TheWino.net

Indian Tea

Tea, and drinking lots of it, I'm told is a tradition the British left their former colony India. Since I've been to England on numerous occasions I know this makes sense but the Indians have made one huge variation on this habit, which is to add hot milk to it making it more akin in taste to a caffe latte than tea.

In our office there are a couple admen (literally men) who make at least three or four rounds of Indian tea each day for what I can tell is everybody. That walk around passing out little cups and if you're not careful a day can go by where you consume lots of hot whole milk.

I've taken to this custom quickly which is dangerous because I'm trying to maintain my girlish figure :)

Another Good Nite

Eight bottles down with a steady flow of delicious BBQ over an eight hour period. Burgers and portabella mushroom wannables pasted with red pepper maynonnaise capped the night. Coupled with a grilled nectarine feta starter, the meal fit the weather (hot) and Sauvignon blanc perfectly.

Martinelli Visit & Tasting

Martinelli winery is located outside Santa Rosa on River road. Specializing in Chardonnay, Syrah & Pinot Noir, their winemaker is the renowned Helen Turley.

This was our third stop of the day, and while I'd like to say I spit, the truth of the matter is I rarely do. So needless to say I'm a little toasty.

The Chardonnays are nice, a lot of variety between the 6 different types but I personnally not a white lover.

The Pinot Noir's are earthy with pleasant nuisances. They have been known for their Pinot but nothing stood out to me.

The Syrsh's were very impressive, especially the 2005 Lolita Ranch Syrah ($75/bottle) which displayed ripe raspberries that stuck thru the palette. Also of note was a 100 year old vine Zinfandel called the Vigneto di Evo from the 2006 vintage which had a nice kick unusual for Zin and is high alcohol at 17.2%.

Bin 38, San Francisco Wine Bar

My sisters friends put together a birthday party at a Marina District wine bar called Bin 38. The first thing I noticed was the crazy disparity between women & men, a ratio that was close to 90/10 (take a note guys, get your ass to wine bars for happy hour or Saturday afternoon drinks - the game won't be on but you will have plenty of eye candy to entertain you).

The wine list was average, nothing blew me away but they had good diversity and plenty of high quality wines to choose from.

I had a Kingston Family (Chile) "Tobiano" Pinot Noir. Overall if was nice but a bit too acidic for an afternoon drink in Bin 38's back patio.

Wine 2.0?

Last Thursday, during the Web 2.0 Expo, there was an event called Wine 2.0 held at the Crushpad offices in the Dogpatch neighborhood of San Francisco.  It was hailed as a merging of technology & wine that would showcase both area wineries as well as technology related to the wine industry.  While there were plenty of wineries there was a lack of any interesting wine technologies sans Crushpad itself.  The event was a lot of fun but it was more of a boozing, singles party than a true wine tasting. 

Bella Circus

We spent Saturday at Bella Winery & Caves for their event, Bella Circus.  It was part of the Passport weekend, and Bella has made it a point to go all out with their events.  While we're fans of Bella, what brought us to the event was to see a family friend perform in the circus - a random coincidence. 

Judgment of Paris thoughts

Finally read George Taber’s Judgment of Paris, the book that chronicles the fateful afternoon of May 24, 1976 when nine French judges, in a blind tasting, proclaimed a California Chardonnay & Cabernet Sauvignon superior to first growth French wines. I flew to London for a week of work yesterday and am visiting Paris over the weekend, so I wanted to read it before I get to France.   

Buenos Aires - Day 17 - Argentina Journey

Last full day in Buenos Aires & Argentina. I’m saddened to know this is our last day in this beautiful country. We’ve seen the manificence of Patagonia, the beauty of Mendoza and the sophistication of Buenos Aires. I’ve loved each of them and appreciate that we were able to see such diversity in geology, people, development and weather. The highlight has to be the unsoiled nature of El Chalten, the town lacks a bank, paved roads, cell service, its where most of the planet was only decades ago and soon we all will wish there were unspoiled towns like this left.

Buenos Aires - Day 15 - Argentina Journey

Started at the ferry building to purchase tickets for Colonia de Sacramento (Uruguay) but due to the holiday weekend it doesn’t look promising. It sounds like there are a LOT of vacationeers from Argentina already there as we can easily make it to Uruguay but getting back is the problem :) We’re walking thru Puerto Madero, then to La Boca, then ending up the day with dinner in Palermo Hollywood at Sudestro.

Does Wine Define Me?

I had a small gathering over today for the tourney games, called it 'brats & elite eight games'. I carmelized onions, grilled up red & green peppers, bbq some Wisconsin brats and made a plantain starter from a vegetarian cookbook. But my mind was reflecting on how I was the only one pushing wine, while others were content drinking beer, I couldn't stop thinking about how much more interesting vino is.