And it is also Friday again.....best and worst wines of the week

Quickly, cause believe it or not I do have a job and a life. I just learned that Michael Scott (aka my boss) is coming back to town next week and bringing freaking Dwight (aka his kiss ass little buddy) with him so it should be an interesting week coming up.

This week's best wine: In honor of Ms Moreno's event last night I'm picking the wine they served at the VIP reception: Martin Codax Albarino from Spain. I've had this wine a few times and Albarino is a great alternative to Chardonnay. It is light, floral, crisp, aromatic like lemon and peach with great acidity. I thought it was a nice touch to have some wines from Spain for that event instead of the basic old Chard and Merlot. Refreshing to see someone actually thought it through for a change.

Where I drank it: Starlight VIP Room....Applause Club. The event was catered by Bonterra....cause the napkins said so.

How much: Well, gratis cause I was at this swanky reception but a little research told me it is about $10.99. Good albarino isn't that expensive.

Final Tip: Albarino is becoming a hot little grape. Mostly from Spain but in Portugal they call it Vino Verde....yep like green wine cause it almost has a green tint to it. Like Rose and most of the light, aromatic wines it doesn't age well. When shopping definitely be mindful of vintage....the younger the better. It loses its fruit very quickly which means it loses its charm. I wouldn't buy anything older than 2007 right now.

The Keith Olbermann (Worst wine of the week): Trinity Oaks Cabernet Sauvignon. This little California number brings out a little of snob in me. For the price I wasn't expecting much and got even less. It isn't bad wine meaning it isn't offensive but the fruit is ripe red cherry and I'd like to see black fruits in my Cabernet. It has a little vanilla bean and some green olive. Vanilla is okay with me....I'm not fond of the olive aroma. It is pretty straight forward stuff though. Medium bodied. I think the closer to $10 you get the more it we should expect varietal correctness.

Where I drank it: At home. Bought at Lukas.

How much: $8.49 a bottle.

Final thought: I basically said it earlier. Approaching $10 we should all expect a little more. I'm finding we have to be careful at this price point as slick packaging can make way against good valued wine and fool us. Wines that were formerly well regarded can easily slip down a notch in quality. I'm starting to think that $15 is the new $10 wine. I find that the wine at that price point is consistently so much better and $10 is a 'tweener like $6.99 wine with a better label and heavier bottle.

Vaya Con Dios and Cheers!!!

Rita Moreno is awesome!

I'll follow up this post with my best and worst wines of the week but I had to comment on last night.

We had the privilege of attending the Hispanic Chamber of Commerce Awards Ceremony and Gala last night. First, it was at Starlight......and no it wasn't outside like one reader thought. It was on the stage which was closed off and heated. It was a cool venue for an event.

Anyway, the event was nice but the special guest was Rita Moreno. What an amazing woman!

She told us her story which probably isn't all that uncommon of coming to the United States from Puerto Rico. She talked about how she worked around the stereotype of being a Latina in Hollywood and how she overcame it and paved the way for lots of people that have come since. This woman......at 78 years old had lots of energy and really looked amazing! I mean truly she was beautiful and it doesn't look like she "had work" done. She has been married to the same man her whole life and she still works.......she played a nun/psychologist on the HBO show Oz most recently. They introduced her with a collection of clips of her work which was incredible. She is amazingly talented and you can tell a consummate pro. I also didn't realize how much she means to the Hispanic community in show business. She is their Jackie Robinson or Curt Flood.


I'm telling you. This woman blew me away. She was so friendly, so funny and so appreciative of her life. I had the chance to speak with her briefly and I thought she was incredibly genuine. It was refreshing to see. I lamely took a picture with my cell phone while she was giving her speech.

There were a few but not many gringos in the room last night and when she mentioned President Obama I expected the room to erupt but it was faint applause showing me as a bunch of small business owners you can't say all Hispanics support him. Not. Even. Close. However, the mention of Justice Sotomayor brought the thunderous applause. Appropriate for sure.

This one guy, a gringo I might add, made a gratuitous comment about immigration reform that was rewarded with lots of clapping and hoots. That one still baffles me. You can tell these people are incredibly proud to be Americans and proud to be here and to contribute. I'll never understand why we look like bad people for controlling the sovereignty of our borders. Every other country does it. We welcome all. It is who we are but I'll never understand why it is okay to break the law and sneak in and why I'm a racist for being against it.

Anyway, it was a good night and I felt blessed to be there and see it.

James Taylor was awesome

Went to the concert last night at Starlight. What a beautiful night and the show was really good. I've seen him several times over the years and he is just such a great performer. It was a really good date night. I think everytime I've seen him it has been outside. I wonder if that is his preference.