Wine Reviews, Affordable Wine Finds & More

Thank You!!

noreply@blogger.com (Wine-O) — Wed, 03 Feb 2010 01:40:00 +0000

I wanted to extend a HUGE thank you to my monthly readers. Up to 1,500 readers grace these pages every month, for that I am humbled. I hope to continue bringing you affordable wine finds and wine knowledge for years to come!

Thanks to Green Wine Bottles for the image. I LOVE these, what a creative way to re-purpose and re-cycle old wine bottles.

Dirty Jobs, Winery

noreply@blogger.com (Wine-O) — Wed, 20 Jan 2010 18:29:00 +0000

Dirty Jobs on Discovery is a family favorite in our household. On occasion my 5-year old will opt out of Sesame Street and ask for Mike Rowe by name! If you tune into Discovery, they frequently run Dirty Job marathons, including a visit to a winery.

While I didn't find the job particularly dirty, the episode was both entertaining and educational. If you have a DVR it's worth seeking it out, it provides a brief glimpse into the inner-workings of a large vineyard. The most interesting part for me was seeing the grape-less stems by the thousands sent via conveyor belt to over sized dumpsters. The stems were mulched and used as fertilizer in the vineyard, now THAT's going GREEN.

Cheers!

Wine Gear I LOVE and USE

noreply@blogger.com (Wine-O) — Wed, 06 Jan 2010 00:46:00 +0000

I didn't hide my dislike of the Vinturi but there are a few indispensable wine accoutrement that I would recommend to others. A good decanter is key, a waiter's corkscrew essential and the wine foil cutter, a luxury. I received the foil cutter several years ago from my brother-in-law. Skeptical at first, it's become a well used part of my oenophile weaponry.

With a good waiter's corkscrew you can dispense of the foil covering the cork with a few strokes of your blade. But with the wine foil cutter and a simple squeeze/turn, you can be done in half the time. The cutter slices a perfect circle around the top, exposing the cork. A little lazy...perhaps. But at $5, it's hard to pass up, particularly if you've accidentally sliced your finger open on some exposed foil!

Cheers!

Australian Wine, How far you've come!

noreply@blogger.com (Wine-O) — Fri, 11 Dec 2009 18:24:00 +0000

I'm a big Monty Python fan, I was listening and watching long before I started drinking wine. Good thing I didn't take their humor too much to heart, otherwise one sketch entitled "Australian Table Wines" would have kept me away from some of the finest wines in the world!

In 1972 when this sketch was written I have no doubt the wine was pretty much as described...but baby, how far you've come! And now for a little giggle...

------
"A lot of people in this country pooh-pooh Australian table wines. This is a pity as many fine Australian wines appeal not only to the Australian palate but also to the cognoscenti of Great Britain.

Black Stump Bordeaux is rightly praised as a peppermint flavored Burgundy, whilst a good Sydney Syrup can rank with any of the world's best sugary wines.

Château Blue, too, has won many prizes; not least for its taste, and its lingering after-burn.

Old Smokey 1968 has been compared favorably to a Welsh claret, whilst the Australian Wino Society thoroughly recommends a 1970 Coq du Rod Laver, which, believe me, has a kick on it like a mule: eight bottles of this and you're really finished. At the opening of the Sydney Bridge Club, they were fishing them out of the main sewers every half an hour.

Of the sparkling wines, the most famous is Perth Pink. This is a bottle with a message in, and the message is 'beware'. This is not a wine for drinking, this is a wine for laying down and avoiding.

Another good fighting wine is Melbourne Old-and-Yellow, which is particularly heavy and should be used only for hand-to-hand combat.

Quite the reverse is true of Château Chunder, which is an appellation contrôlée, specially grown for those keen on regurgitation; a fine wine which really opens up the sluices at both ends.

Real emetic fans will also go for a Hobart Muddy, and a prize winning Cuivre Reserve Château Bottled Nuit San Wogga Wogga, which has a bouquet like an aborigine's armpit.

Cheers!

Free the Grapes!

noreply@blogger.com (Wine-O) — Tue, 24 Nov 2009 18:43:00 +0000

I wouldn't be a responsible wine blogger if I didn't feature Freethegrapes.org at least once. "Free the Grapes! is a national grassroots coalition of wine lovers, wineries and retailers who seek to remove restrictions in states that still prohibit consumers from purchasing wines directly from wineries and retailers."

If you've ever tried to gift wine, join a wine club or purchase wine for yourself at an online store, you've probably run into a myriad of shipping restrictions. Twelve States prohibit direct shipment including my hub in the mid-Atlantic. I'd encourage you to visit Free the Grapes and research you're own State Laws and contact your local Congressman, I know I will!

Thanksgiving Wine

noreply@blogger.com (Wine-O) — Tue, 24 Nov 2009 14:20:00 +0000

Thanks to the Wine School of Philadelphia for the following wine recommendations:

First of all, you will probably need a bottle for those friends/family who don't drink wine. Instead of getting them a bottle of white zin, grab a bottle of St. Supery's Moscato (about $12). Its just sweet enough for them, but still complex and balanced enough to enjoy. Its actually quite good with cranberry sauce.

For a white wine, you could go with Pieropan's Soave Classico ($13). Its stylish and crisp with just enough lush peach to work with some of those freaky yam dishes ya'll will be eating. Another idea would be to go with the Gloria Ferrer Blanc de Blanc ($15); this is a fun little champagne wannabe with a touch of almond and pear on the nose.

For a red, I tend to go with the drench-it-all-with-a-fruit-bomb approach. It's especially effective if you have a family like mine (I am never sure what is worse, Aunt Sarah's Suet-and-Kidney Pie or her husband's drunken advances.)

With that in mind, go for the Bleasdale "Bremerview" Shiraz ($12). A great dose of over-the-top fruit that totters between luxury and trashy. It's also about 15% alcohol, which always makes the holidays more... interesting.

If you want honest-to-goodness class, then get a few bottles of Chateau Coufran Haut Medoc ($13). It's the best bottle of left bank Bordeaux available under twenty bucks, and my current favorite anyday wine.

If the pumpkin pie ain't enough for you, then you should have a
bottle of Dutschke The Tokay ($12 for a half bottle), too. Imagine a bottle of maple syrup and a vintage port had a love child.

Recession Hits the Grape Market

noreply@blogger.com (Wine-O) — Thu, 05 Nov 2009 14:25:00 +0000

A silver lining to the recession, likely a very good year for affordable, quality wine in the 2009 vintage.

Grape Glut Could Benefit Consumers
Nov. 4, 2009, courtesy of Marketwatch.com
The recession is hitting grape farmers hard in California wine country, where the spot market for grapes has virtually disappeared. That may be good news for consumers. Stacey Delo reports: View Video Here

Bottle Shock the Movie

noreply@blogger.com (Wine-O) — Thu, 05 Nov 2009 02:12:00 +0000

Late Fall is approaching with the sun setting around 5pm, perfect for wine and a movie night! And what better combination than Bottle Shock the movie and a VERY nice bottle of wine? Bottle Shock is the loosely based story of the Judgment of Paris widely considered the year California wine arrived on the world scene. Click the link above for my April 2008 post on this exciting event!

If you're looking to splurge on a stunningly complex Spanish wine, I highly recommend the Clio 2006 from Jumilla. It had a finish that went on for days... Unfortunately I cannot recommend Bottle Shock though. Apart from the beautiful panorama's of Napa, it was a sappy love story sandwiched between 15 minutes of content about the actual event. It had its moments, but overall I'd like that hour and half of my day back.

Cheers!

Kissing Frogs

noreply@blogger.com (Wine-O) — Mon, 12 Oct 2009 18:29:00 +0000

When you run an affordable wine blog, you inevitably kiss a lot of frogs, or in this case very bad wine. My last wine store outing I bought a case, looking wines worthy to post. Out of 12 bottles, there was only one winner, the Luzon. Check back often, when I do post a wine, it's definitely worth the wait... Perhaps I can turn some of the duds into gourmet red wine vinegar for Christmas...

Cheers.

Bodegas Luzon 2008, Syrah/Monastrell, $6!

noreply@blogger.com (Wine-O) — Mon, 14 Sep 2009 01:05:00 +0000

Fall is here...and for me, that means the return of dense nummy RED's! Choking back a 15% Shiraz in 90 degree heat is not easy. With evenings in the Northeast reaching the low 60's however, you'll find it much easier to enjoy this little gem.

The 2008 Luzon is a blend of Syrah and Monastrell. I had the wine in two different sittings several days apart, and to continued to surprise me. In addition to the black cherry and plum fruits, I also got hints of chocolate and orange marmalade. At $6 a bottle, this is an absolute steal and further solidifies Spain as an affordable (quality) wine Mecca.

Cheers!

Wine Service

noreply@blogger.com (Wine-O) — Sun, 16 Aug 2009 14:36:00 +0000

I infrequently order a bottle of wine during dinner, mostly because of the bloated cost. If you do splurge wine "service" is standard with most bottles, so what should you expect? The service can be a little intimidating if you have no idea what the Server is doing. Simply follow the (quick) steps below and you'll look like a seasoned pro:

1. The server will show you the bottle. This is to ensure the bottle you ordered is the bottle being served.
2. The server will use an auger and uncork the wine. Typically the cork is given to you for inspection. Look to see if the cork is dried or cracked as this might indicate a problem.
3. The server will pour you a small amount. Placing your glass firmly on the table, check the color, give the wine a swirl, then lift and inhale deeply. Again, you're essentially looking for any problems with the wine.
4. Give it a quick tipple, the final litmus test of taste.
5. If it looks good, smells good and tastes good...it's good!
6. The server will then fill your glass and others at your table.

Again, very simple, the whole process shouldn't last more than a few minutes.

Cheers!

Turkey Flat Rose 2008, $15 Summer Goodness

noreply@blogger.com (Wine-O) — Thu, 30 Jul 2009 22:29:00 +0000

I was introduced to Turkey Flat by a local wine store named Corkscrewed. I thought the name was pretty clever!

Every year the Turkey Flat Rose changes in complexity by the varying percentage of grapes used. Turkey Flat uses all of the following grapes: Grenache, Shiraz, Cabernet and Dolcetto. The result is a beautifully flushed wine, of which 2008 came in a little dry. The 2006 was a little sweeter, but I still enjoyed the 2008 thoroughly and look forward to what 2009 will bring. Stock up on this perennial favorite for your next pic-nic or BBQ, you won't be disappointed.

How does a Rose get it's pink color you ask? Rose's use both white and red grapes, but the red grape skins are left in for a short time before being removed. A longer steep yields a darker pink, a shorter steep, a lighter pink. Vwalla!

Cheers!

Wine stemware, expensive accessories

noreply@blogger.com (Wine-O) — Sun, 12 Jul 2009 14:37:00 +0000

The first time I used a large tumbler wine glass, I thought it looked a little silly. Proportionately it looked very large in my hand, like I was carrying around a decanter! I quickly became a convert of the larger glasses though. They hold more wine and it's easier to aerate the wine. With the wider opening you can really get your nose in there and inhale the beautiful aromas. If you're really picky, there's a wine glass for almost every varietal...

...but much like wine itself, stemware isn't cheap. Some are mass produced, some hand blown, the sky's the limit. And contrary to what the marketing might say, ALL will break on you. I've gone through 20 in the last year and a half. I'm not unusually clumsy, they are very fragile. You'll break them while hand washing, you'll break them bumping into another glass and I'm not convinced a shrill scream won't break them... Riedel makes a line of crack resistant glasses, but they don't seem any tougher than others.

If you don't own a set of larger glasses, I highly recommend giving them a try, they will greatly enhance your wine drinking experience. Bargain shop them though, they won't be your first set!

Cheers!

Seidelberg Merlot, 2003, $7!?

noreply@blogger.com (Wine-O) — Sun, 21 Jun 2009 19:49:00 +0000

Don't be afraid of the bargain bin, you'll find some true diamonds in the rough. My local wine store must have bought WAY too much of this vintage and they were dumping it for pennies on the dollar. Their loss, our gain...

I've never had much luck finding a South African red I like, but the Seidelberg Merlot really surprised me! I was immediately met on the palate with smoke, then smoked bacon and ripe berries. It was thoroughly enjoyable and a unique departure from my recent tipples. Drink the Seidelberg 2003 Merlot now, it should pair nicely with your next BBQ or cheese plate.

Cheers!

Arona Sauvignon Blanc 2008, $9

noreply@blogger.com (Wine-O) — Wed, 10 Jun 2009 00:29:00 +0000

LOVED this wine. Not only was it affordable, but it exuded some under-ripe peach notes on the nose and palate...delicious. Most wine is made to drink young and the 2008 Arona is no exception.

Australia cranks out a LOT of beefy reds, but I've been very impressed with New Zealand's whites. Buy a bottle (or three!) of the 2008 Arona Sauvignon Blanc with confidence, it's joy in a glass on a hot, humid day.

Cheers!

Non-Grape Based Wines, Hakutsuru Sake $13-$15

noreply@blogger.com (Wine-O) — Sun, 17 May 2009 14:00:00 +0000

Sake. Say it with me, "Sa-Kay", not "Sa-Key". Correct pronunciation matters. On your next dine out would you ask for a nice Mur-Lot (Merlot)? ;-)

I really enjoy Sake' and there's a lot of misinformation floating around about how to drink it. Click below for information on the different grades and types of sake'.

Some general misconceptions I've encountered:
1. You should drink sake warm/hot. While a nice warm glass of sake on a cold night is good, most sake should be drunk chilled. Reserve the warm/sake for the cheaper bottles. Warming a junmai ginjo would be a waste of good sake.

2. Only good sake comes from Japan. Japan makes some of the finest Sake in the world, but I've encountered some beautiful bottles out of California, very affordable too.

3. Sake is really strong. Sake can range from 13% alc by volume to 17%, about the same as a stronger white wine to a really strong red. Sake is clear but it's not vodka.

I highly recommend the bottle in the photo above. The Hakutsuru is very light, fragrant, dry but still has a nice sweetness. This is an easy drinking sake, sure to be a party pleaser.

Cheers!

Wine & Price, Fuzzy Math

noreply@blogger.com (Wine-O) — Wed, 06 May 2009 00:29:00 +0000

I started this blog because I wanted to share that high quality wine doesn't have to be expensive. A LOT goes into the price of wine... you have the acreage costs, growing costs, yields, overhead, storage, shipping, middlemen, market pricing, etc. If you really start to calculate, it's amazing you can get a quality bottle for $10! But I digress..

Recently I was encouraged by a friend that knows a lot more about wine to splurge on a premium bottle. This wine was not only expensive but it was suppose to be top rate. Normally $60 a bottle, it was marked down to $30, a "steal" for some. Running an affordable wine blog has it's responsibilities. I really want to practice what I preach, so several times a year I will splurge to see if the extra cost brings the added enjoyment. Usually I'm disappointed, perhaps the expectations don't live up to the hype. Was the $60 bottle good? Yes. Was it $60 good, no. Was it $30 good, debatable. Perhaps my palate still needs more refining, but I wouldn't recommend the bottle to my readers at that price.

All this price-to-quality issue got me thinking, there must be a way to equate a general increase in price to overall enjoyment. I've been toying around with an unscientific model. Humor me here because this probably very silly. Say you have a $10 bottle of your favorite wine. In my experience a $20 bottle would not be twice as good, but it would probably be 20%-30% better. So the extra $10 in cost gave you a 20% bump in enjoyment. Perhaps an accurate perception will temper our expectations and thus improve enjoyment as well? Or maybe I shouldn't do math equations while drinking wine...

Cheers!

Wine on Tap?

noreply@blogger.com (Wine-O) — Fri, 01 May 2009 18:00:00 +0000

A great article from the NY Times below, originally posted here. This is a great idea and think of all the glass, cork and general waste it could save?

On Tap? How About Chardonnay or Pinot Noir
By ERIC ASIMOV

THE bartender pulls the handle and the liquid pours forth from keg to glass with the distinctive gushing sound that has launched a zillion thirsts. Ah, yes, that fresh draft flavor — nothing like wine on tap.

Wine? On tap? Is this another attack by the same philistines who insist on screw caps, stemless glasses and other means of depriving wine lovers of their pretensions?

On the contrary, wine, stored in kegs and served through a method similar to a draft-beer line, may be the glorious future of by-the-glass pours in bars and restaurants.

It’s just a trickle right now, but the keg and tap system has successfully taken hold in restaurants in Los Angeles and San Francisco, and in wine bars in the city of Napa, Calif.; in Atlanta; and in Traverse City, the heart of Michigan wine country. And it’s coming soon to New York City, to no less a place than Daniel Boulud’s downtown outpost, DBGB, tentatively scheduled to open on the Bowery in May.

“It’s the wave of the future,” said Colin Alevras, DBGB’s beverage manager, who will have 24 taps at his disposal, 22 for beer and one each for a house red and a house white. The number of wine lines may increase there, he said, if the public is receptive.

What makes wine on tap not merely good but brilliant? It’s not the tap, it’s the keg.

Taps themselves have been used for many years as part of complex preservation systems intended to protect open bottles against the demon slayer of wine, oxygen. Perhaps you’ve seen such a system, bottles in a refrigerated glass cabinet, taps on the outside, a Medusa’s tangle of hoses extending upward in an effort to rebuff the oxygen with inert gases like argon. Systems like these are an improvement over the half-empty bottle recorked behind the bar, but they are imperfect, complicated and expensive.

The bottles are a problem. Even with the best preservation system the wines don’t always stay perfectly fresh. A lot of wine is thrown away, or served in poor condition, resulting in a lesser experience at a greater price for consumers and a lot of waste for the restaurant.

“You have to calculate in your pricing the wine you didn’t sell, the wine you had to throw away,” said Sang Yoon, the chef and owner of two Father’s Office restaurants in the Los Angeles area, and a true believer in the keg and tap method. “The wine is 20 percent cheaper right off the bat.”

Mr. Yoon served wines by the glass the conventional way at his first Father’s Office in Santa Monica, where his fanatical pursuit of top-quality ingredients and superb craft beers, along with an autocratic style (“no substitutions, modifications, alterations or deletions,” the menu reads) turned his little bar into a cult restaurant. But he wanted something better for the wine when he opened his second restaurant, in Culver City.

“I can’t remember having had a positive wine-by-the-glass experience unless the bottle was freshly opened,” he said. “As an owner, you also come to realize how wasteful wine by the glass becomes. As a result your pricing has to reflect that waste, so most places serve cheap wine with big markups for glass pours, which equals bad value for consumers.”

Then it hit him. “Why can’t we just serve good wine out of a keg like we do with beer?” he said. In kegs, which keep out the air, wine could stay perfectly fresh for months, he reasoned. Mr. Yoon found a restaurant in Atlanta that was serving wine from modified beer kegs, and, with an energy borne of obsession, he set out to perfect the system.

He found a treasure-trove of five-gallon soda kegs, big enough to hold about 25 bottles of wine each, no longer used by the bottlers, who had turned to bag-in-box containers. He worked to persuade wineries to fill the stainless steel kegs for him. And he custom-designed coolers for the wine kegs, separate from the cooling system he used for the 36 beers he offers on tap.

“Whites are kept at 46 degrees, and reds 55 degrees,” he said. “Once the wines hit the glass, the temperature rises about two degrees, thus bringing the actual service temperature to 48 and 57 respectively. I did a lot of testing.”

Mr. Yoon now offers eight wines on tap, including wines from Brewer-Clifton, Melville, Stephen Ross and Flowers, and with the reusable kegs he estimates he saves having to dispose of 10,000 bottles and related packaging a year.

It was on a scouting trip to Los Angeles last year that Mr. Alevras of DBGB visited Father’s Office to look at Mr. Yoon’s beer system. He came away fascinated by wines in kegs.

“It’s beautiful in its simplicity,” he said. “Gas goes in as wine goes out.”

Gas? Well, of course. That’s how a beer keg works. Except beer systems generally use a high-pressure carbon dioxide system, which carbonates the beer. Wine simply needs a low-pressure system in which gas pushes the wine from keg to tap and occupies the empty space in the keg, preventing oxidation. Mr. Yoon uses nitrogen, which the restaurant produces itself with a reverse osmosis generator.

While Mr. Yoon may have improved the system, he by no means invented it. For centuries in the ancient wine-producing regions of the world, a barrel and a tap method was the low-tech way to dispense wines in countless bars and taverns. Even today, you see wine on tap frequently in Europe, even if it doesn’t have the sleek 21st-century perfectionism of Mr. Yoon’s system.

Europe was the inspiration for Craig and Anne Stoll, the owners of Delfina in San Francisco. In their new pizzeria, which opened in October, they serve vino alla spina, as wine on tap is called in Italy.

At Oxbow Wine Merchant, a retail shop and wine bar in Napa, Peter Granoff is going through two 15-gallon kegs of white wine a month.

“We can pour a very nice glass of wine, five ounces, for $4 or $5,” said Mr. Granoff, an owner. “There are no packaging costs, the kegs get used over and over. No corks, no capsules. I would guess the consumer savings is 25 or 30 percent, depending on the wine.”

Gillian Ballance, the wine director at the Carneros Inn in the Napa Valley, was intrigued enough by what she saw at Oxbow to put in a tap at Farm, one of the inn’s restaurants, about three months ago. She’s now serving verdelho from Scholium Project for $6 a glass.

Is wine by the keg a novelty? Or is this just the beginning of a trend that will benefit purveyors and consumers? It makes too much economic sense, I think, for it not to take hold.

But it won’t happen overnight. While the technology is not new or experimental, existing beer lines cannot simply be converted for wine. It’s far easier, restaurateurs say, to install wine lines to begin with, preferably during construction. “You can retrofit almost anything,” Mr. Granoff said, “but it gets really expensive.”

So far the public seems to be embracing wines on tap, although Mr. Granoff isn’t taking chances. He likes to offer customers a glass to taste, and tells them only after they try it how the wine was dispensed.

“Their jaws kind of drop,” he said. “You’ve gotten past their perception, by giving them the wine without telling them where it’s coming from.”

Top Affordable Wine for 2008

noreply@blogger.com (Wine-O) — Sun, 19 Apr 2009 19:02:00 +0000

I featured Panarroz several months ago when it was selling in the $8-$9 range. Much to my surprise the local wine store was clearing it out for $5.97 a bottle! This is an absolute steal and gives the wine my 2008 Affordable Wine of the Year stamp. How many cases will YOU get?? (I got three)

Cheers!

Wine Stained Clothing and Other Wine Uses

noreply@blogger.com (Wine-O) — Fri, 17 Apr 2009 00:48:00 +0000

When you love wine, you tend to surround yourself with all things "wine", even clothes... My favorite t-shirt is dyed with Cabernet Sauvignon and labeled "Official Wine Taster". Kitchy I know, but it's really a great idea. If you're a vineyard with left over grapes, why not dye clothing? The process is as organic as you get and the color is beautiful and durable.

Several years ago some vineyards in France experienced a banner crop. With quality wine coming from countries around the world the French were stuck with millions of gallons of wine that they couldn't sell. As such, several vineyards petitioned the French government to sell the wine as fuel! Now that's a commodity I can invest in!

Cheers!

Spring is in the air

noreply@blogger.com (Wine-O) — Sat, 11 Apr 2009 23:52:00 +0000

I've recently discovered the artist Alphonse Mucha, and I can't stop looking at his work, stunning. The image to the left is from his Seasons series...this one aptly named "Spring". Spring is a conflicting time for a wine drinker like myself... the weather is warming, my electric and gas bills aren't forcing me to sell off belongings just to pay them, the flowers are blooming, etc. But alas, this is the beginning of the end of big red wine drinking season. It's really hard to tipple a dense syrah when the weather is pushing 70 degrees.

This year I'm making a promise to feature more white's and rose's on the site. Stay tuned for the first post.

Cheers!

Remember to support Wine4Dummies by visiting it's sponsors.

Cotes du Rhone Parallele 45, $9!

noreply@blogger.com (Wine-O) — Sun, 22 Mar 2009 14:49:00 +0000

When I first started experimenting with red wine, I happened upon the Cotes du Rhone Parallele 45. Unmistakable with the large "45" on the label, this wine packs a lot of value for your buck. I have to admit, I'm not a big fan of French wine making, but then again, I can't afford the really good stuff! If you're looking for a no nonsense introduction however, Parallele 45 exhibits excellent fruit, subtle tannins and good acid. Every vintage I've tried from this maker going back to 2001 I've thoroughly enjoyed.

Cheers!

Please support Wine4Dummies by visiting it's sponsors.

Wine Cork Recycling

noreply@blogger.com (Wine-O) — Tue, 10 Mar 2009 23:44:00 +0000

If you're a regular wine drinker like myself and environmentally conscious, you likely have a LOT of wine corks lying around. The corks are great reminders of bottles past but they can also be a Martha Stewart-esk project for your next rainy weekend. I created a trivet out of my favorite bottle corks several years ago, it makes a wonderful yet functional accent to my dinner table. How very metro-sexual of me! I'm in the process of filling a large demijohn with the rest.

Not crafty but still want to do your part for the environment? Your local Whole Foods store will take your corks and recycle them for you. If you've ever seen cork flooring, it's beautiful and primarily comes from recycled cork.

Cheers!

Please support Wine4Dummies by visiting it's advertisers.

Red Wine Stain Removal

noreply@blogger.com (Wine-O) — Thu, 05 Mar 2009 01:07:00 +0000

It was bound to happen sooner or later, the dreaded red wine spill... Fortunately I addressed the spill quickly with a little warm water and soap, but it was also a dark carpet so I'm sure I missed a little. A little curious, I did some searching for the unlucky few that spill on a lighter carpet. I enjoyed this post though I'm not crazy about the domain name! Nonetheless, I offer up a twice over re-posted red wine stain removal secret:

Mix a little soap and a little hydrogen peroxide together. You must use BOTH ingredients. Spray, pour, or dab the mixture on the stain

One warning: Since peroxide is a bleaching agent, the remedy could potentially bleach some colored fabrics. Always test a small patch before going hog wild with this miracle recipe!

Cheers! (carefully)

Wine-O's Hangover Cure

noreply@blogger.com (Wine-O) — Mon, 02 Mar 2009 18:35:00 +0000

I learned decades ago when enough, was "enough", but occasionally I'll push the boundaries in the name of fun. Unfortunately that leaves most of us a little hungover the next day. Coffee is an essential part of my morning, every morning, but did you know a cup before bedtime will chase the headaches away? I've tested this theory on myself several times as well as friends, it works like a charm. After a night of fun and frivolity with wine, a simple cup of coffee will save the day. It must act as a charcoal of sorts, filtering out toxins from the liver, oh and it tastes good too. Be sure to drink some water as well. Give it a try, let me know what you think!

Cheers!