What better to do on a rainy day than go through collected bits and bobs from the internet and stash them in one place?

A recent pass around on Facebook has been to enter one's date of birth and find out what the number one song was on that day.  Drinkify is a website that one can put in the musical artist to whom you are listening and it will give you a beverage to accompany your musical selection.  From Edith Piaf to Tom Waits; from Ozzy to Led Zeppelin, from Kurt Cobain to Alice in Chains, from Katy Perry or Lady Gaga to Justin Bieber, Patsy Cline to Hank Williams, Loretta Lynn to Willie Nelson ... Drinkify will match you.     http://www.drinkify.org/  

A couple of other articles have caught my eye in the past few days.  The first is The Eight Beers Americans No Longer Drink   "Some of America’s most famous beers have lost a tremendous amount of their national sales over the last five years. Mostly, they are full-calorie beers, and they have lost sales to lower-calorie products, as well as imports and craft beers."

Read more: The Eight Beers Americans No Longer Drink - 24/7 Wall St. http://247wallst.com/2011/09/09/the-eight-beers-americans-no-longer-drink/#ixzz1jBizikBW

Happily a couple of my personal new favorites fall into the niche seeing increases.  

      

 

Breakfast and dessert from http://terrapinbeer.com/

Moving on, I found:

to be not only entertaining, but enlightening too.

http://www.drunkard.com/issues/54/54_10_Best_Things.html 

 

Modern Drunkard doesn't have anything on Our Spirited Ancestors:

http://mesda.org/onlineExhibits_sprite/mesda_spirited-ancestors

 

Early Southerners drank a lot — nearly twenty gallons of alcohol each — every year. They drank when they woke up in the morning, as they ate and worked during the day, and when they socialized at night. But how people drank was as important as what they drank. From imported Madeira sipped at mahogany tables to local whisky out of redware jugs, this exhibit explores the decorative arts that defined the early Southern drinker.
This exhibition is on view October 25, 2011 through September 2012 in the G. Wilson Douglas, Jr. Gallery of the Frank L. Horton Museum Center. Admission to Douglas Gallery exhibitions at MESDA is free with a MESDA or Old Salem ticket.

 
 

WILLIAM DRY (1720-1781) BOTTLE SEAL discovered in Brunswick, NC

So much for rainy day meanderings ...

,

All that Sparkles ...

.... is not Champagne (but it can still be a heckuva lot of fun!)

An early trivia fact I learned about champagne is that there are a lot of legal requirements surrounding it as to whether a wine can actually be called champagne or not.  Under  the auspices of the Comité Interprofessionnel du Vin de Champagne the term "champagne" is reserved exclusively for sparkling wines from the Champagne region of France and made in accordance with their regulations. Only three grapes are allowed by law in champagne; Chardonnay, Pinot noir, and Pinot meunier. 

So what about all the other sparkling wines that are produced worldwide?  Many producers use special terms to define them.  In Spain sparkling wine is known as cava.  In Italy spumante is the designation and South Africa uses cap classique. An Italian sparkling wine made from the muscat grape uses the DOCG asti.  Germany, Sekt is a common sparkling wine. Other French wine regions cannot use the name Champagne: e.g., Burgundy and Alsace produce Crémant.  (In 2008, more than 3000 bottles of sparkling wine produced in California, which were labeled with the term "Champagne", were destroyed by Belgian government authorities -- see they are serious about their champagne.)

Currently there are no "proper" champagnes in stock at Off the Vine, however, we are able to special order a nice variety of selections for one's holiday festivities.  Off the Vine does offer a selection of  sparkling wines to please most anyone's guest list. 

Moscato and Prosecco from Candoni - Italy
Piccolo Tessro Moscato - Italy
Zibibbo's Pink Moscato - South Australia
Freixenet Spumante - Spain
and from just down the North Carolina highway - Silk Hope's Spakling Rose' of Chambourcin and
Sparkling Vidal Blanc.

For a brunch menu, pre-mixed Mimosa - Italy.

And just in case your party might have a few spills and stains, here are a few useful tips for cleaning up red wine stains. There are commercial options available online and in stores, but under your sink try mixing equal parts liquid detergent and hydrogen peroxide. Sponge the mixture over the red wine stain. Let stand for a minute. Blot the area until the stain fades. Wash the garment as usual.  Another method to try is salt, yes, salt.  Coat the stain with a generous layer of salt, working the salt gently into the fabric. Let sit for a few hours or overnight. Shake off the salt and launder as usual.  This method is not recommended for dry stains.  Last, but not least, wine. Pour a small amount of white wine over the fresh red wine stain and blot with a clean towel. Launder as usual.

Or one can always just stick with the sparkly bubbly stuff!