Hey everybody! I know it's been a while.....so I apologize to my faithful readers, but my full-time job has been a little "over demanding" lately. But I wanted to put together a list of all the upcoming events. Hope to see you at some of them!

Fine Arts Center First Thursday Tastings
@ the FAC Main 30 West Dale Street 5pm-8pm
members $12, non-members $17 for 4 wines and appetizers
February 7th - French Wines
March 7th - Rhine Wines

and don't forget the 17th Annual Wine Festival of Colorado Springs coming up April 18-19, 2008,
tickets go on sale sometime this month!
FAC Website

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The Blue Star Restaurant Wednesday Wine Tastings
@ the Blue Star 1645 South Tejon 6:30pm
$20 for 5 wines and tapas
February 13th - Barossa Valley
February 20th - Bordeaux
February 27th - Old Wolrd vs. New World Part 1

Still vs. Sparkling Wine Dinner
The Blue Star @ 6:30pm
5 course dinner with two pairings per course
$65 plus tax & gratuity per person
Blue Star Website

I feel like I've been giving a lot of bad reviews lately, but unfortunately I just haven't been getting the best of service when I've gone out.

I went to lunch today with two of my colleagues at Plate World Cuisine because I had a coupon and had been wanting to try out the restaurant. Unfortunately I was very disappointed overall. While the ambiance is very nice (contemporary asian feel), the service was quite disappointing. I ordered a grilled flatbread with artichokes and manchego cheese, while my colleagues ordered prosciuto wrapped shrimp and tenderloins with pasta. I tried all three dishes, and I will say that the other two were really quite good. I wasn't very impressed with my meal though. Rather than tasting grilled it tasted more like it was burnt. I did enjoy their desert though. I ordered a Asian desert sampler and was very pleased with it.

Now as for the service, during our meal we had to ask for salt and pepper shakers because the ones on our table were empty and then had to ask for spoons to eat the desert with. Our server was nice enough, but was covering far too many tables. It was her manager that I really had a problem with. First he informed me that even though neither the ad or the coupon I had said anything about it, it was only for use at dinner and he would not honor it. He did give us a coupon to use instead for 10% off (my original coupon had been for $15 off of two entrees), he made us wait for about 20 minutes for him to take off the discount. And since we were on our lunch break, that made us late getting back to the office.

Overall I did enjoy some of the food there, but it wasn't good enough to counter the lack of customer service we received.

Vinewords rating:
☆☆

According to a recent study, the more you earn the more you drink. Higher income groups consume 30% more alcohol than the working class. And middle-class women are drinking more than the realize because of the trend towards larger wine glasses.



How do you rate?

You can read more at the Daily Mail.

This weekend my fiancé and I went up to Denver to celebrate one of our good friend's birthdays. She wanted to go out for dinner, and then go out for drinks afterwards. Simple enough, but you never know what you'll run into when you head out for a night on the town.

We started off by going to in downtown Denver. Aside from not having a very nice hostess (she let us know that we had to eat and get out because they had a large party coming later), it was a fantastic experience. If you've never been to a Mongolian BBQ before (this was my first time), here's how it works. First you grab a bowl and fill it up with raw meat and seafood, then add whatever veggies and noodles you want. Grab a cup of sauce, and take it all to a large grill where the cooks mix everything together for you. This particular grill was very big and round. Four or five cooks rotated around it preparing the food. Some of them were very entertaining too, flipping cooking knives and tossing around shrimp.

Oh, they do have a vegetarian and gluten-free option if you need it.

After dinner we went to have a drink and decided to try the Breckenridge Brewery. I can honestly say it was one of my worst experiences at a bar/restaurant. The waiter was rude and unhelpful. The few times he did come by to check on us he "kindly" informed us that if we didn't want beer or water, we were probably in the wrong place. And let me say that right behind him as he said this was a rather large wall of hard liquor. So very quickly we decided to move on.

Birthday girl Dorian recommended the Whiskey Bar because it was very laid back, and not too loud ever. It was a great suggestion. The Whiskey Bar is a nice little neighborhood bar, with some fun extras. Saturdays are trivia night, and the girls from Volta Vodka were there for drink specials and free hand-outs. Volta is a caffeinated vodka infused with guarana, taurine and yerba mate. While that might not mean a lot to you in your vodka, it made for some pretty tasty mixed drinks.



And as the name may lead you to believe, they also feature over 115 whiskies. The Highland Park 12 year was the favorite of the night for our group.

As usual for a weekend in Denver for us, we ended up finishing up the night at Dave & Buster's. What can I say? It's an arcade for adults, what isn't fun about that?

I don't usually expect a lot when I go into a wine store, just the basics; decent knowledge, selection and customer service. I just got off of the phone with one of the larger stores in Denver, Colorado and I just had to say how very disappointed I was with the customer service I received. And what's worse is that I'm pretty sure I was speaking with one of the owners.

Living in Colorado Springs it's not a really long drive to get to Denver, about 1-2 hours, but it's not a drive I want to make every day. So since I'm going to be up there this weekend, I wanted to pick up a special bottle of port for my fiancé's birthday. I've done quite a bit of searching online to find just what I was looking for, and Primo Vino's website had told me just what I wanted. The response I got when I called to confirm what I'd seen online was that not only were they not sure if there were any left (the site said 22 bottles), but that they weren't even willing to try and get it from their warehouse for me today if they do have any. For a bottle that costs close to $100, I would expect something more than this.

So for future reference I would think twice about buying anything from Primo Vino, they're not very helpful and evidently don't really even know what they have in stock.

The Sundance Film Festival began today in Park City, Utah. And tomorrow, "Bottle Shock", the film based on the 1976 Judgement of Paris in which California wines were rated above French wines and caused a huge upset in the wine world. "Bottle Shock" is a term which means a short-term loss of flavor and aroma that wines suffer after being bottled.

The film stars Bill Pullman, Chris Pine, and Alan Rickman, and is shot entirely in California wine country. The film chronicles Chateau Montelena's part in the Judgement that put Napa Valley on the map.

Check out the article from the Salt Lake Tribune here.

Beringer's head winemaker, Ed Sbragia, is handing over the reigns to his second-in-command, and very worthy successor, Laurie Hook. Sbragia has been with Beringer for 32 years, and will continue on as Winemaker Emeritus, but will be spending the majority of his time working with his family's vineyard in Sonoma's Dry Creek Valley. Sbragia Family Vineyards was started in 2004 and while entirely family owned, is marketed through Beringer. With his son Adam, also an experienced winemaker, the family winery produces about 6,000 cases a year.

Sbragia trained under Beringer's legendary winemaker Myron Nightingale. Laurie Hook has been with Beringer for 22 years and says that, "Ed has set it up so that I can continue to make the great wines that we're known for, and luckily he's still around. It's a great spot to be in."

You can read Decanter.com's article here.

The Food & Wine Classic in Aspen is coming up in June, and this year Alder Yarrow, of Vinography.com will be teaching two classes. The Next Napa Superstars will focus on the newest and most exciting of Napa's red wine producers, and Sake for Wine Lovers will be an introduction to some of the finest sakes in the U.S. Alder is one of the best wine bloggers out there, and actually grew up in Aspen.

Tickets are already on sale for June 13-15, and can be purchased at Foodandwine.com.

I would absolutely love to be there, but I'm getting married on June 7th.....so between finances and time, it may just not be possible. So if anyone else is there, please let me know how it goes!

You may have seen this already, as it's been posted on and McDuff's Food and Wine Trail, among others. But for those of you that haven't, starting this month wine bloggers will begin reviewing books in the Wine Book Club. It follows much of the same idea as Wine Blogging Wednesday, so each blogger will be posting their own thoughts on the book or if someone doesn't have a blog they can post their thoughts to winebookclub.org.

Our very first book is Vino Italiano: THe Regional Wines of Italy, by Joseph Bastianich and David Lynch.



Now don't be scared by it. The book is a menacing 500 pages, but I'm told it's organized quite well. Priced at about $15 from Amazon, it's not too expensive either. Due date for reviews is February 26. Check out McDuff's for all of the details. Happy reading!

While working as a speech writer in Washington, D.C. John Pollock decided that he wanted a change in his life. After graduating from Stanford University in 1988, Pollock became a freelance foreign correspondent in Spain and made a name for himself winning the World Pun Championship in 1995. But by the late 90's he'd gotten a little burned out, and decided that he wanted to take a break.

During that break John decided to revisit his childhood dream of building a boat....a boat made from corks. As a boy John had built a boat that had a very short maiden voyage, so he had decided to build one out of corks. "[I] thought, well, why not build a cork boat? Because you can't sink [a] cork, how could you sink a lot of corks?" Since that time, Pollock and his family had been collecting corks. When his sister died on a family trip to the Himalayas, John had put away many of his childhood dreams. But something made this one stick with him.

He started by going from restaurant to restaurant asking for cork donations. Some people thought he was crazy, while others were more than happy to help out. One of those people was John's childhood friend Garth Goldstein, an architect who began by helping John figure out a way to fasten the corks together. What the two came with was a hexagon based design that would take more than 100,000 corks to complete.

With a revolving core of volunteers, the two spent the net two years working on putting the boat together. Even though during the second year Pollack took a job at the White House writing speeches for President Clinton, he would still spend his nights working on the boat. He even had the White House staff collecting corks for him.

During 2001, a lot of things happen to put the boat on hold. From an argument between Pollack and Goldstein, to the attacks on September 11th. At one point the two almost scrapped the project completely. But after September 11th volunteers started showing up telling them that they needed to work on the boat. It became something of an escape, as well as a way of "not surrendering".

It was at that point that Jochen Michalski, president of Cork Supply Group heard about the project. "We thought this was kind of crazy, but...very quickly we decided we were going to support it." His company donated 100,000 corks to Pollack's team and on Columbus Day 2001, the team finished the boat made out of 166,000 wine corks.

Pollack and Goldstein took their maiden voyage down the Duoro River in Portugal. "When we would walk into a village along the way, people would say 'Cork boat! Cork boat!'"

Pollack's final thoughts on his voyage, and the missing crew member, are very important in my opinion. "Sara would have been on the boat cheering with the rest of us," he said. "But you know, I used to think that good times, you know, cancel out the tragedy. They don't. But the bad things happen in life. The good things, you really have to reach for, and so we reach for them. And you savor them."


See the ABC News article here.

Not anything to do with Wine News......but some of you, like me, probably forgot about the Golden Globes this weekend since the writer's strike turned them into something more like a long press conference. Here are the winners.

- Drama: "Atonement"
- Comedy or Musical: "Sweeney Todd"
- Actor, Drama: Daniel Day-Lewis, "There Will Be Blood"
- Actress, Drama: Julie Christie, "Away from Her"
- Actress, Musical or Comedy: Marion Cotillard, "La Vie En Rose."
- Actor, Musical or Comedy: Johnny Depp, "Sweeney Todd."
- Supporting Actress: Cate Blanchett, "I'm Not There."
- Supporting Actor: Javier Bardem, "No Country for Old Men."
- Director: Julian Schnabel, "The Diving Bell and the Butterfly."
- Screenplay: Ethan Coen and Joel Coen, "No Country for Old Men."
- Foreign Language: "The Diving Bell and the Butterfly," France and U.S.
- Animated Film: "Ratatouille."
- Original Score: Dario Marianelli, "Atonement."
- Original Song: "Guaranteed" from "Into the Wild."

Of course the year this happens is the year Johnny Depp would have gotten up twice. Isn't that just my luck?

Today Reuters featured an interview with Margrit Mondavi, wife of winemaker Robert Mondavi.

Margrit is the Vice President of Cultural Affairs at the Robert Mondavi Winery and a trendsetter in the wine world. She introduced the Great Chefs Program, the Summer Music Festival, the Winter Classical Concert at the winery as well as writing an award winning cookbook and working as an artist.

Now that her 94-year old husband is confined to a wheelchair and unable to speak Margarit, 81, has become the voice of the winery.

Here's what she had to say to Reuters' Jim Christie:

Q: How important for the development of Mondavi wines was the work on appreciation for cuisine?
A: "Bob always said, 'We've got it all (in California), the ocean for fish and seafood, the grains, the meat, so let's put it together ... The table was always so important to Bob."

Q: Would Mondavi wines have gone as far without an association to fine food and more broadly the "good life?"
A: "For the first 27 years we never did advertising so of course anything that we did that brought that feeling of wine, food and the arts together was very important ... It was our way to show the wines to the world."

Q: What was the Napa Valley like before Mondavi's emphasis on producing quality wines?
A: "The valley still suffered from the aftermath of Prohibition ... We had 21 wineries in 1966 when Bob opened (the Robert Mondavi Winery). Now we have over 400. We have proven we can make wines that Bob said could equal any of the great wines of the world. He never said better. He said equal."

Q: Do you think the growth of Mondavi into a publicly traded company put profits ahead of making fine wine? (Constellation Brands Inc acquired Robert Mondavi Corp in 2004)
A: "It never distracted us. We kept making better wines. That was our goal ... Bob always said if you're on a quest for excellence don't worry about anything else."

Q: What is your favorite Mondavi wine?
A: "If I had to go to a desert island with a book and one bottle of wine it would be a cabernet sauvignon."

Q: How will Robert Mondavi be remembered within Napa Valley?
A: "He had time for everybody ... If they needed a truck, to crush grapes, three cases of glasses, Bob was always there."

I came across this set and just had to share it. it's a 3-piece cleaning kit for wine glasses. They're made of a soft foam that won't chip or scratch your glasses. There's one for flutes, goblets, and even decanters.

After washing a set of each tonight, I see the immense value in these!

Check it out here.

Dr. Vino recently posted a video on how to make a Furoshiki Wine Carrier, I thought it was worth reposting here. Take a look.

You can learn more about the technique here.

Last week's First Thursday wine tasting at the Colorado Springs Fine Arts Center featured wines from Napa Valley. Three red and one white wine were tasted, and paired with appetizers.

I always make it a point to go to this tasting because it really is hard to beat the price, four wines for $17 ($12 for members). It's a nice atmosphere, and a great place to mingle with art and wine lovers.

The first wine I tasted was undoubtedly my favorite of the evening. The 2005 Michael Pozzan Napa Cuvée #11 is a 100% Cabernet Sauvignon, with the grapes coming from several different vineyards in Napa Valley. The wine is numbered and changes every year to represent the number of vintages that have been produced. It's only available in select markets, and has a very limited production run. For having such a small production, the wine is incredibly affordable at only $18.99 a bottle.

I thought this wine was incredibly smooth and easy to drink. With wonderful berry flavors it paired really well with the Polenta Triangles and Black Bean Mango Salsa that it was paired with. Highly recommended.

Vinewords Rating: 10 out of 10

The second wine I tasted was a good wine, though not nearly as good as the Cuvée. The 2006 Napa Wine Company Sauvignon Blanc stood out immediately because of it's peachy scent and taste. The grapes for this wine come from the Yountville appellation of Napa Valley and are 100% organically grown. 30% of the wine is aged in oak, wine the remaining wine is aged in stainless steel tanks. The bottles are reasonably priced at $13.99 a bottle.

I enjoyed the fruitiness of this wine quite a bit, and it paired very well with the Open Faced Ham Cocktail Sandwich it was paired with. This would be an excellent wine for summer BBQs or picnics. I'd love to try and pair it with a mango chicken dish.

Vinewords Rating: 8 out of 10

The final two red wines at the tasting both seemed to pale in comparison to the Cuvée. Ordinarily I think they would have been good wines, but in comparison they just weren't as good. Gustavo Thrace's The 3rd Bottle Red is so named because it's meant to be consumed later in the night, after your more expensive bottles are already gone. The website states that "because of the deals we get on the fruit we aren't allowed to say which growers the fruit comes from, but rest assured you have tasted this fruit in some well known Napa beauties." It was paired with Duck Confit and Fig Pizza, which I actually enjoyed more than the wine. The wine is priced at $11.99 a bottle.

Vinewords Rating: 6 out of 10

The 2005 Castle Rock Cabernet Sauvignon has much more of a dark fruit taste than the Cuvée, and isn't quite as smooth. The grapes are grown the south-facing vineyards in Columbia Valley, which shares the same latitude as the Bordeaux region in France. It also receives 18 months of aging in French oak barrels. At first the wine has quite a kick, so I would probably suggest decanting this wine before serving. Paired with a Chocolate Dipped Sour Cherry Tarlet, the flavor mellowed out and became pretty enjoyable. Bottles are priced at $10.99.

Vinewords Rating: 7 out of 10

Feel free to chime in if any of you were at the tasting as well. What did you think?

This month's Wine Blogging Wednesday's theme is wine from the Friuli - Venezia Giulia region of Italy.

Located in northeastern Italy, Friuli - Venezia Giulia is bordered by the Alps to the north and Slovenia to the east. A very small region, it's only about two-thirds the size of Connecticut.

Over 30 different grape varieties are grown ther, including Chardonnay, Cabernet Sauvignon, and Merlot. As well as several local varieties like Refosco del peduncolo rosso, Schippettino, Friulano, Ribolla gialla and Verduzzo.

Finding wines from this region was not an easy task for me. It took me over half an hour to find the two bottles that I tasted, and that was the store with the best selection in town. What I finally found were two white wines, a 2004 Tocai Friulano from Giordano Sirch and a 2006 Pinot Grigio from Ruffino Lumina. Both bottles retailed for around $17.

Tocai Friulano is a local varietal. In 2006 the name was officially changed to just Friulano because of it's similarity to the Hungarian wine Tokaji. If you read Italian you can take a look at Sirch's website here, unfortunately they don't have an english version. This was a very interesting wine, it had a taste unlike anything I've ever tried before. It has a bright golden yellow hue, with accents of bright green. The aroma is not very strong, but the taste is a strong acidity with a sweet and fruity aftertaste.

Vinewords Rating: 7 out of 10



Ruffino's Lumina Pinot Grigio is not one of the best Pinot Grigio's I've ever had. It has a bright golden yellow hue, and a slightly "green" aroma. It's very acidic, and has a hint of a honey flavor. You can visit their website here, fortunately this one is in english. The acidity was honestly too overpowering for me, but it is a very young wine so a bit of age might mellow it out some. If only I had a Clef-du-Vin right now!

Vinewords Rating: 6 out of 10


Overall I don't think I was horribly impressed with this wine region, but I can definitely see that it has potential. If I could find some better quality bottles, I believe that I would taste something from this region again.