Wednesday, April 12, 2006

And Now. . . . .Alcohol!

As I sat down tonight with a glass of wine, I thought, "Hmmmm, should I have a beer or a glass of wine?" So, what do you think. . . Beer or Wine!?!?

Personally, I like Beer and I like Wine! Depends on the occasion. But my tastes go thus:

BEER
I started drinking in my mid teens and beer was the drink. Should at that age you drink what you can get . . . . .. and a little Maddog 20/20 never hurt anyon. . . . . .come to think of it, it probably has. Anyway, back then (late 70's early 80s) MGD was the drink any underager who was anybody was drinking MGD. Coors Lite hadn't made the East Coast yet and Bud {shutter}.
I've gone through the Mooseheads, and the Löwebräu (with two umlauts) and the like but when you're drinking on a budget and underage, you want something check and that stores well in the woods.

Now that I'm older and don't drink as much, my tastes have refined and I like a good Microbrew beer or Guinness (or Guinness like substances). It's gotta have some body or it's almost not worth drinking. In the summer, you can get away with a light bodied beer like Samuel Adams Cherry Wheat, but you can only have so many of them. . . might as well have a Woodchuck. When I get down to DC, I fully expect the radiognome to take me to Capitol City for some taste testing.

WINE

A few years back, my wife and I realized that the only wine that we liked was white zinfandel. And that's just not manly. So, we took a drive to South South Jersey to a place called Smithville. For those in the Phila area, it's our Peddler's Village. . . .and we're comfortable with that. Anyway, there is a winery here named Tomasello. Good wine, inexpensive. They have a tasting store in Smithville. There, we met a guy named Rory, who was great. This guy would douse you with wine. We talked to him about wine and he mad ea few recommendations and we took home some of the sweeter reds. After a while, we grew tire of that and moved down to a claret (and their is a war on whether it's {Clarett} or {Claray} and I gave up asking). Now we're are passed the Merlots, we are doing Shiraz and Red Zinfandel (very nice!). We loved popping down to see Rory and getting stocked up. Unfortunately, Rory moved on to the Tropicano Casino in Atlantic City in the Quarter in a place called the Tinder Box (a cigar and wine store).
We plan to go down but haven't made it yet. If you are there look him up.

And now my glass is empty and I must refill.

14 Comments:

At 11:22 PM, Blogger Token Asian said...

So, what was your glass filled with?

Personally, I'm a frou-frou drink kinda gal...very dangerous because I can't taste the booze and I'm gone before I know it. However, I have grown accustomed to the taste of JAPANESE beer--mmmm KICKASS!!!! We usually have Asahi Super Dry (and the stuff they sell in North America doesn't taste the same) or Kirin at our drinking parties. I never could stand Old Swill or Rolling Rock as an undergrad, but give me a real Japanese beer any time!

As for the wines, I can't tell the difference between a $2.99 and $299 bottle. I tend to like the sweeter white wines. Damn Cornell for shutting me out of Wines and Spirits (it's the most popular course offered...I wonder why ;D)--I would have been able to learn the difference if the Hotel school had let me take the course!!!!!

 
At 11:25 PM, Anonymous Anonymous said...

now you're talking! And I'm not gonna even get into Scotch here (which one can read about in my Live Journal - Transistor Blast).

Oh yeah, cher, there will be hopped bevvie tasting when you get your ass to D.C. Capitol City if you want, but there's a place here called Rock Bottom which I prefer.

Then, near Dupont Circle, there is the Brick. The Brickskellar. Eight Hundred Thousand beers (give or take a few), including the gnome's ales of choice - Anderson Valley ESB and Anderson Valley IPA. These two are the closet to perfection I've ever tasted, and I've had quite a few over the years. And BUFFALO BURGERS!!

At the Brick, that is.

When I'm out at a restaurant - Sierra Nevada Pale or Red Hook ESB/IPA. It's hard to find Anderson Valley on tap, although there is a pub in Asheville NC that has it (or at least had it), can't remember it's name but it's just up the road from the Orange Peel.

As for wines, I'm pretty ignorant. My fave American winery is Chateau St. Michele in Washington State. Lovely Merlots and Cabernets, and I even like their Semillion (even though I'm not a white wine drinker). I'm also fond of the Rosemount wines of Australia. Lovely Shiraz and Cabs.

Lastly, my former got a bottle of champagne for Christmas which was absolutely delightful. Veuve Cliquot Ponsardin. Yum-ME. Lovely stuff.

 
At 9:03 AM, Blogger zippychik said...

Well since 80sgirl (Token Asian) and kah are involved in commenting to your post, how can I, Sippychik, pass this up? I've never been a huge beer person, even in college. In my early 20s, like 80sgirl, I went for a lot of those frou frous cocktails: Amarreto & 7s, Vodka Collins, Daquaris, etc.

Now I stick mainly with wine; it does less damage to my liver AND my waistline. We have some really exceptional upstate NY Finger Lakes wines here. There are the established wineries: Dr. Frank's, Wagner, Knapp, Bully Hill, Glenora, and Heron Hill to name a few, but it seems as if a new little mon & pop place springs up every year.
One of my favorite major wineries is Chateau Lafayette-Renaud. I know they sound "hoity-toity" and they do produce several high-end wines, like their excellent Pinot Noir. They do however, make some excellent affordable wines for under $10 a bottle.

I've also become quite fond of the Australian wines. IMHO, Yellow Tail provides some of the best. Try their shirazz and shirazz-genache blend if you're into those types of wines. Wwhile I'm not really crazy about the Australian white whites, Yellow Tail's Pinot Grigiot is really nice. I'll look for Rosemount next time in at the liquor store (this afternoon)and try that next upon kah's reccommendation.

 
At 2:53 PM, Blogger Token Asian said...

Thanks for remembering me as 80sGirl. I was pissed that there was an 8TSGRL, but that was the sweet part about being one of the first members--snagging the cool user name first! Di has hooked me up with server space...be on the lookout for 80sGirl.com coming soon (but what am I gonna do with it?????). Let's see what my creative side comes up with. Maybe my experimentation in learning HTML!

 
At 3:45 PM, Anonymous Anonymous said...

Ah a pint of guiness just warms my heart. There's nothing finer. Could never get into the wine thing. tried a few, didn't do much for me. Even the white zinfindel and the chardonnays were just passable, like drinking a MGD nowadays. Its drinkable, just not really enjoyable.

I also have a fear I'm going to snap those damn thin wine glasses in half. Notice no beer glassware comes with a stem - there's a reason for that! now if someone could come up with some glassware for wine that was more..manly.. i think it'd sell big. Not that drinking straight out of the carafe isn't manly - it is - it just doesn't impress the women-folk.

 
At 5:42 PM, Blogger Buckaroo Banzai said...

Mmm . . . beer. I've become a beer snob, since I don't drink anything that's not dark and expensive (like Billy Dee Williams). Although the occasional drinky-poo (read: Alabama Slammer) does nicely as well.

Wine? Not so much.

 
At 10:49 PM, Blogger Deathlok said...

True, Rosemont is a pretty good wine.

Funny about Yellowtail. I heard someone say it was really cheap (not inexpensive) wine, but I've heard a few people say that they really like it. My nephew dinks that at University of Amherst.
I will have to try it.

As for the Japanese beers, 80sG, my brother just celebrated his 50th and we had a party at a Japanese steakhouse. . . .bring your own. . . .so my brothers and I brought some Saporo and saki. . . and a good time was had by all.

And speaking of frou frou drinky-poos, we have our garage stocked with those buckets of mix that you add a bottle of alcohol and some water and stick in your freezer. Serve em up with the plastic shovel (included for class). We will be serving them up pool side this summer.

 
At 9:59 PM, Blogger rachel said...

That statue in the pic on my comments? Sir Benjamin Lee Guinness. The statue is at St. Patrick's Cathedral in Dublin. The trip where I learned to appreciate Guinness. But if given the choice, I'd take a Murphy's or Kilkenny first. Oh, what the heck, give me one of each please!

 
At 12:52 PM, Blogger Deathlok said...

I love them all racehl, but I always go back to the Guinness.

It did my heart good to see 18 year old girls in Ireland drinking Guinness. Girls drinking Guinness is sexy!

 
At 8:58 PM, Blogger Token Asian said...

A joke in honor of your love for Guinness...

At a world brewing convention in the States, the CEOs of various brewing organizations retired to the bar at the end of each day's conferencing. Bruce, CEO of Fosters, shouted to the barman: "In 'Strylya, we make the best bladdy beer in the world, so pour me a bladdy Fosters, mate."

Bob, CEO of Budweiser, calls out next: "In the States, we brew the finest beers of the world, and I make the king of them all, gimme a Bud."

Hans steps up next: "In Germany ve invented das beer, ferdamt. Give me ein Becks, ya ist der real King of beers, danke."

Paddy, CEO of Guinness, steps forward: "Barman, would ya give me a diet coke with ice and lemon. Tanks."

The others stare at him in stunned silence, amazement written all over their faces.

Eventually Bruce asks: "Are you not going to have a Guinness, Pat?" Paddy replies

"Well, if you pansies aren’t drinkin’, then neither am I!!"

 
At 12:57 PM, Blogger Deathlok said...

Well Said!

 
At 5:16 PM, Blogger grimjack said...

"Guinness-like" substance. There is no such thing. If you are going by color, then Pepsi would be Guinness-like. Stick with the original and you can't go wrong. And no diluting it with Bass or Harp, or god forbid-Rolling Rock.

The most disapointing thing to happen to me during my last trip to England and Wales was discovering the existance of "Murphy's Pubs". Apparently you can't have both Guinness and Murphys. So now I refuse to drink the crap. I also refuse to patronize the "Irish Pub" at 18th and Walnut. Last time I was there, they didn't carry Guinness. That's makes them as Irish as brotwurst.

Kev- remember Keystone and Steggy? Or better yet, USA Beer, $2.65 a case at the Navel Air Station.

 
At 8:48 PM, Blogger Deathlok said...

Keystone! The Beer in a can that taste like beer in a bottle. . . .marketing brilliance.

 
At 9:50 PM, Anonymous Anonymous said...

Enjoyed a lot! »

 

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