I get the same impression from her, the "I'm too cool to be cool" kinda thing. And a bit too much promotion of the Hello Vino app at times from her co-host.

I've been listening to Vinepair's "Wine 101" podcast. It's obviously pretty rudimentary, but still fun and I'm learning things.

Was hoping to get through wildfire season without another big event. Early this morning (Sunday) a fire broke out just north of St. Helena. Grew throughout the day. It was a hot day already and winds picked up, a couple of other fires have started and moved through quite a bit of land between Napa and Sonoma, currently threatening eastern Santa Rosa.

Wine related because there are some great wineries up on Spring Mountain that are in the fight right now. Let's hope there is minimal damage in this.

Structure fire now being reported at Schramsburg.

Ugh that really sucks. Stay safe out there chipotlemonger

What's the red smoke in that Saffo tweet?

Fire ******ant being dropped.

There was a report of someone trapped at Schramsburg.

Jesus.

The fire came from the East and roared through about 300 acres of dense forest. With that much fuel and 30-50 mph winds, there's no stopping that fire.

If anyone wants to keep up with what's happening, searching #glassfire on Twitter is where I'm finding all of this.

Very sad day or two here. The Napa fire and Sonoma fire are connected now across Napa valley. Napa is on fire basically from St. Helena to Calistoga. This fire event is hitting a ton of homes and more densely populated spots than any of the other ones in the last couple of years (Tubbs in 2017 hit a lot). Not surprised to hear about Schrambsberg. That is very sad if that home is lost. So much history there. This is going to hurt a lot of people and companies.

If y'all are interested in checking out the heat map:

https://sonomacounty.maps.arcgis.com/apps/webappviewer/index.html?id=69a0e54e9e2b48c086d122027b21c961

I think Napa county may have their own that shows Napa county evacuations too but not sure. This one shows all heat so you can track the fire and it's path. even outside of Sonoma.

Edit to add: the heat includes smoke and plumes so not necessarily all ground fire.

It sounds like Castello di Amorosa lost all of their bottled wine.

https://www.sfgate.com/bayarea/article/Napa-Calistoga-castle-Castello-di-Amorosa-fire-15603863.php?fbclid=IwAR1QmKfU97RhbPu6ErTae3GG8h9S25Q2IDk9NU9R-CrAfhk1-QPpMqPWS8c

What is the best book to learn more about French wine?

Burgess lost their production facilities. Meadowwood and Calistoga Ranch burned down. Hunnicutt suffered some damage. And the entire town of Calistoga is being evacuated.

https://www.fire.ca.gov/incidents/2020/9/27/glass-fire/?fbclid=IwAR0EXpWzwx8vP8bhn7NliExxmYB0zD_S-Afusj1DjjlKf1F3v3CdYN2WZyI

Glass fire Up to 36K acres. The winds we had today in Southern Oregon and Northern Cali were similar to the ones that were so devastating up here a few weeks ago. Hoping every one is safe and minimal damage is done. 2020 has suuuuuucked.

MooreTrucker said:

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What's the red smoke in that Saffo tweet?

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Looks like fire ******ant that was dropped

Austintm said:

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MooreTrucker said:

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What's the red smoke in that Saffo tweet?

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Looks like fire ******ant that was dropped

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The site actually censored this....
Guess I should have said "extinguishing chemicals"

Austintm said:

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Austintm said:

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MooreTrucker said:

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What's the red smoke in that Saffo tweet?

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Looks like fire ******ant that was dropped

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The site actually censored this....
Guess I should have said "extinguishing chemicals"

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One of the tweets above has the uncensored word in it.

aggiecive said:

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What is the best book to learn more about French wine?

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I like wine folly or wine for normal people. Not sure if they're the best out there but I like the way they display the info. And really easy to go back and reference when planning a meal or sipping on a glass. These aren't French only books, but seeing how France is the home of wine, they definitely cover it.

LOL, that Texags's profanity checker is circa 1989 tech...

cecil77 said:

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LOL, that Texags's profanity checker is circa 1989 tech...

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Older than that, maybe older than us. Try typing in "----- in the armor" with what used to be a derogatory term for Chinese.

htxag09 said:

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aggiecive said:

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What is the best book to learn more about French wine?

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I like wine folly or wine for normal people. Not sure if they're the best out there but I like the way they display the info. And really easy to go back and reference when planning a meal or sipping on a glass. These aren't French only books, but seeing how France is the home of wine, they definitely cover it.

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The CSW study guide is nineteen bucks on Kindle. The French section is really comprehensive, including maps and charts of producers in each appellation, grapes grown, etc.

2020 Certified Specialist of Wine Study guide

I'm working on that CSW right now.

MooreTrucker said:

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I'm working on that CSW right now.

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That's great!

STUDY THE MAPS!!!

I just completed the WSET 2 course and can highly recommend it for a great overview and helped me learn a lot more about the main French regions and grapes in particular. Worked well virtually but in person would be even better. Costs a lot more than a book however.

That's why the csw on Kendall is such a great deal. The test is like $600 or something.

I'm going to start with the CSW. WSET is pretty expensive, and isn't the Somm level stuff more for people actually in the food service side of things?

As I understand it, WSET is more for wine trade people although higher levels involve rigorous tasting too. There were about 25 people in my class, 50% wait staff and restaurant people, 25% winery people and 25% other.

CSW is about CMS 1.5 and WSET 2.5.

CSW tends to be people in wineries and stores. I think HEB wine managers have been encouraged to earn it.

CMS focuses on food service.

WSET has more levels.

The top levels in all three are pretty rarified, even though the Society of Wine Educators only has two levels, CSW and CWE.

We watched ten minutes of the debate and decided the country is on a sled to hell. So we opened this.

I am currently scheduled to head to Napa in a week. One of the places I was trying to go to was Paravel on Howell Mountain. Here is a note I received from them last night about the fires:


Just wanted to check in with you and give you an update on the situation here in Napa/Angwin. We were evacuated on Sunday AM to Calistoga only to be evacuated from Calistoga to Healdsburg on Monday AM. We are all safe and evacuated to Healdsburg. Tried to get up to the house/vineyard/winery today with our Ag permit and they had just shut it off to all but people actually fighting the fire. The fire is now on our road about a half mile from our house. We are keeping positive and have all the important stuff with us in this motel room.

Just wanted to let you know as I was truly looking forward to seeing you next week. I hope we can make it up soon!

Sending peace and gratitude your way!

Reading something like that, I really have no problems in my life right now...

cecil77 said:

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Reading something like that, I really have no problems in my life right now...

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Truth. Always a matter of perspective.

Between COVID crushing tourism and restaurant business and the fires over the last 6 weeks, Napa has had an unbelievably rough run. So many good people just trying to farm and make a qualify wine that have faced tremendous hardships. Praying for the best for all of them.

Let's see how this pairs with athletic disappointment.