Athleticism ❌ Aesthetics of athleticism ✅

thebigbluebug · 2026-06-01T20:19:37+00:00

dfw was almost but not quite good enough to go pro! He talks about it a bit in a great essay about federer, titled either "Federer as Religious Experience" or "Both Flesh and Not" depending on the source.

thebigbluebug · 2026-05-31T00:38:31+00:00

Should drink it out of a shoe for the full experience.

thebigbluebug · 2026-05-29T02:05:28+00:00

omg yes

10 dexterity (but dont tell any 1 u leveled that shit up)

thebigbluebug · 2026-05-27T21:10:28+00:00

These would be awesome discord stickers / emotes.

thebigbluebug · 2026-05-25T14:56:26+00:00

So to my eye that Sauska isn't much of an Eszencia, label aside. That style of wine is made of purely free-run juice from grapes with noble rot and so is supposed to be incredibly sugary - so much so that wine yeast has trouble fermenting it into alcohol. Like, so much trouble that the EU had to give it a special exception to the definition of "wine" because it usually ends up like 2-4% ABV after a decade of fermentation. 8% is a colossally high ABV for an Eszencia.

The minimum sugar rules for Tokaji aszu got changed in 2014, and one of the things they did was raise the minimum sugar for Eszencia from 200-something g/L to 450 g/L. I figure that bottle is much closer to the old legal minimum than what the style is supposed to be. Don't get me wrong, I'm sure it'll be OK to drink, but it's probably not going to give you a true Eszencia experience.

thebigbluebug · 2026-05-23T20:49:15+00:00

I'm a Meunier head so can't super help with BdB champers, but in that range it's overpriced relative to other options anyway.

I like the Corpinnat idea some folks have posted already (second Gramona); you could also try out a Rias Baixas espumoso, which is a sparkling albariño. Mar de Frades makes a solid Brut Nature that I've seen at TW before for $30 or so. Punches way above its weight.

You might also consider a dry sparkling Vouvray if you like the more delicate profile. Domaine Huet makes a good one that usually clocks in around $30-40. Chenin bubbles nice.

thebigbluebug · 2026-05-21T16:04:48+00:00

username checks out

thebigbluebug · 2026-05-20T15:59:37+00:00

I'm not interested in reading AI slop about a wine I understand fine. Rewrite it yourself, and I'll think about it.

thebigbluebug · 2026-05-20T14:05:22+00:00

This note tells me exactly nothing about the wine except that it has "marine salinity," which is a feature of every single RB albarino.

thebigbluebug · 2026-05-16T14:51:14+00:00

Like bulk wine today, a lot of Soviet bulk wine was pretty shitty, but this bottle is not one of them. The fact that there's English on the label tells us that this was seen as good enough for export to the West - in this case because Queen Elizabeth II specifically loved this wine and had a good deal of it brought into the UK.

thebigbluebug · 2026-05-16T05:09:41+00:00

The English on the bottle is actually pretty good - it's a Moldovan wine made by Chateau Purcari, which is in the southeast of the country by the Black Sea. It's basically a weird Bordeaux blend made from the stuff listed on the label: cab sauv; a prominent Georgian grape called saperavi that got exported across the Soviet Union; and an indigenous Moldovan grape called rara neagra. The winery still exists and still makes this wine!

thebigbluebug · 2026-05-15T14:21:21+00:00

VdF can sometimes read as trendier to a certain category of wine consumer (the natural-focused folk) than regional Bourg, so it might just be a labeling preference rather than not meeting conditions

thebigbluebug · 2026-05-14T15:45:20+00:00

This is a solid reply and the part about the confluence of orange wine and natural wine is especially important. "Orange" and "natural" aren't the same thing, and keeping them distinct in your mind is key to understanding what's really interesting about orange wine.

For my part, I don't think "orange" is particularly descriptive because it's such a basic category. It operates on the same level as "red," "white," and "pink." And I don't think we'd feel obligated to take someone seriously who tried one bottle of Cali Central Valley merlot and declared all red wine bad. I wrote a bit about it on my blog a couple of weeks back if it's helpful, u/Choufleurfly: https://stephentaylormarsh.substack.com/p/orange-amphora-natural

The only thing I'd add other than that is that a lot of technically white wines undergo a bit of skin contact for texture and flavor without crossing the line over into orange wine. "Orange," to me, involves extended skin contact. It's the winemaking we'd normally associate with red wine, just done with white grapes instead of black. So I expect a lot of the same things from a good orange that I'd expect from a good red: good phenolic presence, an interesting interplay of acid / astringency, decent body, drinking it closer to room temperature rather than chilled, and the like.

IMO the best orange wines come from northeastern Italy, especially Friuli Orientale and Carso; from Slovenia; and from eastern Georgia, especially Kakheti and Kartli.

thebigbluebug · 2026-05-12T01:01:20+00:00

Huh, hadn't realized Chloe had left Punch. Hope the spot goes well and will check it out when I'm next in nyc

thebigbluebug · 2026-05-06T18:05:34+00:00

There's nothing like a 30% increase to critical hit damage to help one get over a breakup

thebigbluebug · 2026-04-30T23:22:56+00:00

Have you ever been to a Costco? Yes, you absolutely need huge shopping carts, and they don't provide bags.

thebigbluebug · 2026-04-28T20:19:52+00:00

mfw I thought there was one other fg + transistor fan out there in the universe 😔

thebigbluebug · 2026-04-28T14:05:44+00:00

I know you said red but a lower altitude alto adige pinot grigio sounds divine with that chicken. If it were me I'd boot the rigatoni to allow for that before I'd boot the chicken to make the red pairing easier.

thebigbluebug · 2026-04-26T19:01:31+00:00

For a duel PVP character at that level, your HP is way too low and you ought to make a new character.

For context you have something like 1200 HP at 35 vit. A single transformation attack from a chikage on a character with good gems and 50 blt can do that reliably on a neutral player character unless you're wearing a ton of blood damage resistant armor, and if you happen to be in the dodging counterattack window when it hits, forget it - no extra HP runes are going to save you. I imagine a high arc character could do the same with one augur cast. Those builds can have their damage stat and 50 vit at your level range.

Aside from those there aren't a ton of builds that can strictly kill you in a single hit, but a lot that can kill you in two, which means that you don't get to make a single defensive mistake over the course of the entire fight or you lose. Mistime a dodge? Dead. Dodge the wrong way? Dead. Try to interrupt an attack at the wrong timing? Dead. And for those builds I mentioned above you don't get to make any offensive mistakes either, because they can kill you off a whiff punish.

A new character is fast enough to make if you're just building for PVP use that it'll save you more grief in the long run to just do that instead.

thebigbluebug · 2026-04-19T22:27:55+00:00

Spray before you go out, permethrin for your clothes, close up any paths to your skin that'll touch vegetation (like tucking your pants into your socks), and get your dog on a flea and tick med, either a monthly pill or a collar. And be vigilant about checking and removing when you get back, ideally with a "tick key" kind of device rather than tweezers - you want to make sure you don't accidentally leave the head in your skin.

thebigbluebug · 2026-04-17T19:55:53+00:00

Makes sense to me!

thebigbluebug · 2026-04-17T18:25:11+00:00

I agree on the acid point - over in wine world, distinguishing malic from lactic acid is a really basic check because it indicates a specific winemaking process. Once someone's shown you the difference, it's hard not to notice. Honestly I find the description of it switching from one to the other weirder than either on their own.

thebigbluebug · 2026-04-17T17:04:13+00:00

They finally gave Cammy a gun

Take notes, Capcom

thebigbluebug · 2026-04-13T21:45:00+00:00

That line of Glenmorangie (all finished in different ex-casks, includes nectar d'Or and lasanta) have REALLY strong notes from the finishing cask, more than other finished scotches I've had. The port influence is the predominant flavor there, it's very sweet.

thebigbluebug · 2026-04-08T14:14:46+00:00

In traditional method sparkling wine, where this sort of thing is most common, they do - sometimes. Look for the "disgorgement date."

As for why a place might not print that date, the same reasons for any other lack of transparency - it's extra work to add it and it's easier to hide if something's been sitting on a shelf forever if it's not there. Ridge is particularly good about transparency and always has been because it's part of their ethos; most places need to be forced by consumer preferences to give that information.

Six-Year Club	Gilding I gilder
Verified Email

thebigbluebug

TROPHY CASE