- wine should be considered by its “holy trinity”:
1. The type of grape
2. Where the grapes were grown
3. How the grapes were turned into wine
The first is clearly a big deal.... Where the grapes are grown (fancily termed terroir) is also a big deal. The temperature and rain matters. Evidently you don’t want your grapes to get too big or the wine is watery crap. You also want grapes to struggle. Making the vines miserable seems to make the resulting grape and wine better. What’s in the soil? Is it limetone? Clay? Minerally? All this matters as well. Grapes grown on slopes in valleys are often the best because they have to work hard to get water and see the sun. There are some amazing anecdotes of workers shoveling the dirt in valleys back up the slopes of vinyards after rainstorms because that “terroir” is so valuable....
Finally, there are the post-picking steps that matter. Did the grape sit with the skins (red)? Did they age it in a barrel (which imparts flavor and tannins)? Was the barrel “toasted”? Was it a new barrel or an old one? Did they allow malolactic fermentation to occur (which changes malic acid to lactic acid, and gives Chardonnay its buttery flavor)? Did the wine sit “on the lees” which means resting with dead yeast and some grape solids?
#learnnewthings schedule:
January 2016 – Water and growth in California
February – Wine
March – Game theory
April – Cryptography
May – Art history
June – The history of railroads in the U.S.
July – Oceanography
August – Football (strategy and theory)
September – Chaos theory
November – Linguistics
Totally passed over this post when I first saw it, now I'm kind of intrigued. Totally skipping August though and replacing it with something else. I have a hard time thinking of something I care less about than football. Seriously, I'm more interested in what kind of fungus grows under the authors toenails than ANYTHING relating to football.
But it's strategy and theory of football. Surely there's something to it. I always wonder why we don't see more crazy trick plays, but the reason is probably that the strategy has been pretty well polished and ironed out. The only interesting desperation move is bringing the goalie out of the box when time is running out (if it's that kind of football). I hardly watch any professional sports and find it dull. But it was interesting to sit with a fan watching NBA on TV and have him explain to me what was going on. I saw eleven (I mean five, it's five, right?) tall guys trying to get the ball in the hoop. He saw something like chess played at 500x normal speed.
Sorry bud, this is a personal sticking point. I find the NFL to be criminally reprehensible at very best. I share almost the same animosity for the NCAA. And I know how easy it is for a high school kid to get serious brain damage without ever seeing the inside of an ER, of complaining of more than a headache. Among other issues. I have a limited amount of information I am able to absorb and digest. I will spend exactly 0 of that time intentionally trying to learn more about football. I can however talk for hours about this kind of stuff.But it's strategy and theory of football
football
Wine! Nothing goes over a good Grauburgunder (Grey Burgundy) from right around the corner. Sad, if I was at home I could snap a pic of our wine cellar :(
I used to have a client that was a very wealthy wine collector. A couple of times a year he would give me a c. $1,000 bottle as a bonus. Mostly Bordeaux Cabernets. Lafitte Rothchilds, Petrus, Margeaux, etc. that were drinkable right away. Some of them were incredible. Others I did not care for that much. On the other hand I have bought bottles for $3 in France that I loved. Wine Spectator ratings (over 90) are pretty reliable but to each his own!
I dunno, but I could use a lesson in either. I took a pass in February, but have been reading up on #gametheory. Kind of looking forward to December too; I don't know the first thing about knitting.
Lately my favourite wine is a baco noir. It's a Canadian blend that I find flavourful but not over powering. Also I can get a good bottle for $10 but that's only 80% of th edecision making process. This info is great for branching out in the future. What I found difficult at the start was pairing wine well, it really does make a difference to the enjoyment. Looking forward to December ! I love knitting :)
July may also need further refinement. Cool idea.