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December 7 2007
Since many wine bloggers are offering up some nice recommendations for holiday gifting for wine lovers of all stripes (see Tom from Fermentation exposing one of my secrets with vintage wine books), I thought I would jump into the fray with my recommendation for the single greatest gift for any wine lover young or old, seasoned or newbie.
It’s the Vacu Vin.
Honestly, if there has been a better wine invention second to the corkscrew, I’m not sure what it is.
My wine life changed once I got one.
The concept is simple enough, most of us know what a Vacu Vin is—little rubber stoppers and a hand pump to suck the air out of your wine bottle.
The thing that makes a Vacu Vin so remarkable is that, paired with your refrigerator, it can legitimately hold wine for several days, if not a week. It works! And, it’s easy to underestimate it as an indispensable tool.
And, the bonus of the Vacu Vin is that it’s not going to break the bank—you can get five stoppers and a pump for under $25 bucks, frequently much less if you shop at a discount housewares store.
In saving wine from going bad while significantly extending shelf life this baby will return an ROI to its user in at least two weeks, perhaps sooner if you drink anything above $15 bucks a bottle.
Because my wife is only a casual drinker and close to a teetoler, I end up being almost singularly responsible for drinking all of the wine that is opened at our house. And, the rub is, I like to drink wine, yes, but I also like to taste wine which means after I open one bottle I’m frequently thinking about what my next bottle choose is going to be.
The Vacu Vin lets me have several bottles running at the same time without the potential peril of the vino turning into vinegar with a cork in the bottle sitting on the counter-top. Much to my wife’s chagrin, it’s not unusual for me to have four bottles of wine running at the house at any given time, replacing the salad dressing in the bottom door, relegating the blue cheese dressing to another spot in the fridge—the real source of irritation for my wife.
Plus, the Vacu Vin, in only very rare circumstance robs fragile wine of character, and most wines are sturdy enough to hold up to multiple uses of the Vacu Vin.
I can’t imagine operating without one.
If you add the Vacu Vin with the Vinturi Essential Wine Aerator, replacing a clunky decanter that is bedeviling to clean, then you pretty much have, in my estimation, about the best wine-related gift you could give somebody for under $65.
Alas, my love affair with the Vacu Vin maybe coming to an end shortly. Supposedly, the Wine Saver Pro is coming out with a home edition, so wine enthusiasts can use a shot of argon gas to preserve their wine indefinitely.
Until then, I know the Vacu Vin will be my preferred gift of choice.
December 4 2007
There are a couple of things to stay away from in polite company—politics, college football allegiances, old world palate versus a new world palate and religion.
Most days the best you can get from me is the fact that I’m a centrist and an independent in politics and I say “Happy Holidays” instead of Merry Christmas—my Notre Dame fandom and California palate notwithstanding. Basically, unless I have a defensible opinion, I’ve learned to stay away from ideological issues. I became more astute around a couple of these items when I married into a family with a father-in-law who is an arch conservative and staunchly Jewish, as is his daughter, my wife (the Jewish part that is, not the Ann Coulter loving, Bill O’Reilly watching part, which would have been a relationship dealbreaker). Coming out of 12 years of Catholic school, the Hebrew tradition has been a pleasant education: eye-opening and even mind expanding. It’s kind of like a California wine drinker getting turned on to an austere French wine. The styles are different, but you can really appreciate the history, perspective and differences if you take the time to climb through the learning curve.
With sundown today marking the start of Hanukkah, I wanted to take just a brief second to highlight a very nice article from Winebusiness.com published last week.
The article, found here, says in part:
Since Biblical times, the use of wine to celebrate life has been an important part of Jewish traditions. Jews, too, have been a vital link in America, from the “discovery” of the New World in 1492, to America’s War for Independence, and into the present age. It is no surprise, then, that Jews have also become an important link to the development of America’s best known wine region, the Napa Valley.
The article continues …
“How much of my choices in life have to do with my religion, is a difficult question,” said Daniel Baron, winemaker at Silver Oak. “In my case, Silver Oak is owned by a Catholic family with the same integral concerns about making great wine that I have. The same ethical values that are present in Jewish culture we’ve always had at Silver Oak. Wine is an ecumenical collaboration. It has a true unifying effect.”
Weir added: “We have a principle in Judaism that we hope to adhere to and follow. We call it Tikkun Olam. That’s the translation from the Hebrew. In English it would be translated as “Repairing the World.” That pretty much says why you find jews in the forefront of charitable and volunteer organization. Like many other groups, we have this mandate and calling, to not just sit on your butt, but to help others.”
An “ecumenical collaboration,” I like that. During this holiday season, when everybody’s thought is on family and giving back to those less fortunate, let’s make sure we reach out for an ecumenical collaboration for people of all stripes and belief systems. It seems apropos given the world climate we live in and doing so from a religious perspective seems to be at the heart of a lot of world conflict. And, if you take a glancing look you’ll find that wine is at the heart of most cultures, a common denominator that we can all appreciate. The winebusiness.com article has a lengthy list of Napa wineries with Judaic roots—that’s a good place to start.
December 3 2007
Eschewing the wine blogosphere and mainstream media for once, Gary Vaynerchuk is featured today on an Internet marketing site found at www.strategicprofits.com.
The blog post featuring Gary can be found here.
The owner of the site, Rich Schefren, makes a living as a business coach to Internet marketers.
This isn’t a knock on coaches in the Internet marketing space, but most of these guys are shylocks of the first order and will take any opportunity to tout the mysterious “secrets” of success that they have worked a lifetime to accumulate. I’ve read a couple of the “free” reports and there are some nuggets to glean, but, generally speaking, these are like the guy that has a “sure-fire” college football gambling pick—the ‘stone cold lock’ and then he calls you three times a day for the next month wanting you to sign up for his service. These guys want you sign up for their webinars for $100 or $150 bucks to learn more of the secrets, the bait being free whitepapers and workbooks and such. I think the only secret is they make a pretty good living off of people that have enough wherewithal to dip a toe in the water, but not enough to jump into the deep end of the pool. Or, to use the gambling analogy—guys that have enough money to gamble, but not enough to lose …
I wish I listened to the audio because it seems like Rich is trying to keep up, get a word in and do his own bit of chest puffing. He admitted on page 12 of the transcript that Gary probably knew more about social media. Ironically, did I mention, the interviewer, Rich, makes a living as an Internet Marketer/Guru?
Interesting, indeed.
Check it out. Vaynerchuk is in full-on “talkamileaminutemodewithabunchofunecdotesandanologies” and there’s some good background detail on the origination and growth of Winelibrary.com.
Gary plays it straight and plays it genuine, but for my money I think he should not be so quick to do the James Lipton “Inside the Actors Studio” bit so soon. There’s still a lot to conquer for Vaynerchuk and keeping his craft sacrosanct will help keep the allure for those who have yet to discover the “brand.” Even in a transparent 360 degree online world, there’s something to be said for the band not playing the #1 hit during the encore—leaving the audience wanting something more.
If you’re interested in the audio it can be found here.
Continued Godspeed to Gary. His explosion onto the scene in ’07 is the best and most interesting thing to happen in the wine blogosphere—he is a natural foil for all things that are interesting about our online wine world and I continue to root for his worldwide domination.
December 2 2007
I was a bit disappointed in October when, based on some business travel and a dearth of Portugese wine in my locale, I had to sit on the sidelines for the Catavino-hosted Portugese table wine themed Wine Blogging Wednesday.
Alas, as the cliché goes … better late than never …
As a form of a make-good to myself, I picked up the Catavino blogger-pack from Domaine547.com.
I’m putting together my own blogger-pack in conjunction with Domaine547.com in an upcoming month, and the idea is a very good one—a wine blogger makes a few wine recommendations (generally three wines that total $50 or less in order size) and Jill sells it as a three-pack with some promotional support from the blogger. The Blogger sampler packs gives wine consumers a chance to try wines that are different and not widely available –at all- and it gives the blogger an opportunity to highlight wines he/she has particular knowledge or appreciation for.
The Catavino pack features three beauties:
The 2006 Famega Vinho Verde, a 2003 Esporao Trincadeira, and the 2003 So Touriga Nacional. Rea, Companhia Velha, SA
I pulled the cork on the ’03 Esporao Trincadeira not certain what to expect. I let it rest for a week or so to offset any potential bottle shock and as the cork slid out of the bottle I distinctly remarked to my wife, “I hope this is good, I’m not in the mood for a crappy wine.” The comment had less to do with the actual wine—it could have been any random bottle that I picked up—and had to do with a recent bad spat of luck in opening up some clunkers. No problems, here. I was not disappointed. The Esporao is a delicious wine.
Produced by Herdade do Esporao, the Trincadeira grape is indigenous to Portugal and thrives in hot weather, with poor soil. This wine, coming from the Alentejo region of Portugal is a stunner that will open your eyes to table reds of the country and the region.
Thanks to Domaine547 for coming up with such a fun idea for the wine blogger packs and special thanks to Catavino for promoting the wines of Portugal and picking out and sharing such a delightful wine.
My tasting note can be found here.
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