This is the 13th installment find the 1st one here

Barnes & Nobel and Borders book stores have become my destination of choice for books to learn more about buying, tasting and producing good wine.  I want to know everything I can about wine.  I have immersed myself in studying and taking notes on wine facts and characteristics.  I did not study this diligently in college!  My wife thought at first that I was “cracking up”!  I loved it and still do.  What an amazing science, that of producing great wine!

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Tags: books, wine, wine books

This is the 12th installment find the 1st one here

The more new wines I tried, the more I wanted to read about them, find out how they were made, where they came from and what to look for in the new ones to try.  A few years ago I bought a copy of the “Wine Spectator” and was immediately taken in by it.  There was so much information for a novice like me that I was able to finally slice, dice and analyze it for hours on end.  I was particularly “smitten” by the 100 point wine rating scale.  I soon found that almost all the rated wines were not available in the local grocery stores where I had been buying my wine.  I figured most of them to be out of reach and not available in our area being from California, Washington and Oregon and were simply out of the question for me to buy and try.

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Tags: magazine, wine, wine magazine

This is the 11th installment find the 1st one here

It was truly amazing!  We actually found a vintage of cabernet that we really liked from a California winery.  My wife even said, “Why don’t you go get several bottles just to have on hand?”  Wow!  That was so out of character for her that I could hardly believe it!  I dutifully trekked off to the grocery store to buy a case of wine.  I went directly to the section and shelf where I’d bought that “really great wine” last week and it was GONE!  What the heck? 

I cornered a stocking guy who was pulling new bottles out of a case of wine and setting them on the shelves further down the isle.  I asked him if he had any more of the vintage I was looking for in the back room.  He smiled and said, “Nope, that’s it!  The new vintage should be here in a week or two.”  Oh, God!  Would it be as good?  Would it cost the same?  Maybe I could still find it in other stores!  I panicked!

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Tags: cabernet, vintage, wine

This is the 10th installment find the 1st one here

My wife and I were invited to a recently acquainted friend’s home near us on the beach.  She is a well-to-do realtor and the evening promised to be fun and interesting.  She offered us a glass of wine and in tandem, we responded, “A glass of white wine, please.”  I soon learned that this person was way beyond opinionated and replied, “All white wine tastes like crap!  I only drink cabernet – you’ll love it!”  (Yeah right!)  I watched as she took it out of the rack, popped the cork out and poured three glasses (balloons, of course) of warm red wine.  This was going to be horrible but, remember, you’re a guest so shut up, sip it slowly and don’t pucker or comment. Continue Reading »

Tags: 1st, first great wine, red, red wine, wine

This is the 9th installment find the 1st one here

In the year 2000, my job moved us to Fort Myers Beach, Florida and for once in our life the closest McDonald’s was not a 30 mile trip to the nearest “big town”.  Shopping was amazing and even the basic necessities were at our fingertips.  The grocery stores are huge and have everything you need and a lot that you don’t!  Among the completely stocked shelves we found a complete isle, 200’ long, full of wine!  Holy Crap!  We not only couldn’t figure out what it all was, but we couldn’t begin to pronounce most of the names.

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Tags: Florida, glassware, Iowa, wine

This is the 8th installment find the 1st one here

Giving up the hunt for a red wine that we liked in the early 80’s was an easy thing to do.  At a bar or restaurant the request for a glass of white wine was still the cool way to go as an alternative to hard liquor or beer, and it was easy to drink.

My wife and I attended a wedding of a very wealthy friend and at the meal with them we were served a favorite chardonnay of his.  I was astounded by it and really liked it.  That was the first white wine that did not taste sweet and syrupy to me.  It had a bit of dry taste (I thought about oat straw) but it was really quite pleasing.  My wife didn’t really like it and wanted her wine to be a bit sweeter.  After that first chardonnay, we did investigate and seek out new and different ones as we traveled and really found some that we totally enjoyed. 

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Tags: chardonnay, wine

This is the 7th installment find the 1st one here

It seems like my wife and I were (are) always on a diet of some sort.  Fighting weight is a fulltime job for us.  I hark back to one of the first articles that we read; put out by the diet folks we were following, that alluded to the fact that “red wine” was possibly really good for you!  What a revelation.  But I don’t like red wine, like that communion stuff from my youth!

After much consideration, we decided to stop and shop in a large Iowa town that had a “Cub Foods” huge discount grocery store that really had a quite a big selection of wines.  With a very serious goal in mind we went into the walk-in cooler where all the wines were kept and started to read the labels.  We studied what few details were listed on the back labels of the bottles since you could not taste them in advance of a purchase, and worked on selecting 2 bottles of burgundy.  We promised each other that we would have a glass each evening with dinner (supper if you’re from Iowa).  All we knew is that is was “red”.  We drove home the 100 miles and put into the refrigerator to get it “cold” to drink the next evening.

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Tags: diet, health, red wine

This is the 6th installment of this story. You can find the 1st one here

Growing up in a beer drinking culture, drinking meant “COLD” beer.  We heard stories of the ‘old country’ where all the beer was consumed warm and we all agreed that we were glad to live in the modern world of refrigerators and ice chests.  Living in rural Iowa in the late 70’s and early 80’s and you wanted a cool temperature wine to drink you ordered “a glass of white wine” or if your really wanted to sound worldly, a glass of Chablis.  It was usually served cold (well, cool) and sweet enough to not taste like vinegar since the bottle had probably been open at the bar since last weekend when some one actually wanted a glass of wine.  It was a socially acceptable alternative to beer or whiskey in a drinking group of friends.

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Tags: chablis, white zin, wine

This is the 5th installment of this story. You can find the 1st one here

Most old German families in our rural Iowa community made their own wine.  Not much, but some each summer and not necessarily out of grapes.  What ever was in the current batch was in a 5 gallon “Red Wing” crock, sitting on the kitchen counter, covered with a thin dish towel  with little fruit lies hovering over it day and night.  Who would ever drink this stuff that bugs liked that much?  I was truly clueless at age 9.

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Tags: homebrew, juice, wine

This is the 4th installment of this story.  You can find the 1st one here

I don’t completely remember when the Iowa Liquor Control Commission (ILCC) actually allowed humans to not only “see” the bottles at the state stores before they made a selection on what type of alcohol to buy, but at some point in time they actually allowed the public to walk in and pick up (touch) the individual bottles, put them into a cart and just pay for them without filling out the liquor book.  They had finally moved out of prohibition forever!
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Tags: Iowa, liquor store, prohibition, wine