only one would survive

Schmidt Family Cab Franc while watching Colter Wall and now the Wood Bros

Well, I shared my cab franc with Barbara Wagner last night.

She was in the seat next to me and is the mayor of Mt Shasta......you could call her center left for the new left....she asked me about women’s liberation using clothing as an example (mind you she brought up politics not me, I just ate the dark chocolate she offered me) I told her I’m glad women feel safe to dress as they want but I don’t like societal/peer pressure for decision making. And that I personally love the female shape but do like a little left to the imagination. Was an interesting conversation with someone who didn’t want to state any positions while pointing things out. I wouldn’t vote for her but I’d certainly drink wine with her anytime. I knew we wouldn’t be BFF when I answered whom I thought Colter Wall reminded me of and I said “his songs remind me of Chris LeDoux” and she had no idea who he was.....maybe she look his music up now that we had our strangers in the night moment.

totally confident you would...I was just stirring up stuff.

I didn’t have the heart to wait for too long before pumping out a response.
I raced home at a consistently rapid pace to pound this out to ensure an evenly allocated distribution.

So without skipping a beat, here it is -

When joining the forums here, my primary interest was of course the cigar experience. Of course.
But when I discovered the wine forum, I felt it incumbent upon myself to share my breadth of knowledge.
However, I soon discovered you to be the local connoisseur. This forum was your baby.
Out of respect for you and your limited expertise, I quietly bowed out.

I was recently brought back though from related subject matter in posts on other forums.
So I took another look...

After going through your questions and perusing a number of your posts,
I was flabbergasted. Befuddled. Stymied. Flummoxed. Bewildered. Perplexed. Aghast.
It seems we are living parallel lives Spey! Truly remarkable...

From the variety of experience, to your recommendations and analysis, I could see a younger me in your words.
I laughed to see the same mistakes, but was jubilant to see the same enthusiasm and thirst for knowledge.
Much of your advice and analysis is more than adequate. Some of it actually quite good!
I only saw serious mistakes in roughly 30% of your posts. But with it, I could see the evolution of someone who,
given perseverance and guidance, truly has a future in the business. You lack some of the subtleties of understanding
this fine art of the vine, but in time, I feel you do in fact have what's necessary to become a master.
It's important that you do not rush it though. Let it happen naturally. Organically.

In experience, knowledge, understanding and interpretation, the similarities are undeniable.
Whilst I am certainly more advanced than you, we are apparently on the same trajectory.
I am here to help you in any way that I can. In knowledge, advice, or just to share a moment along the way.
Do not be intimidated. Contact me any time I can be of assistance. This is exciting!

I am truly your amico della vite
IZON
____

Oh yeah, NEVER drink chamomile tea. It’s a palate killer.

And you are welcome for the education about wine.

Run with that one. Good material potentially. There is a ton of accurate but useless information in my ramblings. Though I would look up mega purple and a few others, kind of interesting. Wines are for drinking, epiphanies are for religion.

My dog channels Ron Tin Tin. He is rather dogmatic in his principles. Glad he doesn't channel Lassie , what a biotch. This post thread has went to the dogs, and you sir are barking up the wrong tree. I imagine to be fair to all I should mention a really good wine. Bellefontaine Cabernet Sauvignon from the vin de pays de oc in southwest France. Rich, dark berry fruits, medium body with soft tannins. An absolute steal for $8.99/bottle. To me it is as good as many $40/bottle I have tasted recently. I think it is from Herault, but don't quite remember.

Spey - are you familiar with Les Volet? Unoaked French Chardonnay. Picked up a couple of bottles, and know I prefer French to California chard, but haven’t tried this one. Well priced so worth a shot.

Thanks for the recs. I’ll report back. Probably open one tomorrow

2015 O’Shaugnessy Cabernet - really good, but not sure I would actually pay for it myself

Ledger David tasting:

Blended white
Sangiovese
Cab Franc
Super Tuscan

Now enjoying a full glass of Cab Franc while renewing my membership with the new info...

Caymus 2009 private selection with my bride

Never heard of that but special selection is great stuff. IIRC I have a few from 1996 left.

Not supposed to drink carbonated beverages anymore, so I'm bleeding cheap wine.

A magnum of Kirkland Cabernet Sauvignon for $7.99,

Costco offers a ton of good wines, often 30% cheaper than the liquor store. And their Kirkland labels are pretty damn tasty for the price.

Gnarley 1924

I haven't been looking at this tread for quite some time, LMAO!!!

Nothing better for a troll to see than a goober "sword fight", LOL

IZON and Spey, ya'll need to Kiss and make up, HEHE!

Oh, and BTW, I didn't go back to watch the whole fight, but if'n you don't know about Missouri saving the French wine regions in the 1800's, the both of you should be ashamed!!



Seems we Southerners are more likely to be sweet wine drinkers, so we don't generally fit in, seems to be the only thing that can fit in with GOOD corn moonshine. Although, I'm sure the larger cities, like Nashville, Atlanta, Birmingham, et al have some fine sommeliers. I was raised helping one of my Grandaddies with his wine making. That usually consisted of a trial period whist young. SO, I passed the test and got to go to the well-house and "punch down" the cap on his fermenting batch of whatever on a daily basis if I was spending some time at their place.


The farm where our place burned is just a half mile from a winery that was started by a British Gas Physicist/Engineer, he's the one that found that "Fire Ice", Methane Hydrate on the sea floor and determined that it wasn't quite worth the value to try and "mine". He had a famous Grandfather in Britain as well. Long story short, he had never made a drop in his life when he started, so I got to help him out on his first attempts. Some funny stuff, just hearing him learn, panic and all the other things that happen when starting a winery. Sadly he passed quickly from cancer in '16.

Here's his obituary and it gives some of his recognitions and lifetime achievements, as well as mentioning the winery.

https://www.sheltonfuneralhomes.com/obituary/3787317


As for me, I've made quite a few gallons over the years, have multiple 5 gal. glass carboys, airlocks, etc. But, I just don't really have the time for much of that nowadays. As well, my back can't handle all that work! I prefer "Eisweins/Icewines", Sweet ports and some good sweet muscadine.


Honestly, I did get to travel all over California, Sonoma area, Healdsburg, but the best IMHO is Temecula, mostly because it's not too commercial, small family wineries, some just a few acres on a hillside and more sweet wines than the Northern growers. Funny story, my wife has never seen me outright drunk, I can hide it well, hehe. But one travel day, we started out from Rancho Cucamonga, or as I liked to tease and say Rancho Cook-a-monkey, hehe. SO we hit Galleano winery first and then headed through Temecula. The fella that preferred me to be his navigator always treated us to ONE HELLUVA TRAVEL day! SO we then proceeded through Temecula, basically from one driveway to the next on our way to San Diego. By 6 pm CA time, which was 9 pm here in West TN, I called my wife, I had lost count of how many flights we had drank, as well as all the wineries we had hit, but it had to be at least ten and I was like a giggling school girl. She still likes to tell folks about that day/phone call, LMAO! I was pretty full of it, FOR SURE!

Now back to the regular show, LOL.

2018 Aime Roquesante Rose Provence wine

real crisp, very refreshing

2016 Joel Gott 815 Cabernet Sauvignon

Apothic California Red

2016 Double Diamond Cabernet Sauvignon
Schrader Cellars, Oakville Napa Valley) CA

very nice with a medium rare rib eye, steamed sliced zuke, baked russet, big fresh salad.

Obviously dined alone tonight!

Ledger David Sauvignon Blanc

2015 Mari Vineyards Cabernet Franc, Traverse City, Michigan

Trazo Meadery Orange Blossom Mead Batch #3

Slightly drier than most meads and quite good.

Ledger David 2016 Dark Night.