Wine For Newbies

A great article on some of the pioneers in Oregon wine making. As I grow more fond of Pinot Noir, I’m finding I really appreciate the Oregon style. I think it’s much closer to Burgundy’s style, but without the astronomic prices that seem to accompany Burgundian wines.

Don’t get me wrong–California makes some great Pinot Noir as well, but I find this style is a bit bigger, more “in your face.” I can drink those with some “bigger” foods, which is a plus. But when I want to sit down and really enjoy just the wine, Oregon/Burgundy seems to be my preference.

Necessary disclaimer: Not all California Pinots are high octane/in-your-face in style, and there are a few Oregon Pinots I’ve run across that seem more California-ish. Your mileage may vary.

Don’t forget, Pinot Days comes to Chicago’s Navy Pier this weekend. There are a lot of small producers on the exhibitors list, which will be a great opportunity to try some wines I haven’t had before.

This is a new event to me, so I’ll be interested to see how they put it together and deal with large crowds.

Anyone going to be there?

With cold weather setting in, my thoughts always turn to Syrah or Shiraz. So, for the first Wine For Newbies video show test run, let’s drink some Syrah/Shiraz.

Here’s how it will work. On Friday evening at 9:00 pm EST, go to http://www.ustream.tv/channel/wine-for-newbies to start watching. Bring your Syrah/Shiraz, your questions, your comments, and join the conversation. We’ll go for about 30 minutes or so, longer if we get a whole throng of people there.

Please keep in mind this is the equivalent of a beta test, maybe an alpha test. I fully expect things to go wrong. Just hang in there and we’ll see how this experiment works out.

Given the amount of information, I figured my wrap-up report of the food and wine festival deserves its own page. Overall, the festival was pretty good. There were a ton of wines I never made it to, which saddens me.

How many ways can I say it? Je suis un idiot. Yo soy tonto. I’m a moron.

I completely blanked that yesterday evening was the 7th and the night chosen for the trial run of the streaming video thingy. I apologize.

Let’s shoot for next Friday, November 14, at 9:00 PM EST. Please leave a comment to RSVP.

I opened mine up just after 11:00 pm EST. You can see it over at the posterous page.

While I have definite opinions on how many of the U.S. elections should come out, I’m not going to get into them here. But I am going to plead with my readers in the U.S.: if you haven’t already done so, please make sure you vote today (if your state has early voting) or tomorrow. We all tend to gritch about what our elected officials do, but if we don’t vote, we lose that right.

Perhaps you feel as though the two major presidential party candidates don’t represent your views, so you’re thinking of staying home. Please don’t. There are at least two minor party candidates who might be worthy of your vote. Even if you aren’t going to vote in the national election, there are countless local elections and ballot questions that will have an impact on your community. At least go vote in those races. Many of them are decided by a few votes.

We all claim to hold democracy as a sacred ideal, but we often do not act that way. This year can be the year to start walking the walk and not just talking the talk.

GO VOTE! If you don’t, your wine will go bad, your refrigerator will die, and your tastebuds will stop working.

Seriously, just VOTE!

So much going on at once during the week after vacation.

First, I had a case at the Indiana Supreme Court on Wednesday.

Second, I’m legal counsel for one of the presidential campaigns here in St. Joseph County, Indiana, so I’ve been involved in getting ready for election day. I will be SO glad when the election is over so I have one less thing on my brain.

Third, we got ourselves a new puppy, Caoilainn (pronounced kee-lin, it’s Gaelic for Colleen). I forgot what it’s like to be on alert for puppy misbehavior 24/7! She’s great and a lot of fun, but Caoilainn hasn’t quite figured out that writing/typing is something that she’s not yet qualified for.

Thanks to Fred Ordway of Allan Scott in New Zealand, I can share this New Zealand Wine web site with you. This resource has tons of information and helpful tools throughout, including a wine aroma wheel specifically for NZ Sauvignon Blancs [pdf file]. There’s plenty of in-depth research reports as well as a whole vineyard’s worth of links to other web sites of wineries and organizations.

Add this one to your bookmarks!

Over at http://winefornewbies.posterous.com/. You can check it out until Saturday the 25th. I may not post every day since we won’t always be at Epcot. But when I’m there partaking in the festival, you can be sure there will be reasonably live updates.