November 5th, 2008
What is a Bellini? The Bellini is named for a Venetian painter, Giovanni Bellini. It was created in Venice in 1948 at Harry’s Bar by Harry’s owner – Giuseppe Cipriana. The original Bellini was created using a rich white peach puree’ and Prosecco; a dry sparkling, rosy colored Italian wine. Since, at the time, white peach puree’ was only available in the summer months, it was strictly a summer drink, when the peaches were available.
In the fifties, when freezers became more popular and white peach puree’ was available as a frozen mixture the classic drink became a year round favorite. Also, as time went on, people created many variations of the Bellini using raspberries, strawberries, Champagne (instead of Prosecco), and citrus fruits like lemons.
If you are having people over to your place in the summertime, a Bellini is a great ice breaker. You can let your guests make their own. I would make the puree’ in advance so it is not quite so messy. Read the rest of this entry »
Tags: Bellini, Giovanni Bellini, Giuseppe Cipriana, Prosecco
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September 17th, 2006
This is a nice 5 “A” wine. Under $10 makes it Affordable. It is definitely Above Average, and the overall bouquet is Amazing. The other two As just naturally fall into place. The fact that it is a Syrah under $10 alone would make it Astounding. But the way it tastes in your mouth as you swish it around and roll it back on your tongue, makes you want to holler “Awesome!!” And it is.
I read about Vic McWilliams, the winemaker, and it brought back memories of the days when I used to make my own wines from Wine Art. Vic has been making wines for about 25 years. I got started making my own wines in 1971.
You can see what the label looks like by clicking either of these two links: Castle Syrah 2001 or Castle Syrah 2001 back label
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April 4th, 2006
I never really gave much thought to a wine ranking system before.
This is because what I think is a good wine might be a terrible wine to someone else. But as time went on, I found that I had a nose for good wines and people often asked me, “What do you think of such-in-such wine.” Sure, I was flattered. But when I told people I thought such-in-such wine was pretty good and many agreed with me, I got to thinking, that maybe I should have some sort of ranking of the wines I tasted. This was also true when I told someone that a particular wine was not worth buying, and they bought it anyway. Some time later, they would remark that I was correct about the wine I said to avoid – that it was terrible.
I never got A’s on my report card until I went to college. High school was mostly C’s and D’s. Read the rest of this entry »
Tags: Above Average, Affordable, Amazing, Astounding, Awesome, Ranking System
Posted in Wine Ramblings | No Comments »
January 17th, 2006
The word sleuth as a noun means a detective. The dictionary also says to look up sleuthhound. As a verb tr. it means to track or follow. Looking up sleuthhound, I see the following:
Word History: Tracking down the history of the word sleuth requires a bit of etymological sleuthing. The immediate ancestor of our word is the compound sleuthhound, a dog, such as a bloodhound, used for tracking or pursuing. This term took on a figurative sense, tracker, pursuer, which is closely related to the sense detective. From sleuthhound came the shortened form sleuth, recorded in the sense detective as early as 1872. The first part of the term sleuthhound means track, path, trail, and is first recorded in a Middle English work written probably around 1200. The Middle English word, which had the form sloth, with eu representing the Scots development of the Middle English ( ), was a borrowing of the Old Norse word sl dh, a track or trail. Read the rest of this entry »
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