Essence of Livermore Titmouse

I do all I can to be a supportive, submissive wife, so when it came time to accompany Colby in entertaining one of his colleagues for a day of Livermore wine-tasting again, I dutifully complied.  

Colby & I love having Livermore Wine Country right in our own backyard.  Many of the wineries are clustered together and often times we'll get to meet the owners and wine-makers of some of the smaller ones, who will talk to us personally about their different wines, let us taste directly from the bung hole of the barrels (yeah, I thought Beavis and Butthead coined the term, too) and if our timing is right, like today, we may even have the opportunity to bottle our own wine.

Before a wine-tasting excursion, Colby and I sometimes try to brush up on our terminology so we can deliberately include adjectives like woody, hearty, buttery, smoky, oaky and weighty or terms like nose, ascescence, ponderous, malolactic fermentation and oxidization.  However, as the day goes on, it is inevitable that Colby will eventually swish, gulp, then blurt out something like, "Mmm...  That one tastes like dirt."  Then I have to explain that what he means is "earthy."

Colby bottling his own 2003 Sangiovese at El Sol Winery: