Wine-ing on Facebook

Since I waste so much time on Facebook, the question popped up in my brain the other day: Is social media — Facebook or Twitter or LinkedIn or Foursquare or Pinterest — making my wine life more enjoyable? Though one is free and the other costly, the fact is: They’re both addictive substances so shouldn’t they dovetail into some sort of mind-altering meditative bliss?

I decided to waste some real time conducting research.

Not surprisingly, you can type “wine” into Facebook’s search bar and dozens of wine-related pages pop up. A wine social, several wine shops and bars, a number of wine-drinking gatherings, a wine and yoga group, and a wine magazine pop up as immediately available offerings for furthering my drinking pleasure.

For a whole host of reasons, I’m not that interested in most of them. I like to drink wine. I learn about wines by cooking, reading, engaging with those who know more than I about wine than I, and by drinking it. Yes, I could do some of those activities with fellow wine folk, but that means I’d have to put on a bra and get out of these 1992 sweatpants and slather on mascara and really, who needs all that ordeal when there’s a perfectly good Coppola Pinot Noir, a corkscrew and a clean wine glass at arm’s length?

Be that as it may, I dove into that rabbit hole because that’s what Facebook and the internet in general are built to make you do. One click leads to another and I’m at the web site of Denver’s Cellar Wine Bar (www.cellarwinebar.com), voted Westword’s 2012 Best Wine Bar in Best of Awards. I called the owner who had lots to say about what this particular wine bar does, which is steadily draw a loyal crowd and drink and dine you on the relative cheap. Cellar’s selling points are price and variety: $6 tapas and regional flights in the $12 range. I’ll be going there this week.

The next thing you know I get a Facebook event invite about a cool, Scandinavian-themed restaurant with an unusual wine list. My grandfather came straight from Norway and, as he aged, he slipped into speaking Norwegian on a daily basis. I’ve a soft spot for this region and will, undoubtedly, hit this place before month’s end.

And then there’s the Verona, Italy Facebook page which is exotic and full of Italians and happens to be a place wherein I’ll spend the first week of May — along with Denver Panzano Restaurant’s Executive Chef Elise Wiggins, and some other foodies and wine lovers. I like Facebook’s Verona, Italy page, Italian-speaking “FB friends” aside.

I like it because it has extraordinary photos of an extraordinary place that’s built around world-class wineries owned and frequented by world-class chefs. I like it because soon I’ll be there. I like Verona, Italy’s Facebook page because I don’t have to put on or slather on anything. I don’t have to even read (can’t read Italian) and no one cares if I’ve met a deadline, missed a deadline or glanced at a clock to note, “There goes forty-five minutes of my life I’ll never get back.”

And that, bellas e bellos, is a perfectly good waste of time.

Caio!

One Winning Wine Tasting

Denver Art Museum Uncorked Wine Tasting

The Denver Art Museum’s annual “Uncorked Wine Tasting” is a hefty event in that it brings 300 wines from around the world to attendees. It’s actually a two day event: The wine tasting is on April 20 and the museum’s dinner and auction is April 21, 2012. (www.denverartmuseum.org).

It’s a fundraiser with a clever price structure: $90 for DAM members; $125 for nonmembers; and $45 for designated drivers. For more information about DAM Uncorked, please contact Gravely Wilson at [email protected] or 720-913-2763.

Weird Wine Trivia
(Answers below.)

1. How long does it take to harvest a commercial crop from newly replanted grape vines?
2. How many varieties of wine grapes exist worldwide?
3. How much does it cost per bottle to age wine in a French oak barrel?
4. How much does it cost per bottle to age wine in only new French oak barrels?
5. How much wine does the Wine Wench consume annually?
Answers:

1. 4-5 years
2. 10,000
3.  90 cents
4. $2.50
5. Too much!