Way to Go Gang!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[winoweenie]

2 days into my sabattical and so far not ONE post to live vicariously in. This is a dad-burned WINE web-site ;*( WW

[Kcwhippet]

Had a 2007 Loring Rosellas the other evening. Like all of Brian's wines, this was a luscious wine full of fruit with a loooong finish.

Yesterday, Fulvio Luca, the owner/winemaker of Bressan wines in Friuli, was in the shop. He makes some awesome wines you really go for, Verne. There was even a white you'd probably enjoy - really!!! He ferments it like it was a red, on the skins, which actually have tannins. It's his Verduzzo Friulano, and he said he's poured it into opaque glasses and everyone swears it's a red. The reds we tasted were the Pinot Nero, the Schioppettino and the 1999 Pignol (made from the Pignolo grape, apparently very rare). He ages the Pignol in (I believe neutral) 2000 gallon barrels for eight years, then two years in bottle before release. Look this one up, Verne. About $60 or so retail.

[winoweenie]

Thanks Bob. I'll see if my local pusher can obtain the juice. Who's the importer? WW

[hotwine]

Mostly drinkin' the cellar here.... not buying much, so drinking up inventory. Whites, mostly, are the sippers of choice when the temps are so dad-blamed HOT! In other words..... nothing new to report.

[Kcwhippet]

Not sure of the importer, but I'll check. Your shop shoiuld be able to find them - Bressan.

[Drew]

Can't help....I'm on a little sabattical me own self. Got two rotator cuff issues and a right knee issue going on.

[wondersofwine]

Hope you feel better soon, Drew.
Hotwine, I hear they had some rain around Houston and San Antonio. We had a dilly of a storm one night this week. It really took off about 1:00 AM and I didn't get much sleep with the thunder cracks and flashes of lightning through the window. We are still in at least mild drought condtions but expect more thunderstorms this week.
I've been drinking white wines and eating seafood lately but will report on a Chardonnay later today and a Chablis today or tomorrow. I am going to a Kermit Lynch dinner in Raleigh tonight so will have some reds to report on from that dinner tomorrow.

[Thomas2]

I just returned from a two-week trip through the West Coast (put 1800 miles on a rented car while there).

Sorry to hear about the sabbaticals, and one day I promise to take one myself. In your case, Drew, I hope you can get off the health-imposed sabbatical real soon.

Oh, if you didn't catch why, I am now Thomas2, as the new site--which looks and acts wonderfully--would not recognize the old me when I used my bookmark to get in.

[Innkeeper]

Thomas, were did you catch the train, and where did it take you?

[hotwine]

Wonders, we only had about half an inch here at our place. Still. that's a whole lot better than nothing!

[Thomas2]

IK,

The train situation became a problem.

I was scheduled to take the 11:30 pm train from Rochester to Chicago and then take the Zephyr line (northern route) to Seattle and then down to Portland, OR. The train to Rochester arrived 8 hours late--7:30 the next morning--waited all night at the train station with a few others.

When we arrived in Chicago, we of course missed our connections and then all trains on the northern route were canceled because of the floods. Amtrak put us up in a hotel in Chi. and told us to come back the next day. The next day was no good--trains were canceled indefinitely.

Got my money back and took a United Flight, which in itself is a long story that I can tell you another time, if you are interested.

The return trip worked out perfectly. Took the Southwest Chief line from LA that goes through Arizona, N. Mexico, and three more states to Chicago and then the train from Chicago to Rochester.

I love taking the train, but I must admit that the food and service has deteriorated. Congress wants to kill Amtrak and by starving it for funding, it appears that Congress might succeed.

We are the only industrialized nation that does not have a reliable and good national train system. Pisses me off.

[Drew]

Guess I should explain. The rotator cuffs issue is from wrestling with an extension ladder while power washing the house back in early May. I was on the ground...ladder fell...I held on, don't do that again! The knee is a returning Patellar Tendonitis from overuse, exercise...it'll be fine. The sabbatical is nothing more than I want to loose a little belly fat. I've always been fit, Eileen and I exercise daily and I've been trying to ratchet it up a bit, actually started a modified PX90 program, so I thought I cut out the alcohol for awhile. I also decided I wanted to try to play some more competitive golf so I needed to get in a little better shape. I will be having a little wine this weekend, though.

[Thomas2]

Keep this in mind, Drew: if not having wine makes you crotchety, you gain weight rather than lose it!

On a serious note, I wanted to lose one pound per week. I already was walking 4 miles a day, working rather strenuously on the 7.5 acre spread that we have, and I am active in many other ways. But being beyond 50, I found that the once svelte me could almost do nothing to lose this growing paunch, which is where all the weight seems to settle--my legs are like toothpicks, still.

Anyway, by cutting down from one bottle a day to one-half bottle a day, I managed to drop about four pounds each month since January, and still counting.

Just a few more pounds to go and I'll be my ideal weight with a reasonably flattened stomach. The question then is: do I go back to one bottle a day?

[winoweenie]

Having a large proportion of me retirement funds in Yellow Tail stock I implore you to reconsider Tomasso! B-) WW