There are few times in life, mine anyway, when you get the chance to drink a cabernet that is 24 years old.  Now most things that I have read about the taste of old wine is probably not good unless one; you know exactly what you are drinking and two; how that wine has been stored over its many years of bottled life.  Many articles that I have read warn about developing a taste for “old wines”.  They are definitely different in structure, flavor, texture and color.  

I hark back 30 years ago to when my wife and I had a rack of wine, (6 bottles on top of the china cabinet), in our dining room.  

(Andrew now has this 6 bottle walnut wine rack made by his dad holding wine in the living room) 

It was clearly displayed in the “good light” and all six were chosen for the brightly colored foil, each one different, so it looked really “neat”.   We were moving from that home and in packing up those old bottles we decided to try one that had been given to us by some friends.  They had stopped in a “winery” in Minnesota on their vacation years ago.  It was a red, that’s all I remember.  Wine is supposed to get better with age, right?  I pulled out the flakey rotten cork which disintegrated the minute I stuck the corkscrew into it.  I destroyed the cork and had to strain the chunks of cork with a tea strainer from the drawer in the kitchen that housed all the utensils and gadgets that we hardly ever used and should probably be thrown away.  While performing this rather disheartening task, I noticed the smell coming from the “brown” liquid I was trying to remove the “pieces” out of.  It reminded me a lot of the medicine that my Mom used to pour on any of my open cuts that burned like hell when I was a kid, but was always reminded that “it had to be done to clean and disinfect the wound”.  Pew! 

I poured out an ounce or so in a glass, brought it up to my lips slowly took a little sip.  Holy Crap!  It tasted worse than it smelled!  The stinky remains went immediately down the kitchen sink and I vowed to never try old wine again!  Yuck! 

Many years have passed and my appreciation for good wine has grown, as well as my curiosity of all great wines that are said to be candidates for laying down for aging.  First of all, I could never afford to buy a great old wine to try anyway.  That brings me to the fun part of this story.  We are friends with a retired couple from Minneapolis, Minnesota, who spend 3 months renting a unit in our condo complex from January to March each winter.  We’ve become very close friends and share a common bond in our passion for good wine, especially at affordable prices.  A really cool sidelight to this relationship is that their daughter is a very successful head wine maker with the William / Selyem Winery on the Russian River south of Healdsburg, California.  She had originally interned with Mondovi and has held chief winemaking duties at Freemark Abbey and Clois du Bois.  While at Freemark Abbey, she had sent her parents a bottle of 1985 cabernet, writing on the label in pen, “The Good Stuff”, when she sent it.  He had saved it all these years (24 to be exact) and brought it to Florida with them this winter to share with my wife and me.   

Now, admittedly, I was a bit worried about several things with this wine.  Was it stored properly?  Would it be “corked”?  What would I say if tasted really bad?

They brought it over one evening and I carefully removed the foil and screwed the corkscrew into the old cork, but did not see any previous leakage or badly discolored cork.  I slowly pulled it out.  Oh Crap!  Two thirds of the top of the cork had split away from the bottom of the cork and came out with the corkscrew!  What remained in the neck was dark stained but looked to be solid and did not crumble into the bottle.  I carefully screwed the cork screw through what remained and very gently and slowly pulled it out.  It came out clean and did not leave any cork pieces in the bottle.  Whew!  What a relief! 

The smell was of wine, not sour or vinegar, with a hint of “medicine” or slight bitter aroma, but not offensive,  Now was when all my recent reading on what to expect in viewing, smelling and tasting “old wine” kicked in and what I should expect.  I poured a very small portion into a large balloon glass and gave it to my guest for him to taste it first.  He sipped slowly and certainly a bit apprehensively, but quickly reported that most assuredly tasted of wine and was “not too bad”.   

Now it was my turn to taste it.  With a small pour for myself, I swirled it and carefully smelled it again.  It still was a pleasant aroma with just that hint of alcohol.  I sipped it and held it on my tongue in my mouth.  It was actually very smooth and the taste was very good – different – but very good.  I carefully decanted the rest of the bottle and was cautious to pour carefully to leave all the sediment in the bottle.  The four of us each took a small pour into our glasses and shared a toast and all of us enjoyed the “old wine tasting” experience.  We studied the color, the nose and the smooth taste.  The wives both agreed it was good but would rather share a bottle of point noir, which I dutifully opened for them to enjoy. 

Then it happened; the conversation was literally flying while reminiscing their daughter’s past in the wine making business, so not much more of the wine had been tasted of  several minutes.  I swirled my glass again and inhaled another long aromatic pull from my glass, tasted it again and held the mouthful in my mouth for a long time.  Wow!  It had changed!  I guess this is what the experts mean when old wine is opened and allowed to breath and “open up” letting the oxygen mix with the wine.  It was amazingly wonderful!  What a fantastic experience!  There was another full glass left for my friend and for me, and we gladly finished the remainder, savoring the taste as each sip became better to the very end. 

I will probably never get a chance to enjoy an old bottle of great wine like that again, and I guarantee I’ll never forget it!  What a fun evening a great wine and great friends.  I can’t thank them enough for the enough for the experience.  I’m sure we’ll continue to share good wine and great times with them for years to come.

Jim Albinger (Andrew’s dad) grew up in smalltown northwest Iowa in the 1950’s.  He has been writing down his experiences looking back at all that has shaped his current wine tasting hobby.  Expect to see more of Jim’s writings here at offthecork.com.

This is the 18h installment find the 1st one here

We have had several different styles of wine glasses in our home over the 38 year of marriage and until recently, we have never paid much attention to what we were drinking out of.  We do have the red wine (balloons) ever since my friend pointed out, “You need to drink reds out a glass like that and not the skinny ones!” We had had the white wine glasses since we first moved here.  I admit that since purchasing the balloons, we really enjoy drinking the reds from them rather than the other glasses. 

Last spring, when my wife and I attended the Wine Spectator’s “Grand Tour” in Las Vegas, we were each handed a glass to use for the tasting event.  I noticed the name “Ridel” was etched on the base.  As I have mentioned in an earlier writing, we thoroughly enjoyed that tasting event, so we naturally opted to take our glasses home with us to Florida to use as “extras”. 

It always amazes me as to what I can find to read about in wine books and magazines.  I recently read an article about the “Ridel” glass and its very unique characteristics.  It explained the microscopic irregularities in the interior of the surface of the glass that enabled the better break-up of the wine molecules to add oxygen when you swirl it in the glass, The perfect shape of the cabernet designed glass to aid in capturing the full “nose” of the wine as you taste it, the size of the bowl and length of the stem, all making it easier to handle and drink from to get the most flavor and sensations from the wine.  Then I priced the set of two glasses in a local store and realized they were almost $50.00.  Holy Crap!  Why would I spend that much for two glasses no mater what they did to enhance the wine? 

Funny thing though, we started to drink out of the complimentary “Ridel” glasses from the “Grand Tour” and not the balloons anymore.  Then it happened!  I broke one against the granite countertop.  Talk about an explosion!  There were little chards of glass all over the kitchen and the dining room as well. It blew up like a grenade! Both of us agreed that this was good crystal.  Now was when the little arguments started.  My wife would say, “You always get the “Ridel” glass!  I want to drink out of it!” 

A few days later came another amazing comment from her.  “We should probably buy a pair of those good “Ridel” cabernet glasses.”  I never thought I’d ever hear her say that!  Of course, I went right out and shelled out the cash for a pair of the “Vinium” cabernet/shiraz shaped glasses.  We love them and both of us acknowledged that they are very much superior to all other glasses and if one broke, we’d be right back for another one!  No more of that argument!

Jim Albinger (Andrew’s dad) grew up in smalltown northwest Iowa in the 1950’s.  He has been writing down his experiences looking back at all that has shaped his current wine tasting hobby.  Expect to see more of Jim’s writings here at offthecork.com.

Traveling for a large company as I do, takes me to some really strange, wonderful and interesting places.  On just that type of a 3 day trip to do “all-day” meetings I ended up in Albuquerque, New Mexico in the fall of 2007.  I stumbled onto a local winery when I was unconsciously thumbing through the rack of pamphlets and brochures for the local area near the elevator at the hotel, mostly out of boredom, waiting for it to come back down to the lobby.  One caught my eye as it was a winery/tasting room/restaurant not far from the hotel and meeting facility. 

I mentioned my little “find” to a friend at the meetings as he also is always in search of well priced, new wines to try.  He agreed that after the meetings that day, we would find our way to the winery to do the tasting and have some fun touring the area. 

The trip was short and we had little trouble finding the faux “old mission” styled building.  We walked in and saw rows of bottles – all New Mexico wines.  I really did not know that New Mexico produced that many varieties.  I wondered if we’d be tasting cactus juice or aloe vera wines!  Much to my amazement we sat down and looked at the list of wines that we could sample and there we’re all my old favorites; cabernet, merlot, zinfandel, chardonnay, etc.  We could pick 8 wines for $15.  We sat at a private table and decided to get the same wines so we could compare our perceived taste of each variety.  We did 2 white and 6 reds. 

I think it was the 3^rd sample, a reserve merlot, that when we tasted it we looked at each other with total shock.  This stuff is really good!  We could not believe the extremely lively, smooth taste and the long mellow finish.  It sat at the top of the list of the wines we tried that night (which were all good wines, by the way).  We then checked out the price and we were blown away again!  It was only $15.50 per bottle! 

We were on a tight time schedule that night and had to get back for evening meetings, but promised each other that we would come back the next evening for dinner and a bottle of two of that great merlot.  Believe me; the second trip was better than the first.  Great food, great wine, great company; that’s what it is all about! 

I’ve since bought the new release (Sinclair 2006 ‘Reserve Merlot’) from their web-site and the 2006 was even better than the 2005 that we tasted on that trip last fall.  New Mexico wine – who’d of “thunk”?

Jim Albinger (Andrew’s dad) grew up in smalltown northwest Iowa in the 1950’s.  He has been writing down his experiences looking back at all that has shaped his current wine tasting hobby.  Expect to see more of Jim’s writings here at offthecork.com.

This is the 16th installment find the 1st one here

I travel for a living with a major company and I often end up in Las Vegas for national trade shows.  I had just returned from one of my many road trips for the company and was sitting down with my wife and sharing a great bottle of pinot noir that Friday evening.  She told me that she had debated telling me about a flyer she had opened that was in the mail from the “Wine Spectator” advertising the Las Vegas “Grand Tour” wine tasting event in May.  I said, “What a coincidence!  I have a show in Las Vegas that same week, so let’s go!”  She then informed me that it was $200 per person if booked now and $260 per person at the door.  I figured that would be the end of that conversation, but she actually suggested we go.  I about had a heart attack!  Wow!  It can’t be true!  Now, my wife always seems to find an excuse to get to Las Vegas, and this was perfect!  We ordered the tickets over the internet that very night. 

The “Grand Tour” was at the Venetian Hotel on a Saturday night and, of course, we were there early.  I saw a map of the floor layout sitting on an easel by the door as to which wineries were pouring by booth number and where they were located in the room.  I took as many notes as fast as I could on whom and where I wanted to try that night.  We wanted to get in there as fast as we could and got in line so that when the doors opened, we’d be ready. We impatiently stood in that line for 45 minutes and then it started to move onto the event floor.  As we entered the last doorway, we received our official book representing all the wineries and our complementary “Ridel” glass.  

The first two tasting stops were “top drawer” pinot noirs that I had only been able to read about, since they were in California, very exclusive and not available in Florida.  It was like dying and going to heaven!  I’d never tasted any wine in my entire life that wonderful.  I actually got to visit with the owners who I had seen in the magazines and read articles about over the last few years.   

After two or three more stops, my wife suggested that we eat some of the fantastic food before we got ourselves in trouble.  (All the “snobs” were spitting- NOT ME!)  We loaded our little plates and sat down with two other couples about our age.  Naturally, we started to talk about which wines we had tasted already and which ones we’d classify as the “best ones”.  This made the rest of the evening fly by with a reason to test my tastes against theirs in cabernets, syrah and many, many more.  We managed to cram twenty-one different wineries tasting’s into the three hour event.  Though my wife and my tastes are very similar, we did go our separate ways at times and it was sad when it was all coming to the end of the evening.  We both admitted that it had been worth every penny of the cost for the event and then to my surprise and delight she said, “I think we should do this again!”  Now I know I’d died and gone to heaven!  We’ll be back!

Jim Albinger (Andrew’s dad) grew up in smalltown northwest Iowa in the 1950’s.  He has been writing down his experiences looking back at all that has shaped his current wine tasting hobby.  Expect to see more of Jim’s writings here at offthecork.com.

This is the 15th installment find the 1st one here

A couple of years ago, my nephew and his lovely bride were to be married in Palo Alto, California and my wife and I were planning to attend.  Naturally, I took a few extra of my vacation days to travel to “wine country” seeing that we were so close and June was a great time to be there.  We had hit on the fact that we both really like the “Russian River Valley” pinot noirs and would like to visit wineries in that area around Santa Rosa and Healdsburg for a few days and really enjoy ourselves.  Great idea! 

All of the trips that my wife and I have ever taken for personal vacations have been mostly planned (always planned) by her as to where we would stay, eat and visit local attractions.  She announced that this wine trip was up to me to plan and set up the itinerary!  OK, I can do that! 

I went on the internet and located the wineries in and around Healdsburg, the Russian River valley and Santa Rosa.  I plotted out the trip based on their tour times, prices and made reservations for tasting wherever I need to.  I came up with 14 different wineries to possibly visit in 2 and ½ days.  I figured we would not make it to all of them but we’d give it a shot and see what happened, so long as we had a good time. 

We arrived at the first winery in the Russian River valley in the early afternoon.  It was beautiful there and we were lucky to have a tour through a small “hand crafted” winery where a young man took the time to really explain what they did, what we were looking at and also shared some great wine with us.  We actually made it to 3 more tasting rooms that afternoon.  I looked over at my wife and she declared, “I need a greasy cheeseburger and some rest, NOW!  I obeyed! 

The next day we paced ourselves a bit better and did some driving through the magnificent countryside and stopped a couple different wineries in the morning, had a great lunch and did a couple more tasting stops in the afternoon and one in the early evening in the town of Healdsburg itself.  All the wines were fantastic and the people were gracious and fun to talk to.  We spent the evening in the park at a “bluegrass” concert in the town square with the locals.  What a great day! 

The next morning, we left and headed through a few more wineries in Santa Rosa and on to Sonoma toward the San Francisco Airport for our return trip to Florida the next day.  What a beautiful trip!  I had no idea what amazing structures, vineyards and facilities there are in the wine producing region of the Sonoma and Russian River Valleys.  The trip was wonderful, the wine was great and, would I recommend it to anyone else?  You bet I would!  Would I do it again?  I will, and my wife will too! 

PS We made it to 12 of the 14 wineries on my list!

Jim Albinger (Andrew’s dad) grew up in smalltown northwest Iowa in the 1950’s.  He has been writing down his experiences looking back at all that has shaped his current wine tasting hobby.  Expect to see more of Jim’s writings here at offthecork.com.

This is the 14th installment find the 1st one here

Who didn’t see the movie “Sideways” and didn’t just love it?  I did!  That movie has been credited with the biggest upsurge in the interest and sales of pinot noir in the history of wine in the United States.  My wife and I saw it when we were going through a phase where we only drank cabernet and occasionally a merlot – that’s it!  We were stuck in a rut, but we liked it.

After seeing the movie, I thought I’d try a bottle or two and see what it was all about.  I purchased a couple different pinots to try from wineries that I had at least heard of or was drinking fuller bodied reds from already.  We went about trying them with an open mind and boy, were we lucky?  I opened that first bottle of pinot noir and it was wonderful!  Our tastes had been focused so much on cabernet that this was a fantastic shock to our mental concept of what “red wine” should taste like.  My wife immediately harked back to the “sweet” sensation of her wine enjoyment of years earlier and she commented with words like, “jammy, strawberry, smooth and light”.

I had the same descriptive words on my mind for that taste experience but the most prevalent sensation was “smooth”.  It was that smooth, berry, light bodied sensation with a long velvety finish that had me hooked.

We started to drink more and more pinot noir, trying as many different ones as we could and for the most part, we liked almost all of them.  The most amazing thing is that we were able to find varieties that were very inexpensive and yet were just down-right great tasting. This is usually not the case with most cabernets and merlots. 

We continued to drink other reds on a regular basis but, if left to our mutual desire for a bottle to enjoy together, we always seem to come back to a smooth, fruity pinot noir and do to this day.  Lesson: Keep trying new wines and new grape varieties.  Its soooooo rewarding!

Jim Albinger (Andrew’s dad) grew up in smalltown northwest Iowa in the 1950’s.  He has been writing down his experiences looking back at all that has shaped his current wine tasting hobby.  Expect to see more of Jim’s writings here at offthecork.com.

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!

After reading the first book or two, I yearned for more varied and concentrated information to broaden my knowledge and curiosity about wine.  Knowing that I had become such a “nut bag” about studying wine, my wife showed me an article that she had read had read in our college alumni news about a wine course that they were offering (back in the Midwest).  The text they were using, according to the article was a book by Kevin Zraly, “Windows on the World – A Complete Wine Course”.  I didn’t need any more of an excuse to trek off to the book store to find it!

I spotted it quite easily in the racks of “wine buff” books, purchased it and headed home for some hopefully good and informative reading.  Wow!  What a book!  This is what I had been looking for!  I’d hit the jackpot!  I read, highlighted and read some more.  It is a fascinating book written in very plain laymen terms and is devoted to the total education of anyone who enjoys learning about and trying new wines.  I’ve read the book twice (which I had never done to a book in my life) and have re-read the highlights again and again.

I could now read the label of a German Riesling and know when and where it was grown and how it was made and probably tasted.  I could now see a wine from Italy on the shelf at the wine store and know which region of the country it was from.  I now know that the “tastes” I was experiencing were all able to be categorized and mentally listed and also written down to aid in buying wine the next time that I knew I really liked.  I also found that I certainly needed to expand my knowledge and tastes of all types of wine – not just cabinet and merlot.  It is a “must read” for anyone wanting to learn more about wine.  The author is realistic about personal taste vs. price.  I have learned one very important thing from this book! That is; try a lot of different wines and then buy and drink the ones you like, not the ones others tell you you’ll like.  I do just that and am having a ball!

Jim Albinger (Andrew’s dad) grew up in smalltown northwest Iowa in the 1950’s.  He has been writing down his experiences looking back at all that has shaped his current wine tasting hobby.  Expect to see more of Jim’s writings here at offthecork.com.

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.

I decided on one of my outings to stop by an up-scale wine store in Naples, Florida to search out some of the varieties I’d been reading about and was constantly urged to buy in the wine magazines.  As I entered the shop I realized there were only two other customers there along with the man behind the counter.  He was cordial enough, smiled and asked what I was looking for in a wine and if he could help.  I told him very generally what I was looking for and he pointed me to the correct section of wooden racks holding rows and rows of bottles.  I moved in close and started reading labels and very quickly realized that I did not recognize anything that I was observing.  I’m sure my face got red, but I studied each wine – especially the price.  Holy crap!  I can’t afford this stuff.

I remembered the one California Pinot Noir that had been near the top of the 100 point tasting chart in more than one magazine, so I started to really search for it. They must carry it especially since it is that popular.  After searching the entire section without seeing it anywhere, I wandered back to the counter (where the three guys were probably talking about me).  Again, the shop keeper asked if he could help me, so I blurted out the name of the highly rate wine.  They all three began to laugh their fool heads off.  “You can’t buy a wine like that in Florida!  It’s a small prestigious winery with limited production.”  Still giggling, one of the guys told me, that, “At certain times of the year, you may see it available in the Ritz-Carlton for around $28 per glass – but worth every penny of it!”  Yeah right!  I’d never paid that much for a bottle, much less a glass!  I smiled and said something generically gracious while the others continued to chuckle.  I left and never went back.

Jim Albinger (Andrew’s dad) grew up in smalltown northwest Iowa in the 1950’s.  He has been writing down his experiences looking back at all that has shaped his current wine tasting hobby.  Expect to see more of Jim’s writings here at offthecork.com.

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!

I set off on a search and seize mission to the local liquor stores, grocery and convenience stores.  After 5-6 hours of driving and searching, I found 8-9 bottles at 5 different locations, with great relief.  Now the storage of this collection was going to be a new problem in our small condo.  Where do you “stuff” all those bottles?  I’d learned enough about wine storage to know not to put it near a heat source like the top of the refrigerator or in the back of a shelf of a warm cupboard.  We certainly did not have the room for a small wine refrigerator so a small rack that we were currently using was going to have to do, but it would not all fit.

My wife came up with a brilliant idea that turned to be an ingenious solution that we still use today.  She had an extra sweater storage box on wheels that held 20 bottles side by side and will roll with ease on the cool tile floor under the bed in the master bedroom.  What a find!

In about 4-6 weeks, reality hit hard.  I’d tried and enjoyed several new wines and drank them in between the ones that I had stashed under the bed.  I found that we actually liked several of the new ones better than our hoard of that one vintage in the “rolling wine cellar”.  Was buying all that wine the smart thing to do? It was good wine at the time!

Lesson: When you find a wine that you really enjoy, buy a few bottles.  Don’t hoard cheap wine if you can’t drink it in a short period of time especially when stored without a bit of cooling available.  There will always be another favorite “better wine” to find!

Jim Albinger (Andrew’s dad) grew up in smalltown northwest Iowa in the 1950’s.  He has been writing down his experiences looking back at all that has shaped his current wine tasting hobby.  Expect to see more of Jim’s writings here at offthecork.com.

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.

I moved the glass cautiously to my lips, took a sip and WOW!  This stuff is really good!  I took another sip and could not keep silent any longer so I let out the reply, “This stuff is really good!”  My wife looked at me and figured I’d slipped a cog, but I meant it.  I saw that she too had liked what she had just tasted by the look on her face, but knew she wouldn’t say anything just yet.

I asked what it was and our host happily told me, “A 1999 ‘Honig’ cabernet sauvignon from Napa Valley, California.”  She described the taste as “freakin’ butter” and said it had a smooth, pepper finish.  You know what?  She was exactly right!  The feeling instantly came over me that this “red wine” was really good and it wasn’t served cold!  I guess they are right and it should be served at this temperature!

We drank that bottle and then one more!  That’s when I found out that it cost $40.00 a bottle.  Great!  Now I’ve found a red wine that I really like and I can’t afford to drink it!  We left very satisfied but yet I wondered if there were other red wines out there that could compare in taste but not cost as much (half would be too much).  I started my search that night and I have never quit – and I’m not going to, either!

Jim Albinger (Andrew’s dad) grew up in smalltown northwest Iowa in the 1950’s.  He has been writing down his experiences looking back at all that has shaped his current wine tasting hobby.  Expect to see more of Jim’s writings here at offthecork.com.