Welp, I’ve just renewed my ownership of this domain for 2 more years.  Here’s to the last 2 years I’ve had of intermittent blogging… and the next 2 of hopefully some productive writing.  Do I even still have anyone that reads this shit?

Those words strung together don’t really have a place in my life.  Typically when things don’t happen for me it’s because of my own lackadaisical approach to life- being an ambitious procrastinator means I may have big thoughts and plans at times, but pulling it all together in the long run is where things tend to get hairy.

I’m inclined to think I am not a patient person.  I know that when I make my mind up about something I’ll feel the need for it to come together immediately.  If it doesn’t happen straightaway I’m not happy, but have found that it is possible for me to get over things with relative speed and move on with life.  I may forget about wanting something at all, which in the long run makes things pretty easy to shrug off.  Understanding that there are exceptions to every rule, and certain things remain in my brain for inordinate amounts of time, is the key though.  And sometimes this plays out poorly for me because of my tendency to think things to death (learn more about that here)… and then my overthinking leads to being anxious and getting grumpy about things again.

Then again, a friend pointed out that I do have it in me to be patient.  I’ve been demonstrating that indefatigable quality for a substantial period of time now.  She noted that feeling impatient now is clearly reasonable because of the amount of time I’ve actually spent waiting- even though until recently I didn’t really know if what I was waiting for was an option.  Then again?  I guess I still don’t even know if it is.  Or was.  Or… well, whatever.

A lack of expectations can leave me ok with biding my time, simply because I’m honestly not sure of what I am anticipating- it’s maybe only a glimmer, a hope, a desire… but not something of certainty.  However if a silhouette begins to emerge, outlining the possibilities, it then turns the tables… and suddenly waiting is excruciating.  It’s intolerable.  All patience has flown out the window and I’m left feeling like Veruca Salt when she’s exclaiming to her father how strongly she desires to have her own Oompa Loompa.

I want it, and I want it now!  (!!footstomp!!)

I’m not on board with the concept of tying up everything with a bow and putting a cherry on top, ensuring smooth sailing.  This is just my impatience creeping back in, and I know it’s selfish.  But at the same time, when I’m not the only one in charge of making things happen the way I want them to… then I’m shit out of luck.

But enough of my twaddle.  Cheers to playing the waiting game, I suppose.

Please forgive me for the sloppiness of this post… it hit my brain this morning like a lightning bolt and I sat down to write what I thought would be an intro… and out came the whole thing.  It’s been forever since I’ve gotten a post up on TGK, so my anxiety of allowing this to sit will not allow me to leave it for an edit tonight… it’s going up now.

Are you familiar with the feeling of coming up with a great idea, only to lack the motivation to create a plan to execute it?  And then, once you finally let the idea slip from the front of your mind, you find that someone else is just as brilliant as you with coming up with good ideas but is a whole lot better at pulling together the details?

Story of my life?  Not so much, but a little serendipity is floating around right now.  You might remember a post I wrote way back in the darkness of winter, wishing for the warm days of summer with dirt under my fingernails and fresh veggies in the garden out behind my parents house.  At that time I was convinced I could challenge myself, along with maybe a friend or two, to eat only locally sourced items for a week or so.  When nothing fresh was growing out of the ground.  I recognized that my diet was going to be a whole lot of milk and cheese and eggs… and that’s where things kind of fell flat.  (Wegmans was doing great things.  We’ll remember that.)

Time flies when you’re having fun, and that’s what has happened in my life since then.  Starting a new job at a winery has been fun, and it’s put me more in touch with some people directly involved in the locavore movement- noting that locavore was not in my vocabulary when I wrote my first post about eating locally sourced food.  I am in no way suggesting I was a pioneer of this idea- if you know me at all, you know I’m not that smart or that much of a trend setter.  I initially was influenced by chatter I saw on twitter and in blogs I was reading at the time, and always by my healthy eating friend, Lisa.  But the busy days I’ve had at the winery have lead to reading and learning more about the strong surge to feed ourselves and our community with products that come from our own back yards, down the road at the produce stand, and by area farmers.

I was influenced even more so recently, when a post written by noted wine writer James Molesworth talked about the lack of local wines in restaurants featuring local foods.  Working in restaurants for years and being a crazy Finger Lakes wine drinker, I’ve known that it’s a sad situation when it’s tough to get local wine at some of my favorite local restaurants.  But it can happen, and it will.  I’m not just talking about in the larger areas like Ithaca and Corning and Rochester… I do mean smaller towns that thrive on tourism like Penn Yan, Geneva, Hammondsport, Ovid, Aurora, Bristol… the list goes on and on.  It’s happening and thriving in Hector, NY, on the southeast side of Seneca Lake, and I have no doubt that this area will receive even more attention due to the heartbreaking loss recently of one of the areas most amazing people, Deb Whiting of Red Newt Bistro.  Look into her history- she was a locavore through and through with a great smile and a big heart.  And because of her, I think our area really does have the drive to become something great at the front of this locally sourced movement.

But the point of my post is this: I wanted to challenge myself to eat locally, but I struggled to come up with an organized fashion in which to do this.  Could I cheat?  Would things count as local if they were somehow manufactured by a local person or business but sourced from elsewhere?  I recognize that my timing was way off- I really was just looking to fill the white winter void with something green probably.  However, someone else, much more driven and undoubtedly quite a bit smarter than me, was bitten by the organization bug and got things rolling.

Meet the NY Locavore Challenge. It’s set for September, and you better believe I’m on board.  The little four-legged furry garden gremlins that have demolished half of my mother’s garden will be stopped by the fencing she recently put up, and we will have a plethora of delicious veg to use for this challenge.  Take a look at the site, I’ll not bother repeating the details here.

So, the work has been done for me.  All I have to do is sign up and participate.  I plan to talk to some of my coworkers about this- after all, it’s always easier to do this sort of thing as a collective vs. as an individual, and I’ll ask the few of you that still read this (since I’ve stopped writing much at all lately) to participate with me too.  And I tell ya what- maybe we can kick it off with a great big locally sourced meal replete with tons of Finger Lakes wine and beer and spirits down at a beautiful little place known to me as my happy place, or, the best place on earth?  That may take some planning on my part, but parties at the cottage have usually been the easy thing for me to organize.

The lack of posts could be attributed to the new job… or the fact that I’m drivin’ and lovin’ my new car… or that I’ve caught up with the technology age and finally got an iPhone…

We’ll blame all three.

But we’ll also point the finger at the work blog that I’ve contributed to twice now.  The first was a duplicate of my previous post, the second was one earlier this week.  Rather than duplicating that post here I’ll just share a link.  Note- the title didn’t come from me, but I do find it appropriate.

Fox Run Gallery and Happenings

So, not only do I suck at consistently contributing to my own blog… but I now am trying to think of posts for two.

(The Very Basics was supposed to be the title, but the alliteration was just too annoyingly perfect to pass over.  Plus, it’s a little more obvious as to what this post is about, no?)

What do you do with the wine in your glass?

Drink it, obviously.

But if you’re at a winery you only get a little sample!  Clearly, what you choose to do with that wee nip can greatly affect your impression of the wine.  If you follow these steps consistently when tasting, over time you’ll begin to get more from each experience than just a pleasant buzz.

So here’s the very basics of wine tasting.  And if you think you’ll feel silly doing this at a winery?  Get over yourself. Quit your worrying… but maybe have a friend over and “practice” at home first (especially if you plan to participate in the “spit” part.  Trust me on that.  We’ll get to those details later.)

Start with a clean and clear wine glass. Please, nothing painted or colored or plastic (GAG). If you want to get fancy, check out Riedel. (They’re considered the best, but they’re expensive.)  Save the “pretty” glasses for serving water at a dinner party (because from here on you will only serve wine in clear glass!) and stow away the plastic glasses on your boat so you can help bail out water if you’re sinking, because you wouldn’t want to dump out the delicious wine in your glass glass to help rescue the ship.

Ok.  You’ve got your glass.  Now, pour your wine into it, but only about 2 fingers worth (ie. not a lot because otherwise you will spill it on yourself).

And we get to step one.  Stare!  This can be the one bit many people feel silly about, and you probably won’t get much out of it right at the start, but just spend a minute and gaze into the depths of your glass.  If you tip it to the side (not so far that you dump it out, please) and hold a piece of white paper behind it you’ll get a clearer view of the wine.  For starters, just observe…  Is it red or white?  (Hey, did I not say basics?!) Is it a transparent and easy to see through?  Or more opaque?  (If it’s downright cloudy… might I suggest a different wine?)  Is it the beautiful pale red of a Pinot noir?  Or the rich gold of a late harvest Riesling?

Step two!  Hold the glass (by the bowl or stem or base, whatever you’re comfortable with) and give the wine a swirl around.  Some people do this and then dump it straight down their gullet… I have a friend who says that’s doing nothing more than taking your wine for a ride, and he’s right!  The basic point of the swirl is to aerate (mix air and oxygen! into the wine) and help release aromas.  There are things you can do at this point that make you look fancier, like checking out the wine streaming down the sides of the glass (inside the glass = good… outside the glass = not so good… or you poured too much.  I warned you…) those are called the “legs”… but your legs can get a bit scraggly if your glass isn’t pristinely clean and if we really talk about what the legs mean then we’re going too far into alcohol and sugar and things’n’stuff in the wine that take us so far beyond the BASICS that we’re shooting for here that we’ll get off topic and really confuse the issue at hand which is…

(Deep breath!  Literally!)

Sniff!  Step three!  Tip the glass up towards your face and tuck it in under your nose and inhale!  (Yet another point where you’ll be happy if you didn’t over pour because I’m confident wine-in-nostrils is not an effective wine-experiencing technique.)  Your nose will tell you a couple things about the wine- you may pick up sweetness or a higher alcohol content, and you might even start to catch aromas of fruit or flowers or oak or any of the many things that you’ve seen on either the back side of bottles or on tasting sheets at wineries that winemakers have written to romance their products.  These blurbs are great as guides and suggestions, but don’t worry if you don’t smell the subtle spice or leathery undertones or seaweed (…I kid.)… because at the beginning?  You’re looking for what your nose tells you.  That’s all.

Which brings us to sipping, step four.  Go ahead and take a small swig (ie. if you’ve poured a decent amount and not spilled it all over yourself at this point we’re talking maybe half a mouthful)… and hold it in your mouth for a moment.  These next few steps come in pretty quick succession, but pay attention to what you taste at each point!

On to step five, and here’s where things may start getting sloppy… for your first time, just try and swish the wine around in your mouth.  Maybe not as vigorously as you might with mouthwash, (Dad, I’m talking to you because I’ve seen you do it!) but get the wine around to all areas of your tongue because you sense different tastes at different parts.  (You knew that, right?  Because we don’t have time for lessons in anatomy… and that’s really not something that I know anything specific about anyway.)  If you’re feeling saucy, try opening your mouth slightly and slurping in some air, which will aerate the wine a little more and hopefully open up more flavors.  Keep thinking about everything you taste…

And our trickiest step is six.  Spit or swallow?  (Quit snickering!  Wine is serious!!)  How many wines do you plan to taste today?  Do you care to know as much about the last wine you’ll taste as you do about the first?  If the answer is no, then swallow!  But spitting is a well respected practice, and if you plan to taste many wines (and drive?) then it’s a good idea.  You may want to “rehearse” a little at home before doing it out in public though… think like spitting when you finish brushing your teeth, or if something tastes bad and you need to get it out of your mouth as quick as possible, or pretend you’re in the wild west and spit like a cowboy aiming for the spittoon in the corner by the tavern door or (although spitting at a distance is probably not practiced- and no one that works at a winery will appreciate it if you start aiming for the potted plant in the corner… because, let’s face it, you’re not going to hit it and it won’t be fun to watch.  Or clean up.).  All tasting bars will have spit/dump buckets (DO NOT dare/ pay your friends to drink those!) (EW!).  Just pick it up and spit your wine into it.

But wait!  We’re not done!  You need to repeat steps four through six!  This is why you only took a small sip on your first go ’round- you’ll always want to go for a second one.  Typically your second taste will be a truer taste, and give you another chance to check out the flavors.  And during both tastes, are you finding fruit flavors?  Or maybe butter?  Chocolate?  Start to see what flavors you find, and some other time we’ll talk about what flavors are commonly associated with different grape varieties.

One little side note when sampling many wines- you’ll typically go from drier wines to sweeter, white to red, finishing with dessert or fortified wines.  If you do jump around, have a saltine cracker and a sip of water- but don’t rinse your glass with the water!  All that results in is watered down wine.  If you need to rinse just pour a very small amount of the next wine you plan to taste into your glass, swirl it around, and dump it into the spit/dump bucket.

Now, congrats!  You are equipped with the very simple steps to wine tasting and should never feel uncomfortable about going to a winery and checking out the bounty they offer.  If you really want to start being serious, consider keeping notes- whether in a simple notebook or a special wine journal- because that way you can begin to compare different vintages and regions and all that fun wine stuff.

The goal of tasting is not only to allow you to experience different wines and educate your palate, but to help you find good wines to purchase and have at home (rather than just buying it blind off the shelf because the label is pretty or if it comes in a bottle in the shape of a cat).  And how do you know if it’s a good wine?  Well that’s simple.  It’s a good wine if you like it.