[written by Yupster]
It feels less like a tasting, more like a party. I like! Toby, the author of the new “Working Pour” column in the C-VILLE, and new commenter Sian were serving seven wines and two beers. I just can’t get over how nice the staff is. That is not a huge space, there are expensive glass bottles sitting on the edges of shelves everywhere with people in puffy coats shuffling around, and everyone is just holding out their glass over the bar with the desperate look of, “I need that grenache like there is no tomorrow.” And the staff’s all smiling! There were probably 30 people tasting wines, and Toby still remembered which one I was on and explained each wine in some detail. I bought a couple of bottles just ’cause… I liked the labels.
Crush
We talked about men and women buying wine based on labels at Crush, actually! Men buy animal labels, women buy people/building labels?
What was that it? This is a cute blog about labels, anyway. So I still have the crush on Crush. This tasting was great. I got to catch up with some villains and chat with Gregg while sipping some delicious wines, including one of those fine dessert wines I’ll never buy myself for fear of finishing it in one sip, so I really appreciate tastes of it. And can we talk about those spinach balls? How they were the best spinach balls ever? That is not the wine talking. I’ll see you on Thursday!
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Tagged as: Activities, Charlottesville, Events, Reviews, Weekends, Wine
I was a raging spinach-ball-a-holic. I was trying to be slick, and not gorge, but I could have put down about a whole platter of those little round mouthfuls of eden. I left with about a milion toothpicks in my pocket.
And I talked to greggg about getting sake, an he said it was in the works. I love even cheap sake, so I cant wait to see what he comes up with. Rice me up, greggg! Im ready!
And having only the ability to bullshit with varying defrees of success, and no actual knowledge of wine (the only tannins I knows about is sun tannins, lawdy!) I am completely seduced by the labels. But it doesn’t matter what it is, just that it appeals. Clever names can get me too. Without a reccomendation to guide, the jocularity and ocularity are the sole basis of my purchase. Well, that and price.
“It has an angelic oaky mid pallette descending into a prussian cranberry / bitter root finish. An unassuming little red, true, but you’ll be amused by its delinquency. Shall I put you down for a case Chauncy?”
guilty as charged… I’ve recently tried several wines based on the label and/or name… including Vampire, Il Bastardo, and Arrogant Frog.
well i don’t know how to read, so all of my decisions are heavily picture-based. this goes for decisions involving both alcohol purchases and traffic obeisance.
With me, it’s not the labels as much as the creative names. 7 Deadly Zins, Tempra-Tantrum, “Pink” sparkling wine, Zig Zag Zin, whatever.
I also stopped at Market Street, and I thought they did a fantastic job of keeping up with the crowd. For the winos who’d like to know what they were pouring, this is from the guide sheet word for word:
Musaragno “Traitoria Busa Alla Torre Da Lele” Lison Pramaggiore Pinot Grigio 2006
Domaine des Chezelles Touraine Blanc 2006
Brampton Unoaked Chardonnay 2007
Sant’ Agata “Baby” Barbera D’Asti 2006
Jalon Vina Alarba Old Vines Calatayud Grenache 2005
Terra Andina Carmenere 2006
Andeluna Merlot Reserve 2004
Regular: $21.99, on sale for $9.96 for two weeks– just delicious.
Bells Winter White
Legend Imperial Stout
None of those names amuse me, so they better have had topless latin chicks on the label.
/Sant’ Agata “Babyâ€, send a bottle down the chimney for me.. ho ho ho.
For those of you who are not alcoholics, the last two entries on the list are beer.
Does that mean they aren’t beer for those of us who are alcoholics?
I just spent 2 minutes trying to come up with a come back, but to no avail. I must be out of my league. Anyone?
for those of us who are alcoholics, this is the breakfast menu.
I think we can leave Stanley hanging on that one, Smiley. But thanks for adding that. Bells was great. Needing to keep it together for a long evening, I refrained from trying the stout. I believe it is the only thing I refrained from trying… hm.
Parlie, I like that. For some, a buffet is the pasta bar at Golden Corral. For me, a buffet is wine and beer flights?
Did you go to the Belgian tasting on Saturday, Stanley?
No. Alas, I was sound asleep when dijonbray went to that. I had a gig in Richmond on Friday night, drank a Red Bull on the way home, and subsequently couldn’t sleep till 6am. To lull me into slumber, I watched Legends of the Fall
Which is all a long way of telling you that I missed out on delicious beer because I stayed up watching Brad Pitt rub blood all over himself.
I’m with Queen and Lilith on buying a wine because I like the name — unless I’ve tasted the wine in question or talked to someone that has (whose taste I trust), there’s absolutely no dang way to know what you’re getting on the inside, so you might as well like some other aspect of the experience.
As for buying by what’s on the label — for a while I bought wine with dogs on the label, because that seemed appropriate for my canine-laden life. Every last one of them, even the $40+ bottles, tasted somewhere between mediocre and ass. Now I avoid buying animal-labeled wine. Although there was some sort of toad-related wine that I once enjoyed. Maybe it’s just a problem with warm-blooded animal labels.
Always stick with the amphibians, fdr. Aint yo momma told you that?
What’s all this nattering about bottles anyway? Proper wine comes in a bag in a box.
PROPER WINE IS MADE OF OLD DOLE FRUIT COCKTAILS THAT HAVE FERMENTED IN A MOP BUCKET THAT YOU KEEP UNDER YOUR PRISON BED. YOU’VE DONE SOMETHING BAD AND THAT’S WHY YOU ARE IN PRISON, SO YOU DRINK MOLDY PEAR WINE AND THINK ABOUT WHAT YOU’VE DONE.
i’m sorry for yelling, but i’m serious.
i always thought proper wine was the stuff in the unlabeled glass bottle my dad kept in the freezer. then i discovered it was moonshine. ah, growing up southern and classy.
also, i just started posting here today and i can’t stop! the consequences of sitting in front of a computer all day at work i suppose. anyways, hi everyone. love the site.
Here’s a helpful tip: To ensure that your moonshine is pure and contains no lead, before ingesting, poor out a small amount into the top of the jar and light it. If it burns blue and clear, bottoms up. If it has little sparkles in the flame, DON’T drink because it was probably distilled in a car radiator and has lead in it. And if there is a large explosion and you find yourself engulfed in flames, then you did not remove the open jar of moonshine far enough away from the flame.
Oh trillian, I’m so sorry, I’ve neglected to do my customary awkward welcome. Everyone, trillian, trillian, everyone. Help yourself to Chips Ahoy and Tang.
fdr - Don’t give up on the dog labels yet.
One of the best “reasonable” buys out of South Africa is Faithful Hound. Market Street regularly carries it. The label features an uplifting story of a dog owner who moves, leaves his dog and the dog waits paitently at his doorstep for the owner to return. The owner never does, dog dies. OK maybe a bit morbid but hey at around $20 it’s a great wine to bring to a party/in laws/etc where Tickled Pink or Mad Dog 20/20 (both great vintages in their own right) just won’t do.
That’s the saddest story I’ve ever read.
@18 smiley: or you just saved yourself the trouble of drinking gasoline, but now you’re on fire. its a win-lose.
lilith - thanks for the welcome!
and thanks for the tip smiley. setting oneself on fire definitely to be avoided. actually, moonshine in general is probably to be avoided.
b-yo — Oh! I always assumed my mother’s nattering about toads was to do with her fondness of marine biology. Or maybe fairy tales. (At least, I’m pretty sure she wasn’t out licking the hallucinogenic variety.) I had no idea she was trying to educate me about recreational beverage choices; it all makes sense now.
Stanley — you jest about the box thang, but decent box wine actually exists. There’s a wine that Market Street carries by a maker called the Wine Bandits (I think the label is “Three Thieves”) that puts “better” wines in vacuum-sealed bags-in-the-box. So you can feel all refined sipping wine from your half-liter carton while you tube down the James (under which circumstance no glass bottles may travel).
Lurker30 — what an uplifting tail.
Hallucinogenic variety of toads. Not fairy tales. I leave the latter to y’all to create.
Correcto. My co-blogger is a wine-maker (used to be local; now he’s abroad). He has commented that the vacuum bag is a superb way to store wine (since it doesn’t touch air till you pour), but that it would never catch on, being viewed by wine snobs as déclassé.
yupster is my new internet crush.
I know this is true what you say stanley
Stanley, I heard the vacuum bag makes for an excellent box of wine too, the ones I tried were suprisingly good, makes sense really when ya think about it. I think it’s catching on here.
Oh dear god.
I like to take box wine, pull out the bag and suck on it while tubing. Then, when it’s gone you can blow it up and have a spare floatation device.
I understand you can do the same with Fatty Patty. Flooze???
Fatty Patty does not dispense sweet sweet booze…
Yes You are correct that’s not what she dispenses
I thought belmont was getting fed up, but maybe he’s just praying?
REALLY? did we just have “box,” “pulling out,” “sucking on a bag,” “tubing,” and “blow”? with no jokes?
that’s like an entire refrigerator magnet set of jokes.
haha. I’m so porny and I didn’t even know it. way to take it to that level, parlez.
I saw it and thought it WAS a joke. Point: Parlie.
No. The whole thing was nothin but joke. Point: Me
i will not cede my point silmo. this is my first good point ever, and i’m keeping it.
Well if that’s the way you feel, Parlie. Point: YOU
Merry MLK
you just made my holiday weekend! i’ll buy you a drink at the free drinks party.
You’re on … but let’s make it Mas as I only drink vodka
Takin’m my elitist ass off to bed
Haha good luck with that. Parlie won’t even buy ME drinks. And I have a vag.
Well maybe Parlie’s not into vag. Ever think of that??
mas it is, post-elitist-party.
shenanigans i’m gonna need you to come along so you can buy these drinks for us.
maybe he just doesn’t think it’s a wise place to put his money.
parlie should not diss
i’ve seen her buckage as she
gives change from a tip
whoops thought parlie was a gal
Hey Yupster, Thanks! Nice seeing you at the tasting.
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