Tag: Wine

Wine of the Week: SummerFall is, somehow, a perfect tailgating sake

“Take this outside and drink it there”

Welcome back to FTW’s Beverage of the Week series. Here, we mostly chronicle and review beers, but happily expand that scope to any beverage (or food) that pairs well with sports. Yes, even cookie dough whiskey.

SummerFall is not subtle about what it wants to be. “Take this outside and drink it there” is printed right on the box. “Our sake tastes better outside” is right above the logo on the can. Even the name of this canned wine suggests sipping under a warm blue sky.

This is all fairly new to me. My sake experience is confined to, uh, whatever was low budget enough for sake bombs at a local Nashville Japanese restaurant in grad school. Wine in general is not my jam, and if I’m gonna be out in the sun — at a tailgate, by a beach, etc — my first instinct is now and will forever be to grab a beer.

But I’d like to think I’m open minded. Let’s see if a carbonated sake can scratch an itch that beer currently handles like a low-wattage belt sander.

SummerFall Sake: A

Under the guidance of the can, I’m drinking this on a warm summer day. In the parking lot of the former Miller Park.

Cracking the can unleashes the unmistakable scent of white wine. Dig deep and you get some fructose flavors, but to my untrained nose… Yeah, I can’t tell if that’s sake or chardonnay.

The first sip sets it apart. It’s flavorful and, notably, sweet. The lingering low key simmer of white wine isn’t there. And while that means you won’t get a dry finish, it’s a pleasant aftertaste you won’t mind.

The fruit here is apparent. Even though there’s no grape involved here, I still feel like I’m getting a bit of that — maybe it’s just a mental association with wine. I get cherry and a little orange as well. The can says pear and, yeah, I can see that too.

I’m drinking at a Brewers tailgate and it’s perfect for that. A handy way to deliver some easy to drink booze before venturing toward $18 beers. I’m not a sake guy, but I like this.

“It’s just a really nice, clean, easy sake,” my wife notes. “Not too sweet.” So, there you go. Even someone who likes sake likes SummerFall.

Would I drink it instead of a Hamm’s?

This is a pass/fail mechanism where I compare whatever I’m drinking to my baseline cheap beer. That’s the standby from the land of sky-blue waters, Hamm’s. So the question to answer is: on a typical day, would I drink SummerFall over a cold can of Hamm’s?

Yeah. I can’t believe I’m picking any wine over Hamm’s, but I would. This was incredibly flavorful, sweet and easy to drink without any of the slightly sour aspects of a typical white wine.

Beverage of the Week: Birthday Sex Wine. Yep, that’s a thing now.

The wine with underpants on the label is the fancy one.

Welcome back to FTW’s Beverage of the Week series. Here, we mostly chronicle and review beers, but happily expand that scope to any beverage (or food) that pairs well with sports. Yes, even cookie dough whiskey.

I can appreciate Jeremih’s pivot. In spring 2024, a member of his public relations team has reached out with an email promising “Birthday Sex Wine.”

Without context, that’s a string of words destined straight for the spam filter. Fortunately, it’s very real. That was the R&B artist’s first single. Just the first two words. You remember it, I bet. Jeremih pronounces “couch” with four syllables. It’s the song that posits the perfect gift was Jeremih’s [expletive] after all.

If not, you’d definitely know him from Don’t Tell ‘Em. Either way, the dude is roughly a thousand times platinum but fame doesn’t last forever so it’s always wise to diversify.

Thus, Birthday Sex Wine. There do not appear to be any restrictions on the wine itself. You can drink it, literally, any day of the year. It in no way promises coitus or even smooches. But there is a pair of lacy panties on the label, which, huh.

Before I dig in, a caveat. I am not a wine drinker. My exposure to the medium came pounding bottles of whatever leftovers customers had left behind at the end of long night rowing gondolas in downtown Providence. This was not the launch pad you’d expect, and now I lean heavily toward beers and cocktails over wine. I don’t hate wine, I just don’t really drink it that often.

Let’s see if that clouds my judgment of, sigh, Birthday Sex.

Birthday Sex Wine: B

Why yes, that is a poorly printed pair of panties where the label should be. Ironically, right below where it says “naked chardonnay.” And what eager drinker *wouldn’t* want wine with underpants on it? Finally, a white wine for the ladies out there.

In fairness, it does seem to be a nice pair of panties. I assume the Franzia version of this would be a Hanes Her Way combo in plain gray. These are the debates you get when you’re talking wine. That’s why Sideways was such a box office smash.

Anyway, it smells… well it smells like white wine. Grapes and oak and the stark reminder I don’t drink nearly enough wine to know what the hell I’m talking about. The first sip is smooth and very easy to drink. There’s none of the harshness that can put off a novice wino like myself. The flavor doesn’t pop once it hits your tongue but instead lingers and builds.

That turns into intense sweet grape with a hint of warmth and some of that aforementioned woodiness. It sticks to the roof of your mouth a little, lingering with minor sourness rather than dryness toward the end. It’s not my thing, but it’s not something I wouldn’t drink either. With that in mind, I asked my lady friend/roommate/wife, who actually does drink wine, what she thought.

I like it. I like dryer, more oaky chardonnays and this leans that way, but subtle. It isn’t sweet or too buttery either, which is how I like my wines.

Apparently they are trying to keep it in an accessible price point, so bonus. There you go. Review. Done. 🙂

Would I drink it instead of a Hamm’s?

This is a pass/fail mechanism where I compare whatever I’m drinking to my baseline cheap beer. That’s the standby from the land of sky-blue waters, Hamm’s. So the question to answer is: on a typical day, would I drink, sigh, Birthday Sex over a cold can of Hamm’s?

Again, this feels unfair since I rarely drink wine in the first place. It’s a totally reasonable wine that tastes fine chilled. I could easily power through a couple glasses at a dinner party where I don’t know the hosts well enough to ask for a beer. But also I would make sure my keys stay in my pocket the whole night, because things are gonna get weird later.

The careless, frugal A’s messed up with their wine retirement gift for Miguel Cabrera in every way

Miguel Cabrera may have preferred non-alcoholic champagne.

Future Hall of Fame slugger Miguel Cabrera is nearing his retirement from the MLB and he is receiving some love in his final professional games.

It’s not uncommon practice to provide something nice for a legend before they transition into retirement. The Guardians gave him a custom guitar as a nod to the nearby Rock & Roll Hall of Fame, for example.

On Thursday night, meanwhile, the A’s honored Cabrera with a cabernet sauvignon from Caymus Vineyards. It was nice of the team to honor the 12-time All-Star and two-time AL MVP. But a little more thought may have gone a long way.

Cabrera spent three months in an outpatient treatment program to focus on getting sober in 2010. He faced legal issues due to his drinking in 2009 and again in 2011.

When the Tigers won their division in 2012, out of respect for his sobriety, the team made sure to have non-alcoholic champagne available. Still, though, Cabrera excused himself from the celebration.

As recently as last year, when he recorded the 3,000th hit of his career, he celebrated with a glass of non-alcoholic champagne. The A’s really could have used just an extra second of research to make sure they respected his sobriety.

Oakland, however, isn’t the only team to make this sort of mistake. The Marlins (where he played from 2003 until 2007 and where he won his only World Series) got Cabrera a bottle of rum.

Houston got a bottle of wine for Cabrera as well but at least that one was a touch more personal as it was from the vineyard that Astros manager Dusty Baker owns.

The A’s (almost predictably) didn’t have as much to offer in the mindfulness department. If you were wondering if this is some kind of vintage wine that could have value, the results show that he could have gotten his hands on his own at the same size from the same year for around $90.

Now, if your buddy got you a bottle of well-reviewed $90 wine, that is pretty generous. But remember: The A’s are worth over $1 billion!

In fairness to the organization, though, it’s not like they are spending a ton of money on their own players either. They currently have the lowest payroll in the MLB and Cabrera has a yearly salary that is more than 50 percent of the entire books for the A’s.

For what it is worth, the bottle was autographed by the team. But it is unlikely how much that would actually increase the value of the present. It isn’t exactly exciting to have the signatures of a team that is more than 30 games below .500 and the worst record in the MLB.

[lawrence-related id=1946919,1881431,749684,2096913,1880412]

Beverage of the Week: Essentia and House Wine’s rose+water box is weird, possibly brilliant tailgating

Alkaline water and wine, in one convenient 30-pound box. Perfect to get you tipsy AND hydrated.

Welcome back to FTW’s Beverage of the Week series. Here, we mostly chronicle and review beers, but happily expand that scope to any beverage that pairs well with sports. Yes, even cookie dough whiskey.

Sometime this summer, a 30-pound box arrived on my doorstep. It was bulky and cumbersome and, honestly, a little strange. Inside were three more boxes. Inside those, three plastic bladders; one containing water, the other two containing wine.

This Jesus cube, a collaboration between Essentia alkaline water and House Wine, is meant to walk a fine line. A little booze to get you tipsy and then some purified, ionized water to … well, maybe not bring you back, but at least make your following morning more pleasant.

It came to me with the intent of a summer sensation; a limited-edition offering for pool gatherings and beach days. But since I’ve got a backlog of beverages to drink here (brag), it lingered a bit longer. And since Patrick Mahomes is an official Essentia spokesperson — no word on how he feels about boxed wine, though I’d wager he’s in favor, partically after looking at his wideouts — I turned my attention to a similar social space in need of hydration. The tailgate.

OK, that’s a weird tailgate combo, but I don’t judge. Drink what makes you happy, and if a little rosé is gonna make pre-game better for some folks, hell, have at it. Personally my review of the wine itself is going to be muted because, as I’ve mentioned before, that’s pretty much the one thing I don’t drink. But I’ll do it for the sake of the review — and to figure out if Essentia and House Wine created a viable product or merely a 30 pound curiousity.

Destination: Shenandoah Valley, Virginia

Pippin Hill Farm & Vineyards Estate offers a beautiful view of the Valley. More about the Winery to come in a future story. Economic development is on every community’s agenda right now. The impacts of the Covid lockdown on the food industry were …

Pippin Hill Winery
Pippin Hill Farm & Vineyards Estate offers a beautiful view of the Valley. More about the Winery to come in a future story.

Economic development is on every community’s agenda right now. The impacts of the Covid lockdown on the food industry were massive, and many are just starting to peek out from the past and check the waters when it comes to growth and expansion.

Then there are places like the Shenandoah Valley, located in Virginia, that are bursting to tell their news. One of their major areas of focus is the food processing taking place in the region. From wine to potato chips, from major behind-the-scenes food producers, to on-trend restaurants, coffee shops and “locally grown” gaining steam—well, you take all that and you begin to see economic recovery and more.

The Food Channel recently had the opportunity to work with the Virginia Economic Development Partnership (VEDP) to investigate one of the areas showing success in attracting food industry and business. They toured us around scenic Shenandoah Valley to visit what they call their “world-class food and beverage industry assets.” It’s a phrase aptly used. We visited some of the up and coming places, and talked with entrepreneurs as well as established business people, both eager to tell the Virginia story.

Tucked into the Blue Ridge and Appalachian Mountains are a number of food and beverage processing businesses—the food behind the food, if you will. Some are start-ups, and their excitement is palpable. Others are global food brands that have chosen to expand in the area, in part because of its accessibility to everything from farmland to a solid workforce.

Everywhere you look the views remind you of the beauty of nature and the resilient nature of those with a great idea.

Here are a few facts:

• More than 150 food and beverage processing companies chose to locate or expand in Virginia over the last decade, creating over 7,300 new jobs and representing capital investments totaling $2.3 billion.
• Virginia’s food and beverage processing industry employs more than 42,000 people, accounts for over 17% of Virginia’s total manufacturing employment, and is the Commonwealth’s second-largest manufacturing sector and one of its fastest-growing industries.
• Employment in the food and beverage processing sector has grown by 15% over the past five years—the second-highest rate in the Southeast.
• Virginia offers a diverse ecosystem of partners and suppliers for food and beverage processors, including dozens of packagers and bottlers, 100+ transporters and warehouses (including expansive cold storage options), and 43,000 farms.

With all that said, we’ll be presenting a series of stories highlighting food businesses such as Common Wealth Crush, one of the newest winemakers in Virginia, Route 11 Potato Chips, making and distributing addictive kettle-cooked chips, and Kerry Group, a long-established company that most of our audience won’t recognize by name but, however, consumes its products.

It all makes an interesting tale, as you’ll see from the series of stories that will be appearing here over the next few weeks. We’ll include a few restaurant reviews and tourism destinations, too.

Food people are resilient. They have ideas, and are ready to unleash innovation across the industry. That’s why we’ve chosen to showcase Virginia as one area of the country that is focusing its economic development efforts on FOOD.

Some accommodations for these stories were provided by the Virginia Economic Development Partnership (VEDP).

Photos by Paul K. Logsdon


Beverage of the Week: Harvey & Harriet, the wine sports people love (and I have no opinion on)

Yep, that sure is wine all right. With grapes, if I’m not mistaken.

Welcome back to FTW’s Beverage of the Week series. Previously, we’ve folded these in to our betting guides, whether that’s been for the NFL slate or a bizarrely successful run through the NCAA Men’s Basketball Tournament. Here, we mostly chronicle and review beers, but happily expand that scope to any beverage that pairs well with sports. Yes, even cookie dough whiskey. 

Professional sports used to be beer’s domain. Miller Lite cemented this by making legends like John Madden and Red Auerbach its spokesmen back in the 1980s.

But lately, wine has eaten into that market share. Lebron James loves it so much he’d previously fit visits to Napa Valley into the Cavaliers’ West Coast road trips. Former NFL quarterback Drew Bledsoe’s second act is as a celebrated vintner in his home state of Washington. More and more, American pro sports’ relationships with fermented grapes has grown beyond bottles of Korbel champagne soaking championship locker rooms.

In that spirit, I’m branching this feature out into unchartered territory (for me). Harvey & Harriet is Booker Vineyard’s “cult wine,” a $30 Bordeaux blend from a company that typically specializes in bottles that start in the triple digits. It’s an ode to vintner/farmer Eric Jensen’s parents, and since Eric’s Popping Corks podcast has had a bunch of sports figures on it, like Joc Pederson, Rick Mirer and Will Blackmon, well, it seemed like a natural fit for this column.

But while I am a Rhode Island high school football legend much like Blackmon (having successfully led Pilgrim’s freshman team to a 4-3 record in 1998), I am not a wine expert. My experiences with the grown-up grape juice generally falls into three categories:

  1. Sips of left-behind chilled white wines, snuck away during slow moments during my time as a gondolier on the Providence River (long story).
  2. Gulps of Sunset Blush, pulled directly from a freshly-slapped bag of Franzia.
  3. MD 20/20, transferred from the bottle and into a can to make for easier gesturing at Purdue University tailgates.

So I’m going into Harvey & Harriet with an open mind and a complete lack of understanding about what I should be looking for. OK. Well, let’s see how this goes.

Ravens WR James Proche II discusses what he learned at vineyard internship

Ravens wide receiver James Proche II was excited to share what he learned from his internship at a vineyard

The Baltimore Ravens have many different players on their team, each of which has a wide amount of different interests. It’s great to be able to learn more about the Ravens off of the field, including what they enjoy doing in their free time.

Baltimore wide receiver James Proche spoke to the media alongside fellow wideout Rashod Bateman following the Ravens’ final rookie mandatory minicamp practice. Proche was asked about what he learned from doing an internship at a vineyard, and shared what he ended up doing over the course of the experience.

“It was amazing. I’m not a sommelier or anything, but I know a little something. A little grenache, a little tempranillo, zinfandel. I know a little. (laughter)You know something? So, it was a blessing. I pruned a whole row of grenache, probably like one hundred yards. Polishing glasses. They made me start over because there were spots on them. I did barrel testing, lab work, I did everything. I’m going back in July just because I have a surprise for you all in the next five [or] six years. We have to learn; I want to do it the right way. (Bateman: “That’s a long time.”)“Yes, patience, baby. Patience. We’re good. I have something in the works, for sure.”

Proche seemed to enjoy himself, and the fact that he’s going back in July shows that he’s ready to learn more. It looks like the wide receiver had a great experience, and he could even make wine a part of his post-football career.

Beverage of the Week: Spritz Society is the summer drink your aunt’s been waiting for

It’s a wine spritzer. In a can. Big divorced mom energy shining here.

Welcome back to FTW’s Beverage of the Week series. Previously, we’ve folded these in to our betting guides, whether that’s been for the NFL slate or a bizarrely successful run through the NCAA Men’s Basketball Tournament. Here, we mostly chronicle and review beers, but happily expand that scope to any beverage that pairs well with sports. Yes, even cookie dough whiskey. 

I am not a wine guy.

This may be an attribute of family gatherings where boxed Sunset Blush was the fanciest offering and children were given small glasses in an effort to scare us straight from the world of booze. It may be from a summer in college where my alcohol stash was greatly supplemented by warmed-over bottles of leftover chardonnay as a gondola attendant on the Providence River. Either way, old grapes burrow into a very specific niche in my brain that just flashes “YUCK” spelled out in old-timey light bulbs each time I taste it.

So, not my jam.

I had reservations when Spritz Society offered to send out a four-pack of its wine-based sparkling cocktail for review. Then I remembered I drank vinegar last week (three times!) and felt much better about this exercise. I still didn’t feel great about it — I hadn’t had a spritzer, as far as I can tell, in my life. I don’t believe I’ve heard one ordered anywhere in years (though I live in Wisconsin and if there were some kind of brandy-old-fashioned spritzer it would be a cultural phenomenal akin to the Beatles in 1964).

The marketing materials for this just say, “Welcome to Spritz Society.” Not “the” Spritz Society. Not “a” Spritz Society. This is Spritz Society, and if we want you to put on an owl mask and watch a series of high-stakes toddler fights, well, dammit, you’re gonna watch or have your membership revoked.

The mansion where Society holds its scandalous meetings smells strongly like peach, which gives off a nice summer-y feel to begin with. Once you take a sip the wine base is unmistakable. I couldn’t tell you *which* white wine we’re dealing with here, but it quickly overpowers the peach to fulfill the “spritz” part of the bargain. Unlike the hard seltzers that have been a mainstay in this column throughout the spring, the carbonation isn’t really there. There are a few bubbles, but nothing especially sparkling.

The end result is a light fruit wine, and to its credit, it doesn’t taste cheap. Despite my lack of grape accolades, I’ve had my share of bum wines — an amount of MD 20/20 I would never disclose to my health insurer — and this is considerably better than that.

It’s refreshing enough but not really something I’m into. The fruit fades quickly, but it’s not sickly sweet and is dry enough to be a nice complement to the light booziness that follows. It gets better as it goes on, but the light bitterness of the grapes remain, giving this all a very different taste than any of the hard seltzers with which it’s likely competing.

Which is the point, but it’s betting hard on people having strong feelings for a drink that traditionally pairs better with macrame vests and jigsaw puzzles than a tailgate or brunch. This is very much a wine spritzer, just dolled up for a new generation. Throw all the hashtags on it you want — deep down, this is a beverage that tastes like it drives a Subaru Outback and adopted too many dogs.

That said, this whole idea was apparently crowdsourced through Instagram, so there’s probably a much bigger audience than someone’s dad taking a break from New Glarus beers in Wisconsin.

Wine drinkers might feel differently, but it feels like there’s something missing. A little sweetness. A little carbonation. Something along those lines. It’s entirely drinkable, but at 8.4 ounces per can, 6 percent ABV, and $17 for a four-pack there are better options out there. If you like wine — if you like spritzers! — don’t listen to me. The peach is delicately placed and tasty. The whole drink is relatively pleasant.

But if you’re looking for something refreshing on a hot day, you’re probably better off with a light beer or a hard seltzer.

[mm-video type=video id=01g5ps3z01yrc58rqyq7 playlist_id=none player_id=none image=https://images2.minutemediacdn.com/image/upload/video/thumbnail/mmplus/01g5ps3z01yrc58rqyq7/01g5ps3z01yrc58rqyq7-fead411164906ea1eadacb875e684de8.jpg]

[listicle id=1913414]

‘Good thing I don’t drink a lot’: $18 beers and $16 salads await fans at 2022 PGA Championship

Fans are finding that food prices are steep at the 2022 PGA Championship.

[mm-video type=video id=01g36e0xy9crvhd61n5e playlist_id=01es6rjnsp3c84zkm6 player_id=01evcfxp4q8949fs1e image=https://images2.minutemediacdn.com/image/upload/video/thumbnail/mmplus/01g36e0xy9crvhd61n5e/01g36e0xy9crvhd61n5e-7a0f5626dab57006bb2479feaed7db95.jpg]

TULSA, Okla. – Talk about inflation.

Spectators of this week’s PGA Championship at Southern Hills Country Club might want to drink up before passing through the gates. For if you are parched shortly after arriving at the second men’s major of the year, your wallet better be fat.

The following are not typos. A Michelob Ultra is $18, a Stella Artois $19. A glass of wine is $13, souvenir and signature cocktails are $19.

It should be noted, however, the beers come in 25 oz. cans, which equates to $9 per 12.5 ounces of Ultra. Not quite the sticker shock, but still steep.

“Good thing I don’t drink a lot,” Keith Coleman of Tulsa said Monday as he sized up what he was going to buy.

As for non-alcoholic beverages, a good-sized bottle of water comes in at $6, a Gatorade will set you back $7.

For food, a chicken Caesar Salad is running $16, the all-beef hot dog $8. The Butcher’s Grind Cheeseburger is $14, the Beyond Burger $15.

A small bag of chips? $3.

“Well, it’s only for one day,” Samantha Ripken of Oklahoma City said. “And I get to eat my salad watching Tiger Woods.”

[vertical-gallery id=778269135]