The Super bowl is tomorrow and I personally don’t give a hoot. I mean, I had to Google who was playing…

But, the other day NBC cameras were all up in Domaine LA filming a little segment about what to eat and drink on Super Bowl Sunday (it’s become the Thanksgiving of February). Jill and I came up with some fun wine options for your hot wings, Doritos and chips & guac. Because, you know what? Why the hell not. Check it out! I come in right around the 1 minute mark.

Wines featured: NV German Gilabert Cava (buttered popcorn) // 2010 Etz Gruner Veltliner (chips and gaucamole) // 2007 Pecina Blanco (cool ranch Doritos) // 2010 Punta Crena “Pettirosso” (buffalo wings)  2010 Field Recordings “Fiction” Red (Chex Mix)

I was thinking of doing the 2001 Lopez de Heredia Vina Gravonia Blanco with the Cool Ranch Doritos because of its oxidative, viscous, herbacious vibe. Trying to keep the cost of the bottle down, Jill suggested the incredibly affordable Pecina. Pretty dope with the Doritos. Just sayin’.

Mega-girly side note: I’ve found my one true lipstick love (for now). It’s the NARS Velvet Gloss Lip Pencil in “Mexican Rose.” I was wearing it in the video above. It’s the perfect balance of opaque/sheer and matte/gloss and it stays on FOREVER. After the initial application, it settles in and becomes more of a stain. I’ve been rocking the Mexican Rose while working at the restaurant and it lasts for most of the shift. Good for ladies that are always putting their lips to a wine glass. Recommended!

NYC sommelier Levi Dalton just wrote a great post covering sartorial sommelier tips, focusing on both functionality and style. He’s a dude, clearly. So, it was written for dude somms. Well, what about the ladies? I got Levi’s blessing to do a female take on the whole shebang. So, here goes…

Let’s start with how I dress. I happen to work in a casual trattoria style Italian spot. Don’t get me wrong-  we don’t have brown kraft paper and crayons on the table, but we definitely don’t have any linens. We pretty much wear whatever we want, but always wear Italian sommelier aprons that Max gets made for us. This Fall/Winter, we’re having a camouflage moment. Other looks are dark denim, heather gray (my favorite), orange and canvas.

Let’s break down what’s going on above:

1- A headband. I don’t like to wear my hair completely up too often (I have a lot of it and it’s heavy) but, I need to keep my hair out of my face. Some bobby pins work too for a half-up, pinned on the sides type thing.

2- Mini pockets for a pen (which I never seem to have) and my beloved Pulltap’s corkscrew.

3- Nails. Gotta keep the nails done did. My hands are very visible to patrons, so I don’t want them all chipped and/or dirty. I could keep them just buffed and clean, but I’m a bit nail polished obsessed.

4- Large pockets! This is KEY (more on pockets later). I love that I have an apron with roomy front pockets that allow me to put corks, foil, dirtied serviettes, etc in them discretely and effortlessly while I’m at the table. If I had only my skinny jeans’ pockets, I’d be screwed. Speaking of skinny jeans….

5-Pants. I always wear pants and not skirts/dresses because it’s not conducive to my work environment. One of our cellars is accessible only by ladder. Even though our friendly dishwashers nearby would be happy to catch a show, I know better. I go with black or dark wash denim in a skinny, non-baggy shape.

6- Shoes. Flats are a MUST for me when on my feet for several hours at a time and running around hustling. I wear dark colored TOMS, my new fav Sam Edelman flats, loafers or tall leather boots.

Now that you’ve seen me, let’s look at how other lady sommeliers that I dig dress! Every restaurant has a different vibe and style of service, therefore there are no hard and fast rules. But rarely do any of us ever have to wear something like what Pascaline and these guys are sporting anymore…

From top left going clockwise: Pascaline Lepeltier of Rouge Tomate in NYC // Dana Farner of CUT in LA // Shelley Lindgren of A16 and SPQR in San Fran // Caroline Styne of AOC/Lucques/Tavern in LA // Laura Maniec of Corkbuzz in NYC.

There are some common themes here for sure; darker neutrals with pops of color or pattern, simple jewelry or none at all and the blazer and cute top combo. Oh yeah- and pretty hair.

Dana (center), whom I used to work with at CUT, always looks together and professional but still feminine. I learned a few things from her, most importantly being- anytime you see a skirt or dress with pockets BUY IT. Buy lots of them. This is the perfect way to be able to still wear skirts and dresses if you don’t wear an apron, since you have to have pockets as a sommelier. You just do. It’s mandatory. Also, you don’t always need to wear a blazer. Throw on a little cardigan or sweater to switch things up.

You know who else has great style? Helen Johannesen of Son of A Gun and Animal here in LA. She always looks great. Simple but never boring, stylish but functional and seemingly effortless. Click here to see an uber hip photoshoot of her and her closet.

Levi has a “work kit” with all kinds of helpful stuff in it. I don’t have such a thing, because I have something called a PURSE. I’m ALSO a Type A female, so I have a “life kit”…which doubles as a “work kit.” There’s lip balm and lig gloss, my corkscrew which I have at all times and most importantly stain remover! I not only use it myself (wine stains are a bitch), but for customers too. I have saved the day many a time! I don’t keep any mouthwash around like Levi. My go to fresh breath aid is a natural one- the cut lime and lemon wedges at the bar. I’ll suck on one real quick, drink some water and I’m set.

Hope you found this post informative or at least entertaining. Thanks for the inspiration Levi!

Photo sources: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6

Anyone else see too many productions of Fiddler on the Roof as a child? No? OK- maybe it’s just me, but whenever I start thinking about how fast time flies, the chorus of “Sunrise, Sunset” creeps into my brain…Sunrise, sunset. Sunrise, sunset. Swiftly flow the days.

News alert! There’s been a whole buncha sunrises and sets and it’s about to be 2012! Can you even believe it?

I thought I would summon my inner Tevye and reminisce. Here are just a few of my favorite moments/posts from this year:

Ladies Who Brunch // Americano // Wine Wear Daily IV // Octopus BBQ

Birthday Lanterns // 4th of July in Brooklyn // Ojai Campfire & Whiskey Cocktails // Laureano

Pretty great times were had in ’11. Dang. Next year has a lot to live up to! Let’s make it truly SPECTACULAR, shall we?

Happy New Year errrrbody!

Or, I should say, Manhattans by DTG.

On the 23rd, I received a text from my stepfather proclaiming that we would be drinking Manhattans on Christmas Eve. Unbeknownst to me, he had been given a gift from his buddy Dan. It was a bottle of ready-to-go Manhattans, complete with Old Forester Signature bourbon, sweet vermouth, Angostura bitters and a little cherry juice.

So- on the 24th, we gathered around the tree and grabbed some glasses and ice.

It was strong and it was damn good. No work necessary. Pop and pour. Dan- you’re my hero!!

PS- My stepsister Katherine gave me my favorite gift of…ever. A sweater cozy for a bottle of Maker’s Mark. What every proper Kentuckian needs!

Cheers!

OK- I wasn’t going to even do a Holiday gift guide this year, but then I got sucked into the colorful, kitschy world of my beloved Jonathan Adler and I just had to. I was inspired! Here are my top Adler drink related item picks plus the liquid you should gift it with.

What should you put in that Acid Palm Petitpoint flask? Bourbon, of course. It’s my spirit of choice and so very seasonally appropriate. I love me some Bulleit bourbon, but let’s take it up a notch for the Holidays and go with the more subdued, gentlemanly vibe of Basil Hayden’s, shall we?

I have a thing for needlepoint. It probably has something to do with being a total prep and a Kentuckian. Here’s a (more than slightly suggestive) Needlepoint Cocktail Coaster set to the rescue! Give to a friend with a sense of humor and send them straight to Barkeeper in Silverlake with a gift certificate in hand. Booze novices and even the most sophisticated spirit palates will revel in the amazing selection of small batch spirits, abundance of bitters and vintage barware and glassware. If you don’t live in LA, just call Joe at the store and he’ll sort you out.

Let’s call this the “Rip it, Sip it & Maybe Save it For Later” gift set. Brass Muse Opener + a Bottle Stock membership + the Peace Bottle Stopper. Aaaaand, you’re good to go drink. Shameless self promotion alert!

If you missed them the first time around, here’s a walk down Holiday wishlist memory lane: 2010 & 2009.

(photo credit: vintage glasses. all others from respective company’s websites or Brunellos Have More Fun.)

The most interesting visit of the trip to Spain was without a doubt the one to see Laureano Serres in El Pinell de Brai, tucked away just south of Priorat wine country in Tarragona. Laureano is one unique dude, truly one of a kind. And so are his wines.

So, we arrived in El Pinell (I always think it a miracle that we find literally anything EVER while traveling.) We found his cellar door and soon after hopped in his car with his amazingly sweet dog Brisca and headed out to see the vineyards…and the day of quotable quotes began!

We walked, we talked, we touched dirt. We talked vegetal water.

Quote: Wine in its purest form is “vegetal water” or at least it should be, he said. If you spray your vineyards with herbicides/pesticides or add commercial yeasts or SO2 to your wine, the pure essence of the grape’s liquid/the soil/the sun becomes compromised. This is when vegetal water becomes soup.

There’s water and then there’s soup. I think I get it.

We headed back to his tiny cellar, which is beneath his home, and settled into the office where a few dozen wines awaited us. His wife brought down some plates of jamon, the most amazing jamon+ queso biscuits and pa amb tomàquet (the classic Catalan bread and tomato snack). His kids played with Brisca and swept up all the peanut shells she had been chewing on. There were piles of boxes, empty wine bottles you could tell he loved or at least wanted to remember, an old fan…

Outside the office were some small tanks, a few old barrels and 3 amphorae, which he started using in 2010.

The label Mendall is named after his mother’s childhood home. We tasted 2007 thru 2011 of the “Terme di Guiu”, which is 100% macabeu. In general- think a bit of skin contact, crunchy texture, spice, salinity and gentle oxidation. Basically, it should be the national white wine of Spain if we’re talking pairing abilities with the food.

As we continued to taste, I started to feel like all of these wines before us were some kind of little miracle. This tiny cellar, this one man, no added sulfites…and here they were and they were lovely. His white wines are really where it’s at; they’re unique but still so very Spanish.

We tasted. And tasted. The 2010 and 2011 “Abeurador” (macabeu), 2005 “BB Escollades del 5 (garnaxta blanca or barnatxa blanca/BB in local dialect), 2005 Miau- Macamiau del 5 (macabeu). Then we got into the reds. We tasted every single one from the 2011 harvest. Some whole cluster, some foot stomped, usually a short maceration period and still very young, fresh and vibrant. We then ventured into some 2010′s- “Espartel BP”(local garnatxa clone), “Rock ‘n Roll” (blend of all his reds), “Cabeilles” (10 month barrel aged carignan and cabernet).

All the while, Christina and I spit in our little bucket as Laureano certainly never spit out anything. He continued to tell us funny stories, get poetic about the importance of vegetal water…and sometimes get off track. One moment he stopped for more than a few beats and apologized, “I got involved with this wine.”

And thus is born my official new way of referring to intoxication.

To finish, or so we thought, we tasted “BRUTAL!!!” Complete with a scythe-wielding sulfite-killing Grim Reaper. This was the product of all the red wine that ended up having flaws, like some major flaws. Brett, VA, etc. They all came out to live it up at one big we don’t give a fuck party. And they were proud.

Quote: “My brutal is the most brutal of all brutals.” (Brutal pronounced “brew-tall”, of course.) Can’t say that I’d want to sit down and tuck into a glass of this wine, but I definitely admire his sense of humor.

This back label alone made me fall in love with this man, as if I hadn’t already.

When all was said and done, we had gone through about 2 dozen wines, a handful of which weren’t even his. He started pulling down any bottle that looked fun and enjoyable from his myriad of shelves and stacks. I mentioned my fondness for Olivier Lemasson’s Les Vins Contés wines. Well, wouldn’t ya know! He had some of his “Gama Sutra.” OK- let’s try that too!

Speaking of kick ass labels…how clever is that? I can’t even handle it.

This wine, Laureano said, was soup. “Very good soup, but soup.” Olivier adds very small amounts of sulfites at bottling. We enjoyed it nonetheless, but, I don’t think that Laureano actually swallowed this wine. He said he only drinks vegetal water- completely natural wines.

Did we want to pop open some half bottles of 2003 and 2004 Els Jelepins? All right then, let’s try those too. The night could have gone on like this for, I’m sure, a few more hours. But, we had a 2 hour drive back to our house still ahead of us.

And Laureano had some very good vegetal water to look after.

I wish you all a happy day full of good things to eat and drink. I think of it every year, but we really should take the time to reflect on the things and the people that we are thankful for more than one day a year. And smile at each other, say hello as you pass on the street and be kind. All that stuff.

I am thankful for: WINE. Duh. People that want to read the things I write and say nice things. My friends and family. Double duh. My travels and all of the people I get to meet and the amazing things I get to see…and consequently what I learn about wine and, more importantly, myself from all of that.

GRAZIE!

Picture of the view of Sancerre from Sebastien Riffault’s vineyard during my trip to France last Fall.

It’s time we checked back in with Team Eastside and see how their homemade wine is holding up. Jessica sent over some photos of the racking of their grenache, which took place on November 4th. A full month after Team Westside! Letting nature do its thang takes time and patience.

Jessica had a pretty cute helper that day- Daisy: “the overseer of the transfer”!

Remember that EA smell problem they were having? Well, it’s GONE! Halleluyer.

So, how long will they wait until bottling?

“Not really sure. Malolactic fermentation is apparently pretty finicky–it starts and stops depending on the temperature, and we’re not trying to control that at all. You know when you read about a wine and they say it’s made with a long, cool fermentation? This stage we’re at right now is what that refers too. If we want to bottle without adding any sulfur, we need to let it finish malo completely, otherwise the wine might referment in the bottle, which would be no bueno. As for how to determine when malo is finished? We’re going to have to use judgement on that one….”

Until then, those grenache (car)boys get to hang out with their cider buddies.

If you missed it, here’s Making Wine at Home Part 1, Part 2 and Part 3.

On a very rainy evening, Christina and I arrived to the “town center” of Font-Rubí (really just a building and a sign) to a smiling woman and her young daughter waving warmly to us. This was Gloria Garriga and Berta of Els Jelepins.

We all loaded into Gloria’s car, Berta’s violin and all, and carefully climbed the muddy and pot-holed dirt road up to the cellar and their home- almost getting stuck once or twice. Two very enthusiastic (and wet) dogs greeted us at the cellar door, which is basically the basement of their home.

The house and winery are run on solar power and heated by fire and pipes of warm water that run below the floors. It hadn’t been very sunny lately, so we sat at the dining table with but a single bulb of light over us. It was all we needed.

Gloria, beyond being a mother and winemaker, has a day job as an agricultural engineer. So…basically she is a superhero.

Els Jelepins produces about 2,000 bottles per year. Which is practically nothing, the very definition of “small production.” Everything is bottled by hand and simply labeled with a tiny painted symbol. Each vintage has a different one.

We tasted just the reds: 2003 (their first vintage), 2004 and 2006. The first vintage was made with borrowed equipment and a “we’re still very much trying to figure everything out” mindset. You can tell that the style changes as they get into their groove and discover what works best for their grapes. By the 2006 vintage, which was my favorite, there’s more sumoll and less garnacha in the blend. Gloria said of sumoll that it gives flavors of “cherry, red fruits, black pepper…it needs to be a free soul. (You) can’t force it.”

Force it she most definitely does not. All fermentation is with native yeast and uncontrolled temperatures, a good amount of whole cluster and several months in open top barrels. She prefers a  long elevage- 40 or so months in old barrels and some in amphora and then another couple years in bottle. There’s no racking, fining or filtration and only a very small amount of sulfur added at bottling.

Gloria felt that because of weather, the wines were “less expressive.” Maybe, but I had nothing to compare it to and thought they were delicious. Balanced, layered, thoughtful and texturally lovely. Just look at the color and translucence…

As we tasted and talked, Berta was busy in the kitchen. I heard the sound of something frying and then the sweet and savory smell of pork sausage. It’s a smell I’ll always know and love- when I was little my Mammaw was the kindest sausage sample lady in her grocery store in Kentucky. Anyway, I hoped that Berta would be sharing!

And share she did. A plate of hearty bread, baked earlier that day, accompanied what are surely the best sausages I’ve EVER had, made by a local butcher not too long before we ate them. Gloria gave us napkins and that’s it.  I realized quickly I should use a chunk of bread as my plate and just dig right in. With the juices and warm fat soaked into the bread- I think I know what heaven tastes like.

We spent the rest of the night talking about our collective travels, gardening and…pets! Gloria loves them and usually can’t help it when one finds its way into her life. This little cat was abandonded and Gloria and Berta took him in…

Sitting around Gloria’s table with a belly full of those sausages and a glass of Els Jelepins in hand, I pretty much felt exactly the way that kitten did in the moment above.

Further reading on Els Jelepins from: Alice and Cory. And here’s what sumoll vines look like!

You guys. While in Rioja, I saw THE coolest most bad ass cellar EVER. In the history of bad ass cellars. If I was a Hollywood movie location scout, I would have hit some kind of Nicolas Cage lost treasure action film jackpot.

I’m talking about the amazing Lopez de Heredia in Haro (Rioja Alta). Built in 1877, it is the oldest winery in Haro and one of the first 3 wineries in all of Rioja. Their wines are some of my favorite in all of Spain. I feel like I time travel when I drink them. And I kinda felt the same way when walking around the winery.

Above ground are the fermentation vats (huge, very old oak containers) and the coopery where they make their own barrels…

Below ground is where shit gets real. The most crazy thing about it all? The black penicillin mold that is growing everywhere. And I mean everywhere. I’m still not sure if that is a good thing or not? Cellar workers are down there for several hours every day, some of them 20 or 30 years, and they seem to be fine.

The next time I get a sinus infection, I know where I’m headed!

The extremely long tunnels where most of the barrels are kept, the oldest part of the cellar, were dug with pick axes! By hand! Insane. I seem to not have a picture of this particular thing. Apologies. But here is a picture from the Lopez de Heredia website.

How cool would it have been to spend Halloween in this place? We missed it by 3 days…

I loved how they use old school bungs (and muslin, at times) to close the barrel holes and not the newfangled plastic ones.

This is the “Bodega de Reservas” where wines from outstanding vintages are bottled and kept to age to Gran Reserva status. Since 1890, they have declared a wine Gran Reserva worthy only 22 times.

The mold that grows on the bottles helps protect them and create a constant level of humidity.

If you needed to know only 3 basic bits of info about Heredia, this is what you should know:

• Everything is estate bottled (their own vineyards) and each wine is single vineyard. The vineyards: Cubillo, Tondonia, Bosconia and Gravonia. Grapes grown: tempranillo, garnacha, mazuelo, graciano, viura and malvasia.
• As is true for a lot of Rioja bodegas, they wait a long ass time to release their wines. Much longer than the Reserva and Gran Reserva regulations stipulate. For example, the current release of their 2 Crianza level wines (minimum of only 12 months aging) are 2002 and 2005.
• All fermentation is spontaneous and executed without commercial yeasts and they never use new oak barrels for aging. The new barrels coming out of their coopery get primed with skins and lees leftover from fermentation for a few harvests before using.

Don’t worry, it’s not all cobwebs and mold and dark tunnels. This is where you end up after walking down the long barrel chamber- the Ebro River. All serene and Autumnal.

Does seeing the cellar make you want you excited to drink the wine? Or scared? I hope it’s not the latter!