After some deliberation I have decided that our first foray in to the world of collective online drinking will be via wine; more specifically, red wine. I was going to suggest that we choose a varietal and a region and go from there and I was going to crowdsource the decision, but guess what... that takes way too much time/energy and therefore I'm just going to pick.
For the first round of the Hubski Beer, Wine and Whiskey club we are going to choose a varietal but not a region. This is going to be a pretty general and wide open tasting. The varietal I choose is Pinot Noir. For those of you on the west coast (US) you should have some wonderful options near you. There are some fantastic Pinot's from the Carnero's and Willamette Valley regions and indeed all over the world. -My apologies to the french for pointing out US Pinot's but I think we have more people from the US here. That said, check out wines from Burgundy, which is where the grape originated.
I think it is acceptable to include blends of a variety of grapes so long as Pinot Noir is the predominate one. While Pinot is grown all over the world, it can be a very difficult grape to grow well. It requires a special climate; cool and damp and often you'll find it succeeds where fog is prevalent.
Prices for Pinot Noir's will range from ten to hundreds and even thousands of dollars a bottle. Because of the varietal though, you ought to be able to get a good representative bottle for less than $20, no problem at all. I had this bottle of Sean Minor Monday night and I think I paid $15 for it. -If you like bright, fruit forward wines then I would suggest trying to find this.
Things we can discuss regarding the wine's we are trying:
Body
Rim Variation
Tannins/Astringency
Bouquet
Mouthfeel
Legs
Nose ....etc....
Really, I think it will just be fun to be trying something all together. I'm going to head out to the store today and I'm going to pick out a special bottle for myself. I'll post what I get and if anyone would like to join me in the same exact bottle, that would be awesome.
I would very much like cW to join us on this one as he is a wine guy, a sommelier and is one of the most passionate people I've met about the fermented grape. -But he's not a snob about it at all. I hope to enjoy the experience, have some laughs and hopefully learn a bit.
Research in advance about the bottle you are going to drink would be a great idea.
THE FIRST EVER HUBSKI BEER, WINE AND WHISKEY CLUB WILL CONVENE THIS SUNDAY, FEBRUARY 16th We will commence a bit later than some might be able to in order to accommodate our west coast (US) peeps.
9:00pm EST.
Also, while I am leading the "wine" meet up, I would love if someone took the reigns for the beer/whiskey version to come. First things first though, Let's throw back some grapes!
_refugee_, mk, b_b, insomniasexx, flagamuffin, theadvancedapes, humanodon, cW, wasoxygen, zebra2, ijustcantanymore, ecib, Meriadoc, lil, cliffelam, sounds_sound, cgod, kleinbl00, elizabeth, pseydtonne, istara, steve, OftenBen, zebra2, coffeesp00ns, flagamuffin, BrainBurner, codingvagrant
Who is in?
Whoa, cW is a sommelier!? That's quite the distinction to have. I'll have to join in on some of these when I can justify making the purchase. Drinkings the easy part, justifying buying the alcohol is the hard part.
I'm not sure what cW's actual distinction is. If he's not a sommelier, then he ought to be dammit! I know he's taken some formal classes/tests etc. The label aside, he's damn fun to talk to about wine and I learn quite a bit while "throwing back the grapes" with him. Dig through your couch cushions and go buy an $8 bottle of wine!
That's a nice bottle! I bought a bottle of Gundlach Bundschu yesterday that I plan to open and taste along side the Left Coast bottle. They should be pretty different.
I've been on a wine tour before and enjoyed it. That's pretty much my only experience with wine, but I'm definitely interested in learning a bit more about wine (and you people!). I'm going to look into buying something, so i'll say I am a tentative yes for this Sunday.
DICTATOR! Just kidding. Wine has legs? You're kidding, right? I knew about the nose and the body, but legs? Is that how it splashes up on the glass or something? Can I say that the wine has "nice gams" and get away with it? I will buy Irony Pinot Noir then. I have had it once before. It is good. I think. I can certainly drink it. I am in like Flynn. I also deeply appreciate that I now am officially having a Date With Hubski this Sunday. Y'all are lucky I have Monday off. Someday I'll install Skype - ha! Someday I'll have a better laptop - and then I'll think about listening to your voices, too. And maybe taking a look at yer ugly mugs.* *I drink my wine out of mugs. Is this not okay? Someone should tell me before Sunday.
A cool little piece on the topic of wine legs: "My wine won't stop crying!"
For the record, this was the wine my sisters's gf recommended me: http://www.luliwines.com/fact-sheets/luli-2012-pinot-noir-fact-sheet.pdf I named the price ($20, -technically thenewgreen named it) and she said this was her favorite Pinot Noir at that price point. Looking forward to trying it out.
Apparently, insom is going to learn to drink wine this weekend. I have drank wine exactly 4 times in my life. 2 at wine tasting picnics in Malibu. Once at a party with old folks and it wasn't socially acceptable for a girl in a dress to hold a bottle of Guinness. And once at another party with old folks where I was given a glass of white before I found the beer. I'll do my best. If I don't like it, I'm switching to beer midway through.
No need for pity. I like beer and whiskey. Never saw the need to expand into more alcoholic beverages. :P
I'm the same way. I just don't find the distinction between wine to wine that people tout and it doesn't taste grand to me. Even pairing it feels wrong because the wine takes over whatever you're having. However, this: Fuck that. That's the time to pull out a goddamn stein and chug. I can't imagine being around those types would be any fun anyway, so might as well get hammered.Once at a party with old folks and it wasn't socially acceptable for a girl in a dress to hold a bottle of Guinness.
Hahaha I wish! I've been forced to attend some fancy-schmancy parties. My dad has been pretty good about getting out of most of the over-the-top weddings, birthdays, and holiday parties. It really isn't our family's style. But occasionally I have been forced to put on my great-grandmother's jewelry, dress nice, and interact with the worlds most pompous asshats while sniffing wine. When I was 17, for entertainment, I decided to talk about the internet, deepweb, hackers, and all sorts of crazy made up shit. My brother and I went full force. These rich folks have their circles of republican nonsense, tax evasion, investments, real estate etc. My brother and I had our super secret club of millionaire hackers who were so far ahead of the banks' older security teams that we could do anything. The Wall Street Journal had the occasional story about hackers so the other party attendees had vague knowledge of the existence of such groups. My parents put a stop to that pretty quickly though after one guest commented, "I can't believe you have wi-fi at the house and let your children on the internet! Who knows what sort of naughty things they may find!" We didn't have wi-fi. We had a 100ft cable that my brother and I had to share - with both our bedrooms being outside the 100ft range. No naughtiness for either of us.
At first I was going to be like "In 2006/7 you didn't have wi-fi? WHAT??!" But then I realized, in 2006/7 at my parents' house, we had one shared computer that we'd had since like '93, we still used AOL, and yes it was dial-up, and my parents set parental controls on my account so I could use the internet for an hour every day. My, how things have changed!
forwardslash -You dig the grapes, right? Would you and backslash like to get in on this? edit: I can't edit this post? Any reason why that would be happening...? It will not give me a text box to edit.
Weird, I just pushed some code, maybe something got borked in the restart. I can edit mine, hmm.
I think I may be wrong on the actual term of his accreditation. That said, he's no slouch when it comes to the world of the vine. I'll ought to edit the post though, I'm sure he'd appreciate me waiting for confirmation of his actual level of wine education.
I agree, if it's been written on the Internet then it is true. By the way, he is also an astophysicist, a zoologoist, a nechromancer and amateur rodeo clown.
Wow, my life just got awesome! It's much easier to become a serious rodeo clown when you can consult the spirits of all the long-departed clown virtuosos of the past. Regarding wine certification, I am technically a "guild member" of the International Court of Master Sommeliers. Level 2 (of 4) is actual Sommelier certification, and I continue to consider climbing that hill IRL ... Sounds like I already have in the hubskiverse. My more meaningful achievement (insofar as any such initials are meaningful) is the CSW (certified specialist of wine) by the Society of Wine Educators. They have a corresponding track of titles, and professionals usually choose one route or the other. To generalize, the ICMS is more service/ceremony oriented (more aristocratically capricious as well), and the SWE is more science/sales oriented. Anyway, that's way more than anyone wanted to know about the small hurdles of my professional life, but just wanted to set the record straight, so people will be less disappointed when I don't know stuff. My main asset is that I really, really like wine. I think it's yummy. Well, not all of it. I work on Sunday, but hope to join in when I can, if the party is still rolling. Do I need to download software to participate in this IRC? Is that a dinosaur's question? I was around for the dawn of email, you know ...
No need to download software for the IRC, just go here and register/login: #38;channel=%23hubski
I'll buy a bottle but can't promise i'll be there in the IRC (it will be 3:00 am here). Hopefully, i'll have a bit of trouble falling asleep that day ;) I've never been a big fan of red wines, but i'll admit I never gave it a proper chance. I'm open to changing my mind and learning lots about wines.
You know, I think the conversations should take place on Hubski and not in IRC. Why don't I post a thread and subsequent shout-outs that Sunday and we can discuss our wines etc there. Any questions one person has will likely be valuable to the people watching at home. We can jump on IRC towards the end when we're all good and toasted. Are you currently in Europe? I know you were going to be traveling.
Yes I'm in Europe. I'll be studying in Warsaw but i'm currently in Minsk for a couple more days. Internet is a bit limited here, but I'll probably upload couple pictures when i'm in Warsaw. Any idea which Pinot Noir you'll be drinking? I'd prefer having the same bottle as somebody more knowledgable about wine than me, so I can know a bit better what i'm looking for taste-wise.
Here is the bottle I'll be having: I wanted to go out and buy a bottle tonight, but there is a blizzard here and I have this bottle in the house. Therefore, it looks like it's Left Coast Cellers for me, Cali's Cuvée.