WINO 101

Hello Friends and Wine Lovers!

We’re all full swing into the Holiday Season! I hope everyone who had put their lights up are ready to put them back up after having them blown back down during this torrential windstorm. (Or for me, replacing one of the storm windows that was ironically blown off during the storm.) Now, having found out about my “day-before-and-no-more” shopping strategy from the last email, people may have wondered why I wait until the last minute. I think it has to do with the music. Now, all these Holiday songs are fine and good and all in the spirit of things, but once you’ve heard 30 renditions of each at every store, and they’ve been repetitively eating at your brain and you wake up in a cold sweat at 3 in the morning singing “Winter Wonderland,” it creates a kind of shell-shock that makes shopping a dreaded once-a-year activity. My first year in retail was at one of the larger chain stores, many years ago (and I always said I would name my first ulcer after that year). It was the typical 10-hour Holiday-Season day for the typical 6-day Holiday-Season week. The music soundtrack was all of your Holiday favorites, and only about 1 hour and 15 minutes long. So, after a bit of math, that’s hearing each song 8 times a day, or about 192 times a month. Every time I hear any one of those particular songs again, I get a bit twitchy. (Just ask Laura. She’s seen it.) So in honor of that, and in the Holiday spirit, this week I’m doing Miscelaneous Italian Reds! Why? Because it has nothing to do with any of this Holiday stuff! And the music will be Jazz, provided once again, by the Pete Krebs and Jason Okamoto Jazz Manouche. Although you might request Pete and Jason to play one of your Holiday favorites, I might request that you not.

The reason why this tasting has been labeled “Miscelaneous” is because all these wines were selected as tasty gems that wouldn’t fit into any Italian regional-themed or varietal-themed tastings, and some could be considered “Italian Oddities” (see the Nero d’Avola/Shiraz). These bottles DO, however, follow the theme of the Italian-Reds-Under-$10-Or-Reasonably-Thereabouts. We’ll call that a subtheme.

So Friday, December the 5th, between 4:30 and 9:00 PM it’s:

Miscelaneous Italian Reds! (Under-$10-Or-Reasonably-Thereabouts)!
Mezzo Giorno 2001 Nero d’Avola/Shiraz, Sicilia
Argiolas  2001 Perdera, Isola dei Nuraghi
Albino Armani 2000 Foja Tonda, Vallagarina
Ambrosini Lorella 2001 Tabaro ‘95, Val Di Cornia Suvereto
Filippo Gallino 2001 Barbera d’Alba, Roero

And the Extra 2:
Firriato 2000 Chiaramonte Nero d’Avola, Sicilia
Umberto Cesari 1998 Riserva, Sangiovese di Romagna

A good deal at $10 for the first 5, and $6 for the Extra 2 Premium Pours.

Hope to see you here!
Seize the Wine!
M

Next week is a Miscellaneous Spanish selection!