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Another Wine Byte 7: You Say Meritage…
So many people want to put an implied French pronunciation on the word “Meritage.” And it’s always fun when it’s someone acting like a know-it-all. What many don’t know is that the word “Meritage” is a word used to distinguish that are made in the style of red Bordeaux but without infringing on that region’s…
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Please Don’t Spill Burgundy on My Brassiere
Given that the TSA has decided we can no longer carry on liquids over 3 ounces and they must fit into one little quart-sized bag and we tend to have enough hair care products to max that out, what are we to do if we find some fabulous wine that we want to enjoy at…
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The Grapes of Rant: Wine Blog Awards are Corked
It is apparent that Tom Wark knows and loves wine, is a serious and passionate blogger, and has a sincere desire to help and advance other bloggers. That said, for the second year in a row Tom has horribly botched the American Wine Blog Awards. The categories are narrow and then further limited by restrictions,…
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Toasting my Father, Six Months After Ike
We went down to Kemah today to buy some seafood to go with a white wine we planned to drink for Open That Bottle Night and Twitter Taste Live. I’d heard it was bad. Hurricane Ike. Direct hit. I hadn’t gone anywhere near there in the daylight since the storm because I just didn’t want…
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Can a Pretty Bottle Improve Plonk?
Can Pretty Improve Plonk? Now while the attractiveness of the wine maker or the person pouring the wine might not, on its own, make one more inclined to give the wine a positive review, I think it might cause the taster to want to rate the wine more highly. Or for someone who prides himself…
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To Hell with States’ Rights! – Part I
There are a number of states that make it next to impossible for a consumer to get wine direct-shipped to her. Most of these laws effectively protect the three-tiered system, that takes wine from the winery, to the distributor, to the retail establishment. And I would argue that there is a pretty strong lobby that…
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Wine, Writing and a Woman Named Lucinda
Despite being blessed with so much, I had lost “it”, and it was not coming back. The hole that it left was further eroded and grew like a sinkhole by seeing the country that I love attacked and then horribly botch everything that followed. Without straying too far into the political, I saw the American…
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Social Media, MOM2.0SUMMIT & Wine!
Social Media is not new. What is new, however, is the almost frenetic way the business community is jumping on the social media bandwagon to establish, build, market and sell its “brand” by gathering what really amounts to a huge electronic Rolodex of prospects and targets. Where the disconnect lies; and what successful businesses have…
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W.I.N.E. – A Very Fine Antidote for W.O.R.K.
If you should come into contact with W.O.R.K. put your jacket on and take two good friends to the nearest pub. Purchase the antidote known as Work-Isolator-Neutralizer-Extractor (W.I.N.E.). The quickest acting W.I.N.E. type is called Swift-Hitting-Infiltrator-Remover-All-Zones (SHIRAZ) but this is only available for those who can afford it. The next best equivalent is Cheapest-Available-System-Killer (C.A.S.K.)…
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The Fine Art of Giving Back
I believe some of us are blessed with certain gifts — be it the ability to make money; the ability to build houses; the ability to advocate in court; or the ability to cook — that obligate us to “give back.” For me, it’s because I feel that God blesses some of us with gifts.…