Sunday, December 23, 2007

Virginie Chardonnay


This was a French Chard in a nice bottle. On the label was the term Vin de Pays d'Oc, which is the southern wine growing region of France, so I figured it should be worth a shot. Unfortunately, I was disappointed.

This was another case of read the label, stupid. It clearly states:

...with a hint of vanilla and liquorice.

I don't mind vanilla-- as long as it's in Captain Morgan Spiced Rum-- but I can't stand liquorice. Truth is, I don't want anything in my wine but grapes. I'm giving it a 3 out of 10, with the caveat that somebody else might really dig this stuff.

Blue Flame Pinot Nior


A slightly less expensive Pinot Nior from France. All the positives of previous vintages. I really enjoyed this brand, especially for an under $10 price. A strong 6 of 10.

Banyuls Rimage Les Clos de Paulilles


Yuk. Too much raisin taste. Now I realize that statement doesn't make sense, see as wine is made of grapes, and raisins are made of grapes, but I think it gives it an "old" taste. It's like, "These grapes are old an dried out. Should we sell them as raisins?" "No, go ahead and use them anyway."

3 of 10.

Anakena Chardonnay


There was a Chilean wine called Carmen that I had enjoyed when I lived in Tennessee, but (as with many wines) I have not seen it in either Maryland or Virgina. I decided to try this one, but did not care for it at all. Chilean wines are much more acidic than most other regions and I found this had just too strong a taste. It wasn't undrinkable, but it only gets 3 of 10.

Fedora 7 Kickstart

I needed to kickstart a system running Fedora 7, and discovered that the Rescue CD does not drop you to a boot: prompt to allow you to specify a kickstart directive. There are four options on the Grub menu:
* Install or upgrade
* Install or upgrade (text)
* Rescue installed system
* Boot from local drive
If you select one of the Install options, and press tab, you will be dropped to a prompt that will read:
> vmlinuz initrd=initrd.img
Add your kickstart directives and press enter:
> vmlinuz initrd=initrd.img ks=ftp://192.168.1.254/ks/adama.ka
Of course, I would recommend selecting the second option for text install, as it will rebuild the system faster.

Sunday, December 16, 2007

Washington Monument Rainbow

Sitting around Potomic Park in the rain and noticed the rainbow. It only lasted a few minutes.

Monday, December 10, 2007

Pacific Peak Chardonnay



This wine was worth every penny of the $3.84 that I paid. Unfortunately, it wasn't worth a penny more! Perhaps my taste buds have been ruined the $10 plus bottles of recent months. I was able to finish the bottle, but I'm not sure I know why I bothered.

3 of 10

Ruffino Libaio Chardonnay


An Italian chardonnay from a vineyard I've best known for its chianti. It was nice, but honestly, I think we are paying for the name on this one, because I can get Casarsa for 30% the cost. Some might argue that this is a Tuscan wine, but we're really only talking about the difference between the Italian east coast versus west coast. It gets a 6 of 10.

Saturday, December 08, 2007

Bellini Toscana Sangiovese


I found it a little difficult to research this, as there is a cocktail called a Bellini, and it seems that Bellini is a very small vineyard in Tuscany. So small, in fact, that they have virtually no web presence. To make matter worse, the picture didn't post to the blog on the first attempt, and I had to dig the bottle out of the recycling bin. The net result is that I don't really remember what I thought of the wine. Oops.

I remember having it with steak and felt good about it. Perhaps a little too heavy for after dinner. I'll try it again and give it a 6 of 10.

Saturday, December 01, 2007

...Except Holidays


I just noticed the hours at "Total Wine" in Chantilly, VA. Open 365 days a year. But wait! What does the fine print say? "Except Holidays"

Well, that would be less than 365 days, then.