Just returned from my neighborhood self-serve frozen yogurt shop stewing over the large and obnoxious tip jar now placed on the counter at the check out. Really? I am supposed to tip someone for the privilege of making my own tasty frozen treat. What does the clerk do to earn my tip? He didn’t provide me with a sample, in fact, he didn’t even ask me if I wanted a sample. All a clerk at a self service frozen yogurt place does is weigh my yogurt and take my money, no tip earned, no tip given. Am I right or am I just cheap?

Here at the office we often joke that we are the quasi-official visitors center of SLO. Passerby’s are always welcoming themselves in, asking where the tailoring shop has moved to, how to get to the courthouse, what happened to the jewelry store that they swear used to be on the block…or simply how our day has been going. It must be the big comfy white couch that people just can’t pass up…Just yesterday the cutest Borracha visitor came in. She must have been at least 80 years old and she slowly made it up the stairs with her cane in hand. She came in, looked around, and I thought “oh great. She must be lost and looking for the tailoring shop…” and then to my surprise she asked: “So what are these Wine Wipes I hear about?” I gladly showed her a sample and explained the product. She took a moment to think about it, started cracking up and said: “I love it! I get the purple smile too!” I sent her off with a smile and a sample, of course! Definitely the cutest [and unlikeliest] Wine Wipes fan yet.

Quick tip: To determine the temperature at which to serve wine, Ursula Hermacinski, the former Christie’s wine auctioneer, advises: “Twenty minutes before dinner, you take the white wine out of the fridge, and put the red wine in.”

With the help of wine.com here’s a quick breakdown of wines and their appropriate serving temperatures. Champagne and other sparkling wines should start out totally chilled. Sauvignon Blanc, Pinot Grigio, white Zinfandel and other refreshing white wines should also be chilled to refrigerator temperature for an hour and a half before serving. Chardonnay, white Burgundy and other rich, full-bodied and barrel-fermented white wines of high quality taste their best at classic “cellar temperature,” or 55 degrees. Sweet dessert wines should be chilled like a Sauvignon Blanc, with the exception of fortified dessert wines like Port and sweet Sherry, which are better at cellar temperature or warm. And finally, almost all red wines are best when served at about 65 degrees—cool, but warmer than cellar temperature. Remember that this is not usually room temperature, so if you don’t keep your red wine in a cooled storage place you will enjoy it more if you chill it for 20 minutes in the refrigerator before serving.

We came across an interesting new wine gadget- the Ravi Instant Wine Chiller. This nifty little gadget chills wine instantly as you pour! Keep this contraption in the freezer and when you are ready for your daily dose of vino, insert it in your bottle and pour. Cheers!

http://www.wineenthusiast.com/ravi-instant-wine-chiller.asp?promo1

As with most useful, informational, and totally random stories I hear about now, I found this one out on Twitter. On a blog aptly named The Wine Whore Blog, the blogger reviews an interesting beverage product: glass straws. The product is highlighted as an “earth friendly way to sip wine without staining your teeth.”

The straws are very posh looking, but as the Wine Whore admits it is a slightly odd concept for wine drinkers. It makes me think back to my younger days of drinking grape juice boxes during school recess…

The Wine Whore is having a friendly “Pepsi competition”…Wine Wipes vs. Glass Straws to see which works best to maintain that pearly white smile while slurping the red! Stay tuned!

http://www.winewhoreblog.com/2009/06/smooth-sippin.html#comments

Note to self when in a pickle with the authorities: just blame the Holy Wine. This is what one Italian priest is attempting to do in a drunk driving case. The 41-year-old Roman Catholic priest was caught with a blood alcohol content of 0.8 grams. The legal limit in Italy is 0.5 grams. He is basing his appeal on his involuntary consumption of alcohol as part of the ritual in four masses he participated in earlier that day. Unless he had a secret stash of Holy Wine and was guzzling it in between prayers, he has no excuse.

Moral of the story: don’t blame it on the alcohol, even if the vino was blessed.

http://www.kutv.com/content/news/watercooler/story/Priest-blames-Holy-Wine-for-drunk-driving/sZXlm4ujcUCwhK2DCW1EoA.cspx

Spanish sherry has a long history, dating back thousands of years ago…the Phoenicians used to carry the stuff around in their amphoras. Today its reputation is tainted because of 400 years of cheap imitation from around the world. These imitators used the name “sherry” but did not produce it as they do in Jerez, Spain’s oldest wine region. Spanish sherry can take 5-100 years to complete its journey, exit the solera, and become bottled. And although production is extensive this wine remains cheap and versatile. For thousands of years it has been used as an aperitif, digestif, and is widely known today as a sweet dessert wine. Cheers to sherry’s comeback!