Matthew brings a bottle of French wine to Corey DiMario - bass player in Crooked Still (a bluegrass outfit).

WINE CONSUMED

• Producer: Domaine d'Andezon
• Vintage: 2005
• Varietal: Some secret mix of Syrah and Grenache
• Region: Rhone, France
• Appelation: Cote du Rhone

TASTING TOPICS

• Color compared to a Sporting Event
• Nose compared to a Phobia
• Taste compared to a Celebrity
• Body compared to a Vacation You've Had
• Finish compared to a Job You've Had

Do not worry: Kevin Kline is discussed.

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About Not About Wine

Not About Wine is a non-traditional game-like approach to wine tasting and wine writing. Each episode, Matthew brings a bottle of wine to his guest's house and leads them through a wine tasting. But instead of wine terms, they compare each aspect of the wine to a non-wine topic: Memories from middle school; John Hughes movies; cars you have owned, etc.

Matthew drinks a bottle of Box Car 2009 Pinot Noir with Rob Baedeker - comedian, writer and member of sketch group Kasper Hauser.

They compare the wine to:

• Trouble They've Been In
• Dining Experiences They've Had
• Books They've Read
• Clothes They've Worn
• A piece of art

About Not About Wine

Not About Wine is a non-traditional game-like approach to wine tasting and wine writing. Each episode, Matthew brings a bottle of wine to his guest's house and leads them through a wine tasting. But instead of wine terms, they compare each aspect of the wine to a non-wine topic: Memories from middle school; John Hughes movies; cars you have owned, etc.

Listen to the Show

Stream it Right Here

Subscribe

In iTunes

Special wine-related treat

The nice folks at Lot18.com are offering a deal to Not About Wine listeners. Lot18 is a service that gives its member exclusive deals on some really great wine. Sort of like a groupon for wine. It's invite only right now, but if you go to lot18.com/invite/notaboutwine you can sign up for free and receive $10 off your first order. I am a member and I can vouch for the wine they are slinging. Great stuff for a good price.

Matthew brings two wines to three people in Florence, MA to play Not About Wine.

Slight change in format for this show. Rather than one over-arching theme, there is one mini-topic for each aspect of the wine.

Wines Conumed

Wine One: Mercedes Eguren

• Producer: Bodegas Eguren
• Varietal: 100% Cabernet Sauvignon
• Region:  Castilla, Spain

Wine Two: Palmeri Van Ness Syrah

• Producer: Palmeri
• Varietal: 100% Syrah
• Region: Alexander Valley

Tasting Topics

• Color compared Places They Have Lived
• Nose compared to 80s Cartoon Characters
• Taste compared to Cars They Have Owned
• Body compared to their Relatives
• Finish compared to Concerts They Have Attended

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Guest and Theme

Matthew brings bottle of Jerome Quiot Gigondas to Andy Toomajian's house in Montague, MA. They compare the wine to Andy's memories from middle school, including: the cool gym teacher, his middle school hippie name, and the famed Shaker Heights teenage hangout, The PT.

Theme

Memories from Middle School

Wine

Winemaker

Jerome Quiot

Region

Gigondas, Rhone, France

Grapes

Red Rhone Blend (a term for a wine consisting of two or more of the traditional 13 Southern Rhone grape varieties; typically, the Grenache, Syrah, Mourvedre or Cinsault grapes)

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Do you like wine and yet find wine speak mystifying and/or deeply troubling? Do you ever take that first sip of wine and think, "I have no idea what I'm tasting" or EVEN DO NOT THINK ABOUT IT AT ALL? Do you ever wish you could be "better" at wine-tasting, but then tire at the very prospect?

WELL THEN the Not About Wine Home Game may be for you!

The Not About Wine Home Game - wine drinking for fun people!

OK LOOK. I am not against more traditional wine tasting -- what with the tasting notes and the pairings and all the scoring and grading. But that stuff never inspires me. Who cares, I thought.

BUT I DIDN'T GIVE UP dear wine-lover. I tried new and novel ways of obsessing about wine and came up with this revolutionary method called Not About Wine. If you have listened to the show, you know that it is wine-tasting with a non-wine theme.

But Not About Wine is not just a show. You too can enjoy theme-based wine-tasting. HOW? With my HOME VERSION.

How You Play

1. Drink wine. This is simple yet vital to the whole thing.
2. Print out the wine tasting cards. This is optional, but if you carry some of these around, you are more apt to actually join the tasting.
3. Choose a theme from those listed on the Not About Wine Forum Page. (Note that top-most themes correspond to whatever theme we're doing on the podcast at that moment.)
4. Drink wine with your theme! Now, next time you drink wine, take five to ten minutes, and:
   • write down the name of the wine
   • write down when and where you are
   • reflect on the theme while sipping the wine
   • write down the first memory or thought that occurs to you
5. Share your tasting on the Not About Wine Forum Page, or at the Not About Wine Facebook page. Or fine, you can email it to me. Or jeez! OK! Twitter works too.

Questions? Get in touch.

Guest and Theme

Matthew visits Kyle Belanger in South Hadley, MA. The two discuss Kyle's memories from Herberg Middle School, including: his first slow dance (Stairway to Heaven); the coolest kid in middle school with a name to match; and why a big brusque Boston man was the best art teacher ever.

Theme: Memories from Middle School

Wine

Name

Camins del Priorat

Winemaker

Alvaro Palacios

Region

Priorat, Spain

Grapes

Grenache, Carignan, Cabernet Sauvignon

Guest and Theme

Matthew brings a bottle of wine to the San Francisco, CA house of his friend Sean Collins. They compare each aspect of the wine to the people Sean has been.

We all try on different personas throughout our life -- especially our young life. Sean has tried on the black nail polish of a goth, the tight t-shirts of a nightclub worker, and whatever kinds of clothes spoken word poets where.

Wine

Name

Broadside "Margarita Vineyard"

Winery

Broadside Wines

Region

Pasa Robles, California

Grapes

Cabernet Sauvignon

Guest and Theme

Matthew brings a bottle of wine on a Cape Cod vacation where he leads 5 friends through a tasting. They compare each aspect of the wine to a different element of Pop Culture.

• Color → Candy
• Nose → Cartoons
• Taste → Toys
• Body → Clothing
• Finish → Musical Albums

Included in this discussion are the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, the best mix tape in the world, and why silk boxers are NOT comfortable.

Wine

Name

Esterlina Rose

Winery

Esterlina Vineyards

Region

Sonoma Mountain, California

Grapes

Syrah

Guest and Theme

Matthew brings a bottle of wine over to Hannah Fuller-Boswell's house. This was in late spring 2010. While drinking their warm-up glass of wine, they discussed a little bit about Hannah's extremely diverse work history. Based on that, they decided that the theme for their wine-tasting would be Jobs You've Had.

Included in this discussion are Hannah's work as the administrator of a bone marrow transplant program; a cook on the back stretch cafe of a race track; and as a balloon artist in Berkeley.

Wine

Name

Esulé

Winery

Redhead Studios

Region

McLaren Vale, South Australia

Grapes

Cabernet Sauvignon, Cabernet Franc

Wine and Guest

While in LA recently, I brought a bottle of Mantonegro to my friend Todd's house. The wine is named Mantonegro, but that's also the name of the grape from Mallorca, Spain (a wine blogger named Dominique had the best write up about the wine that I could find).

Todd writes for the pictures.

Theme

Each episode of Not About Wine is a wine tasting in which I ask my guest to compare the wine to something unrelated to traditional wine terminology. In this case Todd compared the Mantonegro to his experience growing up Jewish in very Christian Houston, TX.

The Episode

Unrelated News About when Not About Wine will be available on the iTunes

Soon. I want to bank five episodes before I start an official podcast schedule. I am recording the third one as we speak.

As always: questions/problems/thoughts welcome: contact me.

Download

To listen on your own audio machine: download the mp3 below (right-click the link, etc.)