We’re winding down from wine camp and rewinding our wine-soaked memories to replay our favorites. Also on deck: silly alcohol cures from a sillier time; someone gets a little too excited about kale; we ate everything on the menu. Finally, some chatter about our first ever W25 Happy Hour with our listener community at Vault Martini! This is an all-out shout-out-palooza!
Episode 123: Winding Down and Wine Camp Rewind
We just got back from ‘Wine Camp’ and are here to tell you all about it. Some of you, like Douglas in Chicago, wanted to know how the SWE conference was going … so wait no further… this episode’s for you! Before we get into all our conference highlights, factoids and shoutouts …
In Our Glasses
Steph: “I’m drinking something geeky. I went wine shopping yesterday at Supermarket Liquors, bought 2 cases of wine, and met the new wine guy Kevin. We had a great time getting to know each other through wine… he’d show me a bottle and tell me a story, and then I’d tell him to follow me to another aisle and drop a factoid about some other dorky bottle. He also has wanderlust and travels a bit… so naturally we connected over that too.
“This bottle is the 2015 Valle Dell’Acate Il Frappato Vittoria Frappato DOC Sicilia, Italy ($18.99). It is 100% Frappato from Southern Sicily, specifically Vittoria, which became a DOC in 2005. Frappato is a red grape that makes light-bodied, low tannin, aromatic wines. I absolutely love this wine and will be buying more! We opened it last night with our roasted chicken and veggie enchiladas. How about that for a Monday night?!”
Val: “I’m drinking Montenegro. This is an Italian – if not THE Italian amaro/digestivo that macerates 40 herbs and spices for a month. It’s been around for 130 years and was called the “Liqueur of virtues” by the poet D’Annunzio. I call it a tasty cough medicine. Apparently Oregon and my lungs are not friends. Maybe it was all that smoke hanging in the air from fires. Cheers.”
Main Discussion: Wine Camp Recap: Highlights and Applause!
Val: “It’s hard to pick favs! I loved the one by historian and author Richard Foss, and it was probably my favorite seminar, oddly enough one that was more historically focused and not so much tasting focused, Richard Foss talked about how Prohibition Changed America. He did have a tasting of three period cocktails, but the history was even more fascinating than a French 75 or Orange Punch before 9 a.m.
David Glancy presented on California sparkling wine, and he’s just a pro in addition to entertaining. You all remember him from episode 47 when he was sipping tea, fighting a cold, and still funny.
Finally, Arthur Black and Mindblowing Brandies. There was a freaking tomato brandy, and a weird ass Austrian brandy aged in a crystal balloon for 11 years. Many of these bottles were the last ones in the country or on the planet.”
Steph: “My favorite, stand-out seminars were:
Val and Suzanne’s seminar called A Taste of History: Piemonte Wines, Families and the Historic Women Behind Them
Jordan Cabernet Sauvignon Retrospective and Format Tasting with winemaker Rob Davis
Rose, Brose, Frose!!! with Sharron McCarthy
Wine and Music Pairing Workshop with MS Serafin Alvarado
We cannot forget to mention how much we liked the food at the hotel! That’s a huge deal. And the riverfront walking path was killer too!”
Factoid
(Slide from lecture by Richard Foss)
There were oodles of factoids!
So, along with the fact that America was “founded by people who drank every single day” (everyday drinking for everyday people, yes?), did you know that alcoholism was thought to be cured by putting three live eels in booze before drinking it? Oh, and heroin. The Encyclopedia of Folk medicine further mentions that there was the option of rubbing a snail or slug on your forehead to absorb the alcohol. Also, in the UK they would consider soaking a toad in whiskey, and 10 tiny fishes in water.
Wino Radar
Steph: How about Beer-radar? My last seminar was a beer cocktail class. It was not what I expected, but I laughed a lot and started dreaming-up a beer cocktail or 2 for future episodes. Jacob Grier is the author and bartender who taught the class. His book is called Cocktails on Tap – The Art of Mixing Spirits and Beer. There’s 2 recipes of his that really caught my attention – the Averna Stout Flip and the Carwyn Viking.
Val: Arthur Black. I did find out he’s also got a nice (offensive) podcast called Shift Drink with restaurateur Ed Rudisell. The episode with Shari Morano, youngest female MW is in my feed right now. It started w/ “Schweddy Balls” – so I expect it to rock as hard as the intro music.
Shoutouts
Janelle mixing up some happy hour goodness at Vault Martini!
Steph: I am thrilled about the success of our Wine Two Five happy hour! It was the first of its kind, but it won’t be the last. We had about 20 people at Vault Martini bar, and everyone mixed and mingled and shared bottles of wine. Big thank you to Janelle, the GM at Vault Martini, and great job making the official Wine Two Five cocktail!
You know, some of our listeners (like 10 people +) couldn’t make to the happy hour but wanted to … and one of those was Jon from CA… so he went to Vault Martini on Saturday night just to taste our signature cocktail. He texted me a photo of the drink and said that it was “so nice”. But besides the cocktail, excellent wine selection, killer prices, and yummy truffle popcorn,… we met new people, gathered some fun audio, and strengthened our wine-tribe community.
Jon’s W25 Cocktail from Vault Martini
Yes, and four new Patrons joined our Patreon Pack in Portland! It was exciting to meet new fans of our podcast/community, as well as show our faithful listeners how easy it is to sign-up and support us. We also handed out our Govino glasses at our Happy Hour to anyone who became a Patron that night!
Val: It was great meeting listeners who were able to quote bits of our banter, whom we’ve never met, and who are now part of our wine tribe. Kimberly – fellow non breeder, it was so nice meeting you!
I also want to congratulate Lucia Volk for winning the Banfi award which was presented at the conference.
Patreon Love
Thank you to our Patrons who support us on the crowdfunding platform called Patreon!
- Jeff E from the We Like Drinking! podcast
- Lynn from Savor the Harvest blog
- Sebastian of Sassi Italy Tours
- Jen in Maryland
Steph, Val, Andrew, and Jen. Jen is also the genius behind #W25Challenge, by the way! Cheers ~
- David and Lisa in Illinois
David and Lisa Davoust
“It’s not five o’clock and we don’t care” Listeners
- Meg in South Dakota
- Clay in Arizona
- Jon in California
- Andrew in California
- Aswani in California
- Chantel in Ontario, Canada
- Mary Lou in Pennsylvania
- Cathie in Georgia
- Chris and Janet in Colorado
Chris and Janet in Colorado
A little bit about Chris and Janet: “Janet and Chris have a love of travel, food, wine, champagne and spirits. Janet has a love for champagne. She is known amongst friends as the ‘Champagne Lady’. Chris has collected wine for years. He loves to cook and pair food and wine.”
- Steve in Illinois
- Cathey in Tennessee
- Renee in Illinois
- David in Scotland
- Carole in Kentucky
- Laura
The August Patreon winner is Chantel G in Ontario, Canada!
Chantel wins 2 full size bottles of Vineyard Fresh Wine Preserver. This is a cool product that saves open bottles of wine from oxidation using argon gas. It is the same gas that Coravin uses. All you have to do is use 2 sprays and recork your bottle. Argon is colorless, odorless, tasteless and environmentally natural.
Go to our Patreon page for details www.patreon.com/winetwofivepodcast on how to be entered into our monthly drawing, exclusive content, and swag.
Connect
We are here for you every week… and in between episodes, you can find us on the social spaces @WineTwoFive and we encourage you to join our private FaceBook group called Wine Two Five Community!
Connect with Val on Twitter @WineGalUnboxed and as Vino With Val on Facebook, Instagram & Pinterest.
Connect with Steph on Twitter, Pinterest and Instagram as TheWineHeroine.