Greve in Chianti

Well, we were in the middle of Chianti Country, so you knew we HAD to end up in a winery town at some point, right?

These pictures are from our trip to Greve in Chianti, which is sort of Capitol City of Wine. Here, take a look:

 

The drive in.

A shot from when we first got out of the car.  Look at that lady ride her bike!!

Quack, quack, quack.

A map of the town.

Shot down an alley while we walked to get espresso somewhere.

An outdoor grocer in the courtyard behind the cafe where we stopped.

My Aunt Anita (left), mom (center) and ALICE (right) outside the wine tasting place.  Yum!

Inside!!  It was at this point that I was hoping about 100 friends would show up for the fun.  Alas.  

Cool rooster poster that I wanted really badly.

Wines made the year before and the year I was born.  Weird!  And Cool! (Also, dusty!)

I took this picture for friend Emma, who I thought would love this owl on the Olive Oil.

OK, this is just a sign.  River Greve.

ME AND THE CHIANTI ROOSTER!

Well, I had to take a pic of the public library sign, right?

Form the Church there.  Beautiful.

More Rooster!

Look at that Landscape!

On the way home.  Back to the villa.

Gorgeous.

Lots of us are engulfed in Snow right now, so this beautiful landscape is a delight to remember.

OK, so now GO AND POUR YOURSELF A GLASS OF CHIANTI CLASSCO, AND READ THIS AGAIN!

CHEERS!!

Something New

OK, this isn't something TOTALLY new that we're going to write about today, but it is a newish topic.

Wine.

When I last wrote about wine, it was because I was making it.  Remember?  Let me jog your memory for a moment:

The wine fermenting in the carboys.

Miss Zoe, trying a little of the homemade hooch.

Do you remember that?  Zoe thought you would a least recall that picture of her, sampling our squeezin's.

Zoe suggested, for those of you who enjoy a something a little more aged than just plain grape juice, that we write about a couple of wines we have tried recently.  Blueberry, on the other hand, wasn't sure that writing about fruit related things (other than Herself, of course) was terribly appropriate. 

But, since we have tried some excellent wines lately, and because I also wanted to write about them, Zoe won out.  (Next week, we will write about a topic of Blueberry's choice, so don't worry.  She is thinking now about what She might want to address.  Her Ears are up in Contemplation.  Or, maybe it is Grouchiness?  Hmmmmm.)

All this, and we haven't even gotten to the wines yet!

First, let me say that we, here at the Lilypad, judge books by their covers and wines by their labels.  Sometimes, we get burned by that philosophy, but as a general rule, we find that if a publisher or wine maker is willing to put time and money into the packaging of their product, then they must really believe in it.

Here, then, I reveal the labels from two recent wine tries:

You will notice that they are both Pinot Noirs.

Ever since I read the book Sideways by Rex Pickett, I have been on a Pinot Noir kick.  Miles, the novel's main character (besides being a one hit wonder sort of writer and a rather pathetic and alcoholic recent divorcee who is trying to keep his soon to be married friend on the up and up while on a pre marriage wine tour), is a complete wine snob and will pretty much only drink Pinot Noir.

As I read the book, I couldn't recall ever really having a Pinot.

Well, I certainly wanted to while I was reading.  And after.  And now.

The way Pinot is described in the book was exquisite-- the black currant, cherry flavors meshed with smooth vanilla and other essences resulting in a rich wine with a velvety finish.  Well, who can resist that?

Not I, I say.  Not I.

When was the last time YOU had a Pinot Noir?  If you want to try something delicious that's not too expensivo and is definitely delicious, try Arrogant Frog or The Seeker.  You won't be disappointed.

You're Going Where?

You're Going WHERE???

So, I haven't said anything about this yet, but about three or so weeks ago, I found out that a trip to Italy was in my future.

My very near future.  Very near.   Like, as in, this Fall.

I know that Zoe is not pleased.  She is perhaps "glad for my opportunity"....but....well, you know.   She's pretty sure that looking at pictures of Italy is enough. 

This is the scoop:  My Mom and my Aunt were going to Italy with two friends.  One friend canceled, and I suddenly became the new friend because when asked if he wanted to go, my father said, "Ummmmmmm......No."

OK!  I'll go!  Twist my arm!!!!

The itinerary begins with 3 nights in Milan, and then a trip to Tuscany to stay in a villa just south of Florence for the following two weeks. 

Do you think the villa allows Rabbits?

I can't believe I'm going to say this, but, even without a Rabbit, this trip sounds pretty Dreamy.  

Dreamy = Tuscany during Wine Season.

Zoe may have Her back to me for the rest of the year, though.  Can I handle that?

At least the back part is Cute.

SIGH.

Oh, and then there's this Rabbit, too.

Oh, dear.  I'm not sure there's any hope for me.

Big Announcements and Such

This weekend, the Lilypad was all abuzz with ideas!!

Due to the Blisschick's and Connie's BIG ANNOUNCEMENT, it was like there was electricity in the air. The Blisschick was flapping around Doing Things, and asking me questions, and talking incessantly, and in the middle of it all, we got an idea for... Something Else, which we're not sharing yet.

What is all this Announcement Business anyway?

And that was all cool.

Miss Zoe and I did some painting. We are almost done with our Portrait of a Certain Someone. If I hadn't had to work at the Library yesterday, we might have finished it. But then, it was also, like 1000 degrees here yesterday with about 150% humidity. So we might also have melted into a puddle on the floor. (Needless to say, I was glad to work in a lovely geo-thermally cooled building for the day!)

Also, the wine was ready to bottle, so we took care of that. Miss Zoe did not help with that, as she is much too small to hold the siphon or use the corker. Also, she's not much interested in Helping, per se. Miss Lilly, however, looked on with much interest. She tried to get a sip here and there, but was foiled.

No one needs a drunk cat in the house.

We bottled 28 and a half bottles of Chianti. YAY!!


Below, you see the corker. It may be, like a Portuguese Corker or something. I can't recall it's Title. Nevertheless, it looks a little like a torture device. Le Corker!! And, I guess it is a torture device for corks, now that I think about it. You drop a cork into that little black hole you see, and it squeeeeeeeeezes the cork and shoves it right into the bottle. The Blisschick loves to use the Corker!

Besides the Blisschick Excitement and the Painting of Portraits and Bottling Wine, we were also informed that it was Leave a Zucchini on Your Neighbor's Porch Day at some point recently. So, we took advantage of that day by leaving a little something for Neighbor Bill:

So far, sadly, we don't think he's been on his back porch to notice it. Sigh.

Stupid Zucchini!

It better never be
Leave a Bunny on Your Neighbor's Porch Day.
I'm just sayin'.

That was Our Weekend in Review.

How about you? Did anyone else leave a zucchini for a neighbor?

I think there's still time.

Are You Wine-ing? You Should Be!

About 5 years ago, the Blisschick and I started drinking wine.

I'm not sure why we didn't drink it before, but we didn't.

I guess we were primarily coffee/ espresso people and simply hadn't yet branched out into other oral pleasures so much.

Then, we made some friends who appreciated wine, made their own, and introduced us to the intricacies of the Chianti, the Shiraz, the Zinfandel, the Sauvignon Blanc, and more.

The rest, as they say, is history.

Now we love wine and are always excited to try new things. Our new current favorite is the Petite Shiraz. We haven't yet tried one that we haven't liked. Our favorite is made by Bogle.

"Wait," I can hear you thinking. "What does this have to do with Rabbits?"

(Or, was that Miss Zoe I heard? Hmmmmm...)

Anyhow, a couple of years ago, I was struck with the sudden desire to want to try making my own wine.

I know, it might sound crazy. When we told our neighbor about my new hobby she said this: "Oh, yeah. My Grandmother used to do that, too. She would put frozen grape juice concentrate in a bottle and sprinkle yeast on it, and then put a balloon over the mouth of the bottle and place it behind the couch. It tasted like gasoline."

OK. Seriously?

So, no, that's not what I have going in the kitchen.

What I have in the kitchen goes a little more like this:


And, no-- that's NOT a balloon on the top of the carboy. It's an airlock. It serves the same purpose, only it's much classier, I assure you. Observe:


For anyone interested in trying this, it is actually quite fun! We have a great wine and beer supply place just a couple of miles away called the Beirhaus. The dude who owns it is a totally laid back guy who MAKES WINE AND BEER FOR A LIVING!! Come on. What a great job.

I have not actually crushed my own grapes or anything yet, but that's the eventual idea. We have a couple of vines out back. Cabernet Franc, here we come!!

Well, someday.

For now, I use wine kits from the Bierhaus. It's great practice for the real thing and it also sates my strange longing for chemistry.

Ahem. Plus, it's fun to drink.

So, this summer's first batch is a Chianti. What you see in the pictures is about 6 gallons, which translates to about 30 bottles of wine.

It should last a couple of weeks, anyhow.

Hee, hee, hee.

The second batch will be a Zinfandel.

We got the kits on sale last year for about $50 each. So, besides being fun, making your own wine is also terribly cost effective.

Chemistry AND Maths! My mom would be so proud!

As for what it has to do with Rabbits, here you go:


Miss Zoe can't wait for the first batch to be done.

And, in case you're looking for her, she'll be the Rabbit with the lampshade on her ears.