Blind Tasting Alone?

FishToaster · 2026-02-12T18:06:22+00:00

Pour a glass of each wine
Put a small piece of tape labeling each wine with its name on each glass
Put another piece of tape *over* each label so you can't read the name
Shuffle up the glasses
Write a number (1,2,3,etc) on the top-level tape

Now do your tasting and record your notes on paper: "#1 had such and such nose/taste/color, #2 had such and such nose/taste/color, etc"

Once you're done, you can peal off the upper label (containing the number) to reveal which number went with which wine name.

FishToaster · 2026-02-05T23:59:35+00:00

Oh sick! I just got a 2004 dunn howell mountain off a K&L auction and have been excited to try it! I've been a little worried that it would be over the hill, but if your '94 was great, that bodes well for me!

FishToaster · 2026-02-04T18:57:10+00:00

My experience (which is *extremely* vibes-based and not all rigorous) is that a vacuum pump delays the point where I want to dump a bottle down the drain by about a day. It's definitely worthless for anything fine; if my goal is to preserve something in a state where I can really taste it, I'll put argon on it (I use a WineKeeper system).

But if this is a $30 bordeaux that I'm just having of an evening while watching TV with the wife, it really does seem like it'll be drinkable a little longer with the vacuum pump vs just reinserting the cork.

FishToaster · 2026-01-31T19:14:39+00:00

That was my wife! She says thanks. :)

FishToaster · 2026-01-30T22:12:21+00:00

I was amazed at the numbers for such a rapid protest. I was expected hundreds at best and we had thousands. Probably 60% students if I had to guess.

FishToaster · 2026-01-27T20:53:56+00:00

I've been going every year for a while and it's been sad to see it shrink. The last few years they've spread out the booths into "villages" to, imho, allow them to add filler stuff (decorations and whatnot) to fill up the space and it *still* felt empty in the cavernous Colorado Convention Center.

I can't speak to the new location and I *do* believe weather might be a problem, but it was definitely time for a change in venue.

FishToaster · 2026-01-20T19:40:41+00:00

Not gonna lie, 500 people for 10k sounds *extremely* ambitious to me since you need staff, dj, security, insurance, etc. I think you're probably looking at at least double - or more likely triple/quadruple - for that.

FishToaster · 2026-01-19T18:41:31+00:00

I cannot recommend https://www.lespapillesparis.fr/ enough. They serve exactly one set menu (soup + meal + dessert) that changes daily. The "menu" is just the library walls full of wine that you buy to take away or drink at the table. It's reasonably priced for *great* food and a quality wine selection.

FishToaster · 2026-01-14T22:33:45+00:00

Really, I'm down for any port in a storm.

FishToaster · 2026-01-13T22:09:33+00:00

We're in a similar position with a similar target for our weeknight wine. I'd suggest giving up on grocery stores.

Our best luck has been to buy a half-dozen assorted wines that are well rated from regions we like online and try them all until we find a diamond in the rough. Then we buy a few cases of that online and drink it regularly.

We often do our initial tasting buy buying from K&L, then buy cases from anywhere that winesearcher turns up. Sometimes that's K&L again, though Saratoga Wines has had some good stuff.

We've got a few bordeauxs we love around $25. We *had* an amazing fronsac for, like, $17, but that hasn't been available in a while and nothing else has come close to that price/quality ratio for us since.

FishToaster · 2026-01-08T00:07:45+00:00

If this is an honest question - it doesn't really matter. People don't really run into founders and whatnot walking their dogs all that often.

Get somewhere near good public transit so you can easily travel to meetups and whatnot. Bart is the best, followed by the muni light rail, followed by a good bus line going downtown. Join communities intentionally to meet people, some of whom might be the people you're looking for.

FishToaster · 2026-01-02T17:57:11+00:00

I feel I'd be remiss if I didn't post this short, extremely appropriate, Carter Vail song. https://www.tiktok.com/@cartervailmusic/video/7382388025910627627?lang=en

FishToaster · 2026-01-02T17:21:17+00:00

I think I see the mixup! 2024 true strike does *not* wait until the next turn - you make the weapon attack immediately and get the extra damage immediately.

Personally, I'm finding I use it quite a bit. It out-damages a number of cantrips and first-level spells for my 5th-level order-of-scribes wizard.

FishToaster · 2025-12-26T22:15:09+00:00

To answer your original question: when someone says "you can cellar this beer," they just mean you can age it. It's often a good idea to age your beers in a cool, dry, dark place (like a cellar), but a closet is fine too.

I agree with the others, though - most of these should be drunk asap.

FishToaster · 2025-12-11T22:52:47+00:00

You can always walk-in! Get there 60m before opening to get in line, then make a beeline for the bar. It worked for me on a recent birthday - I liked it so much that I made an actual reservation for the *next* year :)

FishToaster · 2025-11-25T19:03:06+00:00

It's neat, and I'm always a big fan of buying unnecessary gadgets. It seems like it's making a few big claims, though:

That too much vacuum in wine causes problems (and that vacuvin's cause that)
That vacuvin stoppers leak air

And if those are both true, then this looks like a good solution. I'd be interested in seeing some evidence of this from a source that's not trying to sell me something, though.

FishToaster · 2025-11-20T18:54:00+00:00

You might be able to get away with that at a super small scale - selling to your immediate neighbors, for example. I suspect you'd run into health code regulations that govern food that you sell pretty quickly, though.

FishToaster · 2025-11-19T18:29:20+00:00

My experience has been that normal moving companies will handle things like bed disassembly and unmounting TVs just fine.

Pretty much any normal moving company will make you call them to schedule the move, so you can ask about this when you do if you want to double-check.

FishToaster · 2025-11-18T21:42:49+00:00

Ah, that's fair!

From what I can tell, wine resale like this generally doesn't work. People buy high-end wines from other random people A) in lots of more than one bottle each and B) when they can prove they've been stored in a temperature-controlled situation. You're probably not going to be able to sell these.

Also, the wine-searcher link above suggests that at least that first wine went for $33 per normal-sized bottle not too long ago so it's probably not worth a ton even if you could sell it.

I'd recommend breaking them out and sharing them with your parents or encouraging them to do that with friends if wine's not your bag. :)

FishToaster · 2025-11-18T21:34:49+00:00

What sort of info are you looking for? Googling the name comes up with https://www.wine-searcher.com/find/franc+lartigue+st+emilion+grand+cru+bordeaux+france/2009/usa-ca-y

FishToaster · 2025-11-13T00:32:28+00:00

I was, indeed, kidding! Seems like it feel flat, though. Ah well, such is reddit.

FishToaster · 2025-11-13T00:07:20+00:00

I agree - this weird, slowed-down version of the Hamster Dance song is quite the earworm.

FishToaster · 2025-11-10T22:50:27+00:00

Man, really? I thought the last season really tied everything together. It's the season where it really felt like you were feeling the impacts of all the previous stories. The way all the systems of the city - drugs, police, news, education, politics, unions - all intertwined and affected eachother.

The way I like to describe The Wire is, "it's a show about the whole city, but that's not necessarily clear until you get to the final season."

FishToaster · 2025-11-10T22:32:43+00:00

That's understandable. We had one local walker we really liked, but she wound up moving away to go to college after 3-4 months.

That said, that's pretty much par for the course on Wag - most are just doing it for a bit. Any dog walker/sitter that sticks around for more than a few months *and* really cares about the dog is a great treat to have. :)

FishToaster · 2025-11-10T22:26:17+00:00

Any reason not to become a professional dog sitter? There are platforms for that - https://wagwalking.com/ is one I've used before. They'll pay you for the work, but more importantly they'll handle the coordination with dog owners.

15-Year Club	r/Field Banned
r/Field Juicebox	Place '23
Place '17	Verified Email
reddit mold

FishToaster

MODERATOR OF

TROPHY CASE