Author: scamp

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basics food & wine pairing

Giving Thanks, Not Advice

Traditional ThanksgivingOK, so I love love love love love Thanksgiving. It’s a secular holiday that is not corrupted by snarly patriotism, and it’s the only US holiday that has an integral relationship with the seasons. Sold, and sold. And then, it’s all about food and cooking, which is really how I relate to any holiday anyway: Easter is eggs, 4th of July is barbecue, Halloween is candy, etc.

Feasts are my favorite, and I love cooking for guests; so I’ve been hosting Thanksgiving for my entire adult life, ever since I had my own place — even making tofu turkey back in my Greenpeace days. I revel in the recruiting & inviting of guests, the planning of the menu, the shopping, the preparation, the cooking and staging of the meal.

Color me surprised that I am so cheerfully looking forward to being hosted this year: my darling and I are going to a friends’ house for Thanksgiving. They’re some of our best friends, and the cook in their marriage is my closest foodie friend. He’s a vegetarian who expertly cooks meat for his wife and loved ones, and his parents are going to be visiting for the holiday… so I’m anticipating a grand meal and lots of fun, fun times. (And no clean up at my house, which I admit is a decadently fine prospect.)

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blogosphere

Community

Community Blogger AwardMy friend Gabrielle at Eternal Vigilance awarded me a Community Blogger Award, invented by Red Sultana to celebrate those in the blogosphere that “reach out and makes the blogger community a better one.” Nice!

When I decided to jump into the fray of wine blogging (fray! ha! if anything resembled the word less…), I felt that I was so quickly and generously welcomed into the “fold,” and I will always be truly grateful for that.

Tom Wark at Fermentation was kind enough to write about me very early on, directing a lot of new traffic my way; he also Does Great Things with his promotion of wine bloggers via his Bloggerview series.

Dr. Debs at Good Wine Under $20 and Jill at Domaine 547 both commented early, often and encouragingly. Plus, Jill invented Women’s Wine Blogging Celebration Day, known to 99.999% of the world’s population as October 11.

Finally, Lenn Thompson at Lenndevours has been truly instrumental in bringing all us wine bloggers together in our monthly wine tasting, Wine Blogging Wednesday. May this tradition never fade: it’s a wonderfully inclusive event, and super-fun on top of it!

I would like to confer upon all of these great people a Community Blogger Award: they make the wine blogosphere a better place to be, for everyone.

Categories
frivolity

Everyone’s a winner

Well, everyone but Alvaro Palacios.  Poor him!

In our first Wine Scamp Male Objectification Poll, Joao Portugal Ramos and Telmo Rodriguez tied with 6 votes each for Most Handsome Iberian Winemaker.  The second most popular choice after our handsome duo was a vote against the poll itself, which I must applaud with one hand clapping: I knew it was wrong when I did it, and I did it anyway… Congrats to all the participants; I assure you it was an honor just for you to be nominated. 

And many thanks to those who simply joined in the fun – wine’s supposed to be fun, I’ve heard – despite their lingering gender-political doubts, or because of them.  We’ll have another of these real soon, I promise.
Pleez donâ??t bother me Lookin at pr0n, k thx
moar funny pictures

On a non-wine related note, please wish me to be very funny tonight when I perform stand-up at my company’s comedy show benefit for Meals on Wheels and More.  We’ve raised $15,000 so far for our local chapter.  Woot!

Categories
food & wine pairing regions reviews Wine Blogging Wednesday

Wine Blogging Wednesday #39: Silver Burgundy

Domaine Michel Cheveau Mâcon-Solutré PouillyI got a big jump on WBW #39 this time, tasting my wine nearly immediately after the theme was announced. Except it was that fantastic Domaine Michel Cheveau Macon Solutre-Pouilly 2006 that Brooklynguy wrote up this last Friday.

Hey, that was MY wine! Why he gotta be like that?

Well, Brooklynguy is right — this wine is sick. Sick, we say in thronging chorus! And all for about $24 per bottle, in Texas at least.

Pale straw gold in color. Lush, vibrant aromas of quince, lemon, cream and a brisk steeliness. On the palate, there are hard corners of minerality, with intense flint character, as well as pear, smoke, lemon and golden delicious apples. Usually a wine inspires me to either sniff or sip repeatedly; this wine demanded both, exhaustively. The finish just didn’t stop; this is exactly what I want from a white Burgundy, but more so. Run, don’t walk, to buy it. I got mine at Vino 100 Lakeway.

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Categories
events food & wine pairing reviews

Blind Pinot Noir Tasting with the Winebats

Another fine time at the Winebat Blind Pinot Noir Tasting last Thursday: at Green Pastures again, as they will be for the next 4-6 weeks, with a turnout of about 20-25 people.

The evening began at 6:30 with very tasty apps of bacon-wrapped scallops and a mushroom duxelle on puff pastry, and generous pourings of a rather atrociously over-oaked Canyon Road Sauvignon Blanc.

At 7:00 we were seated. Host Damon spoke briefly about Pinot Noir, and we were all given a one-page handout on the iconic grape. In the first round of bites from Chef Charles Bloemsma, served with the first flight of three wines, were a fairly austere Sesame Tuna on Cucumber with Soy and a stunningly well-paired Brie Tart with Raspberry and Hazelnuts. With the second flight of three wines (still blind of course) we got a delightful Crispy Chantarelle with Almond Pesto and a very elegant, well-balanced Pork Tenderloin with Goat Cheese and Cranberry Chutney.

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news personal world of wine

Won’t Somebody Please Think of the Children?

Interesting article over at the San Francisco Chronicle on Friday about kids and winery tasting rooms, i.e. whether it’s appropriate to bring your kids to wineries you visit. Dr. Vino ran a delightful series of posts on this subject, starting with a poll about whether kids should be allowed at wineries (218-80 in favor of tots tagging along with their parents in the Fields of the Grapes), with a lively discussion to boot. He then did an adorable photo contest of children at wineries, the winner to be found here in all his Cuteness. This kid will be a heart-breaker!

I voted in favor of wineries being a family friendly, not because I love having whiny kids running around the place while I’m trying to taste through a flight at a crowded counter, but because I believe that if America is ever to overcome its Puritan roots, we must Think Of The Children!

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Categories
frivolity

Sexist Poll to Remain Open Until Wednesday

I’m pleased to have so many fellow bloggers and other lovers of wine take an interest in my scientific research study regarding the sexual attractiveness of the male Iberian winemaker!

Alas, however; beauty is fleeting, and thus I’m closing the poll on Wednesday. If you or your friends have neglected to vote, don’t delay! There’s nothing in it for you but the fame (haha!) and conflictive sexual political conundrums, but when else this week has something so wrong felt So Right?

Categories
frivolity

Vote for the Most Handsome Iberian Winemaker

Jill at Domaine 547 suggested this ages ago, and I’ve only just recently been able to make polls work for me… luckily, pretty endures. So here is your chance to vote for the Most Handsome Iberian Winemaker.

Our panel of scientists here at the Wine Scamp laboratories have studied the laws of winemaker attraction for many years, and they have concurred that one requirement is that a given winemaker must both be symmetrical in physicality as well as make damn good wine. Real wine lovers are not induced to swoon by pretty, namby-pamby vintners of plonk. No! We must have ample talent to buttress a winemaker’s rugged good looks.

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events reviews

Blind as a Bat

Night WingGo to a Winebat blind tasting. No one’s running events like this in Austin, and you should jump at the chance to experience a blind tasting, if you haven’t yet. And if you’ve already attended some kind of blind tasting, you should go to a Winebat tasting because they are so well-run.

What I like about blind tastings is that all preconceived notions, all expectations of what a wine will taste like based on the region, the winery, the label, the price point… all of those prejudices are stripped away, and all you focus on is the wine. There’s something really pure about it; like running is described in Sharon Olds’ poem Sex Without Love: “the single body alone in the universe/ against its own best time.” Also, I guessed right about region a couple of times that night, so I’m very pleased with myself.

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Categories
basics news

Science and Your Red Wine Headache

“I can’t drink red wine,” the person says. “I’m allergic to sulfites, and I get terrible headaches.” Heard it? Ever been told that European wines are safe to drink because they have no sulfites in them? Ever meet someone who would only drink organic wine because of their migraines?

This is a barely-restrained pet peeve of mine. I want everyone to be able to enjoy red wine, heaven knows, but come on now — as less than 1% of humanity is allergic to sulfites, and as an allergic reaction to sulfites results in anaphylactic shock, and as sweet white wine is just as sulfite-ridden as dry red wines….. I have a hard time scraping up any sincere faith in your alleged sulfite allergy, dear one.

A few other debunkings, as I brought up the issues:

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