Tidbits, Potpourri, and Etcetera

I didn't sleep well last night. That's not unusual. What was unusual is that I got back to sleep right after 4AM which is when I am normally up for good. As such, I have no superbly brilliant wine thoughts today, not that I ever do. But, what I do have are a few notes and maybe a pearl of wine wisdom along the way.

First, for those of you who subscribe to this blog, the good folks who run blogger, that is Google, tell me that the subscribe widget will cease to work after some date in July. If you want to continue to see this blog, you have three ways available that I can see:

  • Bookmark and come to it frequently as in every day
  • Follow me on Twitter @johnhlowell as I push each post out via Twitter
  • Be my Facebook friend (that's people I know) where I also push out each post
When I started doing this blog, it was to fill the six weeks of no travel starting in late March 2020 as we all knew that lockdown would be over by early June 2020 at worst (the world has never been so wrong). It was going to cover a different grape each day knowing that I could easily do 40-50 grapes. Now, nearly 500 posts in, obviously my posts have changed. At some point, this blog will become less frequent, but for now, it remains daily (great post ideas for me are always helpful).

As time went by, I realized that at least part of my goal is to make you, the readers, enjoy wine more. Perhaps through reading, you can develop a taste profile that tells you which new wine adventures to take and with which foods, and which ones you should stay away from.

For those that have been with me since the beginning, you've been to probably 50 wine-producing countries, tried perhaps 200 different grapes, and learned about tannins, acidity, the physical structure of your palate, some off the wall chemicals, differences in soil and winds, and the effects of nearby bodies of water.

We'll be back to more normal posts tomorrow, but as always, thanks for reading.

Comments

Post a Comment

I'd like your feedback and questions.

Popular posts from this blog

10 Tips for New and Not so New Wine Drinkers

 I took 3 years off from this blog. Why? I write off the top of my head and the top of my head just wasn't coming up with new ideas. So, I stopped for quite a while and focused on some other things.  What, you ask? Work, life, family, volunteering, debate reviews. One of those has somewhat fallen off the radar, so the top of my head had an idea. Suppose you were a person just getting into wine or even if you've been drinking it for a while had never really explored. What might I tell you to do? Do not drink Chardonnay or Cabernet Sauvignon for a year.  That's right. I'm telling you to stay away from two of the most popular grapes in the world. Why would I do that? Well, among white wines, Chardonnay is about as full-bodied as it gets (yes, I could name some obscure grapes that might dispel that, but that's not the point) and among red wines, Cabernet is about as full-bodied as it gets. So, when people start their wine adventures with those fuller-bodied wines, they
Read more

Vermentino

Today, we are island hopping. That's right, we're going to not just one, but two Italian islands, Sardinia (Sardegna) and Corsica (Corse). Why? Were it not for a small isthmus between the two islands in the Mediterranean closer to Tunisia than to the mainland of Italy, they would be a single island. And, the Vermentino growing in Sardinia is so far to the north and in Corsica so far to the south that they are closer to each other than are the more distant parts of their own islands. The more renowned of the two, though, is definitely in the north Sardinian former province of Olbia-Tempio (in recent years, political struggles forced the province to cease to exist as a separate administrative body, but don't tell the locals). The landscape here is known for its mountains and steeply sloped cliffs. Unlike most northern Hemisphere plantings, however, rather than facing southerly to get the natural sunlight, most Vermentino is planting facing the sea getting the bright reflectin
Read more

Chasselas

We're off to Switzerland today to drink wine from a somewhat curious white wine grape, Chasselas. We're tasting wines both from the lower lands on the northeastern borders of France to those grown at high altitude near the ski canton of Valais in the Swiss Alps. It's a fairly blase grape when considered simply by itself having little, if any flavor. So, why do we drink this wine? Moreso than many other grapes, Chasselas takes on the terroir in which it is grown. So, planting it in the rocky slopes of the low Alps gives us a minerally and sometimes piney flavor. Planting on the river near Geneva gives us more citrusy, acidic notes. All that said, there are some consistencies. It's a very easy-drinking wine despite its moderately high acidity. We note a light body and fairly low alcohol content usually around 12% ABV. As it can be served refrigerator cold, it can be quite refreshing on a summer afternoon. The characteristics pretty common to pretty much all Chassela
Read more