<p>“five college kids can eat you out of house and home; red or white”</p>
<p>Better red or white soup than wine :)</p>
<p>Ummm. Yah, no one better be touching my wine collection. 
Lucky for me, it doesn’t interest them. They’re all too busy hanging around my new tv playing nintendo wii.</p>
<p>“no one better be touching my wine collection”</p>
<p>Ahhh, Vino cellar. You’re going have to play nice, nice with TD. Calif has some great wines that are bottled in very limited quantities. They can only be purchased—TD in Calif or in fine dining restaurants and, even then, probably not on the east coast. Thank Dionysus for UPS.</p>
<p>Dionysus Zagreus, the son of Zeus and Persephone. Now you wouldn’t think I would not know the god of fertility and wine, would you??? ;)</p>
<p>Not only was I sure you knew who Dionysus was, I assumed you had his statute on your fireplace mantel and gave homage when you played sip ‘n’ snuggle… The hell with thou shall not worship false idols. ;)</p>
<p>I was startled to find a good list of California wines on the East Coast at, of all places, the top restaurant (something like Robert E. Lee but different) at Williamsburg. The sommelier had previously worked in California and new his stuff.</p>
<p>A couple of TD’s recommendations:</p>
<p>Cabernet–Far Niente, Stags Leap.</p>
<p>Chardonnay–Far Niente, Grgich Hills, Cakebread Cellars, and for good price/value, Cambria.</p>
<p>In our next episode, Syrahs, Merlots, and dessert wines. </p>
<p>As a special bonus, a list of wineries that friends don’t let friends drink the wine of.</p>
<p>French wines are much more accessible and reasonably priced on the East Coast than out here and I know relatively little about them in comparison, though there have been some cute little Chassagne Montrachets that I’ve enjoyed. But when D was home I broke out a Pomerol, the most expensive bottle I’ve ever acquired, and that only in the cause of charity at a high school orchestra silent auction. (My motives were purely altruistic in support of the arts, you understand. No…TheMom didn’t believe that, either, and I had to launch into my Ricky Ricardo “Listen dear, I can 'splain” routine.) That was exquisite.</p>
<p>“I’ve ever acquired, and that only in the cause of charity at a high school orchestra silent auction”</p>
<p>LOL—A high school orchestra consisting of teenagers who won’t be able to legally drink—much less buy—wine for a number yrs., auctioned off booze….Love it. ……Go Calif. :)</p>
<p>I’ve never understood why the French name a wine Pomerol……Yeah, I know, it’s a French village and wine growing region. But the name sounds like hemorrhoid medication.</p>
<p>Out here, you’re mostly better off with Australians (wine, that is.)</p>
<p>Mini, the Australian wine is drinkable but most of it, like Yellowtail Shiraz, should not be confused with good wine. </p>
<p>One of these days I need to take a few wine classes so that my knowledge isn’t so haphazard. There are a couple of places within a 15-minute drive that have very good ones.</p>
<p>Yellowtail? (Ugh!) You’ve got the wrong brand (at the wrong price.) Try Rosemount Estate Vintage Cabernet ('03 was very good). And Shiraz? (Australia is best for Cabernet and Merlot.)</p>
<p>Sorry, Mini, I go by what I’ve seen around. I’ll try to find a Rosemount when the wine buying budget opens up. Real estate sales are slow and my first priority for discretionary income is trying to put together a trip to Budapest/Vienna/Prague in May/early June. I rationalize it by saying we can at least sample what we’re paying for D to do. :)</p>
<p>"One of these days I need to take a few wine classes so that my knowledge isn’t so haphazard.”</p>
<p>I’ll save you the trouble. There’s only one thing ya need to know—A specific wine is like a woman. If you like either, it doesn’t matter what others think.</p>
<p>Feel fortunate. You can get Two-Buck Chuck in your part of the world, which will help you save for Europe.</p>
<p>“Two-Buck Chuck,” as it’s known for its $1.99 price tag, is selling nearly as fast as Charles Shaw can bottle it – the company recently sold its 100-millionth bottle after just two years on the market, making it the fastest-growing label ever in the American wine industry”</p>
<p><a href=“http://www.azcentral.com/home/wine/articles/1212chuck12.html[/url]”>http://www.azcentral.com/home/wine/articles/1212chuck12.html</a></p>
<p>Women should be so affordable. ;)</p>
<p>Well, Two-Buck Chuck is sometimes better than turpentine if nothing else is available but it’s not something I’d drink by choice save if it were being served in a large general gathering. It’s certainly true that it doesn’t matter how “good” a wine is if you don’t care for it. I’ve had Kistler Chardonnay, which some people rave about, and I find it underwhelming. Otoh, I dabbled a little in vintage ports before deciding that I couldn’t afford to…goes too damned quickly and my waistline doesn’t need it. Otoh, it’s great in the evening with a good book, an appropriate DVD (think “Pride & Prejudice” or “An Ideal Husband”…though why they made a movie about me I’ll never know), or a good conversation.</p>
<p>You’ve managed to conjure by implied comparison a class on women that I need to suppress for my own health and safety.</p>
<p>Then, too, a class can be helpful in other ways. My favorite chardonnays–Far Niente, Grgich Hills, Cakebread Cellars–all share in common a kind of fermentation, blanking on the name, not employed for most chardonnays. Learn which other wines share the same trait and a wine list becomes a little more interesting.</p>
<p>“You’ve managed to conjure by implied comparison a class on women that I need to suppress for my own health and safety”</p>
<p>LOL–Nice mind. I said affordable, not cheap ;)… The PC police, aka Jolt Gestapo’s, should be here soon. </p>
<p>Malolactic fermentation?</p>
<p>Malolactic. Bingo.</p>
<p>Wow!! All this wine talk is making me pretty thirsty on a Friday night. Australian reds are quite good, but watch for bad years. There are outstanding Shiraz’, but most go for a price of $20 and up. Avoid the cult wines, as they are not affordable, and usually do not provide great returns for the money. Look for Kay vineyards, 97, 98, 01. Also Pirimimma, hardy’s, kangarilla, and tapestry to name a few. Chile is also becoming one of my favorite cabs like; 01 and 03 Don Melchor, Clos Apalta, Santa Rita Casa Real. These are beauties and outdo similar California cabs for a fraction of the price. Don’t get me wrong, they’re not cheap $30 - $65 a bottle depending on the label. Awesome.</p>
<p>If you want something inexpensive, (in fact, cheaper than Yellowtail), try the Alice White Cabernet Sauvignon. Is it as good as the $25 French bottle? Not usually. But you’ll get five of 'em, and it’s actually quite nice.</p>
<p>(I use it for my cholesterol. ;))</p>
<p>Don’t we all?? I hear it wards off heart attacks as well! Hey, it’s worked so far!</p>
<p>Here is another report on the trials and joys of junior year (or in our case semester) abroad. We finally made contact with D in Arusha, northern Tanzania. She is spending the spring semester studying wildlife ecology and conservation to complement her biology major and environmental science and policy minor at Smith.</p>
<p>We were warned that contacts would be infrequent due to sporadic internet access, poor telephone lines and many trips to very remote areas. We sent her with a cell phone with a Tanzanian sim card and many laborious instructions on how to get it working. </p>
<p>They went straight from the Kilimanjaro airport (got there via New York, Dubai and Nairobi) out into the bush, where they camped, got to know each other and the Academic director (Baba Jack) and had several fantastically close encounters with elephants, monkeys and beasts I don’t care to think about! </p>
<p>Then it was back to Arusha for 24 hours where they stayed in a modest hotel, before heading out for their 3-week home-stays with Tanzanian families in a little village on the slopes of Mount Meru outside Arusha. They will be taking intensive Swahili lessons together during the day, and then go off to their families. D’s family consists of Mama and Baba, five children ages 1-13, one “helper”, two cows, several goats and chickens. They have no electricity, but do have running water.</p>
<p>Our first contact with D was an e-mail she wrote from an internet cafe stating that she had not gone with the others to start the home-stay, she was still in the hotel because she was sick. They had taken her to the clinic that morning, and both her malaria test and white blood cell counts were normal. She was already feeling better, just nauseous and lethargic, and we shouldn’t worry!</p>
<p>Yeah, right! I got on the phone with her program, found out the name of the hotel, and after several very humorous attempts at communicating with various staff, got D on the phone. She was pretty annoyed with me for making such a fuss, but got happier after we finally figured out why the cell phone wasn’t working. We have now chatted and text-messaged several times, and I think this will be our mode of communication for the next few months. </p>
<p>She is now off with her host family, and next week they will be dropping them off at the Arusha market to practice every-day Swahili, and then they are supposed to make their own way back to the village! The common mode of transportation is the “dalla-dalla” a shared minibus/taxi that often crams in 15-20 people! D said she had already tried this once, she wasn’t to worried.</p>
<p>The next few months are packed with trips to the Serengeti, Ngorongoro crater, another week long home-stay with a Maasai family, independent project and more. More updates to follow.</p>