One of the cool things about being the administrator of a blog–at least powered through WordPress–is that I am able to see what search phrases people are using to get to my site. Some of the most direct are phrases like “joon song wine blog” or “vinicultured.” Others are things like “wine blog” or “hip wine blog” (since when did my blog become hip?). The most popular phrases involve “pinot noir” or “best pinot noir”–my most popular entry, actually, is suitably titled “Mission Wines Tasting: The (Second) Best Pinot Noir I’ve Ever Had.”
Then, others are… well… not what I would have ever anticipated for a wine blog. “Wisdom teeth coffee” has come up–presumably for my entry on how getting my wisdom teeth pulled temporarily ended my wine drinking career. “LegalZoom sucks” has come up 24 times since I started my blog–and I can assure you quite readily that LegalZoom does not, in fact, suck. A morbid series of phrases deals with how to throw a party for a dying person–which is somehow derived from my post on the psychology of a dying party (as in a party that is winding down, not a party for… well… dying).
But perhaps one of the most enjoyable series of phrases shows how the Internet is truly being used: the second most popular search phrase on my site is “French women,” the fifth is “women smoking,” and somewhere lower on the list is “French women smoking.” My post isn’t really about drinking per se but is about the relatively recent ban on smoking in France. (Look out for the nasty comment comparing me to a Southern slaveowner!)
In a similar way, a few weeks ago I was at The Wine Specialist in DC to literally purchase only a pack of Fever Tree club soda (which is delicious and the best, purest, softest club soda you will ever drink or mix with). That was it. I was resolved to purchasing only this small little item and getting the f out of there. We know how this story ends. I end up buying some alcohol.
I have a defense! This defense stems from the same impulse that led hundreds of visitors to my site–the same love of French women, those beautiful, usually cultured beings with sexy accents, who until recently smoked at streetside Parisian cafes and are currently drinking slightly more clear distilled liquors like vodka at the expense of their native wine. This particular French woman was a sales manager at Vignobles & Signatures, a import/export company based out of Alexandria, VA.
She was wearing a sassy-yet-down-to-business outfit and pouring tastes of Champagne Drappier, which I had not heard of until that moment. The tasting was free, so I figured what the hell. Besides, it was being poured not by some hairy overweight Virginian dude but a very attractive woman of Western European extraction.
So I tried the champagne. The first, a blanc de blanc, was decent–good but rather ordinary. The third, their non-vintage “Val Des Demoiselles” rosé, was very, very good–rich, smooth, with a clear taste of red berries. There was a pretty good mouthfeel and mouthful of bubbles, but… but… by that time I had fallen in love.
With the sales manager? No, though that would have made me feel all bubbly. Rather, as in Goldilocks, the middle one was juuuuuust right.
The middle one was the Champagne Drappier “Cart d’Or” brut, which was a blend of primarily pinot noir with some chardonnay and a bit of pinot meunier. This was just so… wow. The initial intake was like drinking pure bubbles–and these bubbles were extremely concentrated and tiny. An explosion of flavor–just rich and buttery from the chard but not overly so, round and full, pear and honey and notes of yeast. Oh God, gorgeous, and much better than Veuve Clicquot–less of a metallic, sticky finish, for one. For about $38-$40, it’s a comparable price as well.
The lesson here? Keep doing what you’re doing, because sometimes you might find something you weren’t expecting but will completely blow your mind (like my blog).
Vinicultured: A Wine Blog 
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