I guess that's the best thing about this board, people sharing ideas.

The guy just never got a break! Everywhere he went, someone or something was there to harrass him.

They stole my autobiography and thinly disguised the fact by making me a male gorilla. Wonderful.

Saw Happy Endings last night. Really liked it. 3.75 out of 5.

Great post and correction noted!

Malbec is a terrific grape. Thanks. Bought one while shopping for candidates for future tastings. Maybe we'll just go with yours and people can simply get a Mendoza Malbec if they can't find this one.

I have a feeling I've had the Ben Marco before but was at a friend's house and forgot to take the bottle. I seem to remember Marco. If so, it was GREAT.

For anyone interested and reading this, here's something brief and informative I found in a wine forum:

"Malbec grapes, said to be originaries from Cahors, France - known there also as "Cot" - seem to have found their ideal terroir in Argentina to result in outstanding red wines. Specially appreciated are the Malbec´s from the Mendoza area; and therein, the region known as "Primera Zona" (Zone 1), located at the Andes piedmont along the Mendoza river, produce the most awarded ones. The northern Cafayate and San Juan zones are making also very good wines with this grape variety.

As varietal wines, there are some types that a wine-lover can distingish with no doubt: Those "french-styled" Malbec´s with plenty of aromas and medium bodied (e.g. Lurton, Altavista, Chandon, Fabre-Montmayou); those younger and spiced, with no or very few oak (e.g. Salentein, Catena, Trapiche, Santa Julia) and those fully bodied with plenty of tanins and well balanced in oak (e.g. Weinert, Norton, Luigi Bosca).

Very well accepted is the cuvée made by many argentine wineries that assemble Malbec, Cabernet Sauvignon and Merlot to produce some of their best-buy wines: e.g. Carrascal (Weinert), San Felipe (Rutini), Clasico (Norton), Valmont (Chandon), Carcassone (Escorihuela).

In my humble preference, my favorite malbec´s are 2 ones: The traditional Fond-De-Cave made by Trapiche and the strong FAPES 1999 from Uco Valley (the "star"zone for producing wines in Mendoza)."

Not a good policy.

How embarrassing. You hit that one on the head. We are the least tolerable of the intolerable.

They have great prices. Looked at the y'quem. Pretty much the best price around. Thanks, Raz. Nice find :)

Lownumba is experiencing post traumatic stress from being locked in Derf's entertainment center. When he realizes there is nothing more to fear he will stop banning you.

Same at my store! A friend gave me the first bottle. I liked it so I went to a local wine store for another. There were cases and cases of it right at the front door. Not much of a shelf life so I guess they're throwing it in our faces. Strange how some people can't get it. I thought it would be easy for everyone :(

Why do you keep trying to tell me what temperature to drink this wine at, huh?!!! I LIKED IT @ AROUND 60 and I've had it twice already (actually, like six or seven times from two bottles). Jeesh! It was house temp first time and that was great. You must be reading again. Try drinking it first then tell me how you like it. Had the last glass from bottle chilled to around 52-54 last night and it was not optimal - FOR ME.

Had it at a friends awhile back and consequently bought some, then opened my tasting bottle and had to rebuy - ha.

So, tell me, which one of you keeps banning your alias?

Happy now? I removed the 60 degrees from ibox SO YOU CAN NOW RELAX.

P.S. I also put opened reds in the frig :0!!! Horror of horrors!

Either works for me - lol! Just read both and would be interested to hear about either. Thanks for link to the site, too.

Hi! That's so cool. I'm looking forward to this. Did you see the wine wheel in ibox? It's great. I got mine last week.

A link to that has to go in the ibox!!!

If you can't get the Georges Duboeuf Beaujolais Nouveau, get any Beaujolais Nouveau or Beaujolais (all the same kind of grape anyway so there will be some things you'll be able to identify with in our comments). Hey, get any red whatsoever. Get Welch's Grape Juice for crying out loud. Just show, taste and share your opinion of your wine in hand, as Lugan would say :)

We can all learn from that. And you will hear about the nouveau. I'll post something to this effect in the ibox!

I could somehow take this all the way to wedding but I'll let it die here.

Hey, that was a joke btw, to Derf. We're cool, right?

You mean the ones of me in swaddling? Oh no!!!!!

As long as he doesn't have a pic of me, I can take it.

I hope so.

Part time. I go straight to my next job as dental hygienist from there. No time even to wash my hands. Poor me. I work so hard.

Stop banning yourself!!!

Just passing through but wanted to say I listened to the link. Thanks.

See you when I come up for air from pile of work.

Not lurking, I'm working.... hard! Just had to peek at wine board to see what's up. Couldn't help myself. I hope the tasting goes well. Am working hard to catch up so I can maybe be here.

Nice job on the ibox!

Chaos is here! It's hard to see chaos when enveloped in chaos!

See you soon, Lugan. If you want moderatorship, let me know. I can't keep my head above water, swimming as fast as I can. Hope to be back after Christmas.

Thanks for that link. Hope you get to try one at least once. The link I put in a post to junk has the a link to the bad, good and great years. Can't believe how hard it was to find a good link. I barely came up with anything in a google search. Took me forever, going through some sites I frequent to find anything descriptive enough to give an idea of what d'Yquem really is. How is it possible? Historically, one of the best wines in the world?

Anyway, I'm having a tough end of semester. Nervous breakdown material. Hope you enjoy the tasting here. I won't be around til after Christmas :( but thanks for stopping by. Raz is taking over.

Lugan, Raz will pick up the ball for this tasting, okay? I can't do it. Forgive me. It'll happen and Raz is awesome, much better at moderating than I am.

See you when the semester ends. Enjoy your wines in hand!

Am working on ibox. I think we'll set the first one for Sunday @7PM Central and see how it works out for everyone. Check ibox for the wine.

I think, after much consideration, I'll go with the nouveau for our first wine. Seems fitting somehow. It's good and easy to like and understand. Plus, it has such a nice tradition! Fun to read about. Hope you don't mind since you had it already. We'll talk about the next wine. Hmmmmmm.... maybe two wines for first tasting? What do you think? The nouveau is only 11$.

It is quite the experience. I usually don't pay close attention to color, but note the color of this one. Hope the carbon is still there. It dissipates in bottle after a time but I find the visually imperceptible bubbles make the wine perfect. This is a DELICIOUS wine, especially for the money.

Ever have a Chateau d'Ychem? It's a Sauterne, sweet but very hardy. You cannot die without having a good one at some point. For a special occasion buy a half bottle of a good year. You can look those up easily enough.

Holy moly!!! You had better look at this link, it took me forever to find it! I will never do that again. Wow, what a journey: http://www.wine-journal.com/yquem.html

Anyway, one of the finest wines on the planet.

Will try your recommendation. Thanks for it.

I went wine shopping today. I think the Georges Duboeuf Beaujolais Nouveau I had a few weeks ago would work nicely because it's easy to get and is really a nice one for little money. My husband called it watery because I've gotten him accustomed to drinking hardy wines! But it has some depth for a nouveau. I'll post it in the inbox. It was 11$.

Here's a nice description of what it is: http://www.intowine.com/beaujolais2.html

For people just starting out (and I really want them here and to participate so they see it's just a fun practice in honing your senses and not some elitist activity - hope that didn't sound elitist!) the price, crispness, fruitiness and just enough complexity is perfect. Plus, you drink it cool (around 60 degrees for me) and that is pleasant. And they go so well with so many things or simply as a refreshing glass of wine. It's a nice wine to start with and to have in your repertoire. Was thinking that maybe we can move to a Pinot Noir from the Beaujolais, which is made from the gamay grape varietal for anyone who actually reads this post, is interested and didn't know that. Then we can move from the single grape wines to a modest blend for more complexity to see what that does. One with something really fruity, like some Zin. And we can work our way up in intensity and body and sometimes price for those who want, but to start we'll keep it under 20$. Then we can list the tastings and add the price for those who want or don't want to take part. They can still read about it. Wish there were a way to chip in and share so we could try expensive wines. That's how I've had the opportunity to taste some killer stuff.

Anyway, no reason to limit this to inexpensive or expensive. There's good wine in all categories.

We'll end with some pretty serious stuff, again, in all price ranges and will get some whites in there. FYI, I hate California Chardonnay! But will do my best to find one I can live with for the experience. Bought some modestly priced French Chardonnays to try. Got hives when I went down the California Isle! Maybe I can find good but inexpensive examples of both French and California to compare. That sounds like a good thing to do. I'd like to do that.

Okay, rambled FOREVER there. Sorry!

I love the cherry best, too. Love that cherry pit (they call it skin but to me it always tasted like when you suck on the pit) flavor. The beer store here always has the raspberry and it's not that great. Cloying, but it's the popular one. I wonder how many makers of the stuff there are out there.

Have you had Duval? Talk about a beer that's like eating a meal. It's for drinking and appreciating and not to eat with. I'm happy that the first time I had it was in Holland in a cool as heck beer house. The people there were so much fun to drink with.

On a lighter note, I really like Leffe Blonde. Love the yeasty flavor. It's one of those beers that has a sort of jasmine flavor. I don't know why I never hear anybody describe this particular floral taste from the kind of hopps (I believe) as jasmine because it is exactly like that to me and once you detect it it's so obvious. But I used to drink a lot of jasmine tea so maybe that's why it's so distinctive. Come to think of it, why did I stop drinking jasmine tea?

Sorry about cat, I empathise. No wonder you like Sauvignon Blanc!!! Everything tastes like cat pee in your house anyway.

If you haven't seen the Jancis wine course (link in ibox) I highly recommend it. It's like watching a movie it's so good. She adds drama to each segment. Not just telling you what to think. I haven't watched it in a long time and am due to see it again. She says Sauvignon Blanc tastes like cat piss! Most certainly does, now that she mentions it.

I hate when I do this. I have tons of work to do today and am very effectively procrastinating here this AM.

okay

heading out to do chores, which is not okay

I left for a few and you added to this list. I've seen a minority of these. Will add to queue ones I don't have in there yet.

P.S. Knew security agent who walked in and interrogated her uninvited was brains behind operation since she became anxious the minute she heard him. That was a heavy handed, dumb move on director's part. It was a mix of obvious when it shouldn't be and too convoluted when it shouldn't be. One more thing I'd like to say about the movie I'll PM you.

Okay, I will. Is it bad, good, or didn't care confusing?

What sign are you?

Haha, sounds like I'm hitting on you :)

We saw it about the same. Regarding plot twists and it being unwieldy, I meant the political stuff and keeping track of seemingly interchangeable characters, like on the bus. I found myself thinking... now, how did all of them wind up on the same bus? Is there a good guy? Am I missing something here, cause there has to be a good guy kind of thing. Regarding the ending, can't say I thought ahead that far on this one to figure how it would end.

Not egotistical of you. There are certain movies that I think, "okay, got it" in minutes and it's hard to watch it play out.

The Interpreter: 3/5 (that's 3 out of 5, not three fifths).

Well acted, Kidman was really good. Penn was good too but he really needs to stop dying his hair the color of ink.

Major flaw in plot: No reason to care if rebels succeed, on American soil, in assassinating man responsible for crimes against humanity. Husband and I kept saying, "Do you care if they succeed in killing him? I don't". Takes a lot of the steam out of the plot when you just don't care how it turns out. Plus, my husband asked me at least thrice, "okay, WHAT'S GOING ON NOW?!!" I mean, I understood what was going on but the plot did get awfully unwieldy.

Nicole is a fine actress, I must say. Her demeanor is alluring.

I'd be like, "Uh, guess what, that's not the only thing you won't be doing tonight".

Okay, we have to hurry and truly be the first. The 18th is fine with me. Let me do a search and see what time you guys had in mind. I have to go to this big local wine store and try to find something that we can all easily get, like a frog's Leap or something like that. Have you a suggestion? Have you made suggestions in a post yet?