Wine

It’s a Beautiful Day

Trying to find some poetry to the cold winter that has its long arms so brazenly wrapped around us, I recall the last wines of 2017 to pass my lips, a toast to jobs well done and the end of another hard-fought year, I am staring into an unknown horizon, wondering what winding twists and turns this journey will take this year.

It’s a bit hard to believe we are here in 2018,

Wine Department: Franciacorta A Wine Geek’s Ode to Italy’s Answer to Champagne

While the still wines of Franciacorta have roots some centuries old (referenced by Virgil and Pliny the Elder and in print as far back as 1277), the sparkling wines of Franciacorta began in 1957, when a young winemaker named Franco Ziliano, while working for Berlucchi, first produced a wine called Pinot di Franciocorta. Ultimately, the renown that proceeded led to the proclamation of DOC status in 1967 and DOCG status in 1995.

All The Love In The World

It’s been a helluva ride this year for me, both professionally and personally.  I’ve (almost) realized a concept I’ve had in my head for the better part of 15 years thanks to my awesome boss, tasted countless wines as a member of Jungle Jim’s Four Horsemen of Wine (my nickname for Ed, Todd, T.J. and myself), and met so many great people coming through the doors here at Eastgate.  To everyone who has been or became a Jungle Jim’s patron,

Here’s To Us

​So a long time ago, in what seems a galaxy far, far away, I worked at this exceptionally dysfunctional restaurant called The Bayou Cafe in Centerville, Ohio. I had been back in Ohio for about 2 years, and had just started back to college, when I landed at this place that billed itself a Cajun restaurant.  We had a raw bar, we did po’boys, crawfish and featured Dixie beer and Hurricanes.  It was a noble concept that for many reasons failed spectacularly.

Dance Me To The End Of Love

Kurt Cobain once sang, “Give me a Leonard Cohen afterlife, so I can sigh eternally.” For those who don’t know, Leonard Cohen, the raspy-throated poet/singer from Canada, was a lyrical marvel. For me, one of the last poets who spoke of love in its most vulnerable of tones, painting portraits of lovers out on the edge.

So it came to mind to me, from the first sip of Piper Heidsieck Rare Rosé, the Leonard Cohen song which sings: “Dance me to your beauty with a burning violin/Dance me through the panic till I’m gathered safely in.”

Wine Department: A Brief Clarification on Smoke Taint Mythos in the Wake of the Wildfires in California and Beyond

First off,

Back To The Beginning Again

Sharp Dressed Man

Love Reign O’er Me

For now we see in a mirror indirectly, but then we will see face to face. Now I know in part, but then I will know fully, just as I have been fully known. And now these three remain: faith, hope and love. But the greatest of these is love. (1Cor. 13:12-13)

Funny how I’d start off a blog post about wine with a quote from the Bible.  Not really sure why this quote leapt out at me,

I Typed For Miles