Day 1: Positive Spin!

You'll have to read my other blog to sort out my thoughts about "Day 1 of # 44", but I read this article which has some positive news about American wine producers. I never really thought about W's 'preferences' for the last 8 years, but anything that boosts wine consumption (and knowledge) here in the good old USA is a good thing : ) So tonight, Red State or Blue State, go home and pop a nice bottle of Red Wine or White Wine (or split the vote and have some Sparkles : ) Cheers!

Jeff Strikes Again!

My partner Jeff Harris is spoiling us! He walked in on New Year's Eve (yes, we were open and closing loans!) with a bottle of Dom under one arm and a bottle of Veuve Clicquot under the other (bless him!) It made me very happy (but of course!) and it reminded me of a poll or article I recently read that talked about champagne consumption is dropping (or sparkling wines in general). Why? It seems that people ONLY tend to drink 'sparkles' when they have something to celebrate. True, yes, but why not 'every day'? No, not a $128 bottle of Dom, but there are SO many options out there that are so yummy! I even saw Korbel (from Sonoma, CA) at the grocery for under $10. Want something lighter, try a Prosecco from Italy. Even easier on the wallet? Cava from Spain. So maybe hold off on the over $30 bottles for a big event, but don't be afraid to make 'sparkles' your wine of choice! (by the way--you may want to invest in a champagne 'cork' that will allow you to store an open bottle for a day or two in case you just want an aperitif prior to dinner, etc.)

Forgotten Anniversary

No, Susie is not angry with me because you may remember we celebrated our actual Wedding Anniversary WAY back in September. I'm referencing an event that I knew about (and 'celebrated' in my own way) back on December 5th--the Anniversary of the reversal of Prohibition! I truly enjoy wine with my dinner and I am thankful that the vineyards were able to remain in business through that dark period (sacramental wine, indeed!). Now look at the California wine industry-so strong, but do you know that there were wine producers all over the US prior to Prohibition? Yep, many were forced out of business thanks to all the people who wanted to force their will upon someone else (wow, Libertarianism 2 x in one day--take this quiz, you may be surprised to find you're one too!). We now have vineyards in most (if not all?) of the US again, but we could have better quality wines by now from some of these fledgling vines/vineyards. For an off the wall Libertarian view, read this article from the Wall Street Journal. Not sure how I feel about some of the items referenced being legal, but the premise sure makes sense... In any event, I'm hoping Friday traffic has slacked off a bit so I can get home to enjoy some Vino! Cheers, Bo

Turkey Wine and Out of State experiences!

We had a lovely Thanksgiving and enjoyed some Beaujolais Nouveau prior to devouring our Turkey. We drove to KY to be with my family and brought a mixed case of vino (most under $12) including the Beaujolais. Most of the wines we drank were Zinfandel as they went perfectly with the meal. A Pinot Noir may have worked but the fruit of the Zin (remember, this is NOT the Pink stuff!) paired with everything, even the sweet potato casserole. We brought this wine from GA to KY because my parents cannot find a lot of variety in the big O (that would be Owensboro to you non-Kentuckians!) and what they do find is often overpriced due to lower competition. Meanwhile, before departing I made a run to Total Wine off Barrett Parkway (there is now one in the Perimeter area, there should have been one in Alpharetta but I was told that the powers that be blocked it--short sighted and silly at best) and made some fun selections for them. It's about choice, people! If I wasn't 'bootlegging' for them, they had no other option as you can't ship wine there (even GA still has some limits). Contrast this with Michigan-it's bad enough the auto biz is in the toilet (not that Real Estate is going gangbusters!) but the State is trying to limit their wine choices as well. Read THIS to see what's going on; I think they are fools. Let the people order their favorites and they can also pay TAXES on those wines (more money for MI). Wine lovers get what they want, the state gets what they want (MONEY). What's not to love? Well, for starters, the liquor/beer/wine retail industry has deep pockets. And politicians? They love to line their pockets with this type of special interest money! So consumers lose and politicians (and distributors) win. I wish the people of Michigan the best; hopefully a balance will be struck so there can be a "WINE-WINE" result! Cheers, Bo

4th and 20: PUNT?

No, I'm not talking about Football; I'm actually talking about WINE (yum!) (though CONGRATS to the Sprayberry Yellowjackets as they pulled off a sub-regional championship Friday night; seeking the 1st regional championship in 26 years).

What is a punt? Pick up a nice bottle of wine and you will most likely find an indentation on the bottom of the bottle (a nice place to stick your thumb to show off a cool new way to pour!). What does it do? It's mainly there to allow sediment to fall and collect on the bottom. Many wine companies are choosing to eliminate the punt to make their bottle LIGHTER. What does that do? A lighter bottle means a lighter case; lighter cases = cheaper/economical shipping! Way to go green! To give you an example, the bottles in use at Fetzer vineyards (yep, big white zin producer) are on average 14% lighter, weighing in at 15.3 ounces when empty. With 23 million bottles shipped per year, that is about 2,200 TONS of glass saved. So less glass, less gas, more vino for you and me!

I've talked about Beaujolais Nouveau before (which is released annually the 3rd Thursday in November) but this year you may find different packaging; PET bottles! No, that's not something for Spike and Lillie (our dogs)--PET stands a type of plastic. Why BeauJo in plastic? It's actually a perfect use for the wine as the wine should be consumed 'immediately' (ideally before January--again avoid dusty bottles found after the new year). If the wine is expected to age, the vineyards will most likely continue to use punts, but in the case of young/fresh wines, expect to see flat bottomed bottles! We'll chat about BeauJo in a few weeks, stay tuned! We'll see how consumers adapt to plastic wine bottles--even though it's not truly green, I am 'old school' I guess--Cokes still taste better in the 8 ounce bottle to me ; ) Cheers!

You get what you pay for...

One wine comment-sometimes you DO get what you pay for! I love a great bargain! Likewise, there are a lot of costly wines that are 'good' but not great/worth the price (Silver Oak for example). One converse was a gift of Roederer's Cristal Champagne. Jeff & Will brought some over; it was SO yummy and SO smooth. WORTH IT!

New Toy!

Wondering what to drink tonight? Go to the bottom of this Blog page and check out what's new from RedPinkWhite. Their "widget" is an application that you can load onto your website or Blog (like I did!) OR merely go and search for wine from their website. It's a pretty cool tool, though I am not sure that we will be able to find some of the wines listed in their database here in Georgia. Regardless, scroll down and give it a shot!

For example, I chose "Varietal", clicked on Z to find Zinfandel. From there I clicked "Click to view" and could scroll through the 144+ offerings they listed today. What a cool search function! They listed small descriptions but their goal is for you to buy wine. Unfortunately we live in a 'police state' that barely allows us to have wine shipped to us so that is not an option for us here in Georgia. However, if it looks really cool, ask your local retailer to get it for you! Cheers!