Pooch's Comedical Rendition of "Two Buck Chuck"

It is very amusing to me that a mass-produced wine recently scored a surprise win for the top chardonnay at the California State Fair Commercial Wine Competition. The connoisseurs may cringe, the snobs may even sob but the judges have spoken: California's best chardonnay costs less than $3. That's crazy cheap !

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Charles Shaw Chardonnay, better known as "Two Buck Chuck," beat hundreds of other wines and was named the top prize in a prestigious tasting competition in California. "The characteristics that we look for in our gold medal winner … a nice creamy butter, fruity … it was a delight to taste," said 2007 California State Fair Commercial Wine Competition judge Michael Williams. The affordable wine beat out 350 other California chardonnays to win the double gold. Second place went to an $18 bottle, and the most expensive wines at the event, at the price of $55, didn't even medal.

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To find this prize winner, you need not go to a fancy wine shop or elite retailer. Charles Shaw Chardonnay is mass-produced in California and only sold through the quirky Trader Joe's grocery stores. "We choose to sell good quality wines at $2 a bottle because we think it's a fair price," winemaker Fred Franzia told ABC News' Ryan Owens. "We think the other people are charging too much."

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Get What You Pay For? After its big win, ABC News decided to put the cheap stuff to a blind taste test and see if it would repeat the victory. It was disguised and served along with chardonnays of various prices, including a $120 bottle.
In this test, Caroline Styne, co-owner and wine director of two trendy Los Angeles area restaurants, judged the wines -- but to a different outcome. She ranked "Chuck" dead last, but second-to-last was the $120 variety. Oh well...

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No one said this was an exact science. Just ask the chief judge of the competition that gave the gold to a wine that costs less than a latte at Starbucks. "There's going to be people out there that don't like the wine and that's OK," said chief judge G. M. "Pooch" Puchlowski. " You know, there are a lot of wines I don't like. … So you drink what you like, don't drink what you don't and ultimately you go home a happy camper."

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For the record, "Pooch" is my kind of guy! Just say it like it is...and of course ONLY drink the wines that you like, without regard to price, prestige or general snobbery (blah blah blah blahhh...) rhetoric. His tasting, more importantly, shows that there is no direct correlation between price and quality.

Bienvenido a Tejas del Sur

Welcome to South Texas for all of my gringo friends. In my work, as many of you know, I am commissioned to work in different places. Earlier this week, McAllen, TX was that destination. After finishing field work early on Tuesday, I decided that a little sight seeing was in order. After all, I was happy that it was simply NOT raining!

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I started to make the jaunt to South Padre but noticed the sign for this cool looking park off Hwy 83 (right on the border) that caught my attention. The sign read Anzalduas Dam Park and Wildlife Refuge. Well, I used to see "Jim" from Mutual of Omaha do this all the time. If it was fun and interesting for him, then it should be the same for me. Here we go...

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Starting with the bottom photo is the 1- road off of the main highway. This was very cool...palm trees on either side of the road for miles. Yeehaww!

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This 2-place along the Rio Grande has wild rice growing all along the banks of the river. It was loaded with birds, ducks and wildlife of all kinds. My dog would have loved a "walk" in this place.

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After getting to the end of the road, 3- I started to get a little nervous. It suddenly dawned on me while taking this photo that someone of Central or South American origination might be trolling around in the woods, hoping to find a ride further into America.

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Their story would go something like this:

"Well...Mi Amigos, we were hiding in the woods when here comes this pendejo Cajun Boy down the road. He not only has this shiny new rental Jeep, with a full tank of gas but he also has the cold A/C blowing for us, as well. That dude even had snacks and bottled water waiting, inside of the car. It was like he was waiting for us, or something. He was so nice... Ehh, what are e-lec-tro-lytes? Because when Pedro, here, ate a few of them from out of a snack bag on the floor of the Jeep...he couldn't keep still. He was skipping and hopping around in the back seat, like a Mexican Jumping Bean! So, I told him to sit down so I could see or I wuz gonna' throw his ass out on the side of the road." Man, he was annoying.

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"Anyway, when that dude stopped to take a picture of something in the ditch, we popped him in the head and our prayers were answered! Vaminous Muchachos! You know...that poor dude thrashed around in the road for quite a while, before finally passing out. I saw him still kicking, in the rear view mirror when we drove off. (shrug by the immigrant) Oh well."

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Back to real life... On the way out, 4-you knew things were still interesting when the authorities post snake warning signs. SNAKES, what the hell!! Are the friggin' snakes so large that they will tear up your rental vehicle, should you exceed 20 mph and hit them? And, I suppose you would not want to let your pets or small children roam freely around this place. They...may disappear... (begin the playing of Twilight Zone music)

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So, this trip illustrates the quintessential South Texas. Wild, beautiful and dangerous. Sometimes all at the same time. I know, I know...a little too adventurous for my own good but man was it ever fun!!

Vin Du Jour, con't...

Incognito Viognier

The Viognier formerly known as Roussanne

Vintner's Poem:

"I once had a dream of peaches and cream,

But wasn't quite sure of what I had seen.

Noble and bold, like tales of old,

A bright burst of sunshine, this fine liquid gold."

Beautifully made, this sweet serenade,

Who is this unknown at the wine masquerade?"

This wine was awarded "Best Rhone in the World" as a Roussanne at the 2000 Los Angeles International Wine Competition. However, using DNA testing, U.C. Davis later determined that this unique grape is a rare clone of Viognier that mysteriously appeared in California during the past decade and is not, in fact, a Roussanne after all! The phantom clone originated somewhere in the Chateauneuf du Pape region of the Rhone Valley in France, then mistakenly sold to the grower - the talented Mr. Ripkin - as Roussanne, who, finally, sold the resulting grapes to Michael~David Vineyards. The rest is history!

Incognito's grapes are grown in the Ripken Vineyard, east of the Carquinez Straits in the Sacramento River Delta region of California. Warm days and cool evenings - reminiscent of the clone's native Rhone Valley - produce the powerful and intense fruit with a sultry body that characterizes this wine, making it unlike any other Viognier.

Scooter Speak: The style is very fruit forward, round, weighty, juicy, potent and dry. It is so fruity that you expect it to be sweet but it is not. The appearance is of light straw, with a greenish tint. It has aromas of peach, cold weather blossoms and noble apricot. The mouth feel is creamy, smooth, weighty, medium-bodied and tart. The mouth filling peaches and cream flavors are joined by a big warm kick in the glass. I can see why this wine could be confused for a Roussanne.

Clearly, the best Viognier (I think) that I've had in years... Oh yeah...the Phantom of the Opera mask on the front and the Mardi Gras-esque decorations on the back label are very cool !

The Adventures of Bad Karma Scooter

This morning, after the rain subsided, I went for a ride at the Veloway (cycling park). For the record, I really like riding at this place. There is no car hazard, a cyclist's most feared. As a matter of fact, the worst thing to be concerned with is the potential to run over little kids or inline skaters who do not abide by the Veloway rule that states "slower riders keep 'your ass' to the right". Or, at least that is what I thought.

So, I'm cruising around the park's track doing the usual hotdogging, cutting corners, splashing through the water hazards (that make their way across the track at low-lying areas) and generally having fun. Did I mention that I really like this park? Anyway, back to the story... Then as I'm speeding around a curve to the left (see lower, right corner of Veloway map above), my back tire hits a rock, stick or something in the roadway. Clearly, I didn't see it. Centrifugal force causes my now airborne rear tire to lurch to the right, about 5 or 6 inches. It was then that three things happened simultaneously: I was absolutely sure I was going to have my first Big Time crash, I nearly crapped my stretchy biking shorts and the woman I recently passed (about five bike lengths back) was gasping in horror as I lost control of my bike. This was going to end badly...

Somehow or another, I regained control of that bike without crashing. I don't know how I did it but it happened. Having ridden for about 30 miles at this point and mysteriously avoided catastrophe, I decided it was time for a break. So I pull over and sat on the shaded bench at the park's entrance. Then, I began mulling over how or why my near crash happened. The reason then occurred to me.

Bad Karma. Earlier this week a friend of mine, Erin, smacked into a tree while going on an early morning run. She writes about it in her blog. I, being the perpetual smart ass, called her "Ms. Magoo" in the comments section, as her incident reminded me of that old cartoon. Well...clearly the Karma Gods were pissed at me and decided that Le Scooter Voler was going down for that!

So, Erin (aka, ICE) I apologize and further promise to never call you any non-endearing names in the future.

Random Thought: I hope that does the trick... (Scooter nervously looks left, then looks right in an attempt to determine if the Karma Gods are listening) or else I'll have to start wearing a friggin' football helmet, elbow and knee pads on future rides!

Ahh, Yes...College Football Season

To all LSU Tiger fans, you've been there and you've seen this before. The drum cadence starts, the crowd cheers and the adrenaline begins to flow.

So, it's official...41 days until the season begins !! We know where ESPN will be that day, Death Valley. And to all Tiger opponents, all I have to say is LOOK OUT ...

GEAUX TIGERS !!

Here are the tunes: http://www.lsusports.net/ViewArticle.dbml?DB_OEM_ID=5200&KEY=&ATCLID=177310

Unwrap The Present

A common theme that frequently comes up in both my personal and professional workings is fear. To know that every moment -- regardless of how it comes wrapped -- is a gift greater than you can give yourself, is to be well on your way to a life without fear. This ought to get the wheels turning...

So, our usual reaction to any event not of our choosing is to fear it, so that our tendency is to see these experiences as being adversarial. These unwanted moments are seen as threats to our present happiness, as well as being a thorn in our tomorrow, because with any unwanted event comes the fear of not having the right answers to address the flood of new questions arising out of life's sudden turn.

But what if what we think is the truth of these moments is not the truth at all? What if it were possible to see the truth of these moments in a whole new light? Imagine if we could know in any of these given moments, that life isn't handing us a bunch of do-or-die questions upon which hinge happiness or defeat -- that our unwanted experiences don't deliver us into our enemy's hands, but lead us instead to living answers whose soul purpose is to help us realize the great Friend we have in Truth? Wouldn't such a reality, once realized, end those nagging fears that ride the dark tailcoat of the unexpected? And wouldn't the end of these fears be the same as being free to live fearlessly? Of course! And, as we are about to find out, this is precisely the case.

When we recall the turning points in our lives, the times where we had no choice but to go through those wrenching self changes that come with personal crisis, it shouldn't be hard to remember how sure we were that these same trials heralded our doom. But looking back, as we must do to grow, can't we see that the real crisis we faced was one born not so much of changing external conditions as it was of our being asked to take part in the birth of a new level of our own consciousness? A brief example will prove this finding:

Experience reveals that the actual nature of any painful moment in life has little to do with what we first blame our pain upon. Take for example, that "he (or she) wants to leave me" isn't the real pain; the real pain is that if he (or she) does, it means there has to be something "wrong" with me. Besides, without him/her in my life as they have been, I won't know what to do with myself; I'll be uncertain as to the worth of who I am, or how I should view myself. And so, being in fear of having to deal with what feels akin to the end of ourselves, we resist or deny anything that threatens us with such an untimely demise. At this stage, our general response is to make unwanted compromises with ourselves, or otherwise somehow grovel to keep the passing relationship alive. However, try as we might, what will come to pass does just that. Maybe it takes years, months, or maybe only days, but we are slowly dragged through the doorway of a life lesson that is no longer avoidable. And what do we invariably find?

Behind each of these seeming impossible moments stands an unseen (at the time) purpose: to bring us to a certain realization or experience of the truth about our self. But while this medicine may be bitter, it also heals us. How?

For starters, we realize (in hindsight) that what has transpired was not only a gift in disguise, but that we are much better off for having worked our way through its challenging wrapping! Now we understand, beyond the shadow of any doubt, that we couldn't begin the next level of our life journey until we had completed these lessons now behind us. In other words, it's clear to us that what we first fought so hard to avoid was really a truth come to rescue us from self-ignorance -- a truth that not only explained why our lives were as they were, thus freeing us from a mistaken sense of self, but in the same moment set the stage for our further self-development. Can you see the truth of this recurring set of conditions and how it continually manifests itself through the course of our life experiences? We have reached the threshold of a great truth about ourselves.

We have realized that our experiences in life ultimately serve the purpose of revealing some unseen truth about us, to us. If this is true, amply evidenced by our own accounting, then can we not begin to perceive that these very experiences, regardless of their content, must be an expression of the truth for the purpose of helping us discover the reality behind these same life experiences? To help you more deeply understand this liberating insight, let's view it from a slightly different angle.

Each cycle of our life, as marked by each subsequent level of personal growth, comes to a happy close only when the lessons driving that cycle are finally learned. This much should be clear to us. But what remains cloudy is that each life lesson learned that served to close out each cycle came to us in the form of a needed truth. And further, that this same truth always arrives in some distinct realization about our own nature -- one that had not only been unconscious to us, but that is now recognized as having been secretly responsible for the events of that life cycle now being exited. Can you see the tremendous implications in this finding?

First, it means that in the middle of any unwanted experience, waiting there all along for us to realize it, is the truth that liberates and lifts us above our former limited understanding that was responsible for that very experience. In other words, our experiences revolve around, and are actually created to reveal, certain life lessons yet to be learned. And if we would dare see further (which we must to grow), this discovery reveals the unimaginable. There exists behind these life lessons a timeless truth -- one that has not only perceived what we need before we do, but that somehow actively arranges our life experiences for the sole purpose of revealing itself to our soul.

We have before us evidence of a complete wisdom revealed to us as truth (call it what you will) that is the secret fabric of our lives, beginning to realize a whole new order of self-understanding. Here we come upon a realization that has no opposite. Failure ceases to exist as a fear. The painful idea of loss, of falling down and losing our way, forever loses its sting because in the light of our new understanding we see now that the universe itself not only wants us to be victorious individuals, but actually wills it... If happiness is the absence of fear, then this is a synthesis of it !

Vin Du Jour, con't...

Yalumba Hand Picked Shiraz + Viognier 2004

93 POINTS - "A brilliant effort for the 2004 Shiraz/Viognier (95% of the former and 5% of the later). Utilized French 300 liter barrels (only 10% new). Super-rich, heady, and full-bodied, it offers aromas of roasted meals, Provencal herbs, blackberries, cassis, new saddle leather, and licorice, terrific fruit as well as texture, and supple, explosive finish. Drink it over the next 4-5 years."
(Robert Parker, Jnr, The Wine Advocate Issue 167 (USA), 31 October 2006)

Scooter Speak: This dude is deep, dark purpley red in color. It opens with mulberries, black cherries and sweet anise, overlying subtle flavors of musk, violets, Asian spice and hints of white fleshy fruits. The palate is big but stylish with a velvety smooth mouth-feel. Displaying sweet chocolate (that's right...chocolate), dark fruits and musk combined with an exotic spicy compote. This is a complex wine held together with well integrated oak and soft fine tannins.

This wine has a touch of Viognier to the blend for silkier textures and hints of spice, emulating a French practice common in Northern Rhône Valley’s Côte-Rôtie appellation, where Viognier grows alongside Syrah. Other Vin Du Jour wines use some Grenache, the dominant grape of the Southern Rhône, which lightens the texture and creates a different fruit profile altogether. There are even a couple of straight Grenache bottlings, which has become an incipient trend in South Australia these days.

(BTW, in case it's not apparent, these are the wines being served at the wine tasting later this Summer. Stay tuned boys and girls...)