A little about me…
Wife and I at Michel-Schlumberger winery, Healdsburg, CA.
I live in Chesapeake, VA.
I drink wine.
I read alot.
I run so I don’t get fat.
I love to cook with my wife.
I travel alot for work – spend 150+ nights/year in hotels and fly about 100,000 miles/year.
I drink wine, and now I am attempting to write about it.
CONTACT ME: frank.j.morgan ‘at’ gmail.com
FOLLOW ME on Twitter @DrinkWhatULike
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‘About Me‘ continued in my Innagural Post…
The Inaugural Post
June 29, 2008, 9:58pm, Chesapeake, VA
So I’ve started a wine blog… add another one to the thousand other wine related blogs out there.
On Selfishness and Disorganization… For me, this blog is a bit of a selfish endeavor. My primary goal is to finally bring order to my wine experiences and to chronicle these experiences in an organized manner. To date, my tasting notes have consisted of a pile of sticky notes, scrap papers and thoughts floating around my head. This blog will also serve as a place to capture my wine ramblings, rants and observations that I have nearly all the time… they seem totally awesome and profound when they pop in to my head, but not so much when I try to remember them later… so hopefully this blog will provide an outlet for me to document these incredible insights that I have for future reference.
On Drinking Other Peoples Expensive Wines… I guess my secondary expectation for setting up this blog is to meet other wine enthusiasts and/or wine bloggers. The wine blogging community seems to be growing exponentially and it would be great to meet other like minded wine drinkers (and share in drinking their expensive wines – so, if there are any bloggers specializing in La Tache out there, we should probably plan to get together soon). Seriously, I hope to learn from the many talented writers in the wine blogosphere.
On Having No Creativity… The name… ‘DrinkWhatYouLike.com’… brilliant, I know. This was my 500th choice as all of the other bloggers who got this blogging thing early on took every other conceivable name with the words wine, juice, vine, drunk, grape, wino, etc. The name does have meaning to me as I tend to drink what I like without regard for the wine critics, pundits and score-hounds (score-whore rhymes, but would be inappropriate here). I pretty much drink Oregon Pinot Noir or Syrah [addendum: or, Virginia Viognier] with everything – steak, tacos, fish, cheez-whiz, peanut butter & jelly, fried food, M&Ms, sushi, rice cakes, what ever. I tend to drink what I like with whatever food I like – so that is the genius behind the name. Plus, wine scores are lame.
On Crap No One Cares About… My background… for the last 14 years I have spent my days (and many nights and weekends) working for one of the world’s largest aerospace companies. By night I have become a student of wine. My desire to learn all things wine seems to have increased over the last few years as I have averaged about 45 weeks a year on travel which has provided a lot of time for drinking wine and contemplating the grapes’ place in the world. Aside from the loneliness of the nomadic travelers life, I have benefited from an abundance of wine experiences across the US and the world. The upside of constant travel is the time I am able to spend learning and drinking in many different wine bars and tasting rooms gaining many different layers of perspective. For a while, it seemed as if the only constant in my life was the experience of learning about and trying new wines each night at different wine bars and spending most of my time on planes (which is a lot) reading about wine. These travel experiences have carried over in to my life outside of work in that most of my weekends are spent visiting wineries, wine tastings and learning all I can about the infinite subject of wine. Yada yada… a lot more in between… but here I am.
On Wine Philosophy… I wish my ‘what got me in to wine’ story was an exciting or romantic tale … or somehow based on a spiritual experience as a result of a bottle of ‘82 Lafite-Rothschild or ‘47 Cheval Blanc… unfortunately for me, not so much. My ‘what got me in to wine’ story is simple and pedestrian – I just like drinking and beer gives me gas so I chose wine. (This was one of those thoughts that seemed so much funnier in my head, but doesn’t seem as funny in written form.) Actually, there was no one crystallizing moment for me, rather, there have been a gradual series of events that seem to have snuck up on me.
On The End…
Ok, so that’s my story!
Me and the Goats from Casa Nuestra Winery, St. Helena, CA
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Hey there! I finally had a chance to look at your blog. Very cool. Hopefully, after the holidays, I will have a chance to contribute to your blog. It was great to meet you and I am happy that you enjoyed the Negro Amaro!! Merry Christmas. Cheers!
Hello Michelle! It was great meeting you in STL. We certainly enjoyed Ricardo’s. Thanks for a great dinner and wine. A little slow with the STL post, but finally got it done.
All the best – Happy Holidays.
~ Frank
Hey Michael… just spotted your comments on Organic wine. Would love for you to try our Tarantas brand Spanish Organic Tempranillo Crianza that we import from Spain’s Oldest Estate Bottled Winery – Bodegas Iranzo.
Check it out in Virginia (and other parts of the country) at Whole Foods.
Have a great weekend!
Ed
Frank,
I love the site man! Great sense of humor and some great thoughts on wine. I’ll keep reading.
Brad
The Winehouse Bar & Bistro
Frank,
I was wondering what I would serve for a theme brunch of Green Eggs and Ham. I hear you like eggs, so with your vast palate experience to speak on and love for the huevo, what should I serve?
Well the clear choice is actually green eggs and ham ( http://www.seussville.com/titles/greeneggs/recipes.html ). Although I much prefer the chorizo and egg dish: http://drinkwhatyoulike.wordpress.com/2009/01/14/wine-blogging-wednesday-53-wine-for-breakfast/
Perfect with tempranillo…
Thanks and I do appreciate the Seuss recipes as well. Cheers!
Recently Martha Clara Vineyards’ winemaker, Juan Eduardo Micieli-Martinez, has begun making a video series known as the Juan-Maker.
In the series the Juan-Maker discusses his wines, usually highlighting a different wine each episode, in a very non-traditional, fun kind of way. You’ll see when you watch it. Along with the wines, the Juan-Maker will also be highlighting different aspects of Martha Clara Vineyards, along with the winemaking process itself.
Hopefully you enjoy the videos, there are many more to come, and you can view them at our youtube channel: http://www.youtube.com/juanmaker
-Martha Clara Vineyards
‘Matello’
When the wine is in Hall
when the wine is in your Mind
At that time you are in fitness
for frienship and friendliness.
When the wine in the sparking glass
is in the golden light
you can call the love and tell
that any lover is like ‘Matello’.
My best regards for You. Ettore Mosciàno
P.S. Do you know that ‘Matello’ was a name of a famous minstrel healer?
Great blog. I enjoyed your month-long series of posts on Jefferson and wine. Just returned from a long weekend in Charlottesville, where two friends and I visited all my favorite vineyards– Barboursville, Pollack and Jefferson–and visited Albemarle Cider Works, where they have some fantastic hard ciders. The history of hard cider was new to me, despite a love of wine and growing up in Virginia. It matters not that we live, but how.
Hi Reggie: I appreciate your kind words about my ’30 Days of Jefferson on Wine’ series. Much appreciated. B’ville, Pollak and Jefferson Vineyards – a few of my favorite wineries in central Virginia. I have not yet visited Albemarle Cider Works, but have them on my list. Same with me – history (and tasting) hard cider is new to me. Thanks for stopping by to comment. Cheers!
Hi Frank – Okay, my favorite line was: I just like drinking and beer gives me gas so I chose wine.
Maybe it’s cause I grew up in Bowie, Maryland. Maybe it’s cause I have had way too much wine tonight and I’m watching Craig Ferguson and feeling jovial. Who knows. But that line just works.
Love your blog. Thanks for the efforts.
Nancy – thanks very much for stopping by to comment. All the best.
Please include our list
http://wineaboutvirginia.blogspot.com/2011/03/our-top-20.html
Kurt – My apologies for missing this one. I was off Twitter most of the early part of yesterday so I didn’t see it in the feed. Should have checked the blog. Will update later this afternoon. Thanks!
Frank,
Thanks for the kind mention of us in the Top 20 and thanks, too, for including Jordan’s comment on our 2007 Syrah. It just reconfirms my belief that he has one of the strongest palates in the region! (Kidding!)
Best,
Jim Dolphin
Delaplane Cellars
Hi Jim: Since I’ve yet to visit Delaplane, I plan to stop by at some time in the near term. Looking forward to learning more about your wines. Cheers!
I am submitting to subscribe by email to this site..
Congrats! binNotes.com has nominated your site for a Sunshine Award: http://binnotes.com/2012/03/11/sunshine-award-redux/ Cheers~!
Very cool – thank you!
Frank, I have not problem with any of your suggestions, except for two: In my view, the schedule was not too compressed. It was just fine, perfect. I would not change anything in this regard. Second, participation of winemakers: this is a very good idea, but I would not invite a local winemaker to the BYO Bottle Dinner. This seems to be an event, where participants want to present their favorite wines or the regions they come from, etc. Local winemakers do not really fit there. Cheers. Christian