I plan to be diligent in blogging on this, my wine site, and hope my friends will forgive me absence. I have been busy writing my new book: “Your Mother Should Know” (available on Amazon.com and e-Bay. I promise to do better in this brand new year. My thanks to all who have hung in there, and I hope good things (and distribution) will be in our future.
The wonderful world of wine.
During my live Facebook session today (TEAFLIX TUESDAY) I got a call in from a lady in Liverpool (UK), Janet Weston, asking if we planned launching any wobbly leg red wine? That started me thinking about the possibility of a range of joke based wines. The possibilities are endless. Let me know if you have any suggestions on my Mrs. McCartney's Wines website or Facebook page. It could be a lot of fun. There is one which they stock in a local Playa del Rey Wine Bar called "Fat Bastard." This has led to some hilarious reactions according to the servers there. One can only imagine.
KFC have some revolutionary new ideas
KFC are experimenting with new soups and sauces recipes which will contain wines and various liquors. Imagine going to a drive through and coming away in danger of a DUI. Imagine trying to explain to the cops, "It was the soup wot did it officer."
The future of tea and wine together?
Fortnum and Mason of London have just informed me that they are now selling silk teabags laced with gin and tonic. That sparks the thought, where might we all go next in this area? How about a nice drop of English Breakfast tea with a smidgin of scotch in it? The possibilities are endless. I'll have to ask our little elves to put some thought into this.
California Wine Country continues to revive after the fires
There are a number of events planned over the coming months in the Napa and Sonoma areas to raise funds to help with the rebuilding of homes and wineries that suffered during the recent fires. If any of my readers would like to know more about how to support them, I suggest you Google "California wine country recovery" which will lead you to several worthy efforts that are being planned.
California's first female winemaker
Josephine Marlin Tychson became California's first female winemaker in 1886, which was originally on the site of Tychson Cellars, and then became Freemark Abbey. She and her husband, John Tychson, a Danish immigrant, moved there to benefit by the climate, as he had suffered from tuberculosis. They began with a horse and a plow. She was only 31 years old at the time.
An old English tradition
In England, in days gone by, a whistle was baked into the rim or handle of ceramic cups used by pub patrons. When customers wanted a refill, they used the whistle to get service. So when people went drinking, they would "wet their whistle." (Or so I'm told).
Sir Robert Scott Haywood
"Compromises are for relationships, not wine."
Wine to New Zealand
I am excited to know that bottles of Mrs. McCartney's Wines are being shipped from Kemah, TX today to a friend in Los Angeles who will be taking them to New Zealand, where it will wind up in a castle that is being converted into an Air B n B. That will hopefully be the start of a new connection, and we all know that Kiwis enjoy a nice tipple. Wish me luck. Bottoms up!
It's all in the mind.
A researcher at Brock University learned that people are willing to pay as much as $2 extra per bottle if he wine has a name that's hard to pronounce, regardless of the taste. And for eight years, an Indonesian man named Rudy Kurniawan earned at least $1.3 on counterfeit wine, just by telling people that his wine was older than it really was.