Dr Vino’s wine blog

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In the Final Four, the sleek and stylish Rieslings of JJ Prum got out to an early lead but Mollydooker came roaring back to take the crown in the first ever Wine Madness! The Maitre D’ set up shots, the Two Left Feet ran hard, and The Boxer played a tough inside game. The Violinist annoyed the crowd at first but then got drowned out by the cheers for the action from the court. During the chilling moments in the first half, they all had Goosebumps but by the end they were walking down the Enchanted Path, drinking Gigglepots, and wondering if they might be heading to a Carnival of Love.

And Mollydooker gets the grand prize: a link back to their website! Catch all those references in the preceding paragraph by checking out the whole line of wines over at Mollydooker.com.au.

I hope you enjoyed the tournament. Thanks again to wine blogger and journalist Mark Fisher for the idea. If you have suggestions on how to better run it for next year, hit the comments! Perhaps we will have to do a pool after all. If only this blog were hosted in Las Vegas…

Wine Madness continues to the Final Four! Thanks to your comments, we now have the finalists! Vote here and now to decide the winner! (We are dispensing with the semifinals and the final four will be ranked in their vote order here.)

UPDATE: The wine with the most votes as of Monday April 7, 11:59 PM will be declared the winner!

See previous rounds

Wine Madness, the tournament that has captivated the dozen people who like both wine and sports, now moves to the quarterfinals thanks entirely to your votes and hilarious comments!

For this round, you need to vote the wines you want to see in the next round by commenting on this post. After the jump, see the remaining eight teams and post a comment to decide the Final Four! Read more…

It all started last week on a lark, but now we move on to the second round. Over the weekend, play occurred in far-flung arenas and I report the results here. Now it is up to you and vote the teams/wines through that you want to see in the next round. It is all in your hands! Hit the comments of this post for the Parkerized wines and Natural wines brackets; the previous post for the Riesling and Supermarket wine brackets. Read more…

Over the weekend, play occurred in far-flung arenas and I report the results here. Now it is up to you to vote the teams/wines through that you want to see in the next round. It is all in your hands! Hit the comments of this post for the Supermarket wines and Riesling brackets; the previous post for the Parkerized wines and Natural wines brackets. Read more…

Mark Fisher’s request is my command! Based on this “Beer Madness” from the Washington Post, I present “Wine Madness.”

Wines are divided into four divisions: Supermarket wines, Parkerized wines, Natural wines, and Riesling. The early money is coming in strong on Mollydooker for taking the whole thing, but don’t count out the other number one seeds, Two Buck Chuck, Dr. Loosen, and Domaine Huet.

Some of the early match-ups will be bruising, particularly the Carol Rossi vs Franzia in a battle of heavyweights and one of these two may play the winner of the Mollydooker vs Run Rig game for the title. Games also of note: White Lie and Wine Sight might be a catfight in the “wine for women” pairing; Noel Pinguet (Huet) vs Nicolas Joly in a biodynamic chenin show-down; and Leeuwin Estate and Pierre Trimbach will battle it out with their different styles in the Riesling category and the winner could be the tournament’s Cindarella.

Click to see the whole 32 team bracket.

UPDATE: Thanks for the support! Check back next Monday when you can see who advanced to the quarterfinals–and then vote them through to the finals!

Just in time for Super Bowl Sunday, a giantly patriotic dish showcasing American innovation: Buffalo wings!

Is it impossible to pair wings with wine? You make the call! (And don’t forget the blue cheese dip.)

Related: “Betting wine for football.”
“Impossible food-wine pairings: chips and salsa!”
UPDATE: Thanks, Mark, for pointing out the “classic” wine pairing!
Image: istockphoto.com

Just what was the “champagne” that the Red Sox sprayed all over their goggled and giddy selves yesterday? A reader wants to know. Fortunately, the Dr. Vino cam was in the locker room at Coors Field (Coors? As if the Rockies even had a chance in a venue like that according to the wine theory of sports champions). To the photos:

Photo one provides a glimpse of the left front label, photo two, the right, photo three, the actual label for your spy cam comparisons. Put them together and what does it spell? Domaine Ste Michelle! Is it the finest “handcrafted” bubbly that $6.99 can buy? You decide! Oddly, the Sox changed since they popped Korbel back when they won the first round of the playoffs. But why no Red Sox charity wine?

What sort of bubbly would you pop if your team made it to the Major League Championship round?

It may appear a rhetorical question, but around America this week it is a question that confronts baseball team owners. And from their choice, we can tell who will win the World Series.

Consider my hapless Cubs. What did they pop after they clinched the NL Central? Korbel. Granted, spraying a locker room is one of the best things you can do with Korbel. But it didn’t bode well. They were swept by the Arizona Diamondbacks.

The Boston Red Sox, until recently, lovable losers like the Cubs, have advanced one round further. But which bubbly did they spray all over each other? Korbel. And with goggles and ponchos, no less!

The Indians appear destined for greatness. After beating the Yankees, they popped open the Mumm’s. Granted, it’s best use is probably Christening ships but at least if you ended up with a shot in your mouth, it wouldn’t be too traumatic. (Though there are some beer cans visible in that top picture.) And the Indians eschewed goggles and ponchos. Real wine geek men. Winners, it appears.

Unless trivial details like earned runs and batting averages come into play.

Image 1: Fair use is made of a reduced size, cropped photo from sports.yahoo.com attributed to Bill Kostroun/AP
Image 2: Fair use is made of a reduced size, cropped photo from sports.yahoo.com attributed to Elsa

We went to Saratoga on Saturday and a horse in race 8 grabbed my attention: Winemaster! Yes, horse number five was an MW! Well, his name was Winemaster at least. Doing the classic newbie tactic of betting on horse name, I took Winemaster “across” in for a win-place-show! And with 8-1 odds, think how juicy the payout would be. So how did he do?

He was somewhere in the second half of the pack. Oh, and my “name” strategy didn’t work well in race 7 either with my exacta box on Dr. Pleasure and Dr. Googles Boogles. Next time, quantitative analysis only!

What would you name your race horse to have it called out when crossing the line in first place?

And, btw, if you do venture to Saratoga, head off Broadway for dinner–we had a very good meal at Beekman Street Bistro, which has an interesting, succinct wine list to boot.

62 Beekman Street, 518-581-1816