to any premises licensed to sell alcoholic beverages pursuant to this title; and
(5) Every shipment of wine by the holder of a special order shipping license shall be clearly marked ‘Alcoholic Beverages, Adult Signature Required,‘ and the carrier delivering such shipment shall obtainbe responsible for obtaining the signature of an adult who is at least 21 years of age as a condition of delivery.
(d)(e)The failure to comply strictly with the requirements of this Code section, Code Section 3-3-23, and all applicable provisions of this title and regulations promulgated pursuant to this title shall be grounds for the revocation of a special order shipping license or other disciplinary action by the commissioner. Upon revocation of a special order shipping license for shipment of wine to a person not of age as required by Code Section 3-3-23, such personwineryshall not be issued anyspecial order shipping license pursuant to this Code section for a period of five years from the date of revocation.
(e)(f)The holder of a special order shipping license shall collect all excise taxes imposed by Code Section 3-6-50, shall remit such taxes in the same manner as licensed wine wholesalers, and shall accompany such remittance with such reports, documentation, and other information as may be required by the commissioner. In addition, an applicant for and a holder of a special order shipping license, as a condition of receiving and holding a valid license, shall:
(1) Agree to collect and to pay applicable Georgia state and local sales tax on each sale shipped to a consumer in Georgia;
(2) Accompany each remittance with such sales tax reports, documentation, and other information as may be required by the commissioner; and
(3) Consent to enforcement of the provisions of this Code section by the department and to the jurisdiction of the courts of Georgia for the collection of such taxes or other moneys owing, including interest and penalties.
(f)(g)The commissioner may promulgate such rules and regulations as are necessary and appropriate for the enforcement of this Code section.“
SECTION 2.
All laws and parts of laws in conflict with this Act are repealed.
I Don’t Believe Ben Franklin Said This
This is one of those inane viral emails, most of which I delete before reading beyond the first sentence. In this case, it came from someone who rarely sends me email and when she does it’s usually worth reading. This elicited a small chuckle.
As Ben Franklin said: In wine there is wisdom, in beer there is freedom, in water there is bacteria. In a number of carefully controlled trials, scientists have demonstrated that if we drink 1 liter of water each day, at the end of the year we would have absorbed more than 1 kilo of Escherichia coli, (E. coli) - bacteria found in feces. In other words, we are consuming 1 kilo of poop.However, we do NOT run that risk when drinking wine & beer (or tequila, rum, whiskey or other liquor) because alcohol has to go through a purification process of boiling, filtering and/or fermenting. Remember: Water = Poop, Wine = Health Therefore, it’s better to drink wine and talk stupid, than to drink water and be full of shit.
Parducci Petite Syrah, 2005
OK for cooking.
If I used the 100 point scale I’d give it a 50. A big disappointment because I have had other good Parducci wines (I think I have) and it was only $7. It’s getting harder and harder to find good wines under $10.
Preston of Dry Creek Valley Carignane, 2005
A few days ago someone dropped some ripe cherries on the floor in the barn near the kerosene can and under the hanging saddles.
If I were to use the 100 point scale I’d give it an enthusiastic 89.
How We Feel About Tourists in Key West
A Wine Blog Post
At dinner last night (a seaside Italian restaurant in Key West) I was ordering for the table which included the broadest range of wine experience possible — all under the level of serious oenophile, including myself. We had a couple of Francophiles, some hard core New World Cally Fruit Bomb (NWCFB) addicts, a few who hardly drink wine at all, and one fool. From a broadly limited selection (I’ll let you figure that out) I ordered one classic New Zealand Sauvignon Blanc (NZSB), a meek Albariño, a mass market Chianti Classico and a respectable Napa Cabernet Sauvignon. Maybe I should have ordered only Italian wines at an Italian restaurant but I’m not like that.
The first thing the waiter did was arrive with a tray of white and red style glasses and proceeded to ask who was drinking white and who red. I told him to forget it and just distribute the glasses randomly. He graciously did so and then opened the NZSB. After I gave it an upward turned thumb he started to go around the table asking who was starting with it. I stopped him and suggested he just open all four bottles and place them randomly on the table (admittedly after I tasted for spoil). I even rejected the offering of a bucket of ice for the whites. I then sat back and watched what happened.
The Cab was quickly passed back and forth and emptied first. Then the Sauvignon Blanc. Then the Albarinõ. The Chianti was still full near the end of the meal and I asked one of our local hosts if we would be allowed to take it home. He told me to wait a few more minutes, which I did and the Chianti bottle was soon empty. (I initially expected that we would order more wine and was curious to see which wines would be requested but four bottles ended up being just enough.)
No-one considered pairing appropriateness, at least not out loud, choosing instead to simply drink whichever bottle they liked most. Some at the table only drank from one bottle until it was gone. Some stuck with white and some red. A couple of us drank some of each and one poor soul sat with a mostly empty glass because nothing pleased her (she also knew some of her current favorites were waiting at home).
That’s it. No mention of wineries. No rituals. No tasting notes. No food pairing reports. No criticism. Just a simple observation of how wine drinking can occur. Sure, there was a little context but isn’t there always?
WBW Re Ducks
I dropped out of the WBW thing for a while, partly due to some themes I wasn’t excited about but mostly due to having moved twice in the past three months and otherwise had my life turned so upside down that I haven’t been blogging much at all — though that’s obvious from the look of this page.
April is still pretty far away (in wine drinking years) but it’s theme is one that will bring me back into the fold: Old World Cabernet Franc.
I can’t help myself
Warning: Non-Wine Content Ahead
I love this.
Seghesio Arneis 2006
Ché idiot! I actually blamed the corkscrew for being too dull to pierce the plastic wrap over the cork (there’s probably a name for that) but after the second corkscrew couldn’t pierce it I realized I was trying to slice through the aluminum cap. And it’s not like I haven’t opened a bunch of screw caps before.
I didn’t take any notes, including the vintage, the first time I tried this wine but I liked it. The second bottle, a 2002, sucked. Oddly, I forgot the second taste and remembered the first so I bought a couple bottles of the 2006 the other day. It’s very nice and interesting. It’s much paler than I remember — almost clear! A bitter nose of white pepper with tastes of white peach, nutty pear and melon and prosciutto — honestly, that last one is the best descriptor I can think of. Not that it would go with Prosciutto con il Melone but that it tastes like it. It’s delicately sweet and appropriate as an apéritif.
Four thumbs up (Mrs. Dink shares my enthusiasm).
$15, Tower
update - 03-11 - Two days later, the wine doesn’t hold up. The meaning of the grape name, “little rascal,” purportedly is due to the difficulty of growing this grape but I have to wonder if it might also be referencing a grape that doesn’t age well. The flavors are now being intimidated by the high alcohol (14.3 or 14.5 % (my aging eyes can’t be sure)). It was sealed up tight and refrigerated but still degraded quickly. Note to self: buy it again if you like but drink it quickly.
Marietta Old Vine Red, Lot Number 45, NV
I wish I had kept a more exhaustive inventory of wines and tasting notes over the last several years because my preferences have changed drastically. I started drinking wine approximately 25 years ago with mostly decent, inexpensive French and Italian reds. I can remember returning to my first “loft” living space (a converted (by me) print shop in an abandoned commercial building in the heart of downtown Oakland, Ca — nowadays “loft” means luxury apartment or townhome, which is bullshit but whaddaya gonna do?) with a bottle of Pinot Noir and a baguette from the deli that constituted dinner. I was in my mid-20’s and felt sophisticated and urbanly hip.
Shit, shit, shit! I just realized I finished the wine before I wrote any tasting notes! Balls! Now what can I say about the wine? Oh well, and before you jump to the conclusion that I’m such a drunk I drank a whole bottle in the time it took to write one simple paragraph, let me say that I was only drinking one last glass that was left in the bottle from a few days ago.
I was very happy drinking cheap French and Italian reds for a couple years until I got a job as a waiter with a caterer that worked in Napa County. That was when I discovered California wines for real. It was long enough ago that the Cally wines weren’t the Welch’s Grape Jelly Fruit Bombs that they became in the 90’s but it was the beginning of a period where I ignored wines from anywhere East of Fresno.
OK, for the purposes of this post it’s time to cut to the chase. Short version: I started with decent Old World style wines. Moved to decent New World wines a couple years later. At the turn of the century I became enamored, like a newly pubescent pre-teen, with the bold and fruity charms of the Cally Fruit Bomb. Currently, I’m in a phase of re-discovering and appreciating European style wines of a more restrained character. I’ve been craving and enjoying subtler wines, of which this is not an example. Call it slipping or merely nostalgia for a less cultured time of my life but I sometimes still can’t stop myself from drinking something that appropriately belongs in my jelly jar wine glasses.
Marietta Old Vine Red, Lot Number 45 is a fun, sweet, simple, over-ripened but not too hot, wine that would do well being poured at a 60’s era soda fountain for kids who are just getting started with wine. I remember what that felt like and maybe it’s just the beginnings of a middle-aged yearning for lost youth but tonight, that would be me.
$14, Tower
Rothera Winter 2007
What would you do in your spare time if you were a scientist in Antarctica? (Wine blog relevance comes in at the 2:00 minute mark.)
Mo’s 38 Caliber Chocolate Bar
Yes, that’s right, chocolate and gunpowder together - a match made in the kitchen of the N.R.A. Lovely contrast in texture of creamy milk chocolate and gritty black gunpowder. Paired well with a 2004 Clautiere Port.
Full disclosure — this is a joke that was inspired by a real chocolate bar that is almost just as ridiculous, as seen on spume.
Crabbie’s Jamaican Green Ginger Wine
I brought less clothes so I could smuggle in 4 bottles of something decent, not expecting to find any drinkable wine in Negril, Jamaica. I’ve mostly been drinking rum –Appleton 12 Year old — but tonight we trekked a little bit away from the resort into a local neighborhood for Elvis’ Annual Chinese New Year Bingo Extravaganza and this was one of the drinks offered. Tastes like honey sweetened ginger. Not bad on ice.
I only mention it because it sounds like the kind of wine a fool would drink…
“good wine makes good blood”
I’m linking to this post from Do Bianchi just so I can make the following quote,
buon vino fa buon sangue
Cheers.
Edmunds St. John Syrah Wylie-Fenaughty 2001
Since this costs around $30 I like it. (joke — see previous post)
Very classy wine with depth and complexity — almost perfectly balanced. Rich but not cloyingly so. Tobacco and spice and everything nice.
This Must Be Why I Hate all Those Trader Joe’s Wines
Twenty subjects tasted five wine samples which were distinguished solely by their retail price, with bottles ranging from $5 to $90. Although the subjects were told that all five wines were different, the scientists had actually only given them three different wines. This meant that the first two wines were used twice, but given two different price labels. For example, Wine 1 was labeled as a $35 dollar wine and a $5 wine. The subjects sipped the wines inside an fMRI machine.
Not surprisingly, the subjects consistently reported that the expensive wine tasted better. They preferred the taste of the $90 bottle to the $10 bottle, and thought the $45 bottle was more delicious than than the $5 wine.
I still haven’t had a good wine from Trader Joe’s (excluding a few of the major California brands they carry which are often decent but can be had at any grocery store for almost the same price). I’d like someone to try and trick me with one to see if I fall for it.
Trentadue Old Patch Red 2005
Repeat, if possible.
Each year’s blend will vary so pay attention to vintage. The 2005 is 70% Zinfandel, 20% Petite Sirah, 5.5% Carignane, 4.5% Syrah.
Soft and creamy Cranberry Root Beer in a wine glass.
$10 at Green’s.
Domaine De Dournier Grenache Noir 2005
Vinegar. I don’t mean it’s turned into vinegar. I mean it tastes like vinegar. I don’t mean it’s gone bad. I mean it is bad.
No nose, no body, no flavor. If I scrunch my eyes up real tight and imagine intensely I come up with some mild berry, straw and musty leather but I don’t want to have to work that hard to drink wine.
$10 at Green’s.
An Aside
Don’t ask me why I watch Faux News but I also can’t stop myself from looking at beheadings when they happen in my vicinity. Right now they’re interviewing New Hampshire people who are skewering Billary and praising B-Hussein-O so I can only imagine that they want to promote the black guy from a belief that a black guy will never get elected in Amerikkka.
And now Dennis Hopper is promoting a financial investment company. Time to bring out the Hennessey.
Back From the Dead
Moved after 20 years in the same house. Almost killed me. Then Ex-mass. Then a nasty goddamned chest hacking thing. Painful to be alive. What the fuck do I want a wine blog for?