I am by no means the tree-hugger type.

I know, that is a weird way to start but my topic for today is supporting locally grown food. More to the point, my family purchased a share from a local farm - Pennypack Farm. Pennypack Farm is part of the growing Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) movement. What is CSA? Well, the Pennypack website calls it:

CSA is defined as a mutually beneficial partnership between a farm and the people who consume the food produced there.

which is as good a definition as any.

I was pretty skeptical about “joining a farm”. It isn’t like the grocery is lacking food, or anything. Far from it, actually. It seems like added work to me - going to yet another place to buy food. I am inherently lazy about everything. I hate going out of my way to buy things, or clean things, or whatever. I expect convenience. I pay extra for it. And I’m happy to do so.

But we joined anyway because, let’s face it, my spouse controls these things.

And, you know, I love it. I really do. I have never eaten Swiss Chard before, and it turns out that it is really good. I don’t care much for collards, but that’s okay. I’m really interested in what kohlrabi tastes like. It is such a strange looking vegetable. Wikipedia says that it has a “Sputnik-like shape” which it does. How cool is that?

My kids really like seeing the chickens are picking strawberries. Peas were somehow not as much fun - probably because they don’t taste as sweet when you eat them in the field.

After picking up our share from the farm, I felt so granola that I opened up a bottle of organic wine (2006 Emiliana Natura Cabernet Sauvignon). And you know what? I didn’t really care for it. It probably could stand a bit more time to breathe, but it was kind of bland. Not much to it, really. I was disappointed. Maybe I’m not ready for the organic wine scene.

Oh well. At least the farm was great. And next time - we’re drinking local.

I was doing some research for a new feature we are working on when I stumbled upon this fantastic set of pictures in the New York Times: The worst in Bridesmaid dresses.

You have go to check these out. Personally, I like pictures 3 & 4 - anyone who showed up at Ms. Zee’s wedding wearing an old bridesmaid dress go to be a bridesmaid in her wedding. The picture is truly hilariously awful looking. I love it.

Our new feature, if we ever complete it, will be an automatic wine-list generator. Perfect for weddings or parties, it will generate a list that corresponds to a particular set of people, or to the popular wines in general, at a particular total price point. We’ll see - the tool is still in development.

My first “Thousand Word Thursday“. I think this is a great concept.

I was in the liquor store today buying a couple bottles of wine.

Typically my strategy when buying wine is to buy a few bottles of a wine I know that I like, just to have it in my pocket if company shows up. I don’t like to pilot a new bottle with company.

Then I buy a few bottles that Winescorecard recommends based on my PalatePrint to keep tabs on how well our methodology is working.

Then I buy a few bottles of wine that I have never heard of, because I like to try new things. Who doesn’t? (Clearly not the couple on “Swingtown” which I just finished watching!)

Anyway, I was at the store and there was this woman that was totally at a loss for what to buy. I asked her a few questions, and suggested a couple of things to try (the Columbia Crest Two Vines Cab and the Simi Chardonnay). When I got home, it got me thinking about why we started this site.

Buying wine is confusing for most people. You cannot possibly know everything on the shelf, or all the regions, or varieties. It is just too hard.

And then, tonight, I found this blog, Cheaper Than Therapy. In the author’s AboutMe section, it lists her wine selection strategy:

I spend way too much time on the computer and drink white wines based on label appearance. My recent purchase is shown below.

Followed by a picture of Fat Bastard Chardonnay that highlights the quote “Remarkably full bodied.”

Now, I don’t about you, but I find the concept of picking a bottle by the label a bit scary. Not that I have never done it, because of course I have. I did think it was hilarious though that she picked up on this great label quote.

So, how do you pick wine?

What does the recent news about red wine mean to us?

“What news?” you ask?

According to press reports, an ingredient in red wine may slow aging! Not only is red wine good for the liver, but apparently it cures all sorts of ailments. Well, maybe.

The presumed active ingredient in red wine, resveratrol, is now being used in all kinds of experiments to assess how well it impacts a mouse’s ability to run on a treadmill, etc.

We don’t know if the research is right or not. Scientists are even working on mice with knocked-out sirtuin genes. Pretty cool!

So, back to our original question - what does this mean for us? Well, to me it means that we should be drinking red wine that we like, because pretty much everything means that we should be drinking what we like.

And that is a great thing, because Winescorecard is all about helping you find a wine that suits you. A wine that matches your PalatePrint^TM. A wine that suits you.