Wine How To: Avoid Bad Corks and Avoid Bad Wine
As part of my campaign to be Murphy-Goode’s Wine Country Lifestyle Correspondent, (and just because it’s fun!!), I’m participating in a blog carnival over at Andy’s Goode Life Blog where she asks us to respond to one of these three questions. She’s hosting a contest to see which is the best answer, so please read, comment, and vote for me!
- When I drink red wine, I often get the dreaded “red wine teeth,” which is an embarrassing condition to have at a party when I intend on talking, smiling, or otherwise showing my newly wine-stained chompers. And is there any way to reduce this affliction without hampering my enjoyment of red?
- What are your tips to avoid “palate fatigue” when tasting so many wines in a session?
- Why smell the cork?
3. Why smell the cork? Well, if it smells bad, it’s gonna taste bad. When you pick it up to check it out, if it’s a crumbly mess, the wine’s gonna be too.
Truth is? Most wines are fine. And smelling and feeling the cork doesn’t tell you as much as that first taste of wine does, since sometimes a cork breaks but the wine is great. If you don’t like a wine, don’t drink it. Don’t be embarrassed. Send it back.
When I was at the Wine Bloggers Conference last October, Read more…
Wine How To: Avoid Palate Fatigue When Wine Tasting
When I applied for the “dream job” as Caretaker of the Great Barrier Reef I discovered a whole community of fellow applicants–warm, interesting people who share my interests. Same thing around this time as an applicant for the Murphy-Goode’s Wine Country Lifestyle Correspondent.
One of the cool people is Andy over at Andy’s Goode Life Blog where she’s hosting a blog carnival by asking us to respond to these three questions:
- When I drink red wine, I often get the dreaded “red wine teeth,” which is an embarrassing condition to have at a party when I intend on talking, smiling, or otherwise showing my newly wine-stained chompers. And is there any way to reduce this affliction without hampering my enjoyment of red?
- What are your tips to avoid “palate fatigue” when tasting so many wines in a session?
- Why smell the cork?
Since I discovered I had several stories I wanted to share, I chose to answer all three questions but in different posts since it was getting so long! So here’s my answer to #2.
2. How do I avoid palate fatigue? I smile at this question, thinking back to the Delicious Wine Tasting in Santa Monica earlier this month. I brought three friends with me, Helen and her partner Grant who both work in the hospitality industry and influence wine selection at the high end restaurants, and my friend David who I’ve learned to rely on for good notes, a delicate palate, and a willingness to drive f I don’t do enough spitting.
Helen does a local TV show called “Tidbits” and we were shooting a segment, so we had a camera and mic. We were interviewing and tasting. It was exhausting, partly because most of the people we were talking with were French and we’re not. Plus our French is awful but our curiousity great. The food had run out early on, right after we’d had something after our nearly 90 minute drive; I’d even heard an organizer make a snide remark about one of my friends “making a meal out of a bread bar.” So another 90 minutes later, when more bread and cheese arrived, we filled the tiny plates, chose different wines to see what happened with the food, and settled into some couches outside the room to compare notes and take a break.
This is where I answer the question, by the way. Read more…
Wine How To: Avoid Red Wine Teeth
So you might have gathered that I’m applying for another “dream job”–this time, instead of Caretaker of the Great Barrier Reef, I’m up for Murphy-Goode’s Wine Country Lifestyle Correspondent.
And just as many people told me I was perfect for the island reef job, so people are saying about the Murphy-Goode job: “Go for it! You’re perfect! You love wine, you’re a great storyteller, I love your blog!” (OK, they know me, they love me, they’re biased…what can I say?)
So, my 60 second video application awaits approval and processing (and it came out soooooo great! Whoo hoo!!). In the meantime, I’m headed for a carnival, a blog carnival that is, over at Andy’s Goode Life Blog where she asks us to respond to these three questions:
- When I drink red wine, I often get the dreaded “red wine teeth,” which is an embarrassing condition to have at a party when I intend on talking, smiling, or otherwise showing my newly wine-stained chompers. And is there any way to reduce this affliction without hampering my enjoyment of red?
- What are your tips to avoid “palate fatigue” when tasting so many wines in a session?
- Why smell the cork?
1. How to avoid the dreaded red wine teeth?
Ahh, the scurge of red wine drinkers, especially for those of us with a passion for reds like syrah or Petit Sirah.
At Doug Cook’s birthday party at the first Wine Blogger’s Conference in 2008, toward the end of a long day of tasting and drinking wine, we were all laughing at ourselves and each other, joyously celebrating our red teeth! It was a mark of a day and an evening well spent amongst new and old friends sharing some of our favorite wines.
Now, if you’re doing a photo shoot, that’s another story. It’s best not to drink much anyway if at all.
Brush well before and bring a toothbrush for when you’re done!
Eating while drinking will also reduce away some of the red wine stain.
Finally, if it’s a first date or a business dinner, and you’re worried about first impressions, choose to drink something white or a lighter red like a pinot noir or a beaujolais.
Go here to read tips on how to attend a wine tasting like a pro and avoid palate fatigue.
CIRQUE BERZERK performed some amazing stunts and put on quite a show at last year’s Lightning in a Bottle produced by the Dot Lab. They interacted with the crowd, including turning my son into a flying superhero. 
He flew really high–they were up on a stage in addition to stilts!
I’m in the picture too–that’s me in the red velvet pants, sparkly silver shirt, and tux jacket. It was really cold at night! And thanks Toni, for taking the photo!
This is NOT your typical lions or elephants circus, nor is it much like Cirque du Soleil, although that may be a closer match.
If anything, it’s more of a cross between vaudeville, Burning Man, and Soleil.
Last year, they set up in downtown LA in the “cornfield” and they return for three weeks of shows starting last night, June 18. Here’s the details.
State Historic Park, 1245 N. Spring St.
Shows Thurs 8:30PM, Fri & Sat 7:00PM & 10:00PM,
and Sun 5:00 & 8:00PM run thru July 4th weekend.
Buy Tickets Now at http://cirqueberzerk.inticketing.com/events
For more info: http://cirqueberzerk.com
In LA: Touch the Water Closes this Sunday
Poet and performance artist Pat Payne aka Corvus the Crow writes to remind that it’s the final week of ‘Touch the Water’ and it’s about sold out! There are also river tours given by the Friends of the LA River during the weeknight performances which begin at 7pm. More: http://www.cornerstonetheater.org/content/index.php
The show features a wonderful cast of singing and dancing animals, a crazy Frenchman, a live band and a Native American ghost. It’s mostly kid-friendly (the s-word is uttered a few times and there a murder is mentioned) and the costumes are really imaginative.
Wednesdays – Sundays @ 8pm
PAY WHAT YOU CAN
Rio de Los Angeles State Park – Bowtie Parcel
2800 Casitas Avenue, Los Angeles 90039
Touch the water. Come to the river this spring and let the magical waters of Los Angeles wash over you.Under the City of Angels runs a fierce river flowing from the mountains to the ocean. But do you know it’s there? Once an unpredictable and mighty stream, a bountiful life source subject to raging floods, the Los Angeles River has lived under a shroud of concrete for the past fifty years. Today, having been tamed and transformed into an industrial flood channel, the river is at the center of much debate. What happens when we change Nature? Should we free the river from her concrete corset and let Angelenos finally touch the water?
This play was created in collaboration with local river residents, engineers, biologists, environmentalists, activists, advocates and patrons who walk, fish, bike and ride horses on the Los Angeles River.
Part of Cornerstone’s ongoing Justice Cycle, a four-year series of plays exploring how laws shape and disrupt communities, Touch the Water takes on environmental justice as seen through the lens of the LA River and the people who live, work and play there.VinTank to Help Art Predator Get A Really Goode Job!
Extra, extra read all about it! VinTank to help Art Predator win Murphy-Goode wine job!
Okay, I admit, I am exaggerating a little bit, but it’s really exciting news! After I groused over at VinTank and here on Art Predator about how VinTank was providing an unfair advantage to the 8 candidates they’ve chosen before the contest is even over, VinTank’s Paul Mabray commented on their blog and on mine that they are happy to help ALL the applicants Read more…
So I know you’re wondering, “what’s up with this Murphy-Goode wine blogging job you’re going for?”
Glad you asked! In this June 5 LA Times article, Murphy-Goode winemaker Dave Ready Jr admits they jumped on the “best job in the world” idea and made it their own by offering $10,000 a month for six months and a house in Healdsburg in the heart of Sonoma County wine country to the winning applicant via a 60 second video:
Ready said he got the idea of hiring a “lifestyle correspondent” via video application from the Australian state of Queensland. Early this year, tourism officials there caused an online sensation by inviting people to submit videos for “The Best Job in the World.” The gig: spending six months as caretaker of a palm-fringed island surrounded by azure sea, and using blogs, video updates, photo diaries and other online media to promote tourism. More than 34,000 people applied for the roughly $120,000 job, which went to Ben Southall, a self-described adventurer from Britain.
“We thought, ‘Wow, can we apply this to the wine industry?’ I guess we can,” Ready said as applicants joined him in sipping samples of Murphy-Goode wine. Many said they had learned of the job — which calls for an imaginative, inquisitive “people person” who is also a communications whiz — through e-mail lists or from friends.
With the deadline looming on Friday, Murphy-Goode has over 1300 videos posted on their website; they’ve warned they won’t accept more than 5,000. But according to Ready:
the main weakness among the applicants so far was their inability to show a passion for wine or for life in the bucolic Alexander Valley, not their mastery of the Web as a marketing tool.
Hmmn passion, passion, passion…I just think that’s an Art Predator attribute if there ever was one. Read more…
Art Predator: I Want “A Really Goode Job”
Just over a month ago, Queensland Tourism announced Ben Southall Gets Best Job in the World!
Which meant that Art Predator did not. And for those of you who follow this blog (and there are a lot of you, lurkers and commentors alike), you know my huge disappointment. You likely recall that I wrote a lot about Australia (not just my typical AUS wine posts!) and the Great Barrier Reef in the weeks leading up to that announcement–posts that, I must admit, have very long tails and continue to be quite active.
In the same post, I mentioned that Murphy-Goode was a week or so into a contest looking for a “Wine Country Lifestyle Correspondent,” and I wondered whether Read more…
Get in FREE to all 391 National Parks these 2009 dates: June 20-21, July 18-19, Aug 15-16
To encourage you to visit one or more of the 391 National Parks in the United States, the National Park Service will allow you in free during three weekends this summer: June 20-21, July 18-19, and August 15-16. Now that’s a nice Father’s Day Gift and great way to celebrate the longest day of the year!
This is a great deal–unless you’re like us and already have a pass to use the National Forests and Parks!
I took this iconic image of Half Dome with my iPhone the first week of April when we spent a week skiing and camping there.
SocialVibe & WordPress Team Up to Help Surfrider & More
I’m working on adding a new widget to my blog, one that adds an ad.
And I’m actually excited about it.
No, not because I’m going to make money. Most of those affiliate ads and Google adsense ads you see on some blogs pay so poorly they aren’t worth the trouble or the pollution to the blog. And if you ever see ads on my blog, they’re making money for WordPress.
My new SocialVibe widget/ad will support Surfrider Foundation which is a very wonderful organization which does great work locally and globally. I am actually involved with several local Surfrider projects and the local environmental director, Paul Jenkin, is a friend as well as someone I admire greatly for all of his problem solving skills and ideas so I look forward to supporting thme this way.
According to this post by WordPress’s Raanan Bar-Cohen:
You spend a lot of time creating great content and attracting an audience for your blog. What if you could use that influence to make a positive social impact? Now you can. Read more…
art predator 