My Wine Education

Shaken, not Stirred, and with Just a Bit of Bubbles

This is a silly post, to be quite frank. I'm swamped through Thursday, as I was last week, but I really wanted to share this particular silliness.

According to this Decanter.com article, Bollinger and Taittinger are each laying claim to James Bond. Taittinger, the favorite of Bond creator Ian Fleming, was used throughout the books. Bollinger was used on-screen starting in 1979. Unfortunatly, a Bond girl had a drink of poisoned Taittinger in a previous flick, and Taittinger removed its involvement from that point.

Despite the poisoning, book, and movie appearances, Taittinger and Bollinger have each hosted special events in London this year commemorating the 100th birthday of Ian Fleming.

I suppose they are now pouring Bollinger with the new blonde Bond. I'll probably even pay attention the next time. In fact, after watching the little clip below, I never realized how overtly they advertised the Champagne.

Featured Cincinnati Wine Events: 4/25 - 5/1

Spring is here! Hooray! It took long enough, it seems. I've been so wrapped up in real-world-work that I haven't had time to enjoy it yet.

As I will each week, I've spotlighted a few events that tickle my fancy. This week there are two in particular I want to point out. The first is Cork and Bottle and it's free. Yay! Free! Representatives from Robert Kracher Selections, a great portfolio of French and Argentinian wines, will be leading the tastings on Saturday. This is a great opportunity to taste some quality wines at no cost.

Next, the Midwest Culinary Institute is having their One Night, Twelve Kitchens event on Sunday. I find out about this too late every year. While regular tickets are sold out, you can still get VIP tickets, which entitles you to hobnob with the 12 chefs and the like.

For the full list of Cincinnati tastings, refer to our Google Calendar on this page. For information on what's going on in Dayton, you can refer to Mark's blog at Uncorked.

Tell the retailers we sent you, and happy tasting!

The Friday image this week is one I took. Yay!

Friday Interactive Wine Tasting Map

Saturday Interactive Wine Tasting Map

Cheers!

Featured Events

Friday, April 25
American Cooking
The Taft Museum
316 Pike Street
Cincinnati, OH 45202
513-241-0343
Mark Bowers demonstrates dishes inspired by the American landscape. Food accompanied by wine and coffee.
2:30 - 4:30 pm, $25
Reservations required.

Saturday, April 26
Robert Kacher Portfolio Tastings
Cork and Bottle
Two locations:
501 Crescent Ave, Covington, KY 41011
859.261.8333
2446 Anderson Rd (Buttermilk Pike location),
Crescent Springs, KY 41017
859.341.9600
1-5 pm, FREE

Lobsta Bake
Microwines
7292 Kenwood Road
Cincinnati, OH 45236
513-794-9463
1 pm, $80
Reservations required.

Sunday, April 27
One Night, 12 Kitchens
Midwest Culinary Institute 
3250 Central Parkway
Cincinnati, OH 45223
513-562-2777
Wine and food sampling and kitchen tours. VIP includes exclusive culinary stations and private meet and greet with chefs. Benefits the Cincinnati State College Foundation culinary scholarships.
6:00 - 9 pm, $150/VIP tix. Regular tix sold out.
Reservations required.

Wednesday, April 30
Stelzner Vineyards Spotlight with Tim Dolven, winemaker 
Microwines
7292 Kenwood Road
Cincinnati, OH 45236
513-794-9463
6:30-8 pm, $25
Reservations required.

Thursday, May 1
The Art of Entertaining
Spanish Tapas & Wines
Vine N Dine Series. with Chateau Pomije
2019 Madison Road
Cincinnati, OH 45208
859.871.5170
Reservations required.
$68.00/pp

Tags:Cincinnati Wine, Cincinnati, Cincinnati Wine Events, Cincinnati Wine Tastings, Cincinnati Wine Dinners, Wine Tastings 

Featured Cincinnati Wine Events, 4/18 - 4/24

I can't even express how much easier things are now that I'm just maintaining the Google calendar. I add things to it almost everyday, so make sure you check it often.

As I will each week, I've spotlighted a few events that tickle my fancy. There aren't that many special events this week. However, the fine folks at Little Sonoma are keeping themselves busy with wine dinners two nights in a row on Tuesday and Wednesday. If you're in the West Chester area, these are definitely worth checking out! For information on what's going on in Dayton, you can refer to Mark's blog at Uncorked.

For the full list of tastings, refer to our Google Calendar on this page.

Tell them we sent you, and happy tasting!

As usual, the Friday image is from Cincy Images.

Friday Interactive Wine Tasting Map

Saturday Interactive Wine Tasting Map

Cheers!

Featured Events

Friday, April 18
Grappa Tasting with Grappa Master Jacobo Poli
The Party Source
95 Riviera Drive
Bellevue, KY
6-8 pm, $20/pp
Reservations required.

Bremerton Winery Spotlight with Lucy Williams, winemaker
Microwines
7292 Kenwood Road
Cincinnati, OH 45236
513-794-9463
6:30-8 pm, $25
Reservations required.

Tuesday, April 22
Wine Dinner at The Savannah Center, with Master Sommelier Matthew Citriglia
Sponsored by Little Sonoma
5533 Chappell Crossing Blvd
West Chester, OH 45069
This evening features hors oeuvres and a three course dinner featuring a blind tasting comparing French Bordeaux versus California Cabernet.
6:30 - 9 pm, $75/pp
Reservations are required and may be made by calling Toni Sander at the Savannah Center 513-977-5942. Let them know you’re a Little Sonoma customer when you call.

Wednesday, April 23
Wine Dinner @ Guenther's Steak & Seafood House
Sponsored by Little Sonoma
7886 Cincinnati-Dayton Road
West Chester, OH 45069
513-777-8880
7-9 pm, $40 plus tax and gratuity
Reservations required.

Technorati tags:Cincinnati Wine, Cincinnati, Cincinnati Wine Events, Cincinnati Wine Tastings, Cincinnati Wine Dinners, Wine Tastings 

Two Million Bottles of Beer on the Wall, Two Million Bottles of Beer

Just spotted on WCPO.com:

Thursday is a big day for Hofbrauhaus Newport.
The brewery is set to pour its two-millionth liter of beer Thursday night.
The brewery opened at Newport on the Levee in April of 2003.
After numerous calculations, the brewery's manager anticipates the special liter to be poured sometime between 7:00 and 10:00 p.m.
The brewery said whoever buys the special liter will receive a gift basket full of various prizes.

Yay for HofbrauHaus! I'm a big fan of the Bier Cheese and Pretzels, you know.

Earth Day: Design Your Own Bag

This isn't wine related, per se, but I think we can loosely tie it to food, and definitely tie it to Earth Day on Saturday.

Have you noticed (or purchased) an eco-friendly shopping bag from your local grocery store?  I know we've purchased some from both Kroger & Remke's. We even bought holiday themed ones at Christmas and wrapped our gifts in them. Of course, although Kevin & I love the idea of these bags, it doesn't mean we're not constantly forgetting them either at home or in the car.

Kroger is launching a "green" initiative online. You can design your own reusable shopping bag in a new contest. If your bag design wins based on online votes, you could win a $500 gift certificate to Kroger. In addition, if you submit your Kroger plus card number when you submit your design, you'll receive a free reusable bag the next time you visit a store.

Find some free time today and design a bag! The more bag designs the better - and happy Earth Day this weekend!

Tryvertising and Wine

One of the awesome things about Twitter is that it's a great link-sharing tool. Kevin, from Strategic Public Relations, found this awesome tidbit and immediately shared it on Twitter. Now I'm bringing it to you.

In Paris, you can now sample wine as you might sample perfume. In fact, the packaging is eerily similar. The trend of letting a consumer try-before-they-buy is called Tryvertising (the Apple Store is a giant example of this), and why shouldn't it be applied to wine?

In spirit, it's no different than attending a free tasting in a wine shop. I've also read of other wine shops where you can purchase samples from fancy machines, which is a great way to try that wine you could never afford to purchase. These tube-shaped bottles, because they factor in the look and feel of packaging, take the concept to a whole new level.

WineSide offers both sweet and classic wines in patented, flat-base glass tubes with screw tops carefully engineered to protect the wines' flavour. The sweet wines—which include Sauternes and Muscat, for example—are available in 6cl tubes, while the Pomerol, Chateau Neuf du Pape and other classic wines can be purchased in 6cl or 10cl sizes. WineSide's collection represents a range of appellations and producers; tubes are available individually or by the box, which can be chosen to provide an introduction to a variety, year or region. Kicking off retail sales, the products are available exclusively at Colette in Paris this month.

I rather like this as something I could take home with me, try it when I want, and return later to purchase a bottle. If I were a large conglomerate, such as Constellation Group, I'd jump on this to market many of my wines, across wineries, at one time.

Let's Twist Again

It’s about time.

Years ago, I frequented The Swing Lounge on Main Street in Over-the-Rhine. It was a classy place, with a central bar, a dance floor, rounded booths, and pool tables. But bars come and go, and The Swing Lounge closed. Since then, I haven’t been able to find a bar that has that same level of sophistication. Since then, styles have changed a bit and the cool retro is now ‘60s martinis instead of ‘40s swing. And my new Swing Lounge is called Twist, owned by The Jean-Robert Restaurant Group, and located on 4^th Street, next door to Pigall’s.

Twist definitely pulls some of its ambiance from Shag’s 60’s. But there’s also a cosmopolitan feel to the place – perhaps brought from the gorgeous chandeliers of flowers, imported from Paris and hanging near both the front and back of the club. I didn’t get his name, but I was impressed with the dj. He mashed up familiar tunes with some House, creating something unfamiliar but approachable. It was a truly eclectic mix.

We arrived a little before midnight on a Saturday night. While it was busy, you could still move through the place without too much issue. As it got a little later, the crowd thinned and Twist was filled with beautiful people in beautiful clothes. My friend asked me, “Do they even let ugly people in here?”  I realized that the patrons spanned all races and ages, placing me squarely in the middle of the age range. As the clocked ticked down the hours until closing, we watched the club progress from a bit of a meat market to a much more relaxed atmosphere.

Cincinnati Wine Events: 4/11 - 4/17

We've made a change.

To be quite honest, manually typing out (even with a lot of cutting and pasting) the wine events each week was killing me. I just didn't have the time. So I started looking for an alternative. After a lot of overcomplicated solutions, I came back to Ol' Reliable: Google Calendar.

I embedded the calendar, in agenda format, on this page on the site. You can ALWAYS reach this page! Yay! With this calendar, not only can you view the next week, but as far as I've posted events (currently through June).  Not only that, they are still printable. You can choose to print the One-Time Events or the Recurring Events, with a specified date range. 

For information on Dayton, you can refer to Mark's blog at Uncorked.

So I direct you HERE to view the calendar listing for the week. (You can always view this calendar by clicking the Calendar link in the left column.)

That said, I'll still pull out a few *special* events each week that I think are neat or for a good cause. From now on, you can check the calendar page whenever you  want (yay!) and I'll feature a few events each week. Let's get started!

This week's image is from Cincy Images.

Featured Events, 4/11 - 4/17

Apr 11
Let it Breathe
Cystic Fibrosis Foundation's fifth annual wine tasting.
Voltage Furniture Showroom
3209 Madison Avenue - Oakley
RSVP online at Cincinnati.cff.org
6:30pm - Midnight, $50

April 12
WCET Action Auction Wine Night!
Channel 48/PBS on your TV
You can get some great deals on wine and help a good cause! You can also watch Kevin & I as auctioneers, if you're really bored. Read more here.

20 Brix
101 Main Street
Milford, OH 45150
513.831.2749
Syrah Class with Master Sommelier Ron Edwards
2-4 pm, $45
Reservations recommended.

April 16
Cincinnati Zoo: Wild About Wine
3400 Vine St.
Cincinnati, OH 45220
513-559-7759
Tasting, behind-the-scenes exhibit tours, silent auction, appetizers and music.
Benefits Zoo's Lindner Center for Conservation and Research of Endangered Wildlife.
6–8 pm, $30, $25 advance

April 17
Dilly Deli
McCrea Wine Dinner
6818 Wooster Pike
Mariemont, OH 45227
6:30 pm, $75/pp

Win a Wine Cellar

It must be charity season. I got this in my email today and thought I'd share:

Win a Wine Cellar IX, is a raffle to benefit programs such as Camp Wekandu, a summer residential camp for children and teens with juvenile arthritis and related illnesses.  Prizes consist of three fabulous packages of wine and consolation prizes, for a total of twenty-three lucky winners.  Tickets are $40 each or three for $100.  The lucky winners will be drawn on May 15, 2008. To print an order form or find out details on prizes and contest rules, please visit our web page at www.winawinecellar.org  or call 513-636-7689.

I checked the web site. It does not mean someone will come to your house and build a wine cellar for you. (That was my first thought.) It does mean you can win enough wine that you'll need a wine cellar built for you!

Here's a little more info:       

Going Once, Going Twice, Sold!

I know I've been hard to find lately. I've been swamped with work (still am) and out of town for business. It's worth noting that I'm out of town this Friday too - for bourbon and horses though, not business.

I will, however, be back on Saturday night. Along with Kevin, Jesse from Liquor Direct, Jay from Party Source, and possibly Bryant from Chalk, I'll be auctioning off a lot of wine packages for the WCET Action Auction. Saturday night is Wine Night at the Action Auction.

When I was a kid, the Action Auction was a big deal. (Maybe because Sesame Street was replaced by the auction.) Needless to say, it's still a big deal.

Money from the auction goes to support WCET, our local PBS station. PBS, just like NPR and other public broadcasting stations, are funded with support from listeners and viewers. Do you give to fantastic radio stations like WNKU and WVXU? Well, take a moment and give to WCET - except that you get to bid on wine!

On Friday, WCET will post a complete list of everything they will be auctioning off on Saturday night. Take a look at it and see what you think.

At the very least, tune in to see those extra 10 pounds the camera will add to my frame and watch me stumble through the auctioneering process. (Remember, I'm not THAT fat. It's the camera.)  While you're laughing at with me, don't forget to bid on some wine for a great cause.

Saturday Night
WCET on your TV: Insight Ch 13, Time Warner Ch 8, Network Ch 48
7-11 pm