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Wednesday, September 26th, 2007 09:25 am
Lately I've been trying to get a feel for my mother's taste in red wines. Last Christmas I struck out big time with a bottle of Chateauneuf-du-Pape, proving that indeed, one woman's trash is another woman's treasure. Her opinion was somewhere in between "WHAT were you THINKING?" and "Please pour the rest of my glass down the drain." I quickly snagged it from her and drank it myself. Man that's good wine.

On the way back from Yosemite I tasted two wines that I thought might work. Not too big or tannic, but peppery and not all that fruity. It's a hard balance to strike. I snagged a bottle of each.

Did you know that shipping wine is prohibited for random folk like you and me in the States? That (federal) law keeps getting changed and challenged, but at the moment, you can't do it without a license -- no matter the amount of wine, the distance, or whether it's to a family member or even yourself at a separate address. (Guns do better than that, if only because a dealer license is more readily obtainable. Stick 'em up! I've got a Chardonnay!)

Fortunately, it turns out that Mt. Brow Winery in Tuolomne County makes some lovely bottles of fine olive oil. They're dark red and quite tasty. My mother reports that their Sangiovese olive oil is particularly scrumptious. She likes their Zinfandel olive oil too. Woohoo! I score a point in the game of learning my mom's taste in wine fine cooking ingredients.
Wednesday, September 26th, 2007 08:38 pm (UTC)
Yeah, if I were at the winery I'd have had them send it. As it was I was in a tasting room in a tourist information building.

Some day I want to know how I can buy my own federal law. You are not allowed to send a letter unless you are CJ SMITH!!!!!!! But she'll post one for you, for the low low fee of $1.29!
Wednesday, September 26th, 2007 08:42 pm (UTC)
Tasting Rooms can usually ship too. They actually just go back to a shipper they know and say "Ship This".
But yeah, the law was specifically set up to screw small wineries and people. They claim it was to protect those under 18 from getting booze. Some how they get the booze anyway. But Big Business gets bigger with the new system. Funny thing.
Wednesday, September 26th, 2007 11:00 pm (UTC)
Well, this one was a temporary setup in a tourist info booth... but maybe she (the woman behind the desk-on-two-file-cabinets) and I could have faked up some kind of order form and had it not fall through the cracks. Yeah. Anyway, now that I know olive oil can come in a wide variety of colors and flavors, I'll be okay. :-)