53 Interesting Facts About The Number 53 #4: Max # of players on NFL Roster? 53

53 is

• The maximum number of players on a National Football League roster (and all of the players are Union members!)

Today, Feb. 1 is my brother’s birthday. And it was Super Bowl XLIX;  the American Football Conference (AFC) champion New England Patriots played the National Football Conference (NFC) champion Seattle Seahawks to decide the National Football League (NFL) champion for the 2014 season.

The Patriots defeated the Seahawks 28–24, and near the end of the game, after a stupid play, I saw some very big men get into a big scary fight on the field, and one man got thrown out (#51 Irvin). Then another man went on his knees and some how the game was over.

At some point in the game? during a commercial? JFK was quoted and people landed here looking for this:

I admit I saw very little of the Super Bowl. Instead of watching the game, I went wine tasting at Ojai Vineyard and then I went to Bart’s Books. They didn’t have what I was looking for, but I found three books to read anyway (including Gods in Our Midst: Mythological Images of the Masculine by Christine Downing).

I have more to say about football but I am saving that for another post.

I do have more to say about the wine, however: I’m a club member and I had not one but two pick ups which means that after tasting I got to take home a 2012 Sauvignon Blanc, a 2013 Santa Barbara Pinot Noir, a 2010 White Hawk Syrah, and a 2012 SB County Syrah. Plus I bought two bottles of Ojai red, a blend of Pinot noir and syrah.

In the tasting room, the line-up, as usual was stellar. Here are a few quick notes:

–2013 Bien Nacido Chardonnay is exceptional at $24 for wine club members and $28 for the public. I loved the minerality, the acid, the low alcohol, and the lovely stone fruit. More of a European style than a typical California chardonnay. Very food friendly.

–2013 Roll Ranch Viognier is lively, bright, with brilliant aromatics, salinity and minerality. This wine is grown in the Upper Ojai Valley; read more about this area and a review of the 2010 viognier and about the 2005 syrah here. $26/22

–2011 Puerta del Mar Pinot Noir comes from just west and south of the Sta Rita Hills AVA –about as close to the ocean as you can around here and still grow grapes; at times it is close enough to hear the sea. It reminded me of dusty cocoa on bittersweet chocolate on ripe fresh strawberries.

–2011 Solomon Hills Pinot Noir comes from the other end of the Santa Ynez area at the edge of the Santa Maria Valley where the land is very poor and sandy leading to concentrated fruit and small clusters. This is a rich, earthy and plummy wine with beautiful aromatics. I totally love this wine, and I’d pair it with seared ahi tuna or salmon or duck, but at $45/50 it’s out of my price range.

–2011 Bien Nacido Syrah $41/35 excellent as usual but they were closing and I decided to buy two bottles of red blend and neglected to get much in the way of notes.

–2013 Viognier Ice Wine $30/25 delicious –not too sweet or cloying, great acid.

This post is part of a weekly series, 53 Interesting Facts About the Number 53 which I publish each Sunday. I started on 1/11/15.

53 Interesting Facts About the Number 53:

#1 53 Miles West of Venus by the B-52s
#2 Ramones Song 53rd & 3rd
#3 Herbie The Love Bug’s Racing Number

Also: This is post #1586 on Art Predator. If you like wine, you might want to check out and subscribe to my blog Wine Predator.