Monthly Archives: October 2009

Halloween Poem, Video, Wine: Scary Smelly Skeleton Pirates on a River of Skulls!

Last year I led some writing workshops in my son’s class. His group wrote a poem, “I am a Scary Smelly Skeleton Pirate” which my son and I turned into this YouTube video. Here’s the text to the poem and here’s two more Halloween oriented poems from that workshop.2halloween07

And here we are as un muy pequeno calavero with Art Predator aka Ms Frizzle of the Magic School Bus fame.

River of Skulls: the perfect wine for Halloween & Dia de los Muertos & more

Twisted Oak's "River of Skulls"Yep, Twisted Oak’s River of Skulls: This is the wine you need for Halloween, Dia de los Muertos, and maybe for all the sinners on your list: Twisted Oak’s River of Skulls, a mourverde with a little syrah thrown in.
from Twisted Oak in Calaveras County CA

This is a special creature, this wine. Sorry to say that unless you have a trip planned to Calaveras county, you’re out of luck. You can get on the list now for next year! Sign up here.

While my favorite blend on Earth has to be GSM (grenache/syrah/mourvedre), seeking out a mourvedre– “the sinner” in all its wild gamey glory–seems perfect for this time of year. And for my money, I’m going for Twisted Oaks “River of Skulls” which conveniently arrived a few weeks ago in my “Twisted Few” allotment!

I had the amazing opportunity to taste this wine at last year’s Wine Blogging Conference 2008 and it wowed the socks off of me. (OK, I admit, I’m a sucker for mourvedre!) This year, El Jefe aka Jeff Stai served it up during the live blogging portion of the 2009 Wine Bloggers conference. This wine not only wowed us bloggers but in recent competition and tastings, it’s done well: they just got wordfrom Twisted Oak in Calaveras County CA from Wine Enthusiast magazine that the 2006 Spaniard will receive a score of 92 points, and the 2007 River of Skulls will receive a 90 point score, in their December issue. Congrats to Jeff and crew!

For more poetry, jump on the TRAIN! For more about wine, head over to Wine Predator! That’s where I plan to aggregate my wine posts and where I will post first from the European Wine Bloggers Conference and from the Enoforum Tour of the Alentejo region of Portugal. (Oh, you didn’t hear about that? You didn’t hear my joyous noise? Go here to learn more.)

There is some ghostly formatting going on here–just attribute it to the hi-jinx of los calaveras!

I’m a WINNER! Wine Predator to Attend European Wine Bloggers Conference & Enoforum Oct 30-Nov. 5!

This just in–Jo Diaz from Wine Blog.org called less than an hour ago to let me know that YES I could go to Portugal for the Enoforum Wine Tour of Portugal’s Alentejo region! And arrive early enough to attend most of the European Wine Bloggers Conference!!

OH MY GOODNESS!

I leave on Thursday. I have A LOT to do between now and then including learning a little more about what this adventure will entail!

What an amazing opportunity! I get to attend the European Wine Bloggers Conference as soon as I get off the plane in Lisbon, followed by a trip sponsored by Enoforum to the Alentejo Region, in the south of Portugal.

OK, I’m giddy with excitement. Please let there be wifi on the plane so I can do some research and some blogging too about what’s in store for me in the coming 10 days.

Next week at this time I will be in LISBON!!!

European Wine Bloggers Conference Commences Oct.30

This weekend last year was the First Wine Bloggers Conference, held in Santa Rosa, in the heart of Sonoma County Wine Country.  And next weekend is the second European Wine Bloggers Conference to be held in Lisbon, Portugal Oct. 30-Nov. 1.

I remember when I first found out that there WERE wine blogging conferences in the US and in Europe. Excited, I looked on-line at videos and other reports about the EWBC, and dreamed that one day I’d be able to go.

I love Wine Blogging Conferences. Actually, I love going to conferences!  The two Wine Bloggers Conferences that I’ve been to have been a blast: I learned a lot (A LOT!), met so many fabulous people, and tasted so many amazing wines. Here are links to my posts about WBC 2008 and WBC 2009.

And then I got so close to going this year when I was named first runner-up in a contest to go to Portugal and attend Enforum and discover wine from Portugal, and then winner Sonadora got sick and had to cancel…but I guess there just wasn’t enough time for the organizers to make the switch from Wannabe Wino to Wine Predator, Instead, they’re trying to get their money back. There’s a possibility that I might be able to go with Sonadora another time. I sure hope so.

In the meantime I just saw a tweet from @catavino that the European Wine Bloggers Conference is looking for someone to live blog. Oh, I wish it could be me! I’ve live blogged two Wine Bloggers conferences, two WordCamps, and a few other events and conferences as well including MacWorld! Next year?  Sigh. So close and yes too far. I’ll just have to taste some wine from Portugal here. Maybe I can throw a mini European Wine Bloggers Conference at home.

Greg Norman, Pinot Noir, Angels & those dam Yankees

UnknownTonight, since we don’t have TV, we went to a local Chinese restaurant  for dinner and to watch the Angels lose to the Yankees. My husband had a Firestone on draft. I wanted a glass of wine but the wines by the glass list was pathetic. Not much to choose from by the bottle either.

Yes, it was a really sad wine list and a really sad game for Angels fans. That was the game that ended the season for them. No World Series this year for my son to go to with his dad!

What was even more sad for me was that no one in the restaurant had a key to the display case which showed a few other oddball but interesting wines that weren’t on the list like full bottles of Justin Obtuse for $45 (which this blogger quotes the 2003 as being $75 retail while the winery sells the most recent vintage at $26. I thought I’d found it at the Ventura Wine Company for about $20). If I’m looking for a place to go have a drink and dessert with some friends, $45 for a bottle of port sounds like a great deal when so many places around town sells inferior shots of port for $10.

So, off the very sad list,  I chose a  Greg Norman 2007 Santa Barbara pinot noir to pair with my mu shoo pork. I guess he’s a famous golf guy. My husband the sports fan says that everybody has a wine now, even Tommy Lasorda has a wine. I’m not sure if I’d really want to have a Tommy Lasorda wine but if he wants to itch me a free sample, I’d be happy to catch it. I’ll even pitch him back a review and a photo of him with my son at 18 months and my husband  during their last spring training at Vero Beach.

Hey now there’s a concept waiting to happen–a celebrity wine bar which only serves wines produced by the rich and famous!

Anyway, I thought it a good, easy drinking wine,  not too heavy and not too light, in fact not too remarkable at all except to say that the color was surprisingly dark and that it was a good match for the mu shoo pork and a decent enough value at $27 when the winery retails it at $15. One reviewer said he got purple flowers. I don’t know about purple flowers. I’ve had the bottle open for a few hours now  and getting some interesting funk, some earth.The bottle says plum and black cherry; sure I’ll go along with that. But more powerful to me might be root beer, especially as, hours later, I am nearing the end of the bottle. (Well, actually there’s a generous glass there for tomorrow night!)

I also learned from this reviewer that this bottle made the cover of the September 30 Wine Spectator which is what motivated him to buy it and try it. In that article, Wine Spectator gushes:

Just when you think California Pinot Noir can’t get much better, it does. The variety has made tremendous strides since the beginning of this decade, with hundreds of exciting wines in a range of styles. The most recent releases represent a string of very good to excellent vintages, including 2004, 2005 and, to a lesser extent, 2006. Now comes 2007, offering the greatest assortment of outstanding wines in the 25 years senior editor James Laube has been tasting and writing about Golden State Pinot.

Would I seek it out over other California or New Zealand pinots? Probably not, unless I was hosting some golf geeks, I guess; my good friend Jane might get a kick out of it. Did I enjoy it with my mu shoo pork? Yes, absolutely. It’s pleasant and it’s growing on me. Is it a good value at $15? There are many NZ pinots that I like better for that price point. And I’ve has some amazing California pinots at various tastings at the Wine Bloggers Conference and other events, but I wonder how many of those retail for under $20. One of my favorite pinots is also from Santa Barbara County–from Vino V–but it retails for quite a bit more than this one.

Here’s the review by the Atlanta Wine Guy, the guy who got the purple flowers.

Participating in 350 Day? Choose biodynamic/organic/sustainable/locapours!

Today, October 24, is 350 Day–a day where citizens of the world who are concerned about climate change will take various actions. On 24 October, we will stand together as one planet and call for a fair global climate treaty. United by a common call to action, we’ll make it clear: the world needs an international plan that meets the latest science and gets us back to safety. For more informaiton: http://www.350.org –

So how will I, the Wine Predator, participate? We’re riding our bikes around town today which is Harvest ArtWalk, we’ll enjoy locally caught shrimp bought from the Fishermen’s Market here at our harbor, which we’ll enjoy with locally grown vegetables from our CSA box (consumer supported agriculture).

But which wine will we choose to enjoy with our evening meal?

Wines appropriate to the occasion would be grown biodynamically and certified like Bonny Doon and Quivera, or organic and sustainabe like Michel-Schlumberger or grown and made locally like Vino V. Guess I’ll have to hit the cellar to see what meets the needs of the meal, our budget and availability!

How will you be participating in 350 Day?

WBC 2009 Day 2: Sex and the Sauterne

an amazing race

By this time on Saturday night at the 2009 Wine Bloggers Conference, you’d imagine I’d be topped out. But no. Sommelier Doug Cook of Able Grape, who poured so many phenomenal wines at last year’s WBC, was at it again: telling stories, pouring, and tasting as fast as live blogging. Instead of taking notes, I grabbed finished bottles to write about later.

There was an unfortunate snafu:

The hotel insisted they needed to close down the conference room. So off we went to a hotel room, about a dozen of us and two cases of wine. Hotel staff wasn’t thrilled with that either, so back we tromped to the conference room provided we vacate by 1am.

sex and the sauterne

Near the end of Doug’s tasting, he presented us with a sauterne. I want to say it was from 1978, because I remember thinking the wine was probably older than Doug. The nose blew my mind–sweet honeysuckle, pear? more! When I took a mouthful and tasted it, tears formed and rolled down my face. I wanted little else than to abandon myself to the swirl of emotions.

I was self-conscious, but there was little I could do: I was caught in public having sex with a sauterne, an orgasm even. I didn’t understand what was going on. It wasn’t that I was drunk. Well okay, by then certainly I was drunk. But that wasn’t what was making me cry, making me feel that way, that ecstasy of emotion.

The wine released every feeling in my heart all at once–all the joy, the sadness, the beauty that this life has to offer–it was all there, almost as if every emotion and everything I’d ever done and that I’d ever experienced was somehow, somehow in that golden glowing liquid.

That sauterne was orgasmic.
I felt connected to myself, to all life, to the universe.

Confused, I was. I couldn’t abandon myself to my emotions or walk away. We had to pack up. I had responsibilities.

So I did the next best thing: I put the box I’d collected, empties, open and closed bottles, including the empty sauterne, and set the box right outside the conference door, along with most of my sample of the sauterne still in the glass. I would finish cleaning up, then retrieve my treasures, retire, and at my leisure later let myself let go and go deep into its golden glow.

Picking up took time, and then I was engaged in conversations, and finally, I headed off to collect the sauterne and the bottles.

The box of wine was gone. All gone. Someone else scored my finds. Drank my sauterne.

So Doug, if you’re reading this, please tell me: what was that sauterne? and how can I possibly replicate that experience?

And readers, please tell me: am I crazy? Have you ever experienced anything like that in a wine?WBC

UPDATE: I heard from Doug Cook

Why that was the 1986 Château Raymond-Lafon. Great Sauternes is one of those life-changing “so this is what wine is all about” moments. Sooo glad you enjoyed it!

(As an aside, that’s probably also why in the 1855 Bordeaux classification, the only wine to get the very top classification was a Sauternes, as great as the reds are)

To which I answered:

Thank you so much, Doug, for stopping by and letting me know more about that particular amazing sauterne–and more about sauternes in general.

Now I’m going to have to try to find something similar! And of course a great way to learn more is using Able Grape!

And thank you, also, for sharing your wines this year and last. One of last year’s most memorable pours came from you as well–and equally unexpected: it was a chenin blanc!

WBC 2009 Day 2: Keynotes from Barry Schuler & Jim Gordon

Napa Napa Here We Come! We started Day 2 with a windy ride over the hill from Sonoma County to Napa Valley to the The Real CIA where we enjoyed a delicious spread followed by two keynote addresses by Barry Schuler on “The Future of Blogging and Social Media” and by Jim Gordon: Wine Trends Worth Blogging About.

Schuler calls himself an authentic internet historian, and he’s got the cred for that claim, for sure. According to the conference website, “Barry’s multimedia firm Medior created interactive technologies for AOL; after Medior was acquired by AOL, Barry worked his way up to be Chairman and CEO of that company. Today, as managing director of Draper Fisher Jurvetson, he’s funding next-thing projects in the tech world. Barry also serves on the board of Synthetic Geonomics and is CEO of Raydiance, which is developing laser technology for healthcare use. He and wife Tracy co-own Meteor Vineyard, located in the Coombsville region of the Napa Valley, with winemakers Bill and Darnine Dyer.”

In his talk, Schuler points out:

There is no analog to wine in other businesses.

Every bottle holds a story.

Every tasting is an adventure.

Wine is larger than life.

According to Schuler, there is an insatiable desire for information about wine which hasn’t been met in the past by traditional media, so this is an industry in need of expanded methods of communication. He thinks wine has a hard time marketing itself which seems surprising to me, but what I think he means is, it is hard for the wine industry to get the story across, the story they want to tell, to the public.

Trending topic: Bloggers– Is it a passion or a profession? Continue reading →