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HiYa! If you're new here, you may want to Sign Up to get all the latest wine coolness delivered to your virtual doorstep. I've also got short, easily-digestible mini wine reviews and some educational, entertaining wine vids. If you're looking to up your wine tasting IQ, check out my book How to Taste Like a Wine Geek: A practical guide to tasting, enjoying, and learning about the world's greatest beverage. Cheers!

So, like, what is this stuff, anyway?
I taste a bunch-o-wine (technical term for more than most people). So each week, I share some of my wine reviews (mostly from samples) and tasting notes with you via twitter (limited to 140 characters). They are meant to be quirky, fun, and easily-digestible reviews of currently available wines. Below is a wrap-up of those twitter wine reviews from the past week (click here for the skinny on how to read them), along with links to help you find these wines, so that you can try them for yourself. Cheers!

• 07 Bodegas de La Marquesa Finca Monteviejo (Rioja): Say hello to Mr. Tall, Dark & Plummy; ok, Mr. Kinda Oaky makes an appearance, too $32 B+ >>find this wine<<
• 06 Ondarre Reserva Rioja (Rioja): Just about all of the spicy tobacco, at just about half the price you'd expect to justly pay for it $15 B+ >>find this wine<<
• 09 Agricole Vallone Graticciaia (Salento): Like a Roman gladiator event, only with Negroamaro; buffed up, intense, & fully weaponized $99 A- >>find this wine<<
• 08 Agricole Vallone Vereto Salice Salentino Riserva (Salento): Funky moves for an old timer; love the platform leather shoes, btw! $18 B+ >>find this wine<<
• 08 Agricole Vallone Vigna Flaminio Brindisi Riserva (Salento): Spiced meat & dried fruit charcuterie, with some coffee for dessert. $19 B+ >>find this wine<<
• 10 Gary Farrell Hallberg Vineyard Dijon Clones Pinot Noir (Russian River Valley): Modernist still life of flowers, herbs & berries. $60 A- >>find this wine<<
• 10 Gary Farrell Hallberg Vineyard Pinot Noir (Russian River Valley): Paging Chuck Norris, your spiced rhubarb pie is ready, sir. $55 A- >>find this wine<<
• 10 Gary Farrell Rochioli Vineyard Chardonnay (Russian River Valley): Linebacker sneaks up on the QB & gets in his face after the sack $45 A- >>find this wine<<
• 10 Gary Farrell Rochioli-Allen Vineyards Chardonnay (Russian River Valley): It's been a looooong time…. since this finish staaarted $45 A- >>find this wine<<
• 11 Gary Farrell Russian River Selection Chardonnay (Russian River Valley): Vibrancy scores top shelf, w/ a nice assist from richness. $35 B+ >>find this wine<<
• 12 Gary Farrell Rose of Pinot Noir (Russian River Valley): Not everything it says makes sense, but you'll be momentarily captivated. $28 B+ >>find this wine<<
• 10 Rancho Sisquoc Syrah (Santa Barbara County): Straight laced Aussie lawyer relocates to SBC, grows out the beard & takes up farming. $24 B >>find this wine<<
• 12 Rancho Sisquoc Sauvignon Blanc (Santa Barbara County): Zesty, herbal charm that's quick with jokes if not long on the conversation. $14 B >>find this wine<<
• 11 Cecchi Natio Chianti (Chianti): "We're up all night to the sun, She's up all night for good fun, It's up all night to get tastyyy" $15 B >>find this wine<<

In the “this is fun, and you’ll learn something, but it’s definitely NSFW!” department, I recently appeared on Playboy Radio’s “Playboy’s Playbook” (which airs Tuesdays at 11AM PT), chatting about all things wine with host Kevin Klein.

Klein seemed to know quite a bit more about wine – and, more importantly, how it should be enjoyed and provide pleasure – than he lets on during the interview, but then I suppose we should expect that kind of comfortable focus on pleasuring oneself (and potentially others) when it comes to Playboy, right?

Anyway…

We chat about my Playboy.com gig, how to superstitiously order wine at restaurants, why wine critics aren’t actually out to totally screw you over, the all-important wine-and-panties connection, and why it’s important to always have a bottle of inexpensive but good quality Cava chilling the refrigerator, especially if you’re single.

You can download a copy of the interview here, stream it at Playboyradio.com, or listen via the embed below; just break out the headphones for this one, because it is NOT safe for within-earshot-general-public consumption (I did mention this was Playboy radio, right?). Oh, and leave the hangups and inhibitions at home before listening, okay?

And before you ask: yes, we’ll get back to more wine recommendations next week. In the meantime, pour yourself a decent glass of Cava and listen to the interview!

1WineDude on Playboy Radio’s Playboy Playbook – Chapter # 33: Wine Wine Wine

Cheers!

A quick round-up of some of my articles from last month’s Answers.com gig, for your tomato-tossing enjoyment.

Continuing the series on getting insiders to talk about what to expect from various varietal wines:

• Cabernet Sauvignon with Cornerstone Cellar’s Craig Camp (Go Craig! Go Craig! Camp dishes on his ideal version of Cab).
• Chenin Blanc with Ken Forrester (the irrepressible and indefatigable promoter of all things Chenin goes to town on all things Chenin).

On the wine book review front:

• World Atlas of Wine, 7th Edition by Hugh Johnson and Jancis Robinson (short version: it’s still awesome).
• Saint-Emilion by Beatrice Massenet, Francois Querre and Emmanuelle Ponsan-Dantin (I wanted to hate it, but instead found myself wishing to book a trip to St. E).

Odds & ends:

• Three things you didn’t know about Port (don’t pretend you knew them all, smarty-pants).
• Three producers to watch in Stellenbosch (because you don’t go to South Africa without getting wowed by at least a couple of wine people).
• Why wine tastes differently at 30,000 feet (we’ve tackled this issue here before, but I wanted to give it the Answers.com treatment, too).
• Why chilling wine with ice cubes is a bad idea (seriously… just… don’t, okay?).

I should also mention that at the very end of the month I managed to sneak in my first contribution to the Why The PLCB Should Be Abolished blog, a smack-down of a shill of an editorial supporting anti-privatization efforts in Pennsylvania. Not a paying gig, but I’m hoping that one will pay in karma points one day when the PA Liquor Control Board finally goes the way of the dinosaurs.

Cheers!

So, like, what is this stuff, anyway?
I taste a bunch-o-wine (technical term for more than most people). So each week, I share some of my wine reviews (mostly from samples) and tasting notes with you via twitter (limited to 140 characters). They are meant to be quirky, fun, and easily-digestible reviews of currently available wines. Below is a wrap-up of those twitter wine reviews from the past week (click here for the skinny on how to read them), along with links to help you find these wines, so that you can try them for yourself. Cheers!

• 10 Pali Wine Co. Huntington Pinot Noir (Santa Barbara County): Spiciness & vibrancy in white-dwarf-star-like concentrated density. $21 B+ >>find this wine<<
• 10 Pali Wine Co. Riviera Pinot Noir (Sonoma Coast): Slinging gunpowder, and the buckshot is made of raspberry licorice and leather. $20 B >>find this wine<<
• 12 J Vineyards Pinot Gris (California): Fun, as in "Tito Puente juggling melons while banging out an uptempo drum solo" kind of fun. $15 B >>find this wine<<
• 10 Montes Purple Angel (Colchagua): Behind that spicy oak shield beats a brave, lively heart full of the blood of Colchagua itself. $60 A- >>find this wine<<
• 11 John Duval Wines Plexus MRV (Barossa): Dresses almost embarrassingly funky, but ready to unleash an energetic, stylish performance $30 B+ >>find this wine<<
• 11 Loveblock Pinot Gris (Marlborough): Yellow flowers & melons in their entirety; stems, greens, fruit and, probably, souls, too. $24 B >>find this wine<<
• 11 Kim Crawford Pinot Noir (Marlborough): Satisfies the vibrant Pinot itch, but all that acid scratching might leave a bit of a scar. $18 B >>find this wine<<
• 04 Coppo Riserva della Famiglia Barbera d'Asti Superiore Nizza (Barbera d'Asti): Bring it sacrifices of meat; and make them robust! $150 A- >>find this wine<<
• 06 Coppo Riserva della Famiglia Chardonnay (Piemonte): Approaches softly but it's nutty, flinty, creamy & powerful enough to end you $120 A- >>find this wine<<
• 11 Santa Rita Reserve Sauvignon Blanc (Casablanca): Seasons don't feeeeear the veggies, nor do the wind, the sun or the raaaaaain… $12 B >>find this wine<<
• 07 Santa Rita Triple C (Maipo Valley): Has already beat you at arm wrestling & stolen your gal, just by *looking* at you sternly. $40 A- >>find this wine<<
• 05 Santa Rita Medalla Real Cabernet Sauvignon (Maipo Valley): Don't like me? Well, that's just too goddamn bad for you, little fella. $20 B+ >>find this wine<<
• 10 Santa Rita Reserve Cabernet Sauvignon (Maipo Valley): The way is vibrant & dark, but is also strewn with a lot of green pepper. $11 B- >>find this wine<<