New Wine Label

I'm trying a new look to our wine label for this one:



I'm calling it De Rei Vini.... which translates from the Itlaian as "The King of Wines" as Barolo is known to many. The image is a photo I took of a wall fresco in the Capodemonte Museum in Naples, Italy.

The Smithsonian

I just began a subscription (a free one) to the Smithsonian and must say it's an interesting magazine. It has articles about Carnival Week in Brazil, Darwin, Lincoln and excavating Thailand's culture.

On another note, we're all getting revved up for the Super Bowl tomorrow night. It seems the entire football world is picking the Steelers to stomp the Cardinals by a huge score. I'm thinking that if Arizona's defense can hold down Pittsburgh's run game, then the Cardinals can win this thing. I'm pulling for the underdog... Arizona 24 Pittsburgh 16.

What I learned today

I went to a CE seminar today in Escondido called "DentalFest 2009". It was a great way to pick up 7 CE units to maintain my license. I took three classes. One on resorption and cracked tooth syndrome, one on dental implants and I renewed my CPR card. Toss in a continental breakfast, a light lunch and an hour with some dental product reps and I'd call that a great day.

Wine bottling 101

It's a rather simple procedure as I mentioned in a previous post below. Here are a few photos to show how it's done.

Do You Know Me?

Who Am I:

- I was born in San Francisco, CA on February 25, 1955
- I dropped out of Reed College.
- In 1976 along with a friend I we founded Apple Computer.
- In 1984 I introduced the first MacIntosh.
- I founded NeXT Computers but came back to Apple in 1996.
- You may use some of my products: I-pods, I-phones, MacBooks, etc.
- I once named a computer after my daughter "Lisa".
- In 2007 I was named by Fortune as "Most Powerful Businessman".
- Today I am in the news because I am suffering from a hormonal imbalance.
-
-
-
-
-
-
-Answer: Steve Jobs, CEO of Apple Computers.

A Bottle Washer... Me?

Yes.

In preparation to bottling six gallons of wine, I need to come up with about 30 wine bottles. Asking family and friends to save old bottles is fine... until ti comes time to cleaning off the gummed labels and cleaning the insides. I have come to appreciate the great extent some wineries go to to make sure their wine labels D-O-N-T come off easily.. or at all. So far 27 bottles have given up the glue, so to speak. Six others will need to be goo-goned to become useful.

So after that all gets done it will be time to bottle brush and sterilize the insides before siphoning the wine from the fermentation jugs into the bottles. Usually this results in some spillage.

After all that's done the fun of corking begins. I'll soak the corks for ten minutes in warm water and then use the Portuguese floor corker to plunge the softened corks into the bottle to seal the neck. I'll try to take some photos to show the process. Cleanliness has been important throughout the wine making, but it is even more critical in the bottling phase.

The wine I will be bottling will be five gallons (25 bottles) of Barolo wine from the piedmont region of Italy. The other gallon (five bottles) is a white wine made from table grapes and Niagra grape juice. It was an experiment so we'll see how it goes.

Do You Know Me?

Who Am I?

- I was born in Malaga, Spain on October 25, 1881
- I attended the Royal Academy of San Fernando in Madrid, Spain in 1897.
- My father was an artist and stopped painting when I became better than he.
- I stayed neutral during WWI, The Spanish Civil War and WWII.
- My most famous painting is the German's bombing of Guernica, Spain (1937).
- In 1944 I joined the French Communist Party.
- They say I am the father of Cubism.
- A collection of my earliest works in on display in Barcelona, Spain.
- On April 8, 1973, (the day I died) my last words were: “Drink to me, drink to my health, you know I can’t drink any more.”
-
-
-
-
-
-
-Answer: Pablo Picasso