It might rain..............but it didn't.

Let's start with Pol Roger........

Tools for polo players

There are photographers with big lenses to capture the action

You'll need a string of polo ponies

They come in all colours
 

with strong legs.....

.....and pretty ankles

You'll need boots..............

.............and somewhere to sit

You'll need staff..........

............and some one to hold your mallet...

......and to bring you a fresh horse between chukkas

If you are lucky you'll get a groom with a beautiful smile.

Changing horses between chukkas...

...but sorry no champagne for you, just water.
 

Girls play polo too

A little action on the field....

....and up close

...and winners

Let's not forget the WAGs

And finally at the end of the play the horses get a shower.

And one more  'cos they are both so pretty

Best of the wine blogosphere for November 3rd through November 14th:

• “stormhoek. made In south africa. drunk in west texas.”
• Wine Blogging Wednesday #51: Baked Goods
• Wine Blogging Wednesday #51: Baked Goods
• Wine with a Cause III
• Wine vote carries Obama to victory!
• Wine Blogging Wednesday #51:
• WBW #51 Baked Goods and Madeirized Wine
• It?s Not What You Make, It?s What You Stand For
• Wineries in Social Media
• Kohl?s or Couture?
• Drink Charitably: Twitter Taste Live w/ Humanitas Wines (November 21)
• Domestic Riesling
• November Wine Events (Reminder: WBW #51 is Nigh!)
• A Letter To Steve Heimoff
• Bargain Wine of the Week
• Thanksgiving Wine Under $20: 2008 Picks
• My Problem with Terroirists
• Chateau Montelena Sale Canceled
• Wine Blogging ~ Are Wine Bloggers All Just Writing for Themselves as a Community?
• Thinking Out Loud

Image by Getty Images via Daylife

OK, so I’m trying to insure that the Wine Bloggers’ Conference in Sonoma has good, solid Wi-Fi access.  I’ve spent a decade and a half in the networking industry and the last 8 years designing wireless products so when I setup a conference for 160+ BLOGGERS, i.e. many many laptops in the same room, I have my concerns because of the physical limitations of Wi-Fi.

So the hotel hooks me up with the contact information for their service provider (the Wi-Fi is outsourced which is typical for a hotel).  I send him a message stating exactly my concerns and pointing out that I’ve setup many tradeshow demos as well as conference networks that got hammered by a techie conference.  Here is the email that he sends back to me (understand, I am the hotel’s customer and I am selling out their hotel for this weekend and giving them untold exposure through media the whole weekend).  Is it me or is this dude kinda of a douche?

Dear Sirs-

There are a total of 19 APs interspersed throughout the hotel, not including extra devices occasionally set up by catering.  Depending on the unit, they?ll support from 12-36 users on the wireless (multiple internals).  This has been the design at the Flamingo since its initial design and installation, almost as if we knew what we were doing?

Please inform the users that the codes will be bound to the MAC address of the NIC they use at the time of connection and entry of the code.  They cannot switch computers and use the same code.  The time in contiguous and not broken up to when they are using the connection, ie: 3 hrs ? 9 hrs of 15 minute usage periods.

Also, be aware that the total bandwidth for the Hotel Guests use is 6mb/3mb.  Therefore, this should not be a time for these ?HEAVY internet users? to download all the Richard Simmons or Jane Fonda videos as this type of abuse will naturally hinder the enjoyable experience that such a convention should foster, human dialogue and contact.

I hope that you enjoy your stay at the Flamingo and that all elements of your convention are a total success.

JJ

Maybe its me, I don’t know…

Updated: The hotel worked on the service provider to create a parallel network in the main conference area that will be supported by additional APs on non-adjacent channels and they committed to having staff on hand throughout the entire conference should this network shit the bed.  I feel better about the chances of success.

When people find out that I enjoy cheap wine enough to devote a website to it, they usually ask me if I have been to Trader Joe’s. My response, until last week, has always been “No, not yet”.

Well, I finally caved and took a trip to Detroit, the nearest Trader Joe’s location for me here in Lansing. Ann Arbor might actually be closer, but as an MSU Spartan, I try to stay out of there.

I’d like to preface this review of Charles Shaw Cabernet with a synopsis of Trader Joe’s. If you have one near you, go there. If not for the wine, then for the thousands of food items that pack the small market. I spent 80 dollars, which sounds like a bit much especially for me. I ended up leaving with 2 cases of wine and enough food for a week. Fresh mozzarella, fresh gnocchi, fresh salsa (notice a pattern?), Guacamole chips, Trader Joe’s Marinara, soups, veggies…. I was in heaven. They have got all kinds of cheeses, breads, meats, micro-brewed beers, and their wine selection was out of this world. What a great store!

Trader Joe’s is the exclusive retailer of Charles Shaw Wines, better known to most as “Two-buck Chuck”. In California these wines sell for $1.99, which is just amazing. Here in Michigan, though, the price was $2.99.

Did we like it? Was it worth the trip?

Hell yes it was! For 3 dollars, I don’t think it could have been any better. The Cabernet was great. At first, I found it to be a little sweet, but looking back, I was actually enjoying the salsa with the wine, which probably wasn’t a great combination. Along with the Cab, I also purchased some of the Shiraz, Merlot, and Chardonnay (reviews coming soon).

Congrats to Two-Buck-Chuck and Trader Joe’s for achieving the highest rating available here on Cheap Wine Reviews. Hats off to you!

Rating: 10/10
Price: $2.99
Place of Purchase Trader Joe’s

Visit BusinessWeek.com for an interesting article on wine web sites, including Bottletalk.  There is also a slideshow walking you through seven different wine web sites, explaining how they work and who is behind them.

Marking the first anniversary of the 24 hour drinking licence laws, a 'rescue remedy' called Dink has been released.

It is supposed to mitigate the ill-effects of binge-drinking with ingredients that mop up free radicals produced by the liver when it is processing alcohol. It is also cheap and readily available.

It is being marketed to "people who like to get merry". Presumably because they feel it is unwise to market it to people who like to get smashed out of their skulls every Friday night and throw up partially digested burgers on street corners. I think we know who it is actually aimed at.

I must admit that my first thought was "great idea", sounds so useful. But while I'm no Catholic I do think the pain of hang-overs is justly deserved and should reflect any excess. The sparkle generated by a few drinks with friends too easily degenerates into boorishness  and incapacity beyond a certain point. There are very few elegant drunks.

And aren't we supposed to be cutting down binge drinking, as a society? We need a cultural shift that comes collectively - social evolution if you like, of the kind we've seen with smoking, drink driving and wearing seat belts.

Most Friday-nighters, though by no means all, are young people with their whole lives ahead of them and of course there is a natural protective urge to want them to stay healthy. The price that many of them pay for their excesses can be heart-breaking. Blaming them as being responsible for their own actions is ridiculous if the message they absorb is that getting really drunk and doing stupid things is clever and/or funny.

And now we are giving them the tools to avoid hangovers. I like drinking and sometimes I drink more than I should, but I also know that my body hates it when I do. It's a natural defense mechanism to show us our limits and should not be overlooked as a preventative.

If we no longer have any medical consequences we will push our bodies over the limit as a matter of course. But often the real trauma of binge drinking is the wider physical and emotional damage caused by violence, bravado, promiscuity or recklessness . Can we  develop a pill for that too?   

Wine and Hamburgers - 29 May 2006

The Wine Diet - 29 November 2006

What's New In Cookbooks - 13 June 2008

Wine Varietals: Sangiovese - 26 July 2008

Social Media Friends

Social media is creating quite a long tail of industries - lots of software companies, consultants, new modes of public relations, etc, etc.  Some of them focused on getting you into using social media, which is great, and many of them aspiring to help you “use” social media for your business.  The latter point is what I find interesting.

I’ve spoken on the topic of social media before (with assistance from the self-proclaimed “Bonafide Marketing Genius” Marta Kagan - FYI, I’m glad she has the confidence in herself to tag herself that way b/c she’s one of the few I would actually agree with) and I think the biggest point from my talk and others that I’ve seen (like Marta’s deck) is that this all is an excercise in sociology.  There are so many technologies that one could use, so many things that you could do, but in the end what is happening to the web is just another means of connecting, interacting, and getting to know people; not unlike joining a social club (like a sports team, a cultural center, or whatever).  In fact, just as you have “different circles of friends” offline (work friends, drinking buddies, sports friends), you’ll develop the same thing online and your community will drive you to the tools.

That’s where the idea “use social media” sticks in my craw a little bit.

I’ve had this blog since 2004 and I’ve interacted with many many people thanks to it.  It’s mainly an outlet for my thoughts, creativity, and passion (wine, technology, and marketing) and I’ve made a serious number of friends in the wine industry because of it.  My goal was to do exactly that, get to know people in the wine industry.  One of the major things its taught me though is that the only way to truly understand what this “social media” thing is all about is to get out and do it.  BUT - do it with a genuine desire and understand that its a means to reach out to a community (blog in particular).  Its not a sales tool and its not a PR tool for social media any more then going to a conference is a PR tool for you.  What I mean is you can go to a conference, chat with people, network, find people that you can stay connected with.  If you contribute to the conference (effectively contributing to the ‘community’ that the conference is bringing together) then you can get noticed and in that sense you get some good word-of-mouth publicity.

But here is how to think of “use social media” (Ugh!).  Its a sociological, human based filter.  Its not a broadcast engine like the “information super highway” or the “series of tubes”.  Doesn’t matter what tool/site you use, first and foremost your community has to be on that site and/or using that tool.  There is always a “critical mass” that needs to be achieved before the tool gets useful.  Kind of like a party, its not really fun until there are a bunch of people you know there.

Once your community is there, interacting, chatting, whatever then the dynamics of what happens is facinating.  Things start to get “useful” and the human filter is formed.  It becomes a situation where the community is as close as a bunch of office mates even though they are all over the world.  I literally consider the community I interact with on Twitter my “virtual office mates” and I genuinely like interacting with them.  The reason is that you can contribute (chat, answer questions, and otherwise participate) just like you would any other office.  In the case of Twitter, it becomes just like a hallway conversation in an office.  You can ignore it for a while, pop your head in with a little bit of nothing to say, put out some information or useful tool to the community, or you can put out a serious question to the group and get some solid answers.  Pretty much how you would for any office with cubilcles and hallways.

The best part of all this is that when the community reaches critical mass of people in a certain technology/tool who genuinely like to talk about a particular topic, forming an open community, thats when the best things come out.  If you contribute something to that community that is truly useful, it will get passed on to everyone very quickly.  People will decide if what you said is interesting, show their friends and, if its applicable, their friends may pass on the information to their other “open communities”.  The network effect takes over and your information has just become “viral” (i.e. it will spread not only in the current ‘circle of friends’ but to other ‘circles of friends’).  More importantly, the human filter took over and since that useful piece of information you generated is actually VERY useful, it will get passed on for a while (or very funny, or very interesting in some other way - the latest on Twitter was a streaming video of puppies, not useful, just very Zen).

So if you find an open community or want to know where there is critical mass already for a community you want to learn about (for instance - the wine community is embracing Twitter and Social Networks) on one of these tools the best way to “use social media” (I hate the term because it makes me feel like “use your friends”, but I guess there isn’t a better way to say it) is to contribute in significant ways.  Add to the community but more importantly be YOURSELF.  If people like you, they like you.  If they don’t, guess what…they don’t.  There isn’t alot of advice that can be given there that your parents should’ve taught you before Kindergarten.  Thats the funny truth of this “social media” craze.  The fundamental sociological point is that this is making friends.  Because even if you contribute something that spreads from network to network like wildfire, when those people check you out and “follow you” on Twitter, or Facebook, or whatever, then they start to get to know you in a more personal way then anyone over 25 ever thought possible.  If you’re obviously contributing to promote your business it will come across.  If you genuinely approach this medium (regardless of technology) as “getting to know people” in the way you’ve always done then you’ll not only have that “viral hit” you won’t be an online “one hit wonder”, you’ll have friends who can help you when you’re down, connect you to others, help you build business, get emotionally invested in your brand…. i.e. you’ll be a part of a community and how you do that is something your Mom and Dad shoulda taught you.

FYI - if you’re doing it for a business/brand it doesn’t matter - if people don’t like your personality, they won’t like your brand.  These things have a way of piercing the corporate PR veil.  Want an example?  Supposedly Cisco “gets” blogging.  Read their blogs and you tell me what you think….

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Iggy’s at the Regent Hotel in Singapore is the recipient of quite a bit of hype, with various awards and reviews proclaiming it to be among the best restaurants in Singapore and the world. It seems very few people have anything but good words to say about it. Wednesday the 25th of June saw me visiting this restaurant for the first time.

My expectations were high, but I will be one joining in with the praise for this establishment after my experience. The food we tried was sensational with both classic and surprising combinations of flavours that worked brilliantly together. The service was overall very good and with one or two minor tweaks could have been excellent.

Four courses at lunch (an amuse bouche, two entrees, a main and dessert) was an entirely reasonable $70AUD (including GST and a mandatory 10% service charge) per person plus wine.

The wine;

The list is heavily tilted toward white and red Burgundy, the prices are quite decent for a high quality restaurant. I was impressed when I asked to keep the bottles, they offered to remove the labels if I wished instead, and I was presented with them laminated and in perfect condition at the end of the meal.

Serriger Schloss Saarsteiner Spatlese Riesling 1986 (Mosel-Saar-Ruwer, Germany) - 8% alcohol -
Golden coloured. Initially a bit closed, but as it warmed and shook off the confines of being in bottle for almost 22 years it blossomed beautifully with notes of honey, orange peel, lily petals and minerals. The palate showed fine, detailed acidity to balance the ripe fruit characters. Very good length and balance initially, with the mouth-feel and components coming together even further with time in the glass. Drinking very well now, but will hold for another 5 years.
91/100

Rossignol-Trapet Chambertin Grand Cru 2002 (Burgundy, France) - 13.5% alcohol -
This was decanted for around an hour and a half. Deep ruby red in colour, the nose is expressive and sensual with aromas of red cherry, rose petals, strawberry, light earth and black truffles. The palate shows great finesse and depth. The structure is excellent, with tannins playing their role in the background and acidity giving great freshness to the mouth-feel. There are layers of subtle flavour and complexity to this wine that kept me enthralled with every taste. Delicious and approachable now, but it will get even better over the next 12-15 years.
93/100

The food;

Sweet Corn “Cappuccino” with Chocolate

Sourdough roll with garlic and herb infused olive oil

Charcoal-grilled bonito with white anchovies, mizuna salad, olives and peppers, citrus dressing

Roulade of kurobuta pork belly with red cabbage salad, whole grain mustard dressing

Fresh Burrata mozzarella with vine-ripe tomatoes, basil and extra virgin olive oil

Home-made potato gnocchi with truffle salsa and soft-boiled egg

Classic onion soup served with crusty bread loaf

Braised kurobuta pork cheek with onion confit

Home-made Wagyu beef burger with white truffle sabayon

Confit of duck leg with rosemary potatoes, mesclun

Grand Marnier soufflé with home-made Java vanilla ice cream

Baked chocolate molten cake with Java vanilla ice-cream

Ed Schwartz (napavalleyregister.com) writes:

There is a lot of talk these days about the globalization of wine. Some wine people are up all night tossing and turning, worried about that sometime in the distant future, all wines will taste^? alike, assuming there could ever be such a thing as a "universal" taste.
 
Globalization of wine sets me off in another direction ? the amazing growth of international commerce in wine in this generation. Not that international wine trade is something new. The Greeks, as in many things, did a wonderful job 2,000 years ago planting vines and spreading wine culture. The Greek trade in wine was surprisingly extensive. There was a system of appellations to ensure the origin of the best wines so that customers of Greek wines knew where the wine came from. Large stores of wine traveled wherever Greek ships traveled ? and that was all over the known world. We even know from ancient records where the best wines came from. So, the Greeks developed the kind of Epicurean consciousness that is now also part of the modern wine mind.
 
I've always believed that this globalization, or internationalization of wine has caused great competition, which is always good for the development of wine and our wine industry.
 
...
 
One notable example ? the wines of Italy. Not so long ago, most United States wine consumers thought of Italian wines as the rather rough, thin inexpensive wines in straw flasks with the Chianti on the label. Now, what has happened in Italy has been phenomenal and not just in Tuscany. Today, a top level wine merchant will have well over 200 Italian red wines ranging from excellent Falesco wines under $10 to a line of highly regarded wines from Gaja, some of which command prices close to $300 a bottle.
 
Today, fine Italian wines are not restricted to the Northern districts. Excellent wines are being enjoyed from Sicily to Puglia, Campania and points south. Italian grape varietals^? that in the past "got no respect" are now flourishing stars under new and expert hands ? Nero^? d'Avola and Sagrantino are just two examples.

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Tags: melgab, wine, italian, globalisation, wine making, south-africa, South Africa