Thank You!!

I wanted to extend a HUGE thank you to my monthly readers. Up to 1,500 readers grace these pages every month, for that I am humbled. I hope to continue bringing you affordable wine finds and wine knowledge for years to come!

Thanks to Green Wine Bottles for the image. I LOVE these, what a creative way to re-purpose and re-cycle old wine bottles.

Dirty Jobs, Winery

Dirty Jobs on Discovery is a family favorite in our household. On occasion my 5-year old will opt out of Sesame Street and ask for Mike Rowe by name! If you tune into Discovery, they frequently run Dirty Job marathons, including a visit to a winery.

While I didn't find the job particularly dirty, the episode was both entertaining and educational. If you have a DVR it's worth seeking it out, it provides a brief glimpse into the inner-workings of a large vineyard. The most interesting part for me was seeing the grape-less stems by the thousands sent via conveyor belt to over sized dumpsters. The stems were mulched and used as fertilizer in the vineyard, now THAT's going GREEN.

Cheers!

Wine Gear I LOVE and USE

I didn't hide my dislike of the Vinturi but there are a few indispensable wine accoutrement that I would recommend to others. A good decanter is key, a waiter's corkscrew essential and the wine foil cutter, a luxury. I received the foil cutter several years ago from my brother-in-law. Skeptical at first, it's become a well used part of my oenophile weaponry.

With a good waiter's corkscrew you can dispense of the foil covering the cork with a few strokes of your blade. But with the wine foil cutter and a simple squeeze/turn, you can be done in half the time. The cutter slices a perfect circle around the top, exposing the cork. A little lazy...perhaps. But at $5, it's hard to pass up, particularly if you've accidentally sliced your finger open on some exposed foil!

Cheers!

Australian Wine, How far you've come!

I'm a big Monty Python fan, I was listening and watching long before I started drinking wine. Good thing I didn't take their humor too much to heart, otherwise one sketch entitled "Australian Table Wines" would have kept me away from some of the finest wines in the world!

In 1972 when this sketch was written I have no doubt the wine was pretty much as described...but baby, how far you've come! And now for a little giggle...

------
"A lot of people in this country pooh-pooh Australian table wines. This is a pity as many fine Australian wines appeal not only to the Australian palate but also to the cognoscenti of Great Britain.

Black Stump Bordeaux is rightly praised as a peppermint flavored Burgundy, whilst a good Sydney Syrup can rank with any of the world's best sugary wines.

Château Blue, too, has won many prizes; not least for its taste, and its lingering after-burn.

Old Smokey 1968 has been compared favorably to a Welsh claret, whilst the Australian Wino Society thoroughly recommends a 1970 Coq du Rod Laver, which, believe me, has a kick on it like a mule: eight bottles of this and you're really finished. At the opening of the Sydney Bridge Club, they were fishing them out of the main sewers every half an hour.

Of the sparkling wines, the most famous is Perth Pink. This is a bottle with a message in, and the message is 'beware'. This is not a wine for drinking, this is a wine for laying down and avoiding.

Another good fighting wine is Melbourne Old-and-Yellow, which is particularly heavy and should be used only for hand-to-hand combat.

Quite the reverse is true of Château Chunder, which is an appellation contrôlée, specially grown for those keen on regurgitation; a fine wine which really opens up the sluices at both ends.

Real emetic fans will also go for a Hobart Muddy, and a prize winning Cuivre Reserve Château Bottled Nuit San Wogga Wogga, which has a bouquet like an aborigine's armpit.

Cheers!

Free the Grapes!

I wouldn't be a responsible wine blogger if I didn't feature Freethegrapes.org at least once. "Free the Grapes! is a national grassroots coalition of wine lovers, wineries and retailers who seek to remove restrictions in states that still prohibit consumers from purchasing wines directly from wineries and retailers."

If you've ever tried to gift wine, join a wine club or purchase wine for yourself at an online store, you've probably run into a myriad of shipping restrictions. Twelve States prohibit direct shipment including my hub in the mid-Atlantic. I'd encourage you to visit Free the Grapes and research you're own State Laws and contact your local Congressman, I know I will!

Thanksgiving Wine

Thanks to the Wine School of Philadelphia for the following wine recommendations:

First of all, you will probably need a bottle for those friends/family who don't drink wine. Instead of getting them a bottle of white zin, grab a bottle of St. Supery's Moscato (about $12). Its just sweet enough for them, but still complex and balanced enough to enjoy. Its actually quite good with cranberry sauce.

For a white wine, you could go with Pieropan's Soave Classico ($13). Its stylish and crisp with just enough lush peach to work with some of those freaky yam dishes ya'll will be eating. Another idea would be to go with the Gloria Ferrer Blanc de Blanc ($15); this is a fun little champagne wannabe with a touch of almond and pear on the nose.

For a red, I tend to go with the drench-it-all-with-a-fruit-bomb approach. It's especially effective if you have a family like mine (I am never sure what is worse, Aunt Sarah's Suet-and-Kidney Pie or her husband's drunken advances.)

With that in mind, go for the Bleasdale "Bremerview" Shiraz ($12). A great dose of over-the-top fruit that totters between luxury and trashy. It's also about 15% alcohol, which always makes the holidays more... interesting.

If you want honest-to-goodness class, then get a few bottles of Chateau Coufran Haut Medoc ($13). It's the best bottle of left bank Bordeaux available under twenty bucks, and my current favorite anyday wine.

If the pumpkin pie ain't enough for you, then you should have a
bottle of Dutschke The Tokay ($12 for a half bottle), too. Imagine a bottle of maple syrup and a vintage port had a love child.