TWC is the wine swilling mayor of Two Guns Arizona who was formerly a prolific wine blogger. Some of that remains and to get right to the wine reviews without further distraction, click The Wine Commonsewer Speaks. The rest of the enchilada is an eclectic mix of commentary on culture, food, tax, and econ 101.
We will not sell, share, or otherwise disclose your email address or other personal information obtained on this site to third parties unless compelled to do so by subpoena.
Your email address is not required in order to leave comments. If you provide your email address, it will not be displayed with your comment.
Disclaimer
A note from our crack legal team at Dewey, Screwem, & Howe, LLP.....
All tax and other information appears here as a courtesy to readers and clients. Please understand that we are not rendering legal advice and that each individual should consult his or her own tax professional before acting upon any of the information contained herein.
Effective June 21, 2005, regulations issued by the Treasury Department governing written communications, including email communications, between all tax practitioners (including attorneys) and their clients that have the issue of tax as a material element of the communication must include the following disclaimer:
As required by United States Treasury Regulations, you should be aware that written information contained on this site cannot be used for the purpose of avoiding penalties under United States federal tax laws.
This site may occasionally contain copyrighted material the use of which has not always been specifically authorized by the copyright owner. We are making such material available in our efforts to advance understanding of a variety of issues including but not necessarily limited to, taxation, politics, human rights, economics, and science. We believe this constitutes a 'fair use' of any such copyrighted material as is provided for under § 107 of the US Copyright Law.
In accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. Section 107, said material contained in this site is made available without profit for research or educational purposes. If you wish to use copyrighted material from this site for purposes of your own that go beyond 'fair use', you must obtain permission from the copyright owner.
Instant gratification meets the very latest in French wine tasting technology.....
Those of you who hired MicroSoft as your computer nanny and can't see flash video will need to click here.
System Requirements: Intel® 1.3 GHz processor Microsoft® Windows® 2000 with Service Pack 4, Windows Server® 2003; Windows XP Professional, Home Edition, or Tablet PC Edition with Service Pack 2 or 3; Windows Vista® Home Basic, Home Premium, Business, Ultimate, or Enterprise with or without Service Pack 1 128MB of RAM (256MB recommended) 335MB of available hard disk space Microsoft Internet Explorer 6.0, 6.0 with Service Pack 1, or 7.0; Firefox 2.0 or 3.0
Not available for MacIntosh (yet).
USBwine.com is a proud sponsor of The Wine Commonsewer.
TWC doesn't like fake corks or screwcaps on principle. It doesn't sway me one inch that natural cork has shortcomings. If God intended wine bottles to be plugged with synthetic corks he would have given us synthetic trees. Oh, I'll get email about that.
One shortcoming of synthetic cork is that sleek, minimally invasive, high dollar corkscrews, like the Rabbit for instance, act as if the cork is made of paraffin. The corkscrew worm, a technical term, slides right back out like a hot knife through butter, leaving the bottle still corked. Then you have get out the fat boy. No, not Willie Nelson's fat boy, you'll still be able to get at the wine, you'll just need the corkscrew that looks like a fence post auger.
The Rabbit, the offending synthetic cork, and the Fat Boy cork screw
On a slightly different note I have a client who is developing a process to make a better synthetic cork. It's proprietary at the moment so I don't know much about it except that he loves wine and he's in the plastics business. That ought to work.
Contributer NoStar sees a silicon seal as part of the innovative future in wine closures.
Some Cork manufacturers are experimenting with
putting a thin silicon preserver between the cork and the wine.
Silicon is a non reactive material and the stuff that glass is made
of. We know that glass protects wine. So, someday I predict that the
cork you pop from a bottle of wine will be silicon.
The 2004 Omega Cabernet is neither Alpha nor Omega. Come on, can the groans, you knew that was coming just as soon as you read the headline. Actually, Alpha Omega Winery is in Napa. Isn't it?
Omega is pretty good cab, especially considering it comes from Lodi, an area better known for California's historic Zinfandel grape, corporate vineyards, and jug wine.
As it turns out, though, Lodi today grows more premium grapes than Napa and Sonoma combined. Omega is one of the newer (2002) wineries at the forefront of the changing trends. And if you shuffle on in to one of the local wineries you may be served by the actual winemaker. Lots of folks find that intriguing.
Honestly, I'm rarely disappointed in the people pouring wine. Except that stingy chick at Silver Horse. I mean that girl was tight. You'da thought it was coming out of her paycheck. Lordy. Nice place though. To be sure, being served by the winemaker is a nice treat, but that doesn't mean that corporate hires drones.
Trying to remember that winery way back down some brown dirt road outside of Paso where the guy pouring was hammered cuz he'd been tasting all day himself. The late afternoon sunlight was stifling but it was cool inside. Dude's shirt was from Rocking Horse and he was filling the glass, none of this half finger nonsense. Now THERE'S a down side to wine tasting. He steered us to a fun dinner in Paso and iffen I can recall, I think he may have joined us later. Lessee, pretty sure that was before BA & Robey, although she joined us. We'll see if she catches that. Five bucks says no. Henderson says that place sold out and it's all sterile and corporate now. Too bad.
Oh, the wine? Well, it was pretty good. Did I already say that?
Herbs, blackberry, currants. Smooth and easy on the palate. It was a nice surprise and I was expecting less. Ruby red, medium to full bodied.
The label is understated, no kitsch, no flambé, no cool factor. Have I been warped by the very thing that violates the rule? You know which one. Repeat. The quality of the wine is inversely proportional to the coolness of the label.
The wine was good. It retails for around thirteen dollars US. That puts into a market niche where there is stiff competition. If it was eight bucks, it'd be a great wine for the price. At thirteen, it's not bad but there are better wines to be had. That said, I'd open another bottle. That's cheating though because somebody gave me several bottles. Just living right I guess.
Serve this wine with mesquite grilled top sirloin, ribs, or hearty pastas with red sauce.
And for you burnt-out, formerly drug crazed, ex-hippie freaks, a bonus:
Sometime TWC contributor and full time good guy, No Star Domus puts about a thousand sputtering candles on his birthday cake today. Had to have used a propane torch to get them all fired up.
Just after 7:00 PM (PDT) tonight, Mrs TWC is scheduled to appear on the Al Rantel Show on KABC Los Angeles. Likely topic: LAUSD's astronomical drop out rate and some alternatives that might help.
More than one-third of Los Angeles Unified high school students drop out, according to a new study released Wednesday.....
The district's four-year dropout rate of 33.6
percent was well above the statewide average of 24.2 percent, sparking
renewed calls to beef up academic standards in the nation's
second-largest school district.
LA and Metro So Cal, it's 790 on the AM dial or listen live here.
Mrs TWC is Director of Education at Reason Foundation,
a free-market libertarian think tank. I don't know where those guys
came up with that picture, but it doesn't look much like the chick I'm
married to. She looks more like this.
This turned up as we shoveled through the debris following the 4th of July weekend.
Ghastly stuff to be sure and Gibson sure don't have a web presence that I could find. I'm not fond of brandy or bum wine, not sure which this is, so this particular fortified Madeira leaves me a bit puzzled. Didn't have any problem pouring it down the sink, though.
Madeira was originally a Portuguese wine that was fortified with brandy so it could withstand the rigors of the travel by sea. It can be dry or sweet and sometimes substitutes for Port as a dessert wine. Madeira is also used in a variety of quite tasty culinary sauces.
Madeira was popular in the American colonies and shortly after off loading three thousand gallons of Madeira, British thugs, er troops, seized John Hancock's sloop, aptly named Liberty, resulting in riots in Boston. Nothing quite like a booze riot, eh?
TWC's Patron Saint, Thomas Jefferson was also fond of Madeira and it was used to toast the Declaration of Independence. How cool is that? The USS Constitution was also christened with a bottle of.....wait for it.....Madeira. That's right, you are Smarter Than A Fifth Grader.
Somehow, I just don't think the Madeira that was left here at Casa de las Rocas Grandes was in any way similar to what the USS Constitution was christened with. I could be wrong, though.
The other day SASOB left a comment that included this.....
I'll never forget the time a customer brought his kids into my buddy's
antique shop and tried to explain some old Victrola cylinder recordings
to them: best he could do was, well kids, those were like cds or
dvds. Almost as fun as the look on a kid's face when you show them a
rotary dial telephone.
And you notice, we still call it dialing.....
This still-operational rotary dial telephone can be found in the ornate lobby of the The Tower, Beverly Hills (formerly the Lowes, Beverly Hills). Note the original, fabric covered phone cord. Click to enlarge the photo.
Dial: HOllywood 3-5151 and ask for Extension 6
Oh, and dinner was nicely done and the wine list is extensive.
Tip of the glass to Kathryn J 
