Hello Friends and Wine Lovers!

It’s that time, once again! Time for that powerful red wine, my favorite and yours: Zinfandel! It’s a wine so popular, it has its own society representing it: Zinfandel Advocates and Producers(Z.A.P.) which I will, someday, have to become a member.

But first I’d like to bring up a news topic that has bothered me greatly this week. It appears that a handful of British potato farmers have been protesting outside Parliament (the British government, not the Funkadelic kind.) Apparently they want to have the term “couch potato” removed from the Oxford English Dictionary for the negative connotations it has on Potatoes. The term they would have them prefer is “couch sloth”.

Now let me voice my concern regarding this issue. As the only active member and president of the organization Nifty English and Radical Definitions (N.E.R.D.), I am adamantly opposed to changing a dictionary term once it’s been instated. It should not be removed as it’s a common phrase and a piece of History, and not the fault of the Dictionary people. However as only active member and president of the organization The Association To Eat Root-vegetables, Turnips and Other Tubers (T.A.T.E.R. T.O.T.), I can see the concern they have over the highly-controversial word “potato” when used in conjunction with the other highly-controversial term “couch”. (Especially if you consider my work with the Coalition Of Upholstered Chairs and Homefurnishings in Environmental Studies (C.O.U.C.H.E.S)).

Now, the term the potato farmers have suggested as a replacement, “couch sloth” can easily be offensive to the members of the Society of Limb-danglers or Other Tree-dwellers, Hanging or Suspended (S.L.O.T.H.S.). The idea that these gentle creatures are lazy because they move at such a slow pace, and only come out of the trees to defecate (twice in a good week) is preposterous, and in no way related to the indolent behavior of the TV-watching couch-dwellers. In support of the gentle Sloth, and in keeping with rectifying the misunderstanding surrounding these hairy tree-dwellers, I’ll be forming the Hairy Animals Not Grounded in Negativity Generating an Alliance Rectifying this Outrageous and Unfair Name-Calling and Defamation (H.A.N.G.I.N.G. A.R.O.U.N.D.) due to be open for applicants in early 2007. (Tax-deductible.)

Apparently the potato farmers, while fighting for the rights of the noble potato, just may have found a fight of their own. It still seems to me, however, that it might have been more effective to petition the Oxford English Dictionary people rather than Parliament.

Now where was I? Oh, yeah! Zinfandel! Well, it seems that I’ve run out of room. But we all know and love the Zinfandel, so it needs no introduction. It’s a wine that is perfect for drinking while quietly lazing on the couch while watching TV, or perhaps hanging around** with friends (in or out of trees.)

So Friday, June 24th, between 4:30 and 9:00 PM it’s:

Zinfandel!
Cartlidge & Brown 2002 Zinfandel, Napa Valley
Mount Aukum 2002 Zinfandel, El Dorado County
Z-52 2001 Old Vine Zinfandel, Agnes’ Vineyard, Lodi
Rosenblum 2003 Zinfandel, Continente Vineyard, San Francisco Bay
Dashe 2003 Zinfandel, Dry Creek Valley

Even More Zinfandel!!
Nalle 2002 Zinfandel, Dry Creek Valley
Joel Gott 2003 Zinfandel, Dillion Ranch, Amador County

A stellar deal at $10 for the First 5, and $6 for the Extra 2 Premium Pours
Hope to see you here!
Seize the Wine!

Next Friday tasting is Wines of Spain!

M

**Pun definitely intended here. Did you catch it?

***Disclaimer: All acronyms and associations listed in this letter, with the exception of Z.A.P. are fictitious. Any similarity to existing organizations, living or dead (defunct, rather) is purely accidental, unintentional and coincidental, however, in the rare occurrence that a similarity did happen, whether overtly or even in a subtlety, would be pretty darn funny.

****Correction: Last week I made the geographic mistake of stating that Rome was in the middle of Tuscany, the region famous for Chianti. I was mistaken, as Rome actually sits in the Italian wine district of Lazio, of which there are few wines of any significance. But don’t tell THEM I said that. Not that anyone reads down this far, anyway. Just like the newspapers, that’s why they put the corrections on the bottom, hidden in the back. Like this. To hide the embarrassment. Sorry. It won’t happen again. . . maybe.