Who I’d like to have a glass of wine with: my dog
I’m going to break with the d547 style and write first person singular this morning. Don’t ask me why, but it just seems appropriate in this instance. I’m also going to write something of questionable intellectual value, but that’s not exactly breaking with style…
It occurred to me as I was looking at the latest issue of Wine & Spirits, which features a great piece written by Dr. Debs, that there is somebody I’d really love to share a glass of wine with. See, the article by the Doc is accompanied by an illustration of Debs outside the Chronicle Wine Cellar in Pasadena, with her two dachshunds at her feet…and it hit me: I’d really like to have a glass of wine with my canine companion, Olive, who also happens to be a weiner-dog.
Olive has a zest for commestibles unlike any human I’ve encountered. She’s a total foodie, if a canine could be considered one. She never met something edible that she didn’t love, or at least try with gusto. She enjoys meat, bones, marrow, and is incredibly adventurous. Personally, I’d love to see her in a throwdown with Anthony Bourdain, as I’m fairly certain Olive would face him head to head, exotic dish after exotic dish. Squirrel would be the really telling dish, and I think would tip the balance away from Bourdain’s favor.
This post isn’t going to go very deep. I’ve said what I set out to: basically, my dog has a great sense of smell. She can’t get enough when it comes to all things culinary. She likes salty things, meaty things, sweet things, delicate things, rough and rustic things. I get the sense that if she had a chance to experience fine wine, she’d appreciate nuances in taste and smell that only more experienced wine drinkers might. She’d surely be able to tell the difference between a terroir-driven wine and spoofulated Parkerized wines on first whiff.
But here’s the thing that would really win me over. No matter whether the wine was DRC or a total Spoof-bomb, I think Olive would lap it up with equal enthusiasm, as she appears to get as much enjoyment out of a fine filet as she does more plebian, Purina-like pet food — not that she doesn’t sense one is more special than the other; but to her, they both offer something worth consideration (and consumption). That’s an attitude I think we can all learn from (though I’ll admit, Yellowtail is pushing it).
4 Responses to “Who I’d like to have a glass of wine with: my dog”
Leave a Reply
get your wine on
2007 Breggo Cellars Pinot Gris, Wiley Vineyard
We’ve fallen in love with a Pinot Gris from Breggo, whose Rosé was part of the Sonadora (aka Wannabewino) Bloggerpack and whose wines we have the utmost respect for. The PG is classic cool climate, with a nice crisp acidity and plenty of aromatics. A scant 225 cases or so were made of this wine and we snapped this up while we could get it. Sure to sell out from the winery. Score some Scholium.
2005 Scholium Project Satripies of the East Red Blend
This is an enticing blend of Cabernet, Merlot and Petite Sirah. If our sources are correct, it contains fruit from Margit’s Vineyard, which is connected to Randy Hall of Wine Biz Radio. Yay for great wine with fruit from a great guy! Score some Scholium.
NV Louis de Grenelle Saumur Sparkling Cab Franc
Here’s one for both the wine geeks and for the masses - it’s fairly obscure (a sparkler made from 100% Cab Franc, from importer Jon-David Headrick) and it’s delicious. It’s got some sweet-tart red fruit and great texture. And it’s affordable at $18 a bottle. Franc-ly, I’d like to try a sparkling Cab Franc!
Search
freshly pressed
Bonus Bottle of the Week: 2005 Jack William “The King” Cabernet Sauvignon, Alexander Valley:
Last week we experimented with an incentive…order a certain dollar amount, and get a bonus bottle with your order. We started off with a bang (or maybe a shake) with some wines from Mollydooker. It was a great success — all the Gigglepot Cab is gone, though nobody really went for the sparkling Shiraz — so we’re going to make this a semi-regular thing. We’ve also decided to call this our “Bonus Bottle” program.
Here’s our offer for Bonus Bottle number two. We’re moving closer to home this week, with the 2005 Jack William “The King” Cabernet Sauvignon from the Alexander Valley. When we first carried this, it retailed for $37 a bottle and we felt it was a steal even then. We far prefer this wine to Silver Oak and Jordan, two Alexander Valley perennials that are more about hype and brand name than integrity of the juice.
A couple of weeks ago, we got the last cases available from our distributor and were able to lower the price to $27 as the vintage was being closed out. So the wine went from a great value to an even greater one. And you can make it an even better deal — in fact, a veritable steal.
Make a purchase of $85 or more, and use the code “king” during check-out to get a bonus bottle of this fantastic Cabernet with your order. In fact, the way our coupon codes work out, you’ll also be saving a penny off the total. Limited quantity of bonus bottles available. When the supply runs out, the code will stop working. So go get yourself some wine and a bonus bottle now!
Bonus Bottle of the Week: 2005 Jack William “The King” Cabernet Sauvignon, Alexander Valley
WBW #50: Picnicking in October with Elio Perrone’s Bigaro
Simon’s Pick 10/08: 2007 Cotes-du-Rhone Villages, Cuvee Jules, Andre Andrieux
wine jargon
Frizzante
From Wikipedia: Frizzante is an Italian wine term term for semi-sparkling wine (as opposed to Spumante, which is generally used for fully sparkling wines). Frizzante wines generally owe their bubbles to a partial secondary fermentation in tank. You might notice a light fizz or tingly sensation on the tongue with a Frizzante wine, compared to the more carbonated sensation that more fully sparkling wines yield.
Scorekage
Okay, so we made up this word yesterday after a great restaurant experience. We brought a bottle of wine with us, expecting to pay a corkage fee. But the restaurant either forgot to charge us the $15, or decided to be nice to us. We scored! Hence, “scorekage” has entered our lexicon. This can also refer to BYO friendly restaurants that don’t charge for corkage under any circumstances.
grapewise
domaine547 In the Blogosphere! Imbibe Magazine Unfiltered
Check out this blog post where they actually refer to somebody from d547 as a “wine expert.” Shocking! In any case, the Imbibe blog offers a nice recipe to go along with one of our wine recommendations. Enjoy!
The 89 Project
We’ve joined a group of bloggers (wannabe critics, some have said!) as part of “The 89 Project,” an effort to explore the complicated matter of the 100 point system of evaluating wine. Go take a peek at the 89 Project blog, which has apparently already started a bit of controversy (and we’ve yet to make a post!). It’s interesting stuff.
domaine547 In the Blogosphere! Imbibe Magazine Unfiltered
The 89 Project
d547 In the News! Pasadena Star
June 9th, 2008 at 10:12 am
I’m sure the dog would love to too! That’s hilarious actually. When I spilled a bunch of wine at a friends, the dog drank absolutely all of it!
June 9th, 2008 at 3:35 pm
Hey Jill,
Funny winery dog story… the first harvest after we moved out to California, I went in search of our dog. I bring her to the winery every day, and at this point I don’t worry about her roaming, but we’d only been here a few months and she was still pretty young. After a little searching, I found her in the cellar, having wedged herself upside-down under our de-stemmer machine. Apparently, we had a slow leak in one of our valves and she had found it, tasted the grape juice and decided to plant herself there. She was completely drenched in super-sticky grape juice. She was happy. I, who had to give her the bath? Not so much.
Funny!
Thanks again for organizing the great dinner at Campanile last week.
-Jason
June 9th, 2008 at 7:49 pm
Loved your post! And the dog, too.. made me happy just reading it and looking at the pictures.
June 9th, 2008 at 9:43 pm
Love the post, and the idea of drinking with Olive. Lucy is a gluttonous dachshund, and not very discriminating. But I like your take on this as “enthusiasm”. Lucy is certainly an enthusiastic eater–her favorite food is anything porcine. All you have to do is say “pig” and she gets excited. As for Rusty the rescue doxie, he is suspicious of most things in his dish and sniffs them a lot first but loves treats of any sort. This leads me to think that Lucy might well be a Yellow Tail girl and Rusty, for all his hard knocks in life, might be a connoisseur of rare Burgundy!