I’m no connoisseur of wines, but I do like to try all sorts. For reds, I tend more toward the spicier wines. I’ll lean toward a shiraz now and again. But mostly I buy wine based on how cool the label is, or if I like the name.
We came across Oops a while back and their Gentle Giant quickly became a favorite of mine. It’s smooth and easygoing. It’s one of the most drinkable reds I’ve had.
Other wines in the Oops lineup that I’ve had the chance to try have been quite good. Recommended!
That is some seriously cool labeling. I would buy that.
Are you familiar with the ’70s prog rock band Gentle Giant?
Not related… but I can’t see that name without thinking of that.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UWfmfgHXAfE
This gives me a good idea though: create a website that consolidates links to YouTube clips of all of the obscure ’70s prog bands I can think of. Would something like that violate YouTube’s ToS? (OK, that’s REALLY unrelated. Sorry.)
My dad would love that website. I think he sends me three clips a day of 70’s prog bands.
[...] blog: Hall of Prog It occurred to me tonight, while reading a post on outsidedown, that I know of two sources on the planet of encyclopedic knowledge of progressive rock: YouTube [...]
And you thought I was just kidding…
http://prog.room34.com
Man I love WordPress. Almost as much as YouTube and ’70s French prog bands that sing in invented languages.
By the way, those wines do look interesting, and I like the labels.
My sister-in-law tipped me off to a great discount wine shop in Chicago. IIRC it’s in a very unassuming industrial/warehouse area. I googled and came up with Wine Discount Center, on Elston, and judging by Street View, I think that’s it. Worth checking out, if you haven’t. Great selection and prices.
I do tend to go to the discount places if I’m throwing a party, but otherwise I go to Manny’s, a family-owned, local, small business about 100 yards from my apartment.
I can relate to that. When you want to stock up with a huge selection and low prices, Surdyk’s is THE place in Minneapolis. But I’ve got two little “mom-n-pop” (if that term can be applied to a booze mart) liquor stores within 3 blocks (in opposite directions) of my house, so they’re where I go most often if I just need wine with dinner or a bottle of tequila for margaritas.
By the way… we have totally ass-backwards, draconian liquor laws here in Minnesota. Liquor stores are not allowed to be open AT ALL on Sundays; grocery stores are not allowed to carry anything stronger than 3.2 beer and wine coolers; and there’s a weird law on the books where a city can either have all privately-owned or all municipally-owned liquor stores.
There’s a movement here “Wine with Dinner” trying to get the state to change the laws so grocery stores can sell wine and “strong” (i.e. regular) beer, but it never gets anywhere, most likely because the cities that own their own liquor stores are not willing to give up the revenue.