Fw: Test run for posting blogs on blackberry from spain

Sent from my Verizon Wireless BlackBerry

-----Original Message-----
From: jmanekin@gmail.com

Date: Fri, 23 May 2008 00:15:53
To:jmanekin.oldworldoldschool@blogger.com
Subject: Test run for posting blogs on blackberry from spain

Well, it's not a real test until I attempt to blog from espana beginning in a week. I am even attempting to attach a photo. No relevance to Spain, though. This is my uncle jack at home/work in the Austin St cafe, Marfa, Texas.
Sent from my Verizon Wireless BlackBerry

Brett and Fruit: GT Dave Kombucha, Cantillon Rose de Gambrinus

As a kid I used to eat lemons. When life gave me lemons, I might have made lemonade, but with, at most, half the sugar a typical recipe would suggest. I also loved fizzy drinks, except for soda, which of course was too sweet. As a substitute for soda, I used to mix Perrier with fruit juices. Orange juice and perrier, which I dubbed an 'oobie,' started my whole range of drinks, which would become popular with family, less so with friends. When I started getting into wine, I would satisfy my need for fizz and acidity by drinking champagne, cava, cremant d'Alsace, sekt, basically any well made sparkling wine. Recently I have expanded my horizons: during the day I satisfy my craving for tart and fizzy by drinking kombucha, and at night I have started to enjoy the occasional lambic, or Belgian fruit beer.

Kombucha is basically a type of sweetened tea that is slowly, naturally fermented over the course of 30 days. Aiding the fermentation are acetobacter bacteria (used in vinegar production) and several different yeasts, including brettanomyces. These days it is often flavored with fruit. Some CO2 is trapped in the bottle which makes the drink a bit fizzy. My only experience has been with the GT Dave brand, whose flavors I find to be uniformly delicious; try the grape, mango, and strawberry varieties - awesome with a sandwich or simply on their own for a late afternoon boost.

Lambics are spontaneously fermented Belgian beers. They have a strong acetic acid tang, as well as some barnyard like flavors due to the high count of brettanomyces in the brew. Often times the fruit beers you see in stores are sweetened for the mass market, and may not even be based on lambic beers. Cantillon, on the other hand, does things traditionally and naturally. Their rose de gambrinus is based on their geuze (a blend of 1 and 2-3 year old lambics) flavored with fresh raspberries, giving it an intense pink color. At first I loved the beer, with its refreshing framboise flavors and pleasant bitter snap to the finish. However, the more I drank I could not get over the increasingly persistent bitterness, which honestly came across as very bile-like. That right there might have been a deal breaker for many of you, and of course bitter, sour beers are not for everyone. But they're definitely worth a try, especially when made by a brewery as revered and respected by beer afficionados as Cantillon.

herb alpert - rise 1979

So I'm riding home from work, scanning the dial, slowly tiring of the ubiquitous rancheros on the radio. I come across what must be the local easy listening/smooth jazz station and this jam is playing. Instant relaxation! I know, I know, it's corny, but I too am corny. And this song was just what I needed after a Tuesday at the liquor store. Rock on, Mr. Alpert and your Tijuana Brass, rock on.

From the US - and highly recommended!

A few of you have asked me to suggest a few wines that are not too difficult to find and are good values. Well, I've added the qualifier that they be American, just to prove that this country does make some wine that I will happily drink, despite the european slant of my taste in wine. Here's a handful of wines to seek out. While these are all good for the price, I find it really tough to find good, honest, tasty American values that give you as much bang for the buck as the best of France, Italy, Spain, Portugal, Austria, Germany even Argentina (and very occasionally, Chile). Hence these are all in the $15-low $20s price range. Enjoy - I don't think I will do this again for a long time.

2007 Elk Cove Pinot Gris
2006 Au Bon Climat Pinot Noir
2005 Au Bon Climat Pinot Gris/Pinot Blanc
2006 Husch Anderson Valley Pinot Noir
2007 Preston Estate Dry Creek Valley Sauvignon Blanc
2006 Edmonds St John Bone Jolly El Dorado County Gamay

Feel free to contribute anything you think I'm leaving out.

Robert Mondavi passed away today.

Robert Mondavi died today. He was 94 years old.

At 22 years old, I visited my first winery: Robert Mondavi. The tour guide was knowledgeable about his company, and delivered a very finely crafted shtick which ended in the winery's tasting bar/sales room.

Mondavi worked hard to personally market his wines nationally and abroad. Hardly a day passes without a Japanese customer requesting Opus One where I work.

Estate grown and bottled wine, boutique labels, and what is known in the industry as 'premium' or 'ultra-premium' wines continue to be where all of the sales growth is in the wine business. Basically, Robert Mondavi foresaw all of this when he split with his brother to form his own winery over 40 years ago.

All of the above is just a small part of Mondavi's legacy and lasting imprint on the American wine industry as well as the modern history of wine. Here is the AP obituary

Summer is here! ANTHONY B. LIVE FROM SOMEWHERE.

If you ask me, reggae should be enjoyed year 'round, not just in the summer. But since it's another scorcher here, I thought I'd post some live reggae from one of the genre's finest: Anthony B. At around 3.50 he goes into his version of the Tamlins song - and one of my favorites, versioned by Everton Blender and many others - 'Baltimore.' So for many reasons here it looks like I found myself an ideal clip for OWOS. Yes, I! Enjoy the music.

A few short write-ups

Yesterday I had a glass of the '07 Francois Chidaine Touraine and it is crisp, punchy, bright, very clean Touraine. No Touraine greenness (not that this would have necessarily been a bad thing).

Bought a bottle of 2006 Palmina Dolcetto. It is very rare that I buy a current release bottle of California wine so allow me to explain myself. Palmina is a project (I know, I know, in the wine world it's always a 'project,') of the folks behind Brewer-Clifton. They make wine made from Italian varietals in Santa Barbara - Pinot Grigio, Barbera, Traminer, Malvasia, and others. Their 2005 Mattia (Refosco, cab franc, Merlot) is a wonderfully balanced, lively wine that I enjoyed with my family at Maverick, a popular restaurant/wine bar in the Mission, last year. Expecting something similar from their Dolcetto, I instead got a super heavy, CA ripe (bordering on sweet) version of the Piedmontese specialty. Dolcetto means 'little sweet one' but it is something of a misnomer as the wines are usually very dry. Not so with this wine. It was sweet and undrinkable.

To end on a positive note, I had the opportunity to drink (in moderate moderation, of course) a healthy amount of sherry, cava and champagne this week, so I'm a happy camper. You see, it's not all tough criticism and snarky attitude here.