Less whine, more wine

Whine:
Welcome back to ItsTooFreakinCold-ville

Well I didn't have to climb into any vehicles through the BACK today, so as cold mornings go, this didn't suck TOO much. Don't you hate it when the door you want to use is frozen, and you have to climb over the gear shift? arrrgh. That happened to me over the weekend with Mr Carly's truck (well actually I had to get in the back and climb into the front and Didn't I Look Funny? )

Whine:
Idol filler - bad taste, too much filling

I'd love to give you a full shot of my thoughts on American Idol. Alas, I didn't watch last night. It's sitting safely on my DVR box right now; all I saw was the last girl. Frankly I think she needs some counseling and hope she isn't severely depressed after being ridiculed. So now today she is probably catching hell at school. It's a shame that she had no one with her, no family, no friends, supporting her. Scary, even, considering how she acted, and I bet her parents didn't even see her on tv. Help her!!! As I've said 12,000 times previously I am a sap. I don't like making fun of people when it hurts them.

I don't really care for the "audition" episodes of AI anyway. I hate seeing the people who sing poorly, have bad diva attitudes, and argue with the judges, whine about how "they don't know anything, I'm fantastic" and so on. Zzzzzzzzzzz. My husband thinks it's hilarious.


WINE!!

My week was brightened considerably by the wine tasting class I attended last night.

The guy in charge reminded me of a 50-ish Bob Newhart, with the halfway-down-the-nose reading glasses, but more hair (kinda Robin Williams in the Mork days). He was very soft spoken , not wildly animated but he had a number of good points. He also had some really funny stories about stupid things he's done over the years.

He talked for a while about how people have tried to grow old world wines in the new world and you can't just plant any grape anywhere because there are so many factors that go into how a wine tastes, like the type of soil, how much sun it gets, how cold it is at night, and so on. It was interesting - I'm not doing it justice.

His main focus was "slow down and enjoy the stuff you're paying good money for". We were actually seated around a table, with bread, and some cheese (a cows milk with green peppercorns that I was astonished that I enjoyed, and a GOAT'S milk soft cheese, which wasn't baaaad. Sorry.)

He said that for a wine to taste its best, you should buy it, take it home and let it sit for a day or two. (long dissertation on not bouncing your wine too much and shaking it around)

For whites or rose' , stand it up in the fridge (any sediment will sink down to the bottom... you don't want that in your glass and that's why the bottom of wine bottles are indented, to keep as much of that sediment as possible away from the wine. The smaller the surface area in contact with the liquid, the better.)

It had been almost an hour at this point, and no wine in Carly's hand. Oy vey. Patience, I'm not known for.

Then he poured 3 blush wines. The ubiquitous white zinfandel, a grenache/syrah/cinsault blend, and a syrah rose' -- not that I had any idea; I took lots of notes. :o)

(I wrote Jensou instead of cinsault but hey, what can you do? )

He taught us that you should be letting the wine sit and do its thing for a little while after you pour it, and not immediately gulping it down. It apparently needs to mix with air to reach its flavor. He did a little riff about the song "love is like oxygen" at that point, and how wine likes a little bit of oxygen while you're drinking it but when you're STORING wine, you want to prevent it from getting too much air because that will keep changing the taste. Ahah! That's why my wine in a box keep so well! bahahahah!

So, take a bigger glass, and fill it one third to one half, and be sure to swirl it around before you sip. It really did make a difference.

You don't have to swoosh it like mouthwash... people will laugh at you. But if you move it around just a little before you swallow, you get more of the flavor.

I discovered that I no longer like white zin. I used to order it all the time at Salty's. (See previous post about Bistros) It's basically a rush of sweetness, with no acidity after you swallow. So after a while that gets "yechhhhh."

I liked the Routas (the blend, it was a 2003) somewhat, my SIL loved it. To me it had a much more noticable acidity. However, at the end of the evening (after it had been poured about 1/2 hour or more) it was pretty smooth and balanced in a way that tasted good to me.

My favorite was the Villa San Maurice 2002 Grand Syrah Rose. It was only 7 bucks too...! It was balanced the entire time I drank it - not too sweet, but the acidity wasn't so strong that you paused after you drank it.

So guys, be nice to the ladies this week, buy a bottle of something new, perhaps like these, and don't forget the cheese & bread (a nice sourdough bread or something, right from the supermarket, and don't be afraid to try cheese with white rind on it, just slice it up and eat the middles). Leave the Schlitz for next time.

The best part was that this class was FREEEEE. I was buying a bottle of the syrah afterwards and the lady behind me said "there's no charge for the class?"

"Well it would be nice if you buy something." he replied with a touch of humour, yet you knew he wasn't really kidding.

Here's a website that he recommended: www.ozclarke.com