What's Wrong With My Wine?!!!

So I got near the bottom of a 3-day old bottle of shiraz, and this is what I found!

What are those black particles? Ewww. I wonder how much of that I drank...

Any ideas? I think the prime suspect has to do with the cork. It was pretty brittle. The corkscrew hardly worked on it. I don't know, Imagine an old rotten cork and that's pretty much it. However, the wine smelled and tasted fine. I'm not exactly sure that's what it should have tasted like, since I've never tried this one before. But it wasn't bad.

The bottle was vacuum sealed between uses.

Here's another angle of the mysterious particles:

Another Great Use for Wine

As if there weren't enough reasons to drink wine.

Well, I just found another one. I believe wine promotes good dental hygiene. How so?

It's simple. Red wine can give a slight purple tint to your teeth and cause you to brush that away, but it also dyes any gunk in between your teeth purple. This helps you to floss more thoroughly! Right?...

I would post a picture, but I don't think that is needed, nor is it, er, not disgusting. You get the idea.

Growler Lamp

I shamelessly copied this post from my other blog, The Collegiate Handyman. I think it relates somewhat to The Vino Newbie.

So I was tidying up the garage today, and I found this broken old table lamp. About two years ago, I got the cheapo lamp at a local evil big-box store. Within a month that thing broke. One of the "metal" legs gave out. So I pulled a MacGyver and attached the workings of the lamp, which amazingly still worked, to an empty beer bottle.

It was quite handy, but the 12 oz. beer bottle didn't serve as a good base. I didn't give it much use. Back to the garage this morning, and I'm wondering what I can do with it. Well, I decided to use it with a growler bottle which would serve as a much better base.

This is an easy project and here's how to do it...

You'll need the workings of a lamp. I discovered today that you can easily get everything you need at your local home improvement store. It's all very easy to put together if you have all the pieces. Of course, you'll need the growler bottle. Here's the tricky part, you'll want to be able to pop the lamp part off if you ever need to use the bottle. So the best solution is to attach the lamp part to a cork, which fits snugly in the bottle neck. So go get yourself a cork too.


Here, I had just drilled through the cork and attached the lamp part to it with a bolt. Be gentle when drilling through the cork, since it is a cork and all...


Depending on your lamp pieces, you may not have this problem. I had to find some way to attach the bulb holder to the shade holder. I used a cable tie and some hot-melt glue.

Here's the final product. Not too shabby, huh? It might be a good idea to fill the bottle with something to give it a solid base. Grain or hops would be appropriate. Beer is probably not a good idea.

Not shown is how I did the wiring. It's pretty simple. Just attach the wire to the two connections on the bulb holder part. Pretty easy stuff.

This is a fairly easy project and it sure won't take all day. In fact, this went very quickly and I didn't run into any problems at all.

I hope this inspires you.

Smell: A little vinegary, but a hint of sweetness.
Taste: Not a very pronounced taste.
Feel: Is this wine or grape juice?

This is an easy wine to drink. I'd say good for the newbie, but a more seasoned wine drinker wouldn't have much interest. Not to knock this wine, but I think I actually don't like it very much. This is a big step for me. I mean, I've tasted bad wines for one reason or another, but this wine is decent, I just know that it's not one of my favorites. Could I be developing an actual wine palette?

Then again, it's hard to complain with a platter of cheese and crackers in front of me...

Now Using Twitter

I've started using twitter to complement the blog. I guess I can send updates through text messages on my phone. Maybe there will be some interesting stuff, maybe not...

You can see my twitter updates on the right panel of the page.

Review Number Two!

I'm trying things a little differently here on my second review. As you can see, I have a picture of an *unopened* bottle. This is a good start.

Tonight I have a Meridian again, but this time it is a Cabernet Sauvignon.

My first sip (completely sober, I might add):
The tannins immediately strike me as... hmm
Ok, the bouquet is... err...
Alright, I'll be honest, I don't really know this technical lingo.

The wine tastes strong, but not overbearing. It's good stuff. Well worth the $6. Funny story, I actually got this at a different grocery store in town. If you recall, I tried two other Meridian varieties in my first review. I also saved $6 on this bottle. They must be getting ready for a recall or something... Anyway, it went great with the pasta I had for dinner.

That brings me to the subject of pairing wine with food. I'd suggest first trying it with pasta, because frankly, you can't go wrong with pasta (unless you are my old roommate).

I'd really recommend wine with food if you find the wine to be too strong at first. A lot of wine newbies have trouble because wine is a little more intense than beer. Food can really help calm it down. And no, you should not add pop to wine, that's called pulling a "Rew."

Songs About Wine

Sometimes music and wine go hand in hand. Here are three of my favorite songs about wine:

Artist: The Cat Empire
Album: Two Shoes
Song: The Wine Song

The ultimate drunken chanting wine song. Heck, the singer sounds drunk. This song is fast (at times), fun, and catchy. You'll find yourself humming along the next day, if you can remember it...





Artist: The National
Album: Alligator
Song: All the Wine

Cool and calming. Drink wine and feel good about yourself. Maybe a little too good.

You think you're too good for school, but I got news for you... You're not!

Grab all the wine for yourself.


Artist: The Murder City Devils
Album: In Name and Blood
Song: I drink the Wine

Murder City Devils Haiku:

Resist stabbing him
Enjoy hard rock pipe organs
Feel nothing at all


Any songs that I missed?

I'll be looking for more soon.