New Pics

Here's some pics (post-storm) for ya...

Too Many Links

I've just been thinking about anonymity online, and not from the angle you might think (if you knew I did information security for a living)...
It all started cuz I was thinking about putting some pictures I've taken up here in this blog. Now, I'm not knocking blogger at all, but their layouts for pictures is, um, very limited, so I was thinking of linking to something like flickr to lay out the photos, if that was possible (embedding, anyone?). But then, I was thinking that I'm very anonymous at the moment on a picture service (or seven)... And that said anonymity is kinda cool (as is this blog's anonymity, but more on that in a minute). And by linking too much stuff together, you can suffer that fate that all superheroes want desperately to avoid: divulging their secret identity. If the watchword of this movie was "too many secrets," then mine is "too many links."

But there's a lack of anonymity, too. There are probably as many people I know reading this blog as there are people I don't know reading this blog. And that's cool. It's a way for people I don't get to see or hear from much to see what kind of wackiness is up in my life. They can leave comments if they like, but it's not required. There are people you can get to know, as well as letting people get to know you (albeit in a strange, voyeuristic fashion :).

OK, that made little sense, I suppose, but I tried....

Wine of The Week: March 2nd, 2007

I've been getting into a LOT of pinot lately; ever since I've been studying the Burgundy region for wine class. There's all kinds of good pinots out there—including some fine, light ones from the Vin De Pays region of France—but the one I've come to really, really like lately is The Four Graces Pinot Noir, pictured over there on the left.

Supple, tasty and more full-bodied than most pinots, this Willamette Valley gem is expensive, coming in at $28.00 a bottle retail, but well worth it.

I tasted the 2004, which has really nice, balanced red fruit flavors. And I mean really well balanced. There's raspberry, strawberry and cherry in here, but with none of that overpowering, artificially-flavored kind of element. And no sour notes, either, which I have lately been tasting in anything with red cherry in it (I think my palette is changing, but who knows? In any event, I shy away from much that people describe as cherry flavors these days, just because I want to avoid that sour cherry tang). There's also a slight vanilla oak flavor. Smooth, balanced and again, supple. Almost velvet-like, and in a good way.

And this wine is a whopper too: 14.5% abv. Not that you can really feel it... well, not until it's too late, anyway. :) The bottle gets emptied deceptively quickly, whether you are drinking it yourself (as I did the 1st time I had it), or with other folks (as I did the 2nd time I had it ;). And there's no feeling of "oh, I shouldn't have had that much of it;" on the contrary, you wish you had more of it (and more of it, and more of it, and more of it...).


The Four Graces website has quite a lot of information for those interested, including full notes on fermentation and maturation of each of their offerings, which I find not only educational—I'm always interested in how a wine I like turned out the way it did—but really detailed.

That's my pick this week. Not cheap, but quality, crafted wines like this hardly ever are. So, if you enjoy a quality wine and have the money, I'd say you won't be sorry, nor feel your money wasted on this one. Enjoy!