coynedj wrote:You are hereby invited to the Minnesota Woot gathering on March 22.

In Minneapolis.

God, what a great wine town. Very knowledgeable and cosmopolitan. Unfortunately I am in a barbershop quartet contest in Lodi that day, but send me some contact info to clark@winemaking411.com and I'll let you know when I'm in the area.

Travels I know about: New Mexico and Miami in April; Ohio, Philly, Boston and Nova Scotia in July. Book tours all summer all over. Will pack my guitar. Anybody want to hook up?

tdedek wrote:We were always paying tax before, but it was built into the price. Now they have lowered the price slightly and charge separate tax so everyone only pays their due share instead of non tax or low tax states covering for the states that have higher tax rates.

interesting.. when did all this go down? i have purchases just a couple weeks ago that didn't show any tax..

thanks for the info..

Fellow enablers... Due to the overwhelming response from the winemaker and glowing comments from Scott Harvey, Petite s. and all others, I pushed the big yellow button... In for 1... I hope you guys are right......

deecue wrote:interesting.. when did all this go down? i have purchases just a couple weeks ago that didn't show any tax..

thanks for the info..

It was a dark and stormy night...February 22, 2013,...when a dastardly deed was sprung on an unsuspecting public.

InFrom wrote:It was a dark and stormy night...February 22, 2013,...when a dastardly deed was sprung on an unsuspecting public.

thanks for the link! interesting discussion..

much appreciated!

winesmith wrote:God, what a great wine town. Very knowledgeable and cosmopolitan. Unfortunately I am in a barbershop quartet contest in Lodi that day, but send me some contact info to clark@winemaking411.com and I'll let you know when I'm in the area.

Travels I know about: New Mexico and Miami in April; Ohio, Philly, Boston and Nova Scotia in July. Book tours all summer all over. Will pack my guitar. Anybody want to hook up?

Our Ohio group might be able to try and throw something together for July! I'm actually in Toledo, but most are in the Cleveland area.

North316 wrote:Our Ohio group might be able to try and throw something together for July! I'm actually in Toledo, but most are in the Cleveland area.

Near Cleveland is where I'll be for about a week following July 13th. Let's do it.

Great comments and SPEBQSA?

Had to buy a few.

winesmith wrote:God, what a great wine town. Very knowledgeable and cosmopolitan. Unfortunately I am in a barbershop quartet contest in Lodi that day, but send me some contact info to clark@winemaking411.com and I'll let you know when I'm in the area.

Travels I know about: New Mexico and Miami in April; Ohio, Philly, Boston and Nova Scotia in July. Book tours all summer all over. Will pack my guitar. Anybody want to hook up?

I can meet you in Miami. Will you be at a B&N signing autographs? If I buy your book, would you sign one of my bottles? I'll take an autographed book, too!

I pulled the trigger. I'm in for 2. Now to do some more wine shopping...*sigh*

winesmith wrote:A tough question. Many winemakers like to bottle whites and roses with slightly elevated subliminal levels of CO2, which is an acid and gives a tingle. Minerality doesn't really occur on the sides of the tongue, but we would need to taste together to be sure. (We should do that!) But this Chardonnay has low CO2, so you'll have one example that's clear cut.

It's only an acid when it dissolves in water or aqueous solutions, because some of it becomes carbonic acid :-) (in larger quantities under pressure, it's called carbonation)

mibuwolf83 wrote:I can meet you in Miami. Will you be at a B&N signing autographs? If I buy your book, would you sign one of my bottles? I'll take an autographed book, too!

Unfortunately the book won't be out til June, but we are doing some pretty interesting things at Florida International University (where I'm a Professor) right around May 1st. In particular, you must not miss the Wine and Music seminar I'll give. Anybody that wants to send me their email address I can put on the mailing list for this event at the newly established Florida Wine Academy, or you can just check the website at http://bit.ly/wuECmx. We'll be setting the exact date later this week.

I come to FIU several times a year, and we'll hook up. The book will also be for sale on winemaking411.com and I can sign a copy you purchase there.

neilfindswine wrote:I had no idea you were a barbershopper.... (I was too back in my SoCal days...)

Let's just say that whether it's wine or music, I'm really into creating ringing harmony. You guys let me know how I'm doing when you pop those corks.

tytiger58 wrote:If your coming over on the 30th I will split mine with you.

Sounds perfect. Thanks.

losthighwayz wrote:I recall that recently Kyle and a few others commented on their dislike for wax for various reasons, among them making the bottle difficult to open. I agree completely. I find these enclosures visually offensive, difficult to handle, and as merely a marketing scheme..IMO they do not add anything to the wine though I may be wrong...

I have a couple of bottles of PS I'm planning on drinking on my deathbed (next tuesday probably), that are dipped in wax and I think they look great. Does the wax do anything? I have no clue, but I adore the look.

ddeuddeg wrote:I've started to get funny looks at both the FedEx and UPS locations.

try wearing pants next time

bhodilee wrote:I have a couple of bottles of PS I'm planning on drinking on my deathbed (next tuesday probably), that are dipped in wax and I think they look great. Does the wax do anything? I have no clue, but I adore the look.

Not really, apart from keeping dirt off the cork and discouraging cork borer beetles from burrowing into your wine, which does happen. I personally do not care for the naked look, because it's not so easy to tell if some clerk spilled soap, rat poison or bug killer on the outside surface of the cork and bottle lip. But there's no oxygen seal or anything like that.

4 pages of comments and not sold out? Whats going on wooters? just chatting today?

winesmith wrote:Yeah, okay, I hear you, guys. The thing is, I love this bowling pin bottle, and its top is so fat that nobody sells capsules for it. I personally like the had-dipped appearance that signals a small lot production.

Frankly, I don't think there's a winemaker left on the planet who wouldn't prefer to put everything in screwcaps. I took this wine to a consulting gig with 30 winemakers in Australia, and they didn't have a single corkscrew between them. Some of the younger ones didn't even know what is was.

However, with all the heat I get as a wine technology guy, this ultra-traditional look seemed a better idea at the time. Now that I'm among friends (you guys), I suppose I could relax.

Is there anybody out there who actually likes the look I'm using?

I dig it, it's visually striking and makes the ladies weak in the knees, and lord knows I need all the help I can get there, ever since I broke up with Tanya Harding.

tytiger58 wrote:I just hit it with a blow torch for a couple of seconds and it come off nice and clean

we think a lot alike, that scares me.

tytiger58 wrote:If your coming over on the 30th I will split mine with you.

Is that the set I just got for you? Because if not I need to find another taker for the second set

winesmith wrote:Near Cleveland is where I'll be for about a week following July 13th. Let's do it.

What brings you to the Cleveland area? Business, education, or just plain fun? And what part of NE OH will you be in for that week?

mrn1 wrote:What brings you to the Cleveland area? Business, education, or just plain fun? And what part of NE OH will you be in for that week?

My girlfriend's family is in Avon (Duct Tape Capital of the World) and I'll shoot down to Lima one day for a recording session of an original song for my CD with my 1970 folk band from Boston (surely you remember Pope Pius XII).

Will also undoubtedly visit Markko Winery in Conneault - (they've made the densest Chardonnay on earth for four decades) and perhaps Firelands in Sandusky (righteous Gewurz grown on an island in Lake Erie).

klezman wrote:Is that the set I just got for you? Because if not I need to find another taker for the second set

That is the one.

winesmith wrote:Well, I am learning from you guys too. I certainly don't want anybody slicing themselves open on my behalf. I really recommend just ignoring the wax and going through it with your corkscrew. It may be a little messy, but it's safe. I do it every day.

It's hard for me to think of these convenience issues. From my point of view, it took ten years to bring this wine to you so we could share an hour together, and if the opening of this archaic a minute or two, I guess I'm kind of pleased about that.

One mustn't underestimate the value of presentation and ritual. I love the convenience of my iPod, but frankly I felt the album art that came with vinyl was half the fun, so I look at an MP3 as a ripoff in terms of intimacy with the artist.

Things happen really slow in winemaking, and that's a good thing. I actually wrote a song on my CD (released later this year) about this issue called "If I Could Be The Wine." Invite me to a party and I'll play it for you.

You had me at presentation and ritual. I must admit this is way above my white price point...but I'm very intrigued. In for two and you are officially invited to my next wine gathering in the Northern Catskills.

winesmith wrote:My girlfriend's family is in Avon (Duct Tape Capital of the World) and I'll shoot down to Lima one day for a recording session of an original song for my CD with my 1970 folk band from Boston (surely you remember Pope Pius XII).

Will also undoubtedly visit Markko Winery in Conneault - (they've made the densest Chardonnay on earth for four decades) and perhaps Firelands in Sandusky (righteous Gewurz grown on an island in Lake Erie).

I must say I starting reading the blog this morning around 4AM (couldn't sleep so why not Woot!) and I must say I learned more about wine in some of your earliest post than I did in all of '12.
There are a bunch of Ohio Wooters getting together w/ Scott & Jana Harvey inApril...we'll be sure to see who is interested in getting together w/ you and your vino!

tdedek wrote:We were always paying tax before, but it was built into the price. Now they have lowered the price slightly and charge separate tax so everyone only pays their due share instead of non tax or low tax states covering for the states that have higher tax rates.

Actually it was the wineries that were paying the taxes. Did they build the cost into the wine, some did and some didn't after speaking with several of the wineries that've done business with WCC.

winesmith wrote:Well, I am learning from you guys too. I certainly don't want anybody slicing themselves open on my behalf. I really recommend just ignoring the wax and going through it with your corkscrew. It may be a little messy, but it's safe. I do it every day.

It's hard for me to think of these convenience issues. From my point of view, it took ten years to bring this wine to you so we could share an hour together, and if the opening of this archaic a minute or two, I guess I'm kind of pleased about that.

One mustn't underestimate the value of presentation and ritual. I love the convenience of my iPod, but frankly I felt the album art that came with vinyl was half the fun, so I look at an MP3 as a ripoff in terms of intimacy with the artist.

Things happen really slow in winemaking, and that's a good thing. I actually wrote a song on my CD (released later this year) about this issue called "If I Could Be The Wine." Invite me to a party and I'll play it for you.

Fwiw, I don't mind the wax one bit, corkscrew right through it. WISH I did it every day! Cheers, in for 1.

I *love* age-worthy, complex white wines and the wine-maker's passion is clearly apparent in the small book of comments he has posted here - so I'm dying to try these...

...but once again NH does not get any shipping love!

Anyone in VT/ME willing to consider a wootleg or a split?

klezman wrote:Is that the set I just got for you? Because if not I need to find another taker for the second set

Wait..you did buy me a full set right??

With this type of sealing, can the bottle be stored vertically?

jmdavidson wrote:With this type of sealing, can the bottle be stored vertically?

I would guess not.

winesmith wrote:Unfortunately the book won't be out til June, but we are doing some pretty interesting things at Florida International University (where I'm a Professor) right around May 1st. In particular, you must not miss the Wine and Music seminar I'll give. Anybody that wants to send me their email address I can put on the mailing list for this event at the newly established Florida Wine Academy, or you can just check the website at http://bit.ly/wuECmx. We'll be setting the exact date later this week.

I come to FIU several times a year, and we'll hook up. The book will also be for sale on winemaking411.com and I can sign a copy you purchase there.

I live in Florida and didn't know that place existed... too bad it wasn't closer...

I cannot believe this is not sold out yet!

Now I know why the pub is dead!

I'm in, dammit!

otolith wrote:Now I know why the pub is dead!

I'm in, dammit!

hehehe.
Did WD buy the entire lot or something? I'm in for two, and so it seems are many others. What is this, mass produced commercial plonk they have tanker train car full of?

rjquillin wrote:hehehe.
Did WD buy the entire lot or something? I'm in for two, and so it seems are many others. What is this, mass produced commercial plonk they have tanker train car full of?

I heard it's Barefoot and it won double gold.

kylemittskus wrote:I heard it's Barefoot and it won double gold.

I thought they just bio-stomped the grapes.