Interview with Wannabe Wino (aka Sonadora…aka Megan)

July 1st, 2008

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As we often do when we have a new bloggerpack to shill, we’ve interviewed the blogger in question. Without further ado, the blogger known as Wannabe Wino — our questions are in bold, her answers are not:

When and why did you first decide to plunge into the crazy world of wine blogging? How do you fit it into your work day?

I really hated my first job. At some point in my 8 months of working there, well, really within the first 2 months, I literally reached the very last page of the internet. I swear it exists. Also, because they had eliminated my position at work prior to me even officially arriving, they literally had nothing for me to do, no one talked to me, it was pretty much my own living hell. So the blog was born of sheer and utter boredom and the realization, after reading every last thing about wine on the internet, that no one was talking about the wines I was drinking. You seem to have incredible endurance as well as devotion when it comes to wine drinking (and blogging, of course!). Do you and Matt really open a bottle nearly every night? Who chooses what to drink of the two of you?

We take the ocassional hiatus, but on an average week 5-7 bottles get opened in our house. This week we’re on a hiatus, but it’s almost Friday. We take turns picking what to drink, but generally ask the other one if they would prefer a red or white or base it on what we’re eating for dinner.

I’m finding more trouble fitting blogging into my day-to-day life recently. I carpool to work with Matt and his hours have increased again as of late, limiting my non-content-filtered internet hours even more. I usually write my posts fresh every morning and post them right then. I try to devote time on Saturdays to routine maintainence and such. The hardest thing for me is interacting with other blogs since they are blocked at work, and I’m literally awake for all of 2 hours when we get home.

Also, do you think about what you’re eating first, and pair that with wine, or what you’re drinking first, and then pair that with food? What’s your favorite food and wine pairing of late?

90% of the time I pick the food first. We work fairly long hours, so I tend to only be able to get to the store once a week. Meals are planned on a weekly basis, usually based off what’s on sale and what looks fresh when I get to the store. At the moment I’m really digging Sauvignon Blanc with parmesan baked tilapia.

Besides Cali wines, which you seem to love (and we love you for that), have you discovered any part of the world or wine region that you’re becoming as interested in or excited about? Or are you a California girl now and forever?

I always like a wide variety of wines from lots of different places, but California wines hold a special place in my heart, having been my first real introduction to how great wine can be. Some other perennial favorites are Sauvignon Blancs from New Zealand, Chile, and South Africa, and last winter Italian reds were calling my name. I expect Italy will start to play a bigger roll in my wine drinking in the future.

What’s the worst bottle of wine you’ve ever had? Best?

Yellow Tail Riesling was by far the worst “wine” I’ve ever had. The stuff tasted like melted plastic flowers doused in chemicals. It was foul. The best? Now that’s a toughie. I’ve had so many great wines and I just can’t choose one.

Any wine travel planned for the coming year? If you could go anywhere in the wine world, where would it be?

Well, I hope to be able to go to the Wine Blogger Conference in Sonoma this fall…other than that, we’ll probably take our annual trek to CA around Easter. No international travel for the time begin, the dollar sucks. And, as usual, we like to go out to the local VA vineyards on the weekends.

4 Responses to “Interview with Wannabe Wino (aka Sonadora…aka Megan)”

  1. Gravatar Icon Dr. Debs

    Thanks for the interview. “Melted plastic flowers doused in chemicals” is the best description I’ve ever read of Yellow Tail Riesling!

  2. Gravatar Icon Oenophilus

    Ditto the Doc! Wow! I haven’t tried it; now, I most certainly never will. Thanks, Megan, for the great contextual reviews and colorful descriptors. Thanks to D547 for always carrying great wines that will never taste like “Melted plastic flowers doused in chemicals.”

  3. Gravatar Icon olivia

    what do the letters “VA” mean when you say the “local VA vineyards”?

  4. Gravatar Icon Sonadora

    Olivia-

    VA=Virginia. I live in Virginia and we have quite a few vineyards around us here!

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get your wine on

2005 The Great Whatsit Syrah, Santa Ynez Valley

Our first ‘domaine547 selection’ is a deep, brooding and delicious Syrah, made by the fine folks at Stolpman Vineyards. It’s due to arrive very soon, and is on special at a mere $20 a bottle. Get some, open it up and drink it in. We’re super-excited to share it with you. What’s that? Whatsit!

2006 Vigna Senza Nome Moscato d’Asti

Gary Vaynerchuk called this one of the best Moscatos he’s tasted on today’s show. You know where to go to see his videos. But it you’re looking for a west coast source of the wine, look no further than us. We love it too and have had it in stock since the day we opened. On sale while supplies (11 bottles left) last$17 bucks in honor of Vaynerchuk

2005 Tenuta di Valgiano Colline Lucchesi Palistorti

We have a knack for picking Italian wines that score really horribly in the press. This one gets an 82 from the Wine Spectator — but we love it nonetheless. It’s a blend of Sangiovese, Merlot and Syrah that hails from a biodynamic estate outside of Lucca. It couldn’t be from anywhere else, unlike the 98 point yielding Super Tuscan blends that we’ve on occsasion mistaken for California iterations of Bordeaux varieties. This will probably end up in our six-pack prize of wines that will not make the Spectator top 100…$37 for 82 points (how’s that for transparency?)

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Corkage Week Announcement!:

The week of September 7th will be “Corkage Week” at domaine547! What does this mean? We’re going to devote the week to issues surrounding bringing your own wine to restaurants. Yay!

In the meantime, it would be nifty if any of you could email us (info at domaine547 dot com) with any BYO stories of your own, and maybe you’ll wind up on the front page of d547. In fact, if you go out in the next few days and decide to give corkage a try, send us a picture of the bottle you brought, the receipt with the corkage charge, and any stories you care to share. If your story is selected to appear in our hallowed pages, we’ll send you a gift certificate to d547 for the amount you paid for corkage (within reason).

And now, a quick tip for corkage etiquette: avoid bringing a bottle that is already on the wine list of the restaurant you’re going to. This can mean downloading a restaurant’s wine list online, or calling in advance to check for duplication.

See you in a couple of weeks for lots more on corkage!

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.


Frizzante


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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.

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