My Wine Education

Welcome & Thanks!

I wanted to say thank you  - both to Liquor Direct and to my readers. Everyone made this weekend's tastings a rousing success!  It was great to meet many of you! I had such a blast. I wish I do that all the time. I'd give up my "real" job in a heartbeat.

I also wanted to say Welcome! to anyone who is dropping by to read the blog because they discovered it at this weekend's tastings. It's good to have you! I don't post everyday, but I try to post fairly often. I also don't always review wine, but sometimes offer reviews of local restaurants, as well as news about local wineries and restaurants. Always think local and eat local!  You can learn more about me and my husband Kevin here. Thanks for dropping by!

Featured Cincinnati Wine Events 9/26 - 10/2

I can't believe that next week is October. Admittedly, I'm glad autumn is here. Despite a fairly awful autumn for us on a personal level last year, it's still my favorite season.

Andy's Mediterranean Grill is celebrating their expansion on Tuesday, so head on over for $.50 beer, $1 wine tasting (4 wines), and $2 martinis. I suppose everyone is recovering from Oktoberfest and other festivities as this week there are no other wine dinners or special events that I'm aware of. If you know of anything, kindly post the information in the comments for all to see.

If you haven't made it out to Bethel to Harmony Hill, this is your last weekend until spring. It's a beautiful weekend to pack a picnic, purchase a bottle of their wine, and have a seat on their lovely patio and listen to acoustic music. It's a great way to welcome in fall!

If you don't feel like traveling out to Bethel, however, check our calendar for regular tasting events at the local retailers. Wine CART in West Chester often has weeknight specials and themes (such as blind tastings on Tuesdays) and other local stores have wine bars open throughout the week, such as the Wine Merchant in Hyde Park.

The weekends are chock-full with our regular suspects, including Dilly Deli, Party Town, Jungle Jim's, Party Source (although I believe they're mostly sold out of EQ classes this weekend), Little Sonoma, and more. And of course, don't miss Tim & I as we host tastings at Liquor Direct today and tomorrow. We'd love to see you!

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

Local Wine Tasting Event Calendar

Friday Interactive Wine Tasting Map

Saturday Interactive Wine Tasting Map

This week's image of Sharon Woods is used under a Creative Commons license from Flickr user **CRT**.

Sometimes the label really matters

I've seen this story picked up in a few different places, and was rather surprised when it made it to the UK's Decanter.com, but it still makes me chuckle.

Palin Syrah is a South American Syrah from the boutique winery named Palin (pronounced Pay-leen in this case) and named for a Chilean hockey puck.

image from appellation wine & spirits

image from Flickr user NewsHour

It seems to be provoking interesting reactions. At Yield wine bar in rather liberal San Francisco, the once popular wine has plummeted in sales. The owner has started to ask customers to write their own description of the wine:

Recent popular descriptors include 'moosemeat', 'gunpowder' and 'hockey mom' – all words associated Sarah Palin.

According to Decanter and Fox News, however, sales of the wine are doing quite well in more conservative Houston, where the wine has been flying off the shelves.

The wine, by the way, is supposedly a good value organic wine, coming in around $12.99 and tasting of "white pepper and madrone."

It's tempting to see if Liquor Direct carries this wine. I could put it on the table just to conduct a psychological experiment. How many people would be more intrigued by the wine because it sounds so much like Sarah Palin, and how many folks would be extremely unhappy? Wouldn't it be interesting? (Don't worry - I'm not going to bring politics to the tasting table. I'm just intrigued by the idea.)

Come Taste with us (for FREE) this weekend!

There's a really cool thing happening over some upcoming weekends at Liquor Direct. The tastings will be "hosted" by your local wine bloggers. This weekend you can drink wines chosen by myself and Tim of CheapWineRatings.com. Oct 10 and 11 you can try wines from Mike at The Naked Vine and Jonathon of BestDrinkEver.net.

I'll be at the Covington location from 4-8 pm on Friday and at the Ft Thomas location from 2-6 pm on Saturday. Tim is at the opposite location from me. Tim is organized and is presenting value wines from Southern France, including a couple whites and a few Côtes du Rhône reds. I am not one to pick a theme, so it's more of "Michelle's Favorite Wines of the Moment." Yeah, I know, but I really tried to span a wide spectrum of wines. Did I mention the tastings are FREE? Come join us!

If you haven't been to Liquor Direct, this is a great chance to pop by either (or both) locations. I often tell people it's the best-kept secret in the city - especially the Covington store. If you come to Covington, it looks like a dive on the outside. Inside, however, is a treasure trove of wines at amazing prices with an incredibly knowledgeable staff, all very willing to help you out or recommend a wine. The Ft Thomas store has a much classier appearance with the same helpful staff and selection. Oddly, the Covington store is my favorite.

Here are a few notes on the wines I finally settled on presenting. Remember, these are just some of my favorite wines at the moment. I figure if you have my tasting notes ahead of time, you might understand a little bit of where I'm coming from. Enjoy, and we hope to see you at both locations on Friday and/or Saturday!

Tasting notes after the jump.

Burnet Ridge in Kentucky

Or rather, not so much.

There are a lot of folks out there who love Burnet Ridge wines. If any of you are in Kentucky, buy up now. I had two retailers tell me over the weekend that what you see on the shelves is the last. Burnet Ridge will no longer be distributed in Kentucky. Whether this is the winemaker's decision, or the distributor's, I'm not sure.

If you're just in Northern Kentucky, you can still get your Burnet Ridge fix by crossing the river into Ohio.

Burnet Ridge has released a new wine, Lou’s American Red NV, which you can find locally at Liquor Direct and Cork and Bottle. Kentucky jumped on this wine, perhaps because it's named for wine rep Lou Schnier. Ryan at Cork and Bottle told me they purchased 30 cases and Kevin at Liquor Direct blogged that they purchased 40 cases. There were only 100 cases made, so go try Lou's Red and see what you think.

Featured Cincinnati Wine Events 9/19 - 9/25

Isn't this just the cutest thing ever? It's positively ridiculous how taken I was by these dachshunds, dressed as hot dogs, running their races on Fountain Square Friday afternoon. These, um, hot dog races were just a run-up to the big event this weekend: Oktoberfest. I could tell you all the fun and beer-related reasons to go to Oktoberfest. But why? The guys over at Buy Cincy did a great post on it, so I defer to them.

Saturday night offers an event for post-Oktoberfest revelry or as an alternative to all that beer: the Wine Over Water event on the Purple People Bridge. Beautiful weather, the bridge and water, and wine. How can it get better?

Not up for Oktoberfest or football, but feeling girly? Debba of Girlfriendology and my favorite ladies over at Tino Vino have just the event for you. Girlfriendology is sponsoring a wine tasting at Tino Vino that includes bottling your own wine (with special girlfriend label) as well as snacks, wine and fun activities for women. Why? It's in celebration of National Women's Friendship Day. RSVP soon though.

The week itself is rather light, so I encourage you to visit your local retailers, such as Dilly Deli, Jungle Jim's, Liquor Direct, Party Town, Little Sonoma, Market Wines, Party Source, and so many others. They all run regular tastings all weekend and throughout the week. For information on the retailer nearest to you, visit our always available wine tasting calendar.

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

Local Wine Tasting Event Calendar

Friday Interactive Wine Tasting Map

Saturday Interactive Wine Tasting Map

Featured events follow. Tell the retailers we sent you, and have a great weekend!

What are you doing tonite?

I had planned on promoting this event much earlier than, well, today. However, lack of power and internet this week sort of got in my way.

That said, it's not too late to RSVP or even just show up. The Bacchanalian Society, that crazy wine tasting event held each quarter, is being held tonite on Fountain Square.

I'm excited about this one. It's a beautiful day and Fountain Square is such a nifty place anymore.

More than just a party, the event will benefit Fountain Square Management Group. FSMG is a nonprofit organization that depends on sponsorship and private donations to produce hundreds of events on the Square each year, from the music series, movies, and the market to wacky one-off events like the Fish Toss, Broomball League, Cinciditarod, and the coney eating contest.

Suggested donation is $10 per person in advance or $15 at the door. Your donation gets you admission to the event, wine tasting, DJ entertainment, and appetizers provided by BlackFinn.

Kevin and I are part of the host committee this time around, so we'll be there someplace, whether keeping you from stumbling into a truck on Vine Street or putting wines on tables. Search us out and say hi! You might even find me at McCormick & Schmick's excellent Happy Hour before the event.

There are, of course, rules to the game, which you can find after the jump.

And then came the wind ...

I want to send out my best wishes that everyone made it through the storm alright.

I'm posting this from my mobile, which is nifty but not my preferred method of posting. So the blog might be a bit quiet until we have Internet services again.

A freak windstorm. Who knew?

Huge Thanks! (or here's what you missed)

I want to thank everyone who came to the wine tasting event last night. We raised $1100 in donations for the scholarship fund. That includes those of you who made it the event and those of you who kindly donated because you couldn't.

We've broken the $10,000 mark for the scholarship in our first year. We have three years to raise $25,000 so I know we'll be able to pull that off.

If you couldn't make it to The Party Source last night, here's what you missed:

Jay Erisman led a great session last night, focusing on Up and Coming French Wines and Winemakers. I think everyone learned a little something new. The wines, of course, were pretty amazing.

We started out with a white, which I didn't write down. Hopefully Jay will post a comment letting us know. It was a full and wonderful French white, but I was off taking photos and didn't get the information.  The official evening included six French reds, reviewed after the jump.

Last Call

Today is your last opportunity to register for the charity wine tasting. Remember, we established the scholarship fund in memory of my younger sister Krystal, who passed away last October. 100% of the proceeds benefit the scholarship.

I will be taking the registration page down tomorrow morning in order to give Party Source a hard number, and I am not legally permitted to collect money on their premises. Therefore, if you still want to register, or wanted to tell other folks about it, this is your last chance.

There are 8 seats left - if we sell out, we'll hit our goal for the year. This is our last fundraiser until next April!

Please let me know if you have any questions. You can register at http://www.klpscholarship.org. If you don't want to use Google Checkout, please email me and we'll arrange an alternative method of payment. :-)

Thanks, and I hope to see you tomorrow night!