After the events of yesterday, we had a very quiet, very pleasant evening.
Margie made her and I some caipirinhas. Later, I fixed myself another one, then put stuff away. That left her without seconds, so I mixed her a gimlet, which was well-received.
We ate in — ordered in Chinese from our favorite local local place, Wild Basil.
We watched some TV from the DVR and DVD — "Agents of SHIELD," "Almost Human," "Babylon 5," "Big Bang Theory". We joked and laughed and chitted and chatted.
Then, at length, we went to sleep.
A nice evening, and worth sharing for what strikes me as one.
Wineries we visited during our recent trip to Paso Robles, California.
Edmond August (http://www.edmondaugust.com/) – Boutique winery, pouring at the Paso Underground downtown (off of the central park / square). Nicely crafted Rhone-style wines, not-inexpensive but worth it. Bought a few bottles.
Dubost Ranch (http://www.dubostwine.com) – Nice setting, palatable if pedestrian red blends, high prices. Paid our tasting fees and left. No great desire to return.
Oso Libre (http://www.osolibre.com/) – Our find last year, and fun to visit again this year. Tasty red blends, reasonably priced. We already belong to their club, so we bought a bottle of their Solera Por Vida blend.
Chateau Margene (http://www.chateaumargene.com/) – More good reds, including a Petite Syrah that both Margie and Ginger enjoyed, which was nigh-inconceivable. Nice guy at the tasting counter, too. We bought a few bottles.
Roxo Port Cellars (http://www.roxocellars.com/) – They share their tasting room with Chateau Margene. Very flavorful and well-crafted ports — not sweet dessert wines — paired for tastings with interesting chocolates. We liked pretty much everything they served, and we (sigh) joined the club.
Villa Creek (http://villacreekwine.com) – Tasty stuff, but our palates were blown by this time, so, esp. given their prices, we declined any purchases. I'd like to visit there again some time.
Paso is a great place to visit for wine. It's still avoiding much of the over-commercialism of the Napa-Sonoma area up north, though some of that is creeping in. But you can still find lots of smaller, interesting, approachable wineries and wine-makers, and buy a good bottle of something for less than an arm and a leg.
Paso Robles Wine Country – Paso Robles, California
Plan Your Visit My Itinerary Build your itinerary to Paso Robles Wine Country · Taste Tasting Rooms, Touring Map, Varietals Produced · Stay Accommodations of all types – hotels, bed and breakfast, inns, guest houses · Eat For the culinary tourist and epicurean traveler · Directions …
The arguments over the different tops tend to get fairly esoteric near the edges (are cork farms damaging to the ecology? does the slight seep of oxygen past cork helpful? are people killing themselves with corkscrews and foil knives?). The problem of "corked" wine is a real one, and probably the best argument for screw caps, but even that's a fairly rare problem. That leaves corks with the marginal advantage of seeming more classy and making for fun trivets.
Over time, the distinction will become what audience the winery is aiming for, not the actual functional requirements.
Cork or Twist: What’s the Best Way to Stop Up a Wine Bottle?
Cork, synthetic cork, or screw cap? Each medium has its perks, it seems. But which one keeps wine aging the right way? The experts at Stack Exchange attempt to put the controversy to rest.
We get wine deliveries. No surprise to anyone who knows us. We belong to a number (coughtoomanycough) wine clubs, and get wine delivered to our home.
Now, wine deliveries require a signature. Make sense. I’d just as soon not have Kay finding a box of wine on the doorstep. Or some passerby doing same.
We knew a wine delivery was due last week on Wednesday. Margie was traveling, which meant it was up to me.
Heroes 'R' Us!
Wednesday
I work from home, but am out of the house for 2 hours around Noontime to go run a scheduled errand.
Of course, I find the little UPS Post-It on the door saying that’s when they tried to deliver.
Some of our wineries use FedEx. Some use UPS.
Whenever we have trouble, it’s UPS.
Look, someone made a logo for it and everything!
Thursday
I had to be in the office. So we missed the second delivery.
Now, we know (both from experience and becase the little sticker says so) that UPS will try three times, and after that you have to pick it up at their local warehouse. But I knew I would be home on Friday, so no big deal.
The Thursday Post-It on the door said they’d be there Friday between 10:30a and 2:00p.
UPS takes their delivery commitment times very, very, very seriously.
Friday
10:30a comes. 2:00p comes. 3:00p comes.
I check on the UPS site. The UPS site informs me that the package will be delivered Monday by end of business. I’m more than a bit irked, because I could have run some errands that needed doing, but instead was waiting for -Godot- UPS.
Ah, well. Margie comes home around 7:00p, we have a lovely reunion, we order in some pizza, and have a quiet, undisturbed evening at home.
Non-stop thrills and excitement on a Friday night!
Monday
I work from home, both to be here for the wine and to meet with a contractor.
Around 9:00p I realize that the delivery has never arrived. We check the UPS site.
The customer was not available on 3rd attempt. / A postcard has been sent to the recipient requesting that they contact UPS.
The UPS site informs us that the delivery guy tried 3rd delivery on Friday. At 7:22p.
This is, frankly, a lie.
No, really! Rang the doorbell and everything!
We were home then. The doorbell did not ring. A Post-It was not left. Never mind that 7:22p is not anyone’s idea of an estimated delivery of 10:30-2:00, or that the site said the delivery would actually be made on Monday.
Margie, bless her soul, calls up UPS.
She explains, in no uncertain terms, that UPS has frelled up again (this is not the first time we’ve had UPS say they tried a delivery when, by doorbell and lack of Post-It, they clearly did not).
The agent asserts that the delivery attempt was tried on Friday. It’s right there on the computer screen, so it must be true, right?
Would I lie to you?
No, she will not come to the warehouse and pick up the shipment. They, Margie explains, will deliver it to us. And, no, they can’t do it tomorrow, they have to do it Wednesday, because nobody will be home tomorrow.
The agent hangs up.
Yes, that's what it sounds like.
I suppose the connection might have dropped. But, if so, it was most inopportune timing.
Margie calls again.
She prefaces her remarks by noting that she’s a very unhappy customer, esp. since the previous agent she was on the phone with hung up.
She recounts the story. Again.
She is remarkably patient.
Margie can be ... persuasive.
The current commitment is that UPS will, in fact, deliver the package on Wednesday, before 4:00p.
We’ll see.
(In the meantime, needless to say, Margie rocks.)
UPDATE: I went back and looked at the log for the shipment (which I’ve now saved as a PDF). It shows the delivery guy making two delivery tries on Friday, one at Noon (on the dot!), and one at 7:22pm. Both of which happened while I was at home.
We know that people have different taste sensitivities and react to different flavors differently. E.g., some people are sensitive to particular chemicals in broccoli than others, hence finding it more or less palatable.
Apparently the same is true for wine — as wine experts (professional winemakers, wine writers, liquor control agents, and wine judges) appear to have much more sensitive (not just in training but in capabilities) palates than ordinary Joe Shmoe consumers.
Which then raises the question of whether those remarkable / bizarre tasting notes (see https://hill-kleerup.org/blog/2005/01/24/but_i_think_you.html) are meaningful to anyone else but the wine tasting elite, and whether those ratings are as useful, either, except as sales tools.
(Note: I have a fairly extensive wine cellar, and enjoy the stuff quite a bit. I can taste the difference between many wines, but I'm not sure to what degree my palate is more trained or simply more capable than many folks. In any case, my palate seems a lot less finicky or articulate than the folks doing wine reviews.) #ddtb
Seventy-eight years ago today, a dangerously muddled social-legal experiment — Prohibition — was repealed (Utah approved the 21st Amendment to the Constitution, reaching the 3/4 majority of states needed to enact it, negating the 18th).
Cheers! #ddtb
Embedded Link
Repeal Day is December Fifth
The official website of Repeal Day, which celebrates the repeal of Prohibition on December 5, 1933.
As noted earlier, we decided to do our own beer get-together, rather than dealing with the overpriced lines of Brew at the Zoo, or the overpriced unavailable tickets of the Great American Beer Festival.
In attendance were Margie and I (of course), Mary and Stan, Bruce, Doyce for a bit, and Amanda later on.
Margie and I did some sampler packs from Davidson, plus some interesting tall singles. Bruce brought over a Ska sampler pack. Stan and Mary brought a case of random interesting beers.
* * *
The following are my rankings, only, of the beers. Everyone had different opinions (and mine were a few sigmas off):
Ska – Buster Nut Brown Ale: An alcohol edge, but not too nutty. B-
Lakefront – Fuel Cafe Coffee-Flavored Stout. Good coffee taste. Not very creamy or stouty, but a reasonable beer equivalent of a dark Starbucks drink. B
Left Hand – Oxymoron Teutonic IPA: very hoppy, but not bitter. Floral end. Should be drunk cold. Not my cuppa, but well done for that. C
Lakefront – Wheat Monkey Ale: Refreshingly light – almost too much so. Slightly sweet, but much flavor there. Needs a wedge of orange. A-
Lakefront – Eastside Dark Lager: Slight molasses flavor. Dark. Nutty. C
Ska – Tenpin Porder: Cool and clean. Smoky finish. Best with food. B
Boulevard – Zon Belgian White. Spicy white, but really needs an orange; doesn’t stand alone well. B-
Viru: Light lager from Estonia. Lightly hopped. Fun bottle. Distinctly flavored. Surprisingly nice. A-
Lakefront – Klisch Pilsner: A little bitter. B
Odell – De Construction: A beer trying to be a wine. A biodynamic wine. A pretentious biodynamic wine. So distinctive, nobody liked it, and it was poured out. D-
Lakefront – White: It’s … totall non-descript. Closest thing to water. Not bad, because there’s not enough there to comment on. B-
Grand Lake – Wooly Bugger Nut Brown. Caramel flavors, turning to stronger notes. Very malty. C+
Cuvee Renee – Belgian Lambic: Beer that actually tastes like wine. Citrusy, with a bit of sour fruit. C
Grand Lake – Whitecap: Unfiltered. Stands well on its own. A-
Golden Draak Ale: Maltyy nose. Does not taste good. Bitter, but not complex in its bitterness. D+
Sherwood Forest – Archer’s English Pale Ale. Malty nose and flavor. Serve cold. B-
Boulevard – Bully Porter. Very dark porter. Not my cuppa. D+
Grand Lake – Shadow Mountain Oatmeal Stout. Very dark and, um, stouty. C-
Chima – Pere Trappistes Ale. Fruity, smooth. B+
Again, those reviews were all to my taste, not anyone else’s. And everyone knows about my taste.
* * *
Amanda brought over very nummy beer-flavored ice cream from Sweet Action.
Sunday morning was the typical post-Margie Gras Three B’s — bundt cake, bacon, bubbly – plus some yummy apple crisp Margie made.
A good time had by all. At least that’s how it seemed to me. I had a good time, at least.
Links (most recent first) that caught my eye, but did not warrant full-blown blog entries ….
New financial unit of measure: the “TDJ” – Big, inspirational art, cathedrals, stuff like that, do serve a purpose, so I can’t immediately hop on DOF’s bandwagon here (since obviously SOME Philistines out there were inspired by TDJ). But I’d suggest that before investing a quarter mil into rebuilding this eye-sore (and handwaving away any suggestion that, well, MAYBE THEY SHOULD CATCH A CLUE ABOUT WHAT THE ALMIGHTY THINKS ABOUT THIS MONSTROSITY), the church in question ought to very, very seriously think about what Jesus would actually suggest in this circumstance, and how much of this is to glorify themselves, not to do God’s work (whited sepulchres can be Jesus-shaped, too).
YouTube – Bistro Bordeaux – No Need For A Corkscrew – Not quite as funny as the guy on the street in an earlier video, but interesting to see. I would not do this with a good bottle, for a variety of reasons.
Margie and I, along with Stan, and with Jackie as Designated Driver, went to the Brew at the Zoo event at the Denver Zoo this evening.
Sadly — we were disappointed. It was not nearly as much fun as in past years.
The biggest problem was the number of people. The event was sold out (not sure about past years), and the crowds were pretty darned bad. The beer and food booths were scattered around a bit differently from past years, but they still ended up with some very bad choke points and with some excessively long lines.
Of course, problems of placement and long lines could be a function of the event being oversold. As could the fact that an appalling number of booths ran out of food and beer
Unlike past years, there was just beer — no token presence of wine or hard liquor. Nor was there coffee and cocoa as in the past, nor any dessert tables.
As a gage of the crowds, last year the Golden Toad booth had one grill, and lines of about 30 minutes for their yummy BBQ-sauced skewers. This year, they had three grills going, and the line was about an hour.
The Jason’s Deli booth, located toward the back by the Rhinos, was out of food and closed by the time we got there, about 40 minutes after the main opening. By the time we were considering heading out, we could only find two beer vendors still open, and both had closed by 9:30 (out of a 10 p.m. event).
Food places were stressed, too — though the potato bowls at Taste of the Wild were still going strong by the end of the evening.
Did the Zoo have a sudden bout of vendor no-shows? Did expected sponsors/participants not join up? Did companies scrimp on the supplies they brought with them? Or did the Zoo oversell the event? In any case, there were too many people there, one way or another.
It was kind of sadly disappointing, for an event that we’ve enjoyed several times. Enough so to make us consider whether we want to come back next year.
Went to a marvelous wine-maker dinner last night at Pesce Fresco, one of our favorite local eateries. It was a multi-course dinner (appetizers, salad, fish, “intermezzo,” main course, dessert) with a variety of wines from Inspiration Vineyards, a small Sonoma winery.
The wines were very nicely matched with the courses served. a crisp Viognier (with a variety of appetizers), a food-friendly (and spicy and remarkably tasty) Chardonnay (with a greens / vinaigrette / chevre / duck confit salad), a light burgundian Pinot Noir (very tasty and stood up to a grilled escolar with puttanesca), and a pair of light (though not spectacular) Zinfandel and Syrah wines (to go with a pair of tenderloins and, and to nurse through to a panna cotta with tuaca cream dessert).
We were lucky enough to be seated with Jon Phillips, the wine maker and owner, and we also had some nice chats with Joel, Pesce Fresco’s owner. Inspiration a very small winery, so it’s not likely you’ll find it in too many stores, but I’ll be keeping my eyes open, and if we’re out in that neck of the woods any time soon we may just drop in to say high.
Ever want a wine cellar but don’t have the space or money to build one? The Spiral Cellars design/build firm will dig a hole right in whatever room you want your cellar in and haul the dirt right out the front door. In the remaining void they infill a highly functionally and visually dazzling spiral-staircase wine cellar to fit all your favorite vintages and go with your favorite funky furniture designs.
We could do it in the living room. It would be the hit of any party. Though, perhaps, a bit dangerous to maneuver down for the third or fourth bottle …
Margie’s folks arrived today. I helped them unpack the car. "Um, Jim, I know you’re concerned about our spiritual welfare, but …" "Oh, that was Ginger’s idea. If you…
Margie’s folks arrived today. I helped them unpack the car.
"Um, Jim, I know you’re concerned about our spiritual welfare, but …"
"Oh, that was Ginger’s idea. If you write ‘wine’ on the box, someone might steal it."
