1989 Philip Togni Cabernet Sauvignon – USA, California, Napa Valley, Spring Mountain District (4/29/2010)
Although I own a few bottles of various vintages from Togni, this is the first I’ve opened. They are known to be notoriously slow agers, needing far more time in the cellar than most Napa Cabs. If you are turned off by green pepper and veggie flavors in your wine, this wine is not for you. My wife didn’t like it at all, but I did, especially once the NY Strip arrived. It is remarkably youthful in appearance. The nose initially screams Jalapeno but as the wine opens up a bit, lovely currant came through as well. In the mouth the fruit is bright with a heavy dose of bell pepper. Secondary flavors of tobacco, espresso, and sage complement. Acid is high and tart, tannins are smooth, and the fruit is big. The green element plays a too forward a role for me. I would hope with even more time in the cellar, this characteristic will back off giving a chance for this wine to bump up a point or two. Like most 20 year olds, this one needs to mature. (88 pts.)

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2004 Kathryn Kennedy Syrah – USA, California, San Francisco Bay, Santa Cruz Mountains (4/28/2010)
Cranberry fruit cocktail, mint leaves, crushed cooking herbs, just a touch of char-grill. Very nice, but turns a bit sour in the middle. Drink over the next 3-4 years. (87 pts.)

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2005 Shibumi Knoll Chardonnay Buena Tierra Vineyard – USA, California, Sonoma County, Russian River Valley (3/20/2010)
Tropical fruit, a banana pina colada with some sweetness. River rock. Every once in a while I’d get some buttered popcorn notes but this is not a stereotypical buttery chard. Big, unctuous, but balanced with good acidity. Much more impressive than I recall my first bottle being back in 2008. I think this wine has upside potential until at least 2014. (91 pts.)

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Good read: short essay on life as an SR-71 Blackbird pilot

Baconbrook 4/20/10

Butterdragon Hill 4/22/10. Notice how much more growth this vineyard has than Baconbrook

The 21st Amendment to the Constitution says that the “transportation or importation into any State, Territory, or possession of the United States for delivery or use therein of intoxicating liquors, in violation of the laws thereof, is hereby prohibited.” The Commerce Clause of the US Constitution says that Congress has the power to regulate trade between the states. Through many decisions over the years, the Commerce Clause has also been interpreted to mean that states are not allowed to establish anti-competitive practices: states were not allowed to discriminate against products or trade from another state. In 2005, the Supreme Court ruled in Granholm v Heald that states which allowed direct shipments to consumers from their own in-state wineries and in-state retailers could not prohibit out-of-state wineries and retailers from shipping to consumers. This decision opened the door for direct shipping of wine to many states where before it had never been possible. State legislatures had to choose to either restrict their own in-state industry or allow out-of-state wineries and retailers to fairly participate in their market.
Now, bill H.R. 5034 has been introduced to the US House of Representatives with the direct backing of the National Beer Wholesalers Association. It would prohibit wineries from bringing legal action against states who violate this provision of the Constitution’s Commerce Clause.
We believe that whether you ever order wine from out-of-state or even whether you ever drink alcoholic beverages, it is vital to our country’s economic health that free trade be allowed between states. Please contact your representative and let them know that you oppose HR 5034.

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PRESS RELEASE FROM NAPA VALLEY VINTNERS:
In an effort to turn back the clock on the direct shipment of wine to consumers, a bill has been introduced in Congress recently that would, in effect, overturn the 2005 “Granholm v. Heald” U.S. Supreme Court decision that helped pave the way for wineries to ship wine directly to many more consumers around the country.
H.R. 5034, crafted by the National Beer Wholesalers Association would make it practically impossible to bring legal action against states’ wine shipping laws that violate the Constitution’s Commerce Clause by prohibiting wine shipment from out of state, while permitting their own in-state wineries to ship direct. The end result would be a return to discriminatory wine shipping laws within the states, creating economic hardship for wineries that consider direct shipment and important sales channel and greatly restricting choice among wine consumers nationwide.
The NVV believes that consumers in all 50 states should have the ability to directly purchase fine wine. Many medium to small wineries have very limited distribution and garner little attention from the large distributors. These wineries survive by selling wine through mailing lists, wine clubs, and over the internet.
Napa Valley Vintners agree that the existing three-tier system should be augmented, not eliminated, and should provide controls and regulations necessary to respect local laws, avoid underage access and provide provisions to make tax payments. It is not the intent of any winery to sell alcohol to minors or to avoid payment of local, state or federal taxes on their wines.

2001 Darioush Cabernet Sauvignon Signature – USA, California, Napa Valley (3/12/2010)
One of my better Darioush experiences: I still think the wine is overoaked, but the monster has been tamed a bit by time. Cassis, stewed fruit, espresso, toasted oak, with a long finish of dusty tannins. Bottle opened at 2PM, decanted at 6, drank at 8. This wine needs significantly more time in the cellar. (88 pts.)

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Okay, that’s a bit of hyperbole, but this little Add-On for MS Excel has made my job a lot easier lately.
It never made sense to me that Microsoft made it such a pain to create distribution lists for Outlook. Merging email addresses, or any other data, into an Outlook email seemed impossible. (Although I still have my suspicions that such a capability must exist hidden somewhere in that mysterious Outlook Form Creation ability.) I was always stumped on what to do with a list of emails stored in Excel and the desire to send the complete list an email. Being able to merge other fields would be an even greater boon! Enter XL Email Manager from Big Red Consulting. Once installed, it’s very easy to create a text and/or html email from Excel data and send it out via your mail server or own copy of Outlook, merging any fields from that Excel spreadsheet into your message. A single user license costs $69 — well worth it in my book — but a completely unencumbered trial version is good for the first 30 days.
There are online services like Vertical Response and Constant Contact that you can use to conduct more powerful email marketing campaigns, but for quickly sending a personalized email to a list of clients, this nifty software has got it going on.
Big Red Consulting offers other tools useful to Quicken and Quickbooks users as well.

2003 Robert Foley Claret – USA, California, Napa Valley, Spring Mountain District (3/12/2010)
There’s quite a bit good and a little bit bad going on in this wine. It shows big, juicy raspberry jam, Christmas baking, chocolate chip cookies, cherry flavored candles, and pine flavors which form a rich, lush package. However, the alcohol really stands out throwing off the balance and I would expect the wine to be less primary in its 10th year. Still, it’s a good example of the Foley style and amazing to have been produced in the 2003 vintage. Few achieved this level of ripeness without wrecking it. Sloan Estate, for example, totally blew it that vintage while basically aiming for the same target. Opened and let stand for ~ 5 hours. I’m surprised by the Cellartracker average rating of 94.5 but it certainly is a strong 90 in a very specific style. (90 pts.)

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Thanks for all the folks who responded to my request for recommendations on web, email, and shopping cart hosts. I checked out all of your recommendations. I was looking for something flexible, but easy. Powerful, but affordable. Yes, I wanted it ALL! I finally found what I think will fit the bill and development is underway. When done, it should be far greater than our previous site, easier to maintain, and offer online ordering. I don’t anticipate a big change in appearance.
It’s hard to believe I used to do this for a living. The last site I designed was our site in 2005. And in 1998, HTML was my life. Times have changed. The skills are rusty, the technology has passed me by, but I’m having fun.