01/02/06 – Rioja

By Jesse on January 2, 2006

Crazy winos,

Welcome back from your inexcusable periods of sedentary, gluttonous frivolity. Time to get back into the groove. The wine groove. Tuesday night at 9 PM is when it’s gonna happen.

As we decided last YEAR, we will now be moving from a grape-based (varietal) analysis of wine and beginning a region-based analysis. Of course, there are many grapes that are often strongly associated with certain regions (such as Pinot Noir with Burgundy), but since that’s not always the case, our region-based analysis shouldn’t be terribly prone to overlapping with things we’ve already covered.

The first region we’ll be examining is Rioja, Spain’s most well-known region, which produces some excellent reds (often made with Tempranillo) and some good whites as well. Please feel free to bring either a white or a red Rioja to tomorrow evening’s meeting. It’ll be held at our apartment in Sherman Oaks. I believe that everyone in this e-mail knows the location, but just to be safe: the address is (nice try) #4, which is in 91423. It’s in between Ventura and Moorpark, near Coldwater Canyon. Walk around the right side of the house and up the stairs. There’s usually plenty of street parking. We have copious amounts of wine glasses, so no need to bring your own. What you could bring, though, is a friend… our numbers may dwindle after a three-week hiatus.

Any questions, let me know. See you all tomorrow night, and hopefully some new faces as well.

Jesse