9:00 and all clear

Well Antoinette, 

It's a Topsy turvey world out there...dogs living with cats, mass hysteria, also ran candidate getting booed for not endorsing the party candidate, the other also ran booed for endorsing his candidate,  ....where do we go to find the answer? Well you aren't going to find it crashing into wild Pokémon, nor will a Pokémon go ball get you to your zen. In fact you don't even have to spend 7 years in Tibet. So leave the Dalai lama alone and find your answer in wine. You can find it without Pokémon go, GPS or a bloodhound. Just head to your favorite Wine Shop or restaurant and load up on your favorite bottles of clarity(Latin root is clear which also gives us Claret, the popular Bordeaux drunk by the British when their tiny little island controlled half the globe...clearly, the proof is in the pudding) Need further proof? Well the French have long given us great wine and they also gave us Nostradamus...coincidence? I think not. See your future! Be your future! Uncork the answer and if you don't find it in the first bottle, keep looking...it's at the bottom of one of those bottles. And even if you don't, and you find yourself stumbling around objects and people...just pull out your phone, pretend you're Pokémon'ing and you'll fit right in. The cops will think you're just another harmless nerd who is probably living in your parents basement and not an inebriated clairvoyent with a thirst for the grape!

Namaste

July 27, 2016

Making America Great

Bon vacances Antoinette 

Now that we are in the midst of the party conventions, you may have noticed that our choices may leave something to be desired. But before we start preaching doom and gloom and the apocalypse is upon us, let's grab our favorite bottle of vino and toast to the Presidents who made America Great, for realz! When General, President, Father of our country and winemaker GW died, Napoleon called for ten days of mourning and even the British flew their flags at halfmast...Respect.  Andy Jackson threw the greatest inauguration "rager" the White House has ever seen, successfully fought 113 duels, served as president with a bullet near his heart, one in his lungs and at 67 chased down a failed assassin and beat him into submission with his cane. Teddy Roosevelt, known for serving the best and rarest vintages at his dinner parties, charged up San Juan hill, received the Medal of Honor, hunted grizzlies, explored the Amazon, built the Panama Canal, took a bullet from a would be assassin at a campaign stop, gave his hour long speech then went to the hospital. FDR led us through the depression, dust bowl and WWII from a wheelchair, and most importantly ended prohibition. And of course Abe...though he didn't drink he did save the union, end slavery, created state universities, gave land to 1000's, and made great speeches. So grab 4 score and 7 bottles of your favorite wine, raise a toast to these and others, party like a Jacksonian Democrat in 1829 and drink to the future...hopefully the better angels of our nature will endure!

Cheers

July 20, 2016

Bastille Day: Qu'ils mangent de la brioche

Bon Matin Antoinette, 

In honor of Bastille Day, and in honor of the Frenchies first attempt at a Republic (they are now on lucky number 5) we should take pause and reflect on what they have given the world and where they should have done things a little differently starting with the French Revolution and their motto (a result of faulty translation). For instance, in our revolution, we came up with the motto that covers all the bases, life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness...as the French would say "carte blanche"...which means we can drink wine to our hearts content. The French mistakenly made theirs liberté, egalité, and fraternité when they meant to say fraternities, which would then be a euphemism for wine drinking and bacchanalian festivities."Hey Pierre, it's all about the accent"...accent marks ruin a lot of things...reminds you of tedious things like diagramming sentences in language class, and reminds the French of Robespierre lopping heads off...thank goodness the Reign of Terror ended and the French could go back to doing what they do best...make a great bottle of vin! Which is why the French motto should be "Burgundy, Bordeaux et Champagne tout le monde" and guaranteed they would still be on their first republic, nobody in the world would suffer from a Napoleon complex, students would be Less Miserable for not having to suffer through Victor Hugo and the Germans would have stayed home and ordered wine online instead of blitzkrieging across the border everytime the French went on strike and disrupted shipping. Wine brings a unity that even the Brits wouldn't exit. So time to dust off the gramophone, put on some Edith Piaff singing La Marseilles, don your beret, visit your local cafe, order a bottle of that special Bordeaux, eat some cake, light up a Gauloise, pretend you're reading Sartre, wear your best bored with the world expression and mutter mon dieu, je pense donc je suis, chin chin and viva la france!

Can't have French wine without the French, and you can't drink all day unless you start early.  

Joyeaux Quatorze Juillet 

Semantics

Heureux Juillet Antoinette 

Words matter! Not just in politics where it's very important to know what the definition of is...is, or the difference between extremely negligent vs gross negligence...just a few letters are all the difference between the Big House and the White House. That's why lawyers were invented, and arguably why sommeliers were as well. Wine and politics are birds of a feather in some ways. So while the purpose of sommeliers and lawyers might seem to be to obfuscate, cloud, embellish, exaggerate, authenticate, invalidate or just distinguish the pretentious from the peon...we live in America, equality for all...you don't have to score 800 on the verbal section of the SAT's to understand the wine you drink, or the right person to vote for. Next time you go to buy wine here's a few descriptors to get you started and help you visualize a few terms...Steely: high acidity and sharp edges, think Trump; Austere: unfriendly wine with high acidity and little fruit, think Hillary; Barnyard: smells like the south end of a north bound mule, fill in the blank. What you should be looking for are wines that reflect these terms...Opulent: rich, smooth and bold, think Sean Connery as James Bond; Elegant: where less is more and they age well, think Gregory Peck as Atticus Finch; Velvety: lush, smooth and silky, think Rita Hayworth in Gilda; Brawny: big, masculine, muscular wine, think Clint Eastwood or John Wayne in pretty much anything.  And finally, you can't go wrong in wine or politics if you can find and afford an Intellectually Satisfying choice, think of anyone on Mt Rushmore!

July 6, 2016

Unalienable Rights

Good morning Antoinette, 

It's time for the Big Bang! No I don't mean create another planet, or recreate the summer of love at Woodstock or some other music festival; nor am I talking about the 7th Fleet on a 3 day pass. I'm referring to the greatest annual political celebration in the world. So leave your new suit and stack of hundred dollar bills on the dresser...grab the black cats, M80's, bottle rockets and sparklers and shoot the works to celebrate 'Merica this 4th of July weekend. Most importantly, remember to have plenty of chilled wine to raise a toast, cool you down, and soothe the inevitable firework burns (better than aloe cuz it soothes the burn and is a delicious painkiller) 

As TJ so eloquently penned,  "...we are endowed...with certain unalienable rights...life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness! Do your duty! Get happy! Drink wine! Make loud explosions! Get bbq sauce on your white shirt and raise a glass of champagne to honor and say Happy 240th birthday to the good Ole U.S. of A. Remember it's not the years, it's the mileage...and we've come a long way! So Declare your Independence by picking your favorite grape, and celebrate your life, value your liberty, and pursue some happiness...just remember no means no! 😆🍷🎂⚾

GBA!

July 4, 2016