Oenochallenged

I'm trying to keep up. I promise.

Essentially, I need to turn this blog into something more than just a wine-related xerox of other wine-related blogs. [Because I love those other blogs--Eric Asimov is my hero.]

So, as a late-coming heeding of advice, I'll add a smidgen more personal information into the blog. Make it more compelling than just the vine, while still trying to educate.

Updates: I am moving in thirteen days. There begins my first attempt at city living, and single-room dwelling. Not so scary, I'm thinking, because I'll have such a cushy support group and will be the same distance from the family as before. Things are reasonable.

Something lately has grabbed onto me. I've always harped on the connection between taste and memory, because taste and smell (the nearly inseparable pair) are, I believe, the most specific sense. The specificity of a give time and place can recreate the entire environment of sensations felt and transmit two places and times at the same moment--past and present. Those senses, experienced through food/drink, make that food/drink a vehicle capable of carrying the past and the present.

ex: American dry riesling. The sweet-tart, mineral, and floral aspect of many of them (Can't generalize.) brings back groups of my best friends. We always seem to drink dry riesling together.

ex. Cava. There's this strange, delicious, rubbery quality to some inexpensive Cava that certain bloggers and reviewers seem to loathe. It's precisely that hint that I get which takes me back to Barcelona, even though I didn't guzzle the stuff (like I did Vermouth, aka Martini).

ex. Whites from the OMP. The cool-cool-climate of Michigan's Old Mission Peninsula grants wines an effusive, distinct, compellingly aromatic character, even under the hands of different winemakers. Never before have I smelled such white-flower riesling, such rose-petal gewurztraminer, or such pear-blossom pinot blanc. My favorite AVA by far and my favorite place in the USA with my favorite people. Always.

Tangent. Jason and I are headed to PDX on Tuesday. Never been out west, and am so excited! My first real "wine country" exploration. Two days in the Willamette Valley, and one day at the Columbia River Gorge. Pumped for some great cool-climate wines with the boy! The latter makes everything taste better. Ciao.