WINO 101

Hello Friends and Wine Lovers!

Welcome to the Spoooky Announcement for the Spoooky Halloween Tasting at the Spoooky Wine Shop of Spoooky Carpe Vinum! This Spoooky Halloween tasting will be sooo spooooky, that it’ll be practically spooooooky! So what do we have in store for us this time around on this most spoooky holiday? Wiiiine! Mwahahahaha! (Enter clap of thunder and eerie Scooby Doo sound effects.)

Okay, that’s about as spooky as it gets, as we are technically about 5 days out from Halloween. The spookiest things about this holiday, anymore, are the thoughts of all the highly-caloric candies that will be tempting us, and the fact that while the kids are out trickertreating, the retail stores are already setting up artificial evergreens covered with sparkly ornaments. That’s right. It’s that other holiday just around the corner. I’m trying not to think about it either.

So what is a spoooky wine tasting, anyway? Well, really . . . it’s an opportunity to create a tasting just for fun, rather than the structures of region or grape variety; Some things that just don’t fit into other tastings, oddball labels, blends and such. But for this year, I did my best to find the spoookiest bottles of wine that I could without resorting to that Vampire wine that’s stacked in every store this time of year. And I tell you what, though . . . there aren’t very many spoooky wines out there . . . unless you look at it from the right perspective.

Firstly I have the Norman Zinfandel appropriately named “The Monster” because, hey . . .  what’s a Halloween party without a few monsters? And speaking of monsters, what about clowns? Clowns are scary. Most people I know are afraid of them. And for good reason. They’re not really so spoooky, but more creepy. Thankfully clown wines don’t exist, so I didn’t have to do the world injustice by ordering them, but I did get the Peachy Canyon “Jester Red”. I know, I know. A Jester isn’t exactly a clown, but it’s close enough. A jester is just a clown that’s sober enough to juggle. And to me that’s just a bit more threatening than a regular clown.

Speaking of clowns (and not for very much longer, thankfully) remember that movie Killer Clowns from Outer Space? Wasn’t that great? A friend mentioned that I should feature a tasting of wines-from-outer-space or sci-fi themed wines. To make a long story short, there aren’t that many. But about as close as I could get to “It Came From Outer Space” was a wine from Shooting Star! And to make it spookier, I got their Lemberger! Mwahahaha!

“Aaaah! What’s a Lemberger?” you may ask, frozen with fright. Well . . . It’s a grape. Not really spoooky, but sounds like it could be.

After that we’ve got one of my old favorites, the Shinas Estate Shiraz called “The Guilty”. Is guilt spoooky? Ever see I Know What You Did Last Summer? Actually, I haven’t. Just seen the trailers. It looks like there could be some spoooky guilt going on there. Well, if not, the photo on the bottle looks a little spooooky.

Next we’ve got a wine from Boekenhoutskloof called “The Wolftrap”. How is that spoooky? Well, maybe it’s spoooky to people afraid of wolves. Or traps. Or wolftraps. Or really long unpronounceable names like “Boekenhoutskloof”. Or maybe the spoooky element of that wine is the fact that it is named after a 250-year-old Wolftrap on the Boekenhoutskloof property . . . in an area that has never had any wolves!

Finishing out the lineup, we’ve got Red Head Studio’s Barrel Monkeys Shiraz. What? Monkeys? Everyone loves monkeys, right? Nope. They kinda freak me out. Imagine a monkey with a knife. Who’s the cute little monkey now? See my point? They’re like fecal-flinging little hairy humans. But insane. Speaking of insanity, that brings us to the last spoooky wine of the lineup. It’s Bacio Divino’s Pazzo “Call Me Crazy”. How spoooky is craziness? Ever seen The Shining? Enough said.

Speaking of which, the shop will be closed on Halloween (Tuesday), as I will be up on Mt. Hood at Timberline lodge, where The Shining was filmed, to watch a screening of . . . you guessed it . . . The Shining. Sounds spoooky, yes? Indeed.

What’s not so spoooky, though, is that tomorrow night we’ll be having a bit of live music again. This time it’s bringing back Pete Krebs who is being joined by Tracy Kim. They’ll be here playing at 7:00 to serenade the delicious wine spoookiness!

So Friday, October 27th, between 4:30 and 9:00 PM it’s:

Spoooky Halloween Selection!!!
Norman 2004 “The Monster” Zinfandel, Paso Robles, California
Peachy Canyon 2004 “Jester”, Paso Robles, California
Shooting Star 2004 “Blue Franc” Lemberger, Columbia Valley, Washington
Shinas Estate 2003 “The Guilty” Shiraz, Victoria, Australia
Boekenhoutskloof 2004 “The Wolftrap”, Franschoek, South Africa

Spoooooky!!!
Red Head Studio 2004 Barrel Monkeys Shiraz, McLarren Vale, Australia
Bacio Divino 2003 Pazzo “Call Me Crazy”, Napa Valley, California

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

Seize the Wine!

Next Friday tasting is Big California Reds!

M