Happy Wine Day

So it seems today is National Wine Day. I wrote about it for good ol’ Hello Giggles. It’s full o’ fun ways to celebrate in case wine glasses are getting mundane. Click here for 7 ways to celebrate!

A castle n 3 towers

The me. The wine. The hair all over the dang place.
Well heck. I’d hang there. And by “there” I mean if I could go to the Haut-Médoc in 2010 and nab some of these appellation contrôlée grapes I might just do so.

2010 Chateau Fontesteau Grand Vin Cru Borgeois

PS cellartracker was slightly less unenthusiastic than I but a good deal of those notes were made years ago. 6 years of waiting did well for this bottle.

Yeaaaaa Bordeaux. When it is good (unlike earlier that week at a bar with some overly oaky Bordeaux) it is more than good, it is better. In fact it is Bordeaux-ing on the best.

Mwahaha word jokes.

Country: France

Region: Bordeaux–the Haut-Médoc

Those grapes: Cabernet Sauvignon, Cabernet Franc, Merlot

That nose: Cherries, gooseberries (as I imagine they may taste) and some realm of “hey that is fresh”!

In the mouth, it is luscious in a “I do not wanna stop”
way. I mean it. The perfect amount of tannins.

Full confession. I didn’t take notes after this. I mean, Jonathon Gold doesn’t take notes while eating at a place he is reviewing so why should I?

Oh right! Because drinking a wine so good you drink a little much and then decide to go to sleep is gonna inhibit your memory. Oops. Lessons learned:
1) Take a break. Do not swig. Normally I don’t but now I reallyreally won’t.
2) Take notes. Also I normally do this but WTF, I got cocky. Ego adjusted.

Looking forward to living the dream. Responsibly. With notes.

Cheap Good Yeaaaa

What a day. Or so. Shows, writing, and the business work us actors do that you don’t know you are signing up for when signing those papers saying you are majoring in acting.

All of which to say is life in many ways rocks. It is a volley from the highs of hearing an audience roar to the lows of not getting an audition for a week only to rebound to the epic high of a callback. Life being life-y. Anywho. Tonight (ok the night I wrote this since you’ll be reading it later) my sketch comedy team was in a fantastic show and I am so proud and happy for the work we are doing. Where it is leading I am still figuring out but it is making us better and getting us out in front of audiences. And we meet more and more people working and at some point all these connections are going to pay off. All you can do is do the work.

All this after a week of trying to impress casting directors, rehearsals, writing and yes, auditions. A drink is well-earned.

Oh right this is about wine. What better wine to celebrate a happy actor day with than one that fits a budget-minded person? A treat that is so much more than the price tag would denote.

A gosh-durned bargain, much like all the GENIUS shows I take part in (sometimes the genius is me at other times the other acts, sometimes all or none of us) that are FRIGGIN’ FREE. I tell you in LA you can get top-notch entertainment for nada. Like inexpensive wine it is a bit of a gamble as to how good a show will be. Comedy is a fickle beast. As is wine.

I am trying really hard to draw this comedy/wine parallel. Too much?

Anywho. Again. Both tonight’s free show and (practically) free wine were sensational.

This wine was less than 8 bucks. That there Garagiste gets you some insane deals I tell you. This one surprised me.

Garagiste says that this Grenache from Campo de Borja, a region in Spain southeast of Rioja grows high on Moncayo Massif, a “triple-headed monster of a mountain ridge”, at 600-750 or more meters. He says the promising yet value wines make this area like Park Slope 20 years ago. Pre-Brooklyn being the hipster/expensive-life mecca.

7.98 and these grapes were hand-picked? Aged in steel like the stone-cold motherfuckers those juice bombs are.

The gem?
2014 Legado del Moncayo “Garnacha” Campo de Borja

The nose makes me think “old church after communion”. Not “old church” in a musty way so much as “old church”  like being in a building with a lot of stone and it seems like there should be running water nearby even if there is not.

Medium in body and smooth as hell. But then at the end a tannin or two chucks you on the chin. Well, on the tongue and roof of mouth. Unless you are REALLY drunk and then maybe you would get some spilled on the chin but I held my own.

It’s just cherries and green pepper and perhaps some allspice to the end with this one. 

Do it up.