A Little Tuesday Start Me Up Music, Courtesy of The Religion of Peace

Check out the link above, I found this surfing yesterday and I am desperately trying to remember which site linked to this. I know, bad etiquette but what's a dude to do?

Any how, try it first with the sound off, which was the way it was recommended, and then run through the second time with the sound. Good yucks.

How To Drink Wine

A few days ago, PDS suggested that as an accompaniment to my Thursday Night Wine Blogging series I also do a post on the "abc's of how to enjoy wine". My initial reaction was, "oh God, now I'm about to be revealed as a fraud" since my knowledge of wine and wine drinking is extremely limited and I'm sure there are those who have more formal training than me. To be completely honest the whole Thursday Night Wine Blog was born during my "blog ennui" period when I was desperate for a subject and buzzed enough to try the wine blog!

This would be an excellent point for me to exhibit my everyman credentials and say something trite such as, "but this is just the point, wine is for enjoying, and no matter how you approach it, if it's right for you then it's right period". Such sentiments, while safe and unthreatening, are 100% crap. While it is true that there is no right way to drink wine, it is important treat wine with respect and look for it's beauty. I wrote not so long ago about the Frenchman I met that said, he felt that when we say wine must open, what we are really experiencing is our need to adjust to the wine and meet it halfway, accepting it on it's terms, and appreciating it's individual beauty. I don't fully agree with his point, there is in fact solid science behind what happens to change wine when it is exposed to air, but he was correct in that wine drinking is a relationship and not something easily done in a room of distractions, or at a party.

This is not to say one shouldn't enjoy wine out with friends or at parties. Any such suggestion would be ridiculous. What I am going to talk about though is different. I am going to discuss what those of us who taste "nutmeg and spice, earth and tannin" in our wines are experiencing and how we get there. I want to relate to you what it means to experience these flavors, and the nuanced difference between the same wines of varying vintages.

To a certain extent then I guess I will talk to you about being what some call a snob. I've proudly proclaimed my snob status before, and I view it as an honor to be a snob, because to me it is the indication that one has standards in their life and appreciates that form and beauty have as much meaning as function. As a caveat I would note that I never hold my snobbishness over others who do not share my pursuits; it is not the elitism which is important but rather the appreciation. Nor would I hold my snobbishness over those who don't share my standards or interests; we're all different and as long as you care, then I'm your brother.

No, I hold my snobbishness over those who simply can't be bothered. Such people are lost on me and they probably shouldn't go further on this venture with me, because I may offend.

Lesson one then is that to properly enjoy wine, you must care. Like my Frenchman above you must be willing to open yourself to the wine as much as you expect it to open to you. You must give it time and attention. For some folks such a suggestion is simply beyond their grasp. Fraught either with an overwhelming sense of self consciousness or the fear of not getting what others get, they withdraw and don't open to the wine. Self limiting behavior such as this holds people back in every walk of life and it will do so here as well. Open yourself to the experience though and you'll be taking the first step on a rewarding journey.

The discoveries you will make will be thrilling. Some wines will reveal themselves to you to be unworthy of your time. Hopefully, you won't have paid too much or saved them for a special moment. Others will surprise, and these will be the times that you will remember the most.

I remember the first time this happened for me. I've always been blessed with a fairly strong taste memory, so once I discovered that the world of wine was full of flavor I began to take some time to experience the differences. It must have been in 1986, I was shopping in my local store and came upon a Chateau Margaux 1982 that was priced at somewhere around $20. I knew nothing at the time, but in retrospect this bottle was clearly priced incorrectly. A 1982 Margaux is one of the all time great wines.

Anyhow, I took this bottle home, and opened it for a Bears game of all things. I have no idea what the Bears did that day, but I can tell you about that wine. Man, it had strong tannins that supported a solid fruit and to a lesser degree earth taste. The tannins receded over the time the bottle was open, but it was clearly still young. What amazed me the most though was how long after a sip was gone, I could breathe in through my mouth and still taste the wine. Not only taste it, but taste the different tastes almost as if they were levels of flavor on top of one another. I was thrilled! I sat there sipping and breathing for the longest time.

I was hooked from that moment on. Since then I've had many great wines and loved each one to one degree or another. Still, that first experience will always stand out.

So enough for today. I thought this was going to be my only post on this subject, but obviously there is much more to say. One more point. I clearly do not have the key to the kingdom and still consider myself a neophyte in the wine world. For those of you who disagree with me on this or future posts, please comment. I want to learn from this experience as well. For those of you with stories to share, feel free.

Dude, Like, Do You Have Anything To Eat?

Nice house, right? Well maintained, good neighborhood, new cars. Just the type of folks to welcome into the area. Bar be ques on the weekends, PTA on Mondays, maybe bible study every Thursday.

But what lurks behind the doors? Did the neighbors have any idea? I wonder. I guess all the frozen pizza boxes might have tipped the garbage man off. Check it out, and tell me; will we ever win the WOD's?

Via Instapundit

Thursday Night Wine Blogging

Greatings wine lovers! I think I am on some kind of record pace here with what I think is my fourth Thursday Night Wine Blog in a row. Spains looms ever closer on my vacation horizon and I am remaining true to my committment to explore the various wines of the country right up to our departure in a few weeks after which I suppose I'll be exploring them nightly. For two weeks. Cool.

Tonight I have another product of my trip to Sam's a few weeks ago; a 2002 bottle of Barranc dels Closos. I have no idea what this wine is or what region it is from. As with other Thursday blogs, I'll pop the old cork, take a sip or two, and then investigate what we can find out about our honored guest. Reading the bottle I notice that it says the denominacio d'origen is Priorat, which based on what we've learned in our past Spain weeks is a specific part of a region in Spain. To be honest I can't remember if it is Rioja, or another region. I guess you could say that in all the excitement, I clean forgot. So we'll look into it.

But first, lets taste this baby, shall we?

I've popped the cork, and it is a real cork thank goodness and before I've poured a drop I'm smelling fruit, very reminicent of strawberry. This has been a consistently interesting aspect of all the Spanish wines that I've tried in this series. Each one, to one degree or another has had very strong fruit scents out of the bottle. This one, as with the first wine in this series is very strong. I won't say it fills the room, but as I type this I can smell the scent coming out of the bottle.

I've poured a glass and the fruit remains strong, but is complimented by an earthy tone....I'm picking up Grenachey overtones which is odd. Very odd. First, I didn't know that the Spanish vintners used Grenache, and I'm guessing there is some in this wine (perhaps a lot, but we'll have to see how it tastes) and two, I've never smelled strawberrys in a Grenache wine. So, you know, I'm a bit confused here. Lets taste it.

The taste is kind of flat on the front. Not bad, just a bit flat. I'm getting a hint of something, but it disappears and comes back. I'm not so sure about the Grenache either. Another sip seems to be in order. Maybe it's some blueberry and there is that crispness that I've gotten in the other Spanish wines, it's a clean taste, crisp on the tongue. This is definately the lightest of the wines that we've sampled over the last few weeks. It is very refreshing, quite tasty but does not have the lasting mouth that the others had.

None-the-less, I would recommend it. I paid $15 for this bottle and I would describe it as very drinkable. Certainly not great, but quite pleasing. Ok before I surf for some info, lets guess the grape(s). I'm going with Grenache, because I definately smelled it, and what lingering taste is there has it. The fruit tells me there could be some Syrah, but since we know its Spain I'm guessing there is Tempranillo. Although, thinking about it I'd expect that smokey aspect that the other Tempranillos had. So I'm a little stumped. 100% Grenache? Geez, I don't think so yet nothing else seems to work. I'll go 60% Syrah and 40% Grenache.

Well here is some interesting information on the Mas Igneus vintner who produced this wine. It looks like Prioat is a wine that is produced in the Catalonia region, which if memory serves is near Barcelona. The soil is clay and mineral and and the grapes? Something called Garnatxa and Syrah. I have no idea what Garnatxa is, but at least I got the Syrah right. Here is the site for the actual bottle.

On further tasting, the mouth is now a little spicier than before, although I'm a bit suspicious of this reading since I now know that Syrah is definately in the wine and I would expect to taste the spice. I'm enjoying this wine quite a bit. It is not a great wine by any stretch, but for 15 bucks it is a nice wine to enjoy on its own, or perhaps with a bit of cheese. I don't think I would recommend it with a meal since it might get overwhelmed by any strong food.

So, another Thursday, another bottle of wine. I think I better work on killing the rest of the bottle with Mrs. P.

The Ports Scare

I first heard of this UAE ports deal last week on FOX’s morning news. There, having trudged through a record snow fall, was Senator Chuck Schumer outlining the outsourcing deal. I must admit to being a bit dumbfounded at the time by the whole thing. For one thing, I couldn’t believe the insanity of outsourcing port operations to a bunch of Arabs, and secondly I was even more stunned that I seemed to be in agreement with Schumer!

If I’ve learned one thing in the year since I’ve been blogging here, I’ve learned that writing based on first reactions is a dangerous and often irresponsible thing to do. Sure it’s cool to have something up on my site before anybody else does, so immediate action is somewhat satisfying, but once it’s there it’s there for good. Like the proverbial bullet that can’t be called back, a hasty reaction published to the web can end up embarrassing the writer, and that embarrassment can easily overcome the momentary elation one gets from being first.

It’s much better to be thoughtful.

With over a week’s worth of reflection now in the bag it is safe to say my position on the ports issue has evolved. To get the easy stuff out of the way I will stipulate that yet again the Bush administration mishandled a dicey PR situation. How it could have possibly escaped this administration that its political opponents would use this issue to demonstrate their bone fides on the WOT is simply beyond me.

I will also point out quickly that now that the administration has its bearings back in place on the PR issue, there is the very real possibility that this could be yet another loss of credibility for the Democrats on the issue of national security. Party big shots such as Hillary, the aforementioned Chucky and others have made a big deal about how this deal hurts our national security, yet as the facts become clear it is fairly obvious that nothing could be further from the truth. What initially looked bad is upon thoughtful reflection, not necessarily bad at all.

So at best Hil and company look to be playing politics with national security and foreign policy, and at worst, the gang that won’t allow us to profile at airports, seems to be promoting the profiling of an entire country! The problem with Democrats is that they truly believe the entire populace is basically stupid enough to believe whatever comes out of their mouths. Sadly for them, this is only the case with the truest of believers. The rest of us, having caught on somewhere around 1978, no longer look at agreement with Democrats as an agreeable finding of common ground across the political divide so much as we view it as an indicator that we need to look for the rest of the story.

And the rest of the story is somewhat compelling. We know that to win the WOT we need to kill the enemy and recruit the hearts and minds of those decent enough to want to be our allies in a civilized world. This deal represents an opportunity to do just that.

Some facts:

• We use the UAE to service our military in the middle east already.
• The UAE runs ports that load, seal and ship cargo headed for the U.S. today.
• The UAE has been a fairly reliable supporter in the WOT.
• We already sell the UAE our most advanced fighters.
• The UAE has supported us in Iraq and has trained Iraqi troops as part of that support.
• This is a business deal that does not include any authority over security of the ports
• In some cases the UAE will only be responsible for some terminals in larger ports, not the whole port.

Knowledge of these facts clarifies the issue and makes it a much more reasonable transaction. The key point here is that in this deal we conduct proper due diligence and remain consistent to American principles of free minds and free markets. The UAE deal from my point of view seems to accomplish this goal. In doing so, it also helpa our country continue to build bridges to a moderate, albeit imperfect, Arab culture and to one that is as much of an ally as we’re likely to have at this point in the struggle.

Democrats have been eloquent on our need to build these bridges to moderate Arab countries. Their position, which is long on words, is short on ideas; an indication that they’re in the argument from a political and not a national interest point of view.

Lets do this deal, monitor the results and spend our time working together to win the war.

Isaac Hayes, Shot Gun Dick & My Revelation

Wally, a new and valued visitor to the sight took issue in the comments section below with my depiction of Uncle Dick the Gun Happy Veep as a guy "who at one time seemed reasonable". I stand behind that description and I am having thoughts about another post that maybe I should work on:

"The Vice Presidency; The Office That Leads Men to Madness."

See my recent Algore remembrance/Tipper sexual fantasy post for more evidence.

But I'm getting off track. To give me a subtle jab, Wally points out that Ole 12 Gauge once told Pat Leahey to "F-off" on the senate floor. While we can all agree that this was terribly inappropriate, and decidedly uncivilized, I must confess that I was never able to work up the requisite level of outrage that I probably should have over Shotgun Dick's remark.

Well, in a moment of white hot clarity it all came to me. I hate to always quote movies as a template for explaining life, but they are art, and art exists not only to entertain but also inform. Tonight, we learn that that famous Blacksploitation classic, "Shaft" held the key to the underlying reasons for my ambivalence. Allow me to paraphrase Isaac Hayes and his back up singers in the film's title song:

"Hey Leahey, F-off!"

"You watch your mouth"

"Baby I'm talkin' about Leahey"

"Then we can dig it"

See? It makes total sense. Good lord, were it me, I'd have probably given the guy a swirly, or maybe a nuclear wedgie! Talk about indecorous, I doubt anyone has ever attempted those moves on the Senate floor!

As for Cheney, the Shaft example works for me. Some guys just deserve the abuse for being insufferable prigs, and there is little doubt Leahey is one of those guys.

One recommendation if, unlike me it's not too late for you. Try not to picture Uncle Dick in the gold chain outfit sittin' behind the electric keyboards. Because let me tell you, that is one very disturbing visual brother, very disturbing indeed.

I'm going to have to go fantasize about Tipper now.

Good Yucks

I received this little graphic on my email the other day and thought you would enjoy it. We've been on the road this weekend up in Door Country Wisconsin, for some sledding and cross-country skiing. It's been cold - Saturday's high was something like 3 degrees - but a lot of fun. We had a chance to visit some land we have here, and while we can't afford to build a vacation home, it is fun to come up and look at our trees.

On the way home we stopped at Il Retrovo in Sheboygan Wisconsin for some excellent Italian pizzas. This is one of our favorite places and is the companion joint to Trattoria Stephano which I've written about before. Today we started with two Antipastis; PD2 & I split a Mozzarella Pizzaioloa which is fresh mozzarella, sauteed with tomato oregano and olives, served with crusty toasts. Mrs. P and PD1 split Fonduta al Forno, which is smoked mozzarella, oregano and San Marzano tomatoes, topped with prosciutto and baked in a wood fired oven. It is served with toasts and a salad. Both were excellent.

Mrs. P and I then each had a bowl of soup. I chose the lentil, which was quite good with vegetables and potato, while Mrs. P had a mushroom soup, that was made with a chicken stock base and included pureed white button mushrooms and reconstituted porcini's. Black truffle toasts floated on top.

We each finished with a wood fired pizza. I had Quatro Stagione; a pizza with tomato, mushrooms, ham, mozzarella and artichoke, with PD1 had the Bianca; a combination of rosemary, black truffle cheese smoked mozzarella and pancetta. Mrs. P had the Lombardo....sorry I can't remember the details there and PD2 had the Salsiccia; a pizza of tomato, mozzarella and sausage. Folks, these pizzas are just like you get in Rome. They're thin crust, light on the ingredients, packed with flavor and cooked in a wood burning oven....a real wood burning oven, not the gas assisted kind. Stephano truly understands his craft. Every time I go there I think I should talk to him about opening a place by me.

So, that was my weekend and it's back to work tomorrow with an 8a.m. breakfast meeting. Yikes!