Perhaps the BEST B1G Forum anywhere, here at College Football Fan Site, CFB51!!!

I liked the spicy chicken I had in Korea.

I once passed a building in Seoul with an outline painting of Olive Oyl's head, and in Han Gul it spelled out "Oh-Lee-bǝ Chee-keen."  I can't remember what the Korean word for chicken is (probably something or other-gogi), but it is not "chee-keen."

Koreans in and around Tulsa own all the Daylight Donuts shops.  Maybe one of them will step up and start a Korean restaurant.

Check that!  We've already got 6 or 7 of 'em listed in Google Maps.  Oh, happy day!

ya if you're auditioning for The Adams Family III

Maybe I should start a wine thread here.  My aim is to make it enjoyable and simple and pleasant, not goofy.

I thought I was doing a good job as my wine classes grew, but then I realized people showed up to drink.

I was holding classes in our community center which had signs posted "NO ALCOHOL".  The mayor told me not to worry about it.  He came a few times.

I knew the police chief personally and most of the officers.  One of them pulled me over once and when he ran my plates he just pulled beside me and asked how my kids were doing and drove off.  I had made a creative left turn, in the snow.

I did six laps today, a lap is .52 miles, I jogged the first 4 and then ran/walked.  It's amazing how few Calories that burns according to my fancy watch.

My jog is really slow, about 12:45 a mile.

Bottle shock, sometimes called “bottle sickness,” describes a recently packaged or shipped wine that tastes temporarily “dumb,” or with aromas and flavors that have seemingly shut down. It often occurs in wines that have been jostled for an extended period, like when it goes from tank or barrel through the bottling line, or when it’s shipped a significant distance.

If you drive home from your local retail shop with a few wines in your trunk, you won’t cause bottle shock. But when a wine has traveled some distance over several days from the winery, to the shipper, and then to your home, it can get unsettled.

Wines that have traveled overseas by container are especially susceptible. If you ship several bottles internationally to drink soon, let them rest at least a week before opening.


Even so, some wines will simply refuse to open up. How do you spot them?

They won’t have much, if any, aromatics. Depending on the variety or blend, you might expect standard scents in a young white wine, like fruits, especially citrus and flowers. Aromas in red wines include black fruits, toast and coffee.

If you sniff and get nothing, followed by very little flavor, it may suffer from bottle shock. The fruit will seem transient or thin, the finish muted.

That said, there shouldn’t be any obvious flaws like off scents or funky flavors. Bottle shock has no scientific definition, nor is it caused by any bacteria or yeast.

So, what’s the fix? Mainly, more time. Some wineries include a note in their club shipments to wait a week or two before opening a bottle. It’s worth it to ask when a young wine was bottled. If it was bottled within the last couple of months and then shipped, it may require a few weeks or even months to settle back down.

Sometimes, a wine will open up more quickly with aggressive aeration or decanting. Usually, that will fix a reductive wine or one bottled with a little too much sulfur dioxide, and it may help it come out of shock.

The best solution for bottle shock is to avoid it entirely. Always treat your cellared wines carefully and avoid too much movement or vibration.

My wine advice:

1.  Drink whatever you like, but on occasion explore something different.
2.  Buy a couple Riedel stems of the basic type.  It makes a difference, especially for more expensive wines (over $3).
3.  Don't worry much about cellaring wine, most wine today is meant to be consumed in 2-3 years.  But also don't drink a $200 bottle of wine "before its time".
4.  Avoid getting locked into absolutes, like "I don't like zinfandel" or "I only like cabs".  See item 1.
5.  Learning a bit of geography helps if you want to learn about European wines.

My very crude guide on French wines:

Burgundy = Sonoma (pinot noir and chardonnay, cooler climates)
Bordeaux = Napa (cab, merlot, blends)
Rhine Valley = well, not anything specific in the US, these are usually syrah/grenache blends, low in tannins, smoother and rich.

Sparkling wines can be very good with meals, especially fried chicken.  A bone dry white wine can be very good with steak, like dry Riesling or Sauvignon Blanc.

"Dry" as a wine term means simply that the sugar is all fermented.  It doesn't mean the wine is not fruity or high in tannins.