Good Grape: A Wine Blog Manifesto

Browse by Tag

champagne discount generic+trademarks napa propaganda tasting tour wine wine+blog

May 17 2006

Mercy me: Prison Wine

Ifyou read wine related blogs with any regularity you can kind of pick up ontheir post patterns for content. Theygenerally fall into one of three categories with some overlap or a combinationof the below:

* Winereviews from an experienced taster

* Streamof consciousness filtered through a personal wine lens

* Consumer/business/marketing/generalinterest wine with, perhaps, some local interest

Mostly,though, wine blogs by content and by audience tend to be in the aficionado campmore so than the novice or esoteric camp, yet most blogs eschew the pomp and circumstance afforded to wine in popular culture. Here at Good Grape I tend to be in the #3 camp, with the occasionalstraying down the oddball path.

Todayis an oddball day. The feckless amongstus demand it. Though, its only withappropriate and laborious context that I do it …

Ipresent to you Pruno. In the truth isstranger than fiction category, I now know that they make a sort of fruit winein prison using oranges and ketchup packets. Mercy me, indeed.

From Wikipedia:

Prunois an alcoholic beverage made from oranges,fruitcocktail, ketchup, sugar, and possibly other ingredients. It originated in (andremains largely confined to) prisons, where it can be produced cheaply, easily, anddiscreetly. The concoction can be made using only a plastic bag, hot runningwater, and a towel to conceal the pulp during fermentation.The end result has been colourfully described as a "vomit-flavouredwine-cooler", although it should be noted that flavor is not the primaryobjective. Depending on the time spent fermenting, the sugar content, and thequality of the ingredients and preparation, pruno’s alcoholcontent by volume can range from as low as 2% (equivalent to a weakbeer) to as high as 14% (equivalent to a strong wine).

Dammit,who can’t use a recipe for prison wine and if you can’t use it, I guarantee youit’s five minutes worth of conversation at the next backyard barbecue.

The recipe goes something like the below, though I wouldencourage you to check out this site for full details—all the better to weave amore elaborate and interesting story about Pruno at the barbecue.

Ten oranges. In our prison commissary,Valencia oranges were on sale, ten for $2. Your prison commissary may differ.
An eight ounce can of fruit cocktail. In this case, an 8.5 ounce can of Del Monte’s "fruit cocktail in heavy syrup," for 90 cents.
Forty to sixty sugarcubes. Either hang out with old people who still use sugarcubes or steal a ton of sugar packets from the local deli.
Sixteen ounces of water. Tap is fine, since like, you *are* in prison.
A big plastic bag that can be sealed. Trashbags and rubber bands are totally cool. We used Ziploc bags.
Some ketchup. Six packets of ketchup from the local deli should cover things nicely. Please use Heinz, because anything else is kinda nasty and will ruin your Pruno.
A towel.

You’ve been warned. You are on your own should you follow the link above. Comprehensive instructions await.

Posted in. Permalink | Comments (2) | Print | Email This

May 16 2006

Two Degrees of Jason Priestley

I’ll admit it. I feel a certain kinship to Jason Priestley. We practically grew up together--he playing a high schooler on television while I acted like a college student somewhere in middle America. My Wednesday nights were spent huddled in a dorm room in order to heckle the chaste Donna, and wish Brandon, his overly earnest character, would get over himself and just stop the proselytizing.

He’s also a Canadian and was into a then semi-obscure Canadian rock band called "Barenaked Ladies." Meanwhile, I too was into BNL amidst the grunge music and legacy Steve Miller Band that populated the parties of my not too long ago era.

Priestley, I believe, also invested in Wine X magazine back in the day and procured the lead singer, Steven Page, for the cover of the mag somewhere in the mid-1990s

Being in middle America, otherwise known as Indianapolis, it was also with some fascination that I observed Jason Priestley’s late 1990s and early 2000s fascination with Indy cars--motorsport that is impossible to get away from in these parts, at least for one month of the year. Priestley is lucky to be alive after a very serious Indy Racing League crash in Kentucky in 2002.

So, it was with intrigue that I read a small blurb in the current issue of Wine Enthusiast that he now has a wine-related show on TV.

Premiering May 2nd, Hollywood and Vines appears to have made the news circuit in Canada and an interview in Wine Enthusiast, but managed to clearly miss every other U.S. news outlet. Maybe he should date Jessica Simpson--I hear she gets some press coverage.

Says Priestley on his show (full article here):

Jason Priestley and Terry David Mulligan are bent on turningeveryone into armchair oenophiles with their new wine show Hollywoodand Vines. The show takes the two on backroads wine-country toursthrough the Okanagan, Washington and California and into the urbanjungle for some five-star sipping and swirling.

Priestley andMulligan tackle the stodgy topic of wine with a laid-back attitude anda dose of rock ‘n’ roll. Hollywood and Vines is "something betweenWhite Snake and The White Stripes," says Priestley.

"The show isaimed at everybody, novice to expert, people who know about wine andpeople who don’t know about wine. It’s not elitist in any way."

What’s really classic about his reference to Whitesnake and White Stripes is it really encapsulates his small little mark on pop culture over the last 15 years. From David Coverdale to Jack White via Steven Page, all with a glass of vino.

And, really, what can be better than a Tommy Chong reference? Any catholic school kid worth his salt from the last 30 years knows Sister Mary Elephant from Cheech and Chong:

"It’s not just about drinking wine, it’s about the lifestyle,"Mulligan says. To follow the two on their escapades, Priestleysuggests, "open a bottle of wine before you watch the show. You’ll havemore fun . . . and it’ll make our show seem better."

Along theway, Priestley flashes his backstage celebrity pass to get the insidescoop on the wine habits of the Hollywood set. During the season, theshow talks wine with the likes of Heath Ledger, Sienna Miller, GeorgeClooney, and Katie Holmes.

Wine novices should take heart to knowthat Steve Martin buys a wine if it has a pretty label and Tommy Chonglikes, "wine and pot. Nothing’s better."

Check your local listings for show times. I haven’t yet found it in my locale, but if anybody knows what channel it’s on, leave a comment.

Posted in. Permalink | Comments (0) | Print | Email This

May 15 2006

Great Googley-Moogley What a Wine Trend

I found a new functionality for Google that should be of interest to wine fans--go to www.google.com/trends

The functionality lets you take separate word strings and do a search on them in order to review commonality in their search frequency. I did this for red wine/white wine, California wine/french wine and a number of others ... according to the site it can handle up to five search strings together.

From the Google site:

Google Trends analyzes a portion of Google websearches to compute how many searches have been done for the terms youenter relative to the total number of searches done on Google overtime. We then show you a graph with the results—our search-volumegraph.

Be the first on your block with intrinsic knowledge related to the amount of searches completed on Google that combine some wacky combination of words.

Here’s mine for: white wine/lychee/adventure brands

Posted in. Permalink | Comments (0) | Print | Email This

May 15 2006

New York City Postscript

I’m back from a long weekend in New York. What a fantastic city. And, really, what a wine city.

Regardless of what neighborhood you were in, there was a wine shop close by.

We went on two food tours one in Greenwich and the other in Chelsea/Meatpacking district. Those were both well worth the money, though our guide on the Greenwich tour was befuddled when I asked her for her favorite wine shop in the neighborhood. Here we were going on and on about all of the unique food businesses in the neighborhood like Murray’s Cheese and she got caught flat on her feet without a wine shop recommendation. Nonetheless, it was an enjoyable time to walk the neighborhood and sample a wide variety of foodstuffs.

I ate at a Mario Batali restaurant on three occasions and had either a wine pairing with dinner or a flight--all of them top notch. A Barbaresco at Esca really stood out to me as a winner. I like Batali because the food in his restaurants is fantastic and, really, an exceptional value. At Esca, my wife and I chose the wine pairing option for our tasting menu (and additional $30 per person) and we each easily were served a bottle of piece broken out as full size pours for 6 courses. Based on the quality of the wine and the pairing expertise, $30 was a pittance.

I also stopped at Astor Wine & Spirits, Vintage New York and Sherry-Lehman n.

One of interesting aspects of wine blogging is receiving press releases from companies. A couple of weeks back I received a release from Astor about a Hugh Johnson book signing and when I received it, I thought to myself that "I’ve never been there, won’t be there and why are they sending this to me?"

Then I remembered that I would be in New York City and maybe I should check it out.

Well, I’ve now been to mecca. Their new store is shiny, gleaming new with a great selection from around the world. It is at once exciting and disheartening when you walk into a store outside of your state and virtually every wine is one you’ve never seen before at home. I picked up a Barbaresco and a Pinot from the A to Z Wineworks in Oregon. My only minor complaint with Astor is that all of the competent help is on the floor and the checkout folks speak English as a second language--creating some difficulty when asking for a wine shipping box. But, this is a must visit place for a huge, carefully selected assortment of wine.

Sherry-Lehmann was much smaller than I anticipated--voted by Zagat’s as the best wine shop in the city in 2006, it was probably 400 sq. feet, but packed with french selections that rarely make their way to my locale. Trophy bottles were abundant. Fortunately for my pocketbook, the wine shipping law changes in my state hadn’t made it back to them because I probably would have bought a ton of wine if I could have had it shipped to me.

Vintage New York was nice as well. I did a $10 five taste assortment from the tasting bar--a concept I love and then picked up a nice Millbrook Pinot Noir for $23, which I saw later at Sherry-Lehmann for $18.99. A couple of the NY wines were not in my favorite tasting profile, but were pleasant enough.

In general, writers live in New York City in order to have "grist for the mill" so to speak, experiences that can help shape a novel with more authenticity. In my case, a little "out of market" tourism has definitely re-charged my wine batteries and provided a lot of "grist" for posts and ideas. I’ll be posting based on some of these experiences in the near future.

Posted in. Permalink | Comments (0) | Print | Email This

May 10 2006

New York, New York (And, On Break for a Few Days)

"I want to wake up in a city that never sleeps," so sayeth the Chairman of the Board, Frank Sinatra.

And, thanks to Tyler at Dr. Vino, probably one of the more popular blogs alongside Vinography, Fermentation and Lenndevours, I’ll be checking in on a good number of wine shops and a couple of personal recommedations this week in New York City.

Tyler has a comprehensive list of New York wine shops on his site with some personal asides. Tyler is responsive on email and was happy to give me a couple of can’t miss recommendations for my visit this week. Thanks to Tyler and if there’s a compelling anecdote, I’ll share that here next week.

On another note, Dr. Vino completed the Wine Century Club, an achievement of having drunk at least 100 different varietals. Congrats to him on this dubious achievement. You can check out the site and the membership information here.

And, speaking of Lenndevours, the nascent guru of New York wine, I’ll also be checking out Vintage New York--a wine shop and tasting bar dedicated to the wines of New York.

I’ll be back posting on Monday, May 15th. Thanks.

Posted in. Permalink | Comments (0) | Print | Email This

Page 4 of 7 pages « First < 2 3 4 5 6 > Last »

Enter your email address for a monthly summary of posts, additional news and information available only to email subscribers. Your email is never rented, nor sold to anybody else!