Pour More

I Confess…

Monday, September 22nd, 2008 | Wine Blather | No Comments

After all my talk about drinking from the cellar, I felt that I had to come clean with you. Yesterday afternoon we went out for a quick lunch and a bit of shopping. We passed by one of our favorite wine stores, and decided to go in… just to look of course.

I’m not going to lie to you. When I saw the Sinister Hand, I gasped a little bit. It’s a wine I’ve been wanting to try for over a year and while it may well have been for sale in New York, I’ve never seen it. I set my three year old down on the floor with my purse to keep him occupied while I carefully stood on tiptoe to retrieve a bottle from the top shelf. It didn’t even cross my mind that I was going back on my promise to myself. But after a minute it set in, and I started to have second thoughts.

I found Drew looking in the Bordeaux section and he immediately showed me the 2005 Chateau D’Alesme Becker. (I think he might have gasped just a little upon discovering it.) Chateau D’Alesme Becker was one of the vineyards we visited on our honeymoon and to our knowledge has not been available in New York. Of course, there is a chance it slipped under our radar, or was only available through a certain importer. Or perhaps it wasn’t available in the Metro New York area (where our store was located), but it is available upstate. Who knows? And really, it doesn’t matter. When I showed him the bottle of Sinister Hand and expressed my uncertainty over buying it, he insisted that I did so that we could use our wine club card. (Hey, that logic worked for me!)

I don’t have buyer’s remorse, but I’m going to still try to keep my wine purchases at a minimum. The Bordeaux, obviously, we’ll cellar for a few years. The Sinister Hand… well, that might be a fun Halloween wine. You only live once, you know?

WBW #49: A Toast To End The Bush Era

Wednesday, September 17th, 2008 | Sparkling Wine, Wine Blogging Wednesday | No Comments

Political blogger/cartoonist/wine blogger/wearer of many hats D. Honig of 2 Days Per Bottle has come up with a rather challenging topic for this month’s edition of Wine Blogging Wednesday: A toast to the end of the Bush Era. I’ve been thinking about this for weeks and honestly, I’m still not sure of an answer. I think what I choose to drink will largely depend on who takes over the White House next. If it’s my candidate, I will obviously feel quite hopeful and celebratory. If it’s not… well, I might just want to drink myself into oblivion and stay there for the next four year. OK, I wouldn’t go quite that far but I certainly won’t be dancing around.

But for the sake of this post, let’s assume my candidate wins and I’m feeling not only relieved that the last eight years are behind us, but for the first time in those eight years I’m feeling that our country will start moving in the right direction. The natural choice for me is a Champagne. But let’s remember that the U.S. economy is not in the best of shape. I am trying to drink from our cellar and not purchase anything new. With that in mind, I think my choice shall be this bottle of Pol Roger Brut Reserve. Even if you’re purchasing this at a wine shop, it won’t totally empty your pocketbook. It retails for around $30.

I’ve actually not tasted this wine before, and since we have only the one bottle, I wasn’t going to open it just for this. I chose it for a couple reasons, though. First of all, it’s French. Thinking back on the absurd “boycott” on all things French that the Bush administration encouraged, I figured at the very least I can stick some bubbles in their eye. But another reason I chose it is in honor of one of our favorite customers at our former wine shop — Buzz. Buzz shared our political views and would drop by with a copy of an article that he’d insist we read right then and there so we could rant and rave about the sorry state of our country and how we would hope that people will be intelligent enough this time around to vote for change. Buzz also lovedthis particular Champagne. I’m pretty sure he and his wife bought the better part of its inventory. So I feel it only makes sense to pull this bottle out of the fridge on January 19th.

Hopefully we’ll be ushering in a new era of government, and not just bidding adieu to the old one.

And the winner is…

Tuesday, September 2nd, 2008 | Books | No Comments

I decided to count David’s two comments as one and consulted Randomizer to pick a number between 1 and 10. The winner is Commenter #3: Amy of Happy Homewrecker! Congratulations, Amy! I will be mailing out your book later in the week.