Moose's blog

Thursday, January 24, 2008

1 Year, 2 Months, 3 Weeks, 4 Days:

That's the amount of time that has passed since I arrived in Italy for my honeymoon and started drinking wine. And what a year 2 months 3 weeks and 4 days it's been!!! Over 200 bottles and $1,300 later I've got plans to build a wine cellar/room/closet in my next house... I plan on making my own wine... maybe growing some grapes and buying expensive and long-lasting bottles of wine/port/whatever to celebrate the [far-in-the-future] births of my children!

What I'm really getting at is... it's been far far FAR too long since I've posted to this blog. So what have I learned about wine, wine clubs and wineries? Read on below to get a list!

1. Wine tastes better with family and friends and in mass quantities. It just does. I had a wine, Starfire Zinfandel, after about 4 glasses and the same amount of bottles opened after some fun and whooping it up. We LOVED it!! Bought two bottles... and they sucked. Tasted like plywood or partical board had been ground up and sprinkled into it. Which in itself shows how far my tasting has come... I couldn't even pick that up, would have just said "BLECH" when I first started.

2. The 4 Seasons Wine Club isn't half bad. I was a bit skeptical. Basically the idea is you are sent a case of wine every 3 months. Your choice of mixed reds, mixed whites, [4 each of 3 different wines], or mixed red and whites [at 2 bottles each]. While the customer service is a bit clunky, I am happy with it. Basically I asked for 3 each of the reds and 1 of the white offerings in a shipment, the zip code and town was messed up [partially my fault] so I had a replacement case sent out, but they sent out only the reds!!! D'oh! They were nice about it and sent out 4 of the white offering [I'd only asked for 3] free of charge!! Not only that, but the offerings [at least the reds] are varied and interesting. [The whites are chardonnay and pinot grigio heavy.] Offerings so far have been Carmenere, a Washington Meritage-style blend, an Australian blend, a chianti, a Cabernet Sauvignon, and a Syrah. Quite a mix!!! No to mention that coming in the spring is a merlot, a bonarda [a grape I'd never heard of until Gary Vaynerchuck tasted it on an episode this week], and a monsatrell [a grade I've never heard of]. So if you roll in my price range, which is in the $10-15 bottle range, it's worth giving a shot.

3. Saks Fifth Avenue sucks. We purchased a Wine Enthusiast wine refrigerator from them. It came with two broken pieces [one that actually affected the performance of the unit]. We called and asked to return. First they were going to charge another wine fridge on our bank card, THEN they wanted to send us a gift certificate for the refund, essentially forcing us to buy something else!!! We nipped that in the butt. Second, we get the refund and the original shipping we paid isn't refunded!! That's pretty stupid, who does business like that? They "didn't recommend purchasing something again when you've returned it defective." What the hell? Stand by your product!! If it's broken again we were told we'd be OUT the shipping cost AGAIN! So yeah, Saks sucks.

4. Wines I crave to buy try drink and enjoy but are past my price limit except for special occasions: Brunello di Montalcino, GOOD Burgundy and Bourdeaux, Barolo, Vino Nobile di Montepulciano, Amarone, Amon Ra, Sauternes, Sagrantino di Montefalco, Canadian Ice Wine, German Eiswein, Trockenbeerenauslese.

5. Wine vacations I want to take. Sonoma, Walla Walla, Piedmont, Tuscany again, Australia, Chile, Austria.

That's about it for now. I'll try not to wait anoth 9 months to update the blog!!! And went I start wine-making I will absolutely post regularly so stay-tuned for that!!