screwcap.co

Porkshops and appleshawsh and a screw cap!

Tonight we cooked up some delicious breaded pork chops served with chunky applesauce and a salad. Oh, and paired it with a bottle of screw cap wine of course! I chose Bodegas Castano Monastrell 2009 because it’s cheap and I’ve fallen behind in Cam’s screw cap wine review challenge, plus it has sort of a dada-esque label, which I think is pretty neat.

Here’s my review: An inky purple color is followed by the sweet scent of mink oil, vhs tapes, and exclamation. The mouthfeel lingers with silky tannins and notes of gently used shaving cream. A second whiff reveals the smell of drill motor and forgotten strawberries in a men’s fitting room. This comes in a screw cap bottle to preserve freshness, but easily could be mistaken as coming out of a box. Improves with age (i.e. after the 3rd glass).

Cheers!
Maynard

PS This review caused a fight with my fiancé because he loves this wine so much he’s thinking of marrying it instead of me. Also, because he said the pork chops and applesauce quote originated with Peter Brady and I said Humphrey Bogart. Who’s side are you on?

hearty spicy manly wine with sweet undertones

There was an employee wine sale today at Wine.com and all of the money is going to support Japan. Whoever thought of this idea is obviously awesome. In light of my wine review competition with Cam, I used this philanthropic opportunity to stock up on some screwcap wines, while also supporting a cause. Unfortunately, the wines I bought are not currently available on the Wine.com website so will not help me out in our competition. However, this is not going to stop me from drinking these wines and sharing my reviews with you, my loyal readers, yes all two of you.

Tonight I am drinking Balgownie Estate 2006 Cabernet Sauvignon. 

I paired it with left over rotini pasta in a vodka cream sauce topped with shredded parmesan cheese and a side of toasted sourdough bread, buttered and sprinkled with garlic powder. Some grilled meat off of the grill would have been better.

What stands out most to me is how spicy the wine tastes. After giving it some time to breath, the sweeter flavors started to open up, but its most distinct and consistent characteristic was the spice. It’s like a hearty spicy manly wine with sweet undertones that you have to wait for. It’s like the Ron Swanson of wines. If I were to redesign the label, I definitely would put a mustache on it. Not a hipster waxed handle bar curly que mustache, a thick, Daniel Day-Lewis (There Will Be Blood and your milkshake will be drunk) mustache.

Challenge Accepted

There comes a time in everyone’s life when something happens that changes them forever. Something humbling, something that makes them look at the world in a different light, something that makes them re-define who they are and who they want to be. Maybe it was a trip to a third world country, maybe it was volunteering in a soup kitchen on Thanksgiving, giving birth, falling in love or getting their heart broken for the first time, listening to a great speech, getting arrested for buying heroin from an undercover cop posing as a prostitute, you know, etc.

My moment happened in the summer of 1997 in Lake Forest, Illinois. It was at camp. It was during a pudding eating contest. I was the smallest contestant at 5’1 and weighing in at about 95 pounds. I didn’t think I stood a chance, but I gave it my all anyway. And you know what? I ate the shit out of that pudding.

I didn’t look up once, I ate that pudding with fervor and didn’t care about getting chocolate on my forehead, the potential of choking, or looking like an idiot. I was determined and I tried my hardest. I didn’t win. I came in second place. All I had to show for it was chocolate pudding stains on my badminton player of the week t-shirt.

What does this have to do with screwcap wines? After that moment, after coming in second, I decided that I wasn’t going to come in second again. Yesterday, Cam challenged me to see who could review more screwcap wines by 5/1/11* using Wine.com’s new review system and I’m not going to come in second.

It’s on Fortin! And I’m going to raise the bar by also reviewing my wines on screwcap.co. First one coming soon…

*Only reviews 3/23/11 and later count.

WineShopper Photo Contest

What the heck is WineShopper?

It’s a wine deal of the day website owned and operated by Wine.com. Wines offered range from casual drinking (even an occasional screwcap) good for a BBQ, classy wines to bring to a dinner party (that your hosts will think you paid more for) to collectibles that you can save for that special occasion. A majority of the wines are rated 90 points or more (on a scale of 100, that’s like an A) by critics and all are discounted more than you’ll find at most other places online.

It’s worth signing up to get their emails, even if you don’t buy any wine. It’s a good way to learn about a variety of wines and wineries and get some cool knowledge you can impress your friends with. 

Reading the wine reviews from the professional critics are worth it alone. Before long you’ll be talking like a professional critic yourself! You’ll be able to describe wines as having a “smooth and long finish with an elegant mouthfeel,” (I’m not making that up, that is certified professional wine critic speakery) without even cracking a smile. Well maybe, I’ve been reading wine reviews almost daily for the past six months, and reviews like that still make me giggle. Don’t even get me started on “chewy.”

Yeah, yeah, yeah…so what about this photo contest?

The WineShopper sign-in page has had the same photo on it for months. MONTHS! It needs some refreshing. You’re creative, you like photos, I bet you have a better idea of what can go up there, right? Something that will encapsulate wine, friendship and good times. Post a pic on the WineShopper facebook page http://www.facebook.com/WineShopper and they’ll stick it in the “customer photo hunt” album AND it may be featured on their website. How rad would that be?

Pretty rad.