December 1 results. Tonight's tasting was a small, holidayish-themed gathering. The menu took some doing; Chip and Charles made roasted pork, a chicken curry stew and a bunch of other stuff. The wine, by contrast, was hastily arranged. Everybody besides the hosts -- which is to say, four of us -- brought a bottle of wine that fit the description "interesting American red."
     In an unusual step, we decanted these wines beforehand, mainly to test-drive the cheap decanters I bought cheap from a restaurant-supply Web site. Here's how the scores broke down:
     1) "Easy Does It." 2002 Garretson New Orleans Cuvee, Central Coast, California; blend of Syrah, Grenache, Mourvèdre and -- take note -- Viognier. $20 at Whole Foods Market. Average 14.3; range 14-15. Steph brought this wine, which turned out to be dark, meaty and extracted. It reminded some people of plums and coffee. Appropriately, Pam smelled Kitchen Bouquet in it, and Stephanie smelled a roux. A few people said the nose advertised a more muscular wine than this turned out to be. I thought that the finish was a little rough but seemed likely to even out over time.
     Side note: Steph e-mailed the winery to ask about the name. Mat Garretson wrote back:

"As the label on the back mentions, I bottled it in tribute to my friends there [in New Orleans]. Having grown up in the South, I spent (and continue to spend) many a time in the city... I love it."

     2) "Big Band." 2003 Garrison McBride Russian River Valley Pinot Noir. $11 at Martin Wine Cellar. Average 14; range 13-15. Wayne claims he bought this because he liked the label, but it turned out to be pretty decent. Smooth, spicy, smells like you'd think a Pinot Noir would. The general consensus was that this wine would go well with turkey, maybe because it tasted a bit like cranberries.
     3) "Gothic." 2002 Mayo Family Winery Ricci Vineyard Old Vine Zinfandel, Russian River Valley. $25 at Family Wineries of Sonoma. Average 13; range 12-14. I really dug this wine when I tried it in the tasting room in October, and I wanted to like just as much it tonight. Instead, my notes read: "Cranberry. Zesty nose. Tangy, and maybe not in a great way." Chip thought it tasted toasted. Wayne found it overly heavy. Charles couldn't get past the heavy alcohol in the nose; after that, he said, he couldn't pick anything else up.
     4) Tulip." 2002 Red Newt Cellars Finger Lakes Reserve Syrah, New York. $28.50 at winery. Average 12.7; range 12-13. Pam picked this up on a swing through New York's Finger Lakes region, which has a long white wine tradition. The nose is surprisingly lush for a cold-weather red, and it's got a tiny hint of chocolate in the nose. Steph found it uncomplex and didn't find much in it besides fruit or pepper.
     As for the fake names, Steph made the label for her wine. The others bore fake labels that were left over from previous sessions.
 :: posted by Dante Ramos at 1:44 PM
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Out of the woodwork: Belatedly, I'd like draw attention to one Kat Walsh, a college student interviewed by NPR in conjunction with the recent Supreme Court hearing on interstate wine rules. Apparrently, Ms. Walsh, who is 20 and therefore underaged, was bothered by the l'aissez-faire attitude of some winery that was cursed enough to sell her booze. Here's what she had to say (from transcript):
Ms. KAT WALSH (College Student): What I did is I went online to one of these Web sites, and all I had to do was check that I was 21. There wasn't any other kind of way to check that I was 21. And I ordered it, and it was delivered to my doorstep. And I did not even get to the doorstep before they dropped it off.
Now I was a geek too back when I was her age, and certainly don't regret having missed the beer & puke-fests back in the day. But I never would have tried to get the government to ruin it for others, and if I had, I wouldn't have gone on national radio to tell everybody.

 :: posted by John Biers at 10:26 PM
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Response from Shorts Guy. Steve R., who has endured no end of abuse for wearing these shorts on a recent Sonoma trip (and to parties, Mardi Gras parades, etc.), offers his take on our online poll:

I would like to formally register an objection to the way in which the highly unscientific poll on my shorts is being conducted. First, you may notice that "no" is the default answer. Second, there is no option for "yes, they are stylish and look good." And thirdly, those who know the webmaster should have already guessed that the poll has already been tainted by multiple repeat votes by the same biased individuals who have cast simple fashion sense aside in favor of feeble attempts at hilarity. For the record, the shorts are from J. Crew and when I ordered them they had already gone on back order by early summer, they were so popular. So there.

Note that, in fairness to Steve, I've added an option to the poll. And I'm refraining from comment on who is "casting simple fashion sense aside in favor of ... hilarity."
 :: posted by Dante Ramos at 10:42 AM
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Fun with polls. I've been playing around with BlogPolling, a (mostly) convenient online polling plug-in. Click here to take part in a couple of experiments.
 :: posted by Dante Ramos at 10:36 AM
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Fun with videos. This isn't wine-related, and for the most part this site doesn't do plugs. But Gary and his nephew have started doing VJ gigs together. (John, the nephew, has been DJing for years.) And they seem to be having a lot of fun. So if you're having a party, please check out the Web site for Bon Temps Sight & Sound.
 :: posted by Dante Ramos at 1:45 AM
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Wine shipping. During oral arguments yesterday about bans on interstate wine shipping to New York and Michigan, the U.S. Supreme Court sure didn't seem impressed with the two states' case. From a great story in Slate:

Thomas L. Casey is Michigan's solicitor general, and he immediately runs headlong into the immovable wall that is Sandra Day "Never Overturn" O'Connor. O'Connor is bothered by a 1984 case—Bacchus Imports v. Dias—in which the court ruled, 5-3, that a Hawaiian attempt to boost that state's own fruit wine market by taxing out-of-state wines was not a legitimate application of the 21st Amendment. "Bacchus cuts against you to some extent," says O'Connor. Meaning, in her view, to the extent it makes Casey lose.

The NYT and LAT suggest the same conclusion: that, if their comments are any guide, the justices are likely to overturn these bans. This isn't a big issue anymore in Louisiana; between last year's wine trip and this year's, I noticed that getting stuff shipped here was much less of an obstacle. (Though Acacia has stopped enrolling Louisianians into its wine club, for reasons that may or may not be unrelated.) But if you live in Pennsylvania or some other state where suckacious wines are the only ones available, this is a big deal -- or at least as big a deal as anything wine related could be.
 :: posted by Dante Ramos at 7:15 AM
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Wine Blogging Wednesday, December edition. After work Tuesday, I stopped by the neighborhood wine store and picked up a bottle of 2003 Yalumba South Australia Riesling for $11. I was going to bring it to wine club Wednesday night, but it didn't fit in with the theme, and anyway duty called...
     This wine smells like lemon and passion fruit, and, as it warms up, almost like a pilsner beer. You get a bit of that beery note when you taste it, but it's deep in the mix behind lemon and mango.
     Now, I drink even fewer Rieslings than other white wines. But this one seems well put together. It tastes like balsa wood and Elmer's wood glue smell, and those are the sensations I associate with this grape. As it warms up, it tastes kind of steely. And there's a neat finish -- a warm tingle on the back of your tongue. I'd give it a 15 out of 20.
     Gary's view is more practical: It's refreshing and not so sweet. A decent choice for hot weather, he says. (The past few days have been warm and muggy in New Orleans; too bad it turned chilly this afternoon.) His verdict: "For a white wine, an A-minus." Which translates into a 17 or so by wine club scale.
     On to the tasting notes [PDF]: "classical varietal character offering aromas of graperfuit and lemon peel and delicate floral overtones. The palate is lively and refreshing with generous lemon and grapefruit flavours, and a hint of tropical fruits on the finish." Fair enough.
 :: posted by Dante Ramos at 1:01 AM
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