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I always feature beer pictures, but I'm drinking red wine almost exclusively, so I thought, "Why not a wine pic?" I had this one on my phone, so it even meshes nicely with my "stupid little hobby" theme. It's a photo I took while attending a seminar at the Inn at St. John's in Plymouth, Michigan.

BYCU

California is booming. In wine sales. In fact, it looks like everyone is booming when it comes to selling wine in the United States. This article has all sorts of good news in it: "Wineries worldwide competed for consumer attention in the U.S. with thousands of brands-- 120,000 new wine labels were approved by the U.S. Tax and Trade Bureau last year. Wine sales expanded as Americans were treated to a diverse array of classic and new wine choices including Moscato, sweet reds and other easy-drinking wines with unpretentious packaging. Restaurant business recovered somewhat and value-oriented wines were still key for on-premise offerings. Many marketers focused on new opportunities in the direct-to-consumer channel as the number of states that now accept these shipments has expanded to 39, and apps and other technologies have made it easier for consumers to use these online options."

I've really started to enjoy the sweet red wines (I know, I know: my taste buds aren't sophisticated . . . watch me while I shrug), and I've even started to mix my own wine. If I open a bottle of sweet red table wine and it's too sweet, I add a little Cabernet or Merlot to "dry" it. My Mom is a lifelong wine drinker and she'd never heard of the practice, but she agreed with my reasoning: "Sweet red is merely a blend anyway. I'm just blending in a little bit of dry." The approach works really, really well, and it's not like I'm mucking together two high-quality wines. Most of the sweet red I buy sells for about $8 a bottle, and I usually mix in a little bit of Three Buck Chuck Cabernet to dry it out.

Plus, it allows my bottle to last a little longer.

If my slice of creativity is somehow perverse, please let me know. I'm not going to stop, of course, but I am curious to know why very few people have considered it. I've seen many people scrunch up their face with a glass of wine, but then choke it down anyway. I'm not sure I see the virtue in it, especially when you have a 35-cent fix at your elbow.

Random Belloc

While looking for some Belloc material yesterday, I ran across this passage on Wikipedia:

In Belloc's novel of travel, The Four Men, the title characters supposedly represent different facets of the author's personality. One of the four improvises a playful song at Christmastime, which includes the verse:

'May all good fellows that here agree
Drink Audit Ale in heaven with me,
And may all my enemies go to hell!
Noel! Noel! Noel! Noel!
May all my enemies go to hell!
Noel! Noel!'

The other characters regard the verse as fairly gauche and ill-conceived, so while part of Belloc may have agreed with this song, it is not necessarily representative of Belloc's personality as a whole.

It's been years since I read that book. I'm gonna have to pull it off the shelf, pull out a cork, and pull myself out of sobriety this weekend.

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