Facts - Fun - Frivolity

Enoteca is an Italian word that means wine repository. Enotecas as buildings are used as wine bars to let tourist taste and purchase local wines.  The name is taken from the Greek word  Οινοθήκη for wine repository. 

If you are looking for interesting posters and images of wine check out winefolly.com  they have a great selection of merchandise but also provides great insight to wines and food.

Billie loves the bubbly and is truly enamored with the Pet Nat's that Tank Garage Winery is producing.  They are truly amazing.  Kevin on the other hand loves the blended wines with unique expressions and flavor.  Recent discovery of 2020 is Trine 2017 from Pepper Bridge in Walla Walla, WA.  It is a classical Bordeaux blend but with a favor to Cabernet Franc versus Cabernet Sauvignon.  As a side note Trine is for Three, the three owners of Pepper Bridge. 

This may be a bit misleading, as it is more of a challenge to try varietals one has never tried. For instance, a recent varietal that we tried was Trousseau Gris 100%, the maker used a foot stomp method to produce this rose style wine. Thanks, Tank Garage Winery.  (Tank may come up a bit often, sorry.)  Look for information about different varietals in our Varietal section.  We will be exploring less known grapes instead of the typically known varietals such as chardonnay.  We really want all to try new and different profiles and flavors.  Be Daring!

On the way back, we went through Yosemite National Park, and on the way through we ran into a mamma bear and her cub foraging on the side of the road. They were Brown bears, so not frighteningly huge like a Grizzly, just hanging out. This is a bit rare as there where plenty of onlookers and amateur photographers going nuts. Eventually, mom had enough and lead her cub out of there. 

The simple story of how the worlds most consumed wine grape came to be, is well breeding.  Better yet cross breeding between a Cabernet Franc vine and a Sauvignon Blanc vine. This little fact took hundreds of years to discover as the heritage was only identified in 1996 and the cross breeding happened in the 17th century. 

Christening or sacrificing, the tradition of celebrating the launch of a new vessel, is as old as the Babylonians. Back in the day, it used to be animals. In the more "civilized" times, the 15th century, the British turned to sloshing wine on the decks and throwing their silver goblets into the sea. This later turned into smashing the bottle, as wasting a good silver goblet got expensive. The launch of a ship was a celebrated time and this morphed into the royal family using Champagne to anoint the vessels. As a side note, the White Star Line, from Titanic fame, failed to christen their vessels. 

Concrete or Clay have been a part of wine making for centuries, but have just recently come back into fashion.  Now, thinking of concrete one might think of a sidewalk or a drive way.  That is not the case with the concrete "eggs" many wine makers are now utilizing.  Think high end, finished and polished to a nice smooth finish and now you are  in the right area.  As flavor profiles have been moving away from the "Oakey" flavors of the late 20th century and into a more direct expression of the wine alternative fermenting and aging vessels.  Concrete provides a wonderful way to go.   For more information check out this article at Vinepair.   https://vinepair.com/articles/concrete-tanks-winemaking/ 

Back in the day before modern medicine and a clearer understanding of how the body works, Doctors used to work on the principle of the 4 Humors needed to balance out the body and be healthy.  First proposed by ancient Greek physicians the "humors" theory held sway in to the middle ages.  Europeans were convinced that, in the words of medieval French surgeon Henri de Mondeville, "good wine is the most appropriate food for generating blood, and consequently for generating flesh."   With that, I would agree to a point that wine is good for the body, in moderation of course.   Shout out to Bustle.com for information on this topic. 

One has always heard about storing and keeping wine at the right temperature, us included.  But just the other day we got to actually find out why wine needs to be under 76 degrees.  We received 2 bottles of wine that had gotten lost in shipment. Basically 14 days sitting in the lovely Nevada sun.  When the bottles arrived they had to easily be around 110 degrees and we know that is not good.  We did try to taste the wine just to find out what happens when it gets hot.  Well, it is not good, not good at all.  Basically we got a fine nose and the initial taste on the tongue was ok but then it just fell to ick.  Yep, Ick.  that is the best way to describe it though i would say it had a heavy charcoal taste like one was feasting on the actual briquette.  Makes me shiver.   So if you ever get that flavor of burnt and ick well you might want to take it up with the wine manager where you bought the bottle as it probably was not stored correctly.