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25167. magoseph - 3/9/2009 1:00:45 AM Spring forward...Fall backward! This year, I have no clock handles to advance. 25168. alistairConnor - 3/9/2009 1:08:29 AM It's another three weeks before l'heure d'été in France. 25169. magoseph - 3/10/2009 9:50:04 AM Happy birthday, goodwinejoe! 25170. judithathome - 3/11/2009 8:09:20 PM And a very Happy Birthday to YOU, Magos! You may be a year older but like fine wine, just keep improving with age.
Is it still too cold out to have a night out on the town in celebration? 25171. magoseph - 3/12/2009 3:39:07 AM Thanks, Judith--yes, weather is vicious--we're getting the end of what's happening now in Minnesota. 25172. magoseph - 3/13/2009 6:11:03 PM Is the Mote Café going to stay open only until your story in Mote Fiction is finished, Ali? 25173. judithathome - 3/13/2009 6:37:29 PM Had to cancel my hair cut today...I am still weak as a cat from the food poisoning that hit me Sunday. 25174. alistairConnor - 3/13/2009 11:10:36 PM Well, what do you think Mago? Am I scaring away the trade?
I need to accelerate the pace. And finish the damn thing. Then they will come back... 25175. alistairConnor - 3/13/2009 11:12:24 PM Take care Judith... 25176. alistairConnor - 3/16/2009 4:17:21 AM Well! That'll surely bring them back...
... or drive them away... 25177. judithathome - 3/16/2009 4:31:15 AM Who, exacrly, is them?
Went out tonight for the first time this week...to an Italian restaurant. Excellent spaghetti with alio/aglio sauce and spinach/mushroom mix.
Alistair, we had a South African red...a Cabernet Sauvignon/Shiraz blend 2002...it was delicious. I made a joke about it's being an "apartied" wine. Not very funny to anyone but me but the label sounded very "Boer-ish". 25178. judithathome - 3/16/2009 4:32:34 AM "exactly"...too much of that excellent vino, evidently. 25179. magoseph - 3/16/2009 1:27:13 PM Well, what do you think Mago? Am I scaring away the trade?
Ali, that's not what I mean--I'm very afraid that you're about to close The Mote and you'll forget me. I can't have a chagrin d'amour just now--je me fais vielle, tu sais.
25180. alistairconnor - 3/16/2009 4:19:22 PM Ne t'en fais pas Mago! The site is not going away! It's being hosted from New Zealand, and I gave the host three dozen fine (organic French) wines in January, that'll pay the rent for a little while... We won't let you down. It just gets a bit slow sometimes... it's happened before, it'll happen again. 25181. magoseph - 3/20/2009 1:59:26 PM Ali, ask me anything. 25182. alistairconnor - 3/20/2009 3:37:05 PM I'm missing all that excellent wine I was drinking in NZ over the Christmas holidays...
The stuff I drink at home is often relatively rough and rustic, I don't have much of a budget for it.
My girlfriend bought some champagne the other day, we drank one, and she's put the other five in the fridge for storage... baaad idea I told her... we get bad when we drink... et on n'a pas les moyens de faire ça tous les jours!
I guess you're not drinking much wine these days Mago? What do you drink when you have the choice?
25183. magoseph - 3/20/2009 4:15:09 PM I drink Grand Marnier on ice in a Art Deco Lalique glass given by one of my most ardent admirers, Ali. If one of my loved ones sees me holding the drink, he’s gone instantly. 25184. judithathome - 3/20/2009 4:30:38 PM We had a good blend last week...a South African Cab/Shiraz blend. Can't recall the name but it sounded very Dutch...I referred to it as Boer vino. 25185. alistairconnor - 3/20/2009 4:44:34 PM Cabernet/Shiraz is awfully infra dig in France, as the varieties come from different regions... bordeaux and rhone valley respectively, and never the twain shall meet. One of my favourites among the wines I exported to NZ was, precisely, a Cab/Shiraz, "vin de pays" because it doesn't conform to any "AOC" standard... the maker doesn't give a shit, he just loves to make good wine. A couple of months ago I saw a couple of bottles of his wine on a shelf in an organic shop... I pounced on it, looked at the price, and protested to the management that there must be a mistake... it was sold for 3 euros 50 or thereabouts. It would be a bargain at three times the price.
One sad thing I noted in NZ : Unfortunately, in the last couple of years, popular taste has turned towards sugary wines. They are literally making them sweeter, to enlarge the market to include people who don't like wine, I guess.
In France, wine drinking is in steep decline, at least by quantity. Probably the majority of "young" people (under 30?) don't drink wine at all. 25186. judithathome - 3/20/2009 5:54:22 PM When they drink, they drink sugary sweet concoctions...we know some under 30s and they drink wine but it is always some sweet crap we can't abide. We did turn one girl on to Shiraz, though.
I hope you're sitting down, AC, because I'm about to tell you what we got as a "gift" this week for watching a neighbor's house while she was out of town: a bottle of muscadine. Called Miss Scarlett.
Now we had some excellent muscadine at Arky's last year...it was home-made and smooth as velvet. But this Miss Scarlet isn't in the same bracket, I'm almost certain. We're going to take it to Arky's in August for comparison...
I've noticed a trend for the last 2 years from all our guests; they bring "hostess gifts" of white wine. Now everyone we know well enough to have over for dinner KNOWS we drink nothing but reds and yet, we end up with an entire rack of whites. I suspect "re-gifting" is at work here.
The funny thing is, when I offer to open the whites they just brought, they say "No, no, that's a GIFT for YOU!" and drink all our red stuff. Go figure.
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