This is what my wine tasting group learned last week, a few names to look out for on the Champagne front:

Godme, Jose Michel & Fils, Camille Saves, Deutz, and basically any of the small offerings of Bobby Kacher Selections, Terry Thiese, or Becky Wasserman. Deutz is a “smaller” house owned by Roederer and imported by Maisons Marques et Domaines. Each of these bottles had a rich, fine, unique character that managed to capture at least one of our hearts. None is over $40.

In my group, we brown bag it and drink it, and any geeky dosage pontificating will earn you the dubious honor of chugging the spit bucket. It’s just a chance for us to assemble and drink without purpose. And since we’re all in the biz, that’s a rare occurance.

Everyone always tells me how lucky I am to be able to taste wine for a living. But all the fact sheets, sales presentations, and technical jargon can sometimes get in the way of my sitting down and enjoying a glass of anything. I’ve been getting “wined out” lately. I guess that’s the danger of making your hobby your job, sometimes you temporarily misplace your passion. When that happens, I usually get back to my roots - delicious, cheap Italian red. I sense a great deal of Salice Salentino in my future.

Before you run off to your next tattoo, check this out: Tian’s Hanzi Smatter
dedicated to the misuse of Chinese characters (or kanji in Japanese) in Western culture

Each time I visit, there’s another moron who swears he has the symbol for strength on his butt, begging Tian to tell him it really doesn’t mean violent diarrhea; it slays me.