Every year, up in Paso Robles, the Mid-State Fair brings us great bands (we happened to catch Steely Dan), not so great food (deep fried twinkies) and a line up of wine that bring out the best and the not so best that the four participating counties have to offer. And as Space is infinite, and Time is fleeting, I only list the winners here, we will be reaching out to the prize winning wineries to taste, and talk about this years barrels of the best. In all there were 11 double gold medals, and a whopping 51 gold medals in a field of over 600 wines.

I have provided links to wineries so you can read more about each, and bring some of your hard earned cash down to my town, and support the local / regional wine industry. We thank you for you continued support.

Super Awards went to:
* Best White Wine, Eberle 2007 Viognier, Paso Robles Mill Road
* Best Red Wine Halter Ranch 2005 Syrah, Paso Robles Estate
* Best Dessert Wine 2005 Robert Hall Vintage Port, Paso Robles

while the Best of Class was handed out to:
* 2007 Huber Chardonnay, unoaked, Santa Rita Hills
* 2007 Vina Robles Sauvignon Blanc, Paso Robles
* 2006 Castoro Cellars Pinot Grigio, Paso Robles
* 2006 Claiborne & Churchill Dry Gewurztraminer, Central Coast
* 2007 Harmony Cellars White Riesling, Monterey County
* 2007 Ventana Vineyards Dry Rosato, Arroyo Seco
* 2005 Halter Ranch Cabernet Sauvignon, Paso Robles
* 2005 Niner Wine Estates Merlot, Paso Robles
* 2005 Per Bacco Cellars Pinot Noir, Dronysus, Arroyo Grande Valley
* 2005 Penman Springs Petite Sirah, Paso Robles
* 2006 Sculpterra Winery Statuesque, Paso Robles
* 2006 Eberle Barbera, Paso Robles
* 2006 Kenneth Volk Vineyards Mourvedre, Lime Kiln Valley
* 2006 Ancient Peaks Zinfandel, Paso Robles
* 2006 Alapay Late Harvest Moscato, Paso Robles

BTW - If you are a winery and would like to have us review your wines, tour your grounds, or just stand on the porch and watch the sink into the ocean, drop us an email: christopher at drinksomewine dot com.

Gary Vaynerchuk needs no introduction to most of you, so I will just let him explain about where I want to be in April of next year. With any luck I can convince The Chick that she needs to meet Gary and pop his cork - so to speak - on the high seas.

I am also looking forward to meeting Gary in Vegas at the New Media Expo, where he has a keynote. As a wine blogger, and a social media guy, his work in podcasting has really been fun to watch. I have always felt that the more disruptive the channel+message the more success you will have in breaking market stereotypes and Gary has done that in spades. And yes, you will see updates here from the NME about the show, but more importantly about the wine me dine that is Las Vegas Baby! My partner in crime, Scott Parent - the man behind the microphone over at American Cliche, will be joining me here at DSW (more on that later) and we are both traveling to Vegas for NME. You can best believe that we have a very good set of standing dinner reservations while there.

Ok - I’ll let you all know more about the cruise as I get some info. Who knows… maybe Gary will run some sort of contest and give away a few berth’s. You never know!

I was recently invited to participate in The 89 Project, which has a wonderful premise and mission. As the VP of digital media marketing for my 9 to 5 (well, 6 to 6) gig, I can appreciate what the project is attempting to do. The goal here is to that a wine that scored and 89, which some see as the kiss of death, not quite good enough for a 90 and build up its reputation though a conversation about said underachiever, using blog posts, social tools, whatever floats your boat. After all, what really defines an B+ or an A- term paper, an 8 or a 9 blind date, or an 89 or a 90 bottle of wine?

So I took a spin over at The 89 Project and was reminded about the cover image of the 100 Top Values of the Year Issue of Wine&Spirits magazine. Coincidence? Not as far as I am concerned. As long as you here me tell the story, my little wine-blog-that-could is uber-influential, informing cover design for a national rag.

A highlight of the weekend, and trust me there were many highlights, was opening a bottle of Laetitia Pinot. Now I don’t know about you but I loves my Pinot. I wasn’t a huge fan until my friend and client Keli Vice really introduced me to some amazing bottles of Pinot Noir when I worked as a strategist with Beam Wine Estates (formerly Allied Domecq). Keli was the head of the online marketing group. Think cork dork, and really cute.

Anyway, she helped with my wine vocabulary, and even made sure I attended a few courses, both food and wine over at The Culinary Institute of America at Greystone and from that I found my appreciation and respect for the subtleties of Pinot Noir.

So I open this bottle of the 2006 Laetitia Pinot and right away I get a sniff of the exceptional bouquet, which some people call “nose”. Red and black fruits punctuated by raspberries are what register right from the top, and while I really just want to tip this bottle into the glass and hoist away, I relax, and settle back to enjoy a little bit of heaven. This Central Coast wine is an exceptional example of why my backyard continues to hold its own against the better known wine regions of California.

You can pretty much pull out the wine book and look for all the cool phrases. Well balanced. Round. Subtly quiet yet aggressively complex. Hints of jam and acid. Completely accessible while remaining reserved and sophisticated. And of course all of this is very true. But in a phrase I would say this wine is a joy to drink!

As the night got older, and the wine opened up, notes of black tea, or maybe cinnamon, but definitely a nice spice overlay crept though the wine. I would use this Pinot as a great example of what is meant when you call a wine layered. Its characteristics tend to mature as it breathes, and becomes very full and round near the end of the bottle. It is without a doubt a wonderful find at the market, and can many times be purchased on sale.

If you so inclined, and are in the Central Coast, drop me a line and we can go tour the vineyards. You may also want to review their wineclub offerings online if you don’t have a chance to visit. You won’t be disappointed in any of their wines, many of which end up on the wine lists of our better local restaurants.

DISCLOSURE - Bourdain, No Reservations, and The Travel Channel do not pay me for the love I give them week over week. I do it because I am a big fan of the show, and because I hope someone will recognize this fresh new voice in the blog-o-sphere and send me on assignment somewhere to screen test a new show they are developing. And if they aren’t developing a new show I have the perfect one for you. It’s called Tripped Up. Here’s the pitch - a married couple picks something to go to, say The Kentucky Derby in, well, Kentucky or the Festa di San Marco, in Venice where every year is the gondola races.

They take you with them along their journey from point A to point Z and explore the nooks and crannies of life along the way. Traveling as a couple is very different than traveling the world alone, if you consider traveling with a camera crew and stylist alone. It’s no longer just your agenda, and you get to discover things, the good and the bad about travelling together. And in the process of sharing with the viewing audience, which hopefully would be couples considering taking similar trips (think product placement, sponsorships, packages all neatly bound in blogs, webisodes and landing pages), you learn a thing or three about yourself, each other, and that crazy little thing called love.

Oh yeah, Bourdain, Monday night at 10pm EST on the Travel Channel. He goes to Uruguay with his brother and they eat a bunch stuff. Like meat. Watch it. Then have your people call my people.

So I think it all started with Absolut New Orleans, this God forsaken mix of Mango and Pepper that caused me to to become an alcohol abuser and pour a perfectly good, no great, bloody mary down the sink. Well, it was perfect except for the Vodka. Having been to The Big Easy before the Dark Times, and hoping to return soon, I as so curious as to who over at Absolut thought this would be a good idea. Mangos and vodka? In heartbeat! Pepper and Vodka, and what ever else you can find EXCEPT Mango and its a Storyville Bloody Mary helping you shake off night before, or morning, or when ever you came to your senses.

Now Absolut, instead of firing the guy that put Mango and Pepper and Vodka together (I must admit, the label was cool) has struck again. Blueberry? Pomogranate? And what the fuck in an Acerola and what is it doing in my Vodka? Seriously, Absolut - you got this absolutely wrong.

This is Hollywood, land of dreams, baby! It’s Sunset Blvd, its KROQ, its that all night waffle house that I can’t remember the name of. It’s PINKS! for God sake. Its The Standard for starters, for the main its The Whiskey and for dessert you have a choice of the Body Shop or Chateau Marmont, or both, but it sure as hell isn’t blueberries.

Think Salty and Dirty. Think Hookers, Marlboro Reds and Marshall Amps that go to 11. Think exceptional Sunsets while driving west on Santa Monica Blvd. Think Brad and Angie, Kat Von D and Nikki Sixx, Paris and well, anyone.

My point is, and I do have a point, it that Absolut Los Angeles should have been left alone. Simple, perfect Vodka. It can be dirty with some olive juice in a chilled glass. It can be made into shots with some lime and triple sec and peach schnapps. It can be splashed with some tonic on the rocks or drank neat and tidy in a bucket.

After all, it’s the City of Dreams. and you should be able to have it any way you want. Adding blueberries sent it packing to the strip mall bars in Fresno and points east.

Wine Blogging Wednesday! I remember when I made the logo that is currently in use for the monthly topical wine tasting event. The logomark was an obvious riff off of the one used here, with two wine stains indicating, well, more than one person drinking some wine. And from the look of things there were over 40 plus wine drinkers swirling and sniffing and spitting and drinking for the past WBW.

Over at Lenndevours, the next installment of WBW is not only #48, but the 4 year anniversary of what I actually believe was the first successful wine social network, no matter how informal or how loosely ran. And the best part was that it was created without a platform, a VC play, a “path to revenue” It was a bunch of wine bloggers and a great idea. So my congratulations to everyone that has participated over the years to make this thing pretty fuckin’ cool.

Ok, so the topic of #48 is “back to your roots” Now this ins’t a discussion on terroir, or hair color, or even ancestry. It a suggestion to go back to that first wine you drank. And not the stuff you shoulder-tapped out of the mini mart on the corner where your Uncle bought his smokes. We aren’t talking the “fortified wine varietal” here. No Boone’s Farm Strawberry Hill, although that is probably what accounted for one of my earliest hangovers, and another reason I tend to avoid Modesto, from whence the liquid evil is brewed. We are talking REAL wine, like in the kind with a cork and maybe even some history behind it. And with this in mind, I bring you the Chianti!

Who hasn’t drank from the mouth of the wickerman, at a beach party, or a spaghetti dinner back in our misspent youth and thought “EYE-Talian wine is very good?” I remember collecting the finished bottles and pluggin the neck with those cheap dime store candles to get that “Creature Features” drippy wax action going. Sharp to the taste, easy on the wallet, the wicker basket chianti was always a staple in my early forays into buying wine for Crazy Sauce spaghetti nights in school. It wasn’t until much later in my life that I realized that Chianti came in a “regular” wine bottle and could cost more than I made that day washing dishes at the local diner. And then of course it took a flesh eating psychologist to catapult the Chianti into the lexicon of often repeated phrases from pop movies, and made me wonder “what the fuck is a father bean?” It must be noted however that in the book of the same, Dr. Lecter says “I ate his liver with some fava beans and a big Amarone”. Guess the pedestrian American film market just couldn’t wrap their heads around pairing a big-bodied, dry Italian wine with a census taker.

So, for WBW #48 I plan on revisiting the old wicker bottle, and then a bottle of an Amarone for bonus points, and see if indeed, it would have made the movie any better. Links to WBW #48 will be posted on the internets August 13th over at Lenn’s blog.

So when in Rome and all that. We recently went to Portland for the Internet Strategies Forum and… Yeah, you read right INTERNET STRATEGY. See, in my 9-5 I am a hardcore web marketing and design guy, but during the night I turn into the guy that quits work and makes music, or drinks some wine, or watches Californication until he begins to feel really cool for being a blogger because, well, Hank does it too. But that really doesn’t have anything to do with the wine.

So when in Portland, one is pretty much required to dine at a McCormick & Schmick’s restaurant. Hell, in Portland, throw a rock and you will hit one. So we showed up at Jake’s Famous the other night, shortly after having a few shots of Jameson’s and Guinness at the Grill of the same name, just down the block. The restaurant had an eclectic mix of people in the mutli-roomed dining area. At the front near the bar was a few circular four-tops already crowded in by the folks standing near the bar waiting for a table. It didnt take long to get a table and it didn’t take long to order a house selection of oysters, seared Ahi, a Rib eye, a baked crab dish and a few other items. And then we ordered the wine.

I left it to the waiter to pick out the wine. The only requirement was that it come from the Willamette Valley. He came back with a 2006 Pinot Gris from Left Coast Cellars. I was quite frankly surprised at the choice of a Pinot Gris, but the selection was actually quite insightful. The richness of the crab casserole thing was paired nicely with a fresh, light combination of melons and for what might typically be considered a “sweet wine”, very well balanced.

Now for being a wine blog I know that about 12% of the words in this post are about the wine. But to err on the side of honesty, I can say that the wine was good, very drinkable, not as sweet as I expected, and then I went back to drinking my Toscano Rosso and whackin out the rib eye. So what I promise Left Coast to do is to grab another bottle of the Gris and give it a proper twirl. And in the mean time, you may want to check out the Left Fielders Wine Club. Twice a year shipments of 6 bottles will set you back $150-$180 bucks.

OK, so i didnt win the FAN-tastic casting call contest for Anthony Bourdain’s No Reservations, even though I should have. Whatever. And even though I dont get paid to pimp out the show I think its great TV and I hope anyone interested in food and culture and cool would tune it.

Tonight, Tony travels to Saudi Arabia with Danya Alhamrani, the winner of the fan contest. And as usual, the show airs tonight at 10pm EST. Buy the season from iTunes.

Slightly off the topic of wine, but heavy on my radar is Absinthe. As most of you know, I am huge cocktail fan, partly due to the 10+ years of tending bar (I was once a bar trainer for TGIF in their hey day), and partly because, well, I like cocktails. This summer has already seen many Mojitos, Tequila Gimlets, and as many varieties of drinks as there are glasses to put them in. The one thing I have yet to do this year is to dance with Le Fee Verte.

Absinthe has a very storied history There are some good accounts of it’s legend and lore all over the internets, but since we are talking about Flavorpill’s recipe, I’ll link you there. I also think they have a cool site, so visit early and visit often.

Flavorpill puts together a recipe that sounds quite tasty, and I am going to scout the liquor stores in Portland this weekend for a bottle of premium Absinthe to “field test”. If you are in the Portland area, I will be around Thur - Sun. Find me using @drinksomewine in Twitter. Made with

One part Le Tourment Vert Absinthe
Two parts Club soda
Fresh orange juice
Shake well and pour over ice
Garnish with an orange wedge

This cocktail is sure to please the palette, but what about the mind?

I received an email last night from B. Alex, the Master Distiller at Esmeralda Liquors in Spain, the makers of Obsello Absinthe. Although the product is yet to be available in the US, he was quite generous in providing me a few answers to my questions about the once banned product. He is trying to insure that the American consumers are educated about Absinthe, and in doing so he debunks some of the myth of the green fairy.

Here are two specific points he made that I thought are valuable insights.

What makes an absinthe authentic?
Real absinthe is distilled from the purportedly psychotropic wormwood
(artemesia absinthium) plant, green anise and fennel as well as any number
of additional herbs. After the first distillation process the product can
then be bottled and sold as a clear absinthe (Blanch absinthe) or it can be
colored by macerating additional herbs in the alcohol before bottling. A
high-quality green absinthe will come in a black bottle in order to preserve
the color from the harmful effects of sunlight. Absinthe is typically
bottled between 45% ­ 70% alcohol by volume. When watered down; three or
four parts water to one part absinthe, the clear beverage will turn to a
cloudy milky green.

What is an absinthe buzz and is it hallucinogenic?
At this point no official studies have been done on the effects of absinthe
vs the effects of ordinary liquor. However there is significant anecdotal
evidence that absinthe does induce a creative and alert feeling. Many of
the famous artists of 19th century France and Spain attributed their
creativity to the drink. Most consumers describe an alert intoxication or a
feeling of super awareness combined with the effects of the alcohol. It is
also purported to be an aphrodisiac.

Absinthe is not, and never was, a Hallucinogenic drug.

Have you flown with the Green Fairy? Do you have an absinthe I should try? Can you recommend a dish to order at Jake Famous in Portland, where the chick and I will be dining? I look forward to your comments below.