I had a fine time yesterday afternoon at the wine tasting organized by the amaziing puppeteer, Mary Robinette Kowal's apartment. Her husband is a wine geek and was a boutique winemaker in Portland, Oregon.

So about 12 of use nibbled, chatted, and sampled three "flights" of wine: rose, Chardonnay, and Cabernet. It was fun and illuminating. One thing learned: you can't eat asparagus with wine--the chemical reaction makes the wine taste awful. So cleanse your palate with bread if you're drinking wine with your dinner and asparagus is being served. We tasted a cooked cork wine (I think that's what it's called)--when the cork starts coming out because the wine has been overheated in transit (or in your apt)...awful. Throw it out should this happen.

I've never been a fan of rose but we had one pretty good one. We had three whites (one the cooked cork one) and one was excellent. Again, I started out disliking whites a lot, probably because the ones I had tried years ago were either cheap California whites or Liebfraumilch from Germany--too sweet for a dry but not sweet enough for a dessert wine. I've come to like them since Dirk Flinthart of Tasmania took me on a winery tour a few years ago. That's where I drank lichee nut wine that was brilliant (and unfortunately, not exported from Tasmania). I still prefer deep reds. Margaux, medoc, that sort of stuff.

Last night my living room blacked out for over an hour--this happened several months ago and I had no electricity in my living room and in the overhead light in my bedroom over a holiday weekend. It wasn't the fuse. The electrician came the Tuesday after that holiday (I had to take my laptop to a cafe around the corner to use their wifi) and said it was something in the connection in the overhead light in my living room. He supposedly fixed it so it should not have happened again--and there's no reason it should have gone back on after a period of time. I left a message with my super last night and will confer with him tomorrow.


Finally, a wonderful brunch today with friends (upper west side two days in a row-shock!).
lagilman: coffee or die (Default)

From: [personal profile] lagilman


with a major simplification and always bowing before actual experts....

When ranking the ripeness and sweetness of German rieslings, kabinett is the lowest, or dryest ranking, with spatlese next up (a well-made spatlese isn't overly sweet either, but it is riper and more full-bodied), and then up to auslese (I may be spelling that wrong) which I normally can't drink. And then you get the really sweet wines that are best served in small glasses with blu cheeses and foie gras...

(damn. Now I'm hungry)

/wine geeking

From: [identity profile] ellen-datlow.livejournal.com


Geek away. It's fascinating ;-) I think I need to go to a lot more tastings, it really is fascinating.
lagilman: coffee or die (Default)

From: [personal profile] lagilman


if you click on the "alcohol" tag in my LJ, you should get an overdose of geekery....

From: [identity profile] ellen-datlow.livejournal.com


Oh I adore single malts and I do like Balvenie. Although I've tried different Islays, I still think Lagavulin is still my favorite. I can't describe them at all though--just know what I like...
.

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