First of all, we have to get big food news. Finally.
Now there is a Chick fil A in concourse at the Denver International Airport.
Can we all just have a moment in a golf clap? But thought there always was one?
No, it's been in B. No, yeah, there's always been one in B. And now there's one in C in the center core. I mean you eat there every day but Sunday, right, why are you not a Chick fil A person? Not really, I don't know the obsession with Chick fil A.
Like, I get it. It's a good chicken sandwich. I used to. I used to enjoy it, but I don't really eat fast food. I don't really eat fast food. But it doesn't even make the cut.
Like if I decide, you know, every once in a while you get a craving, right, you're like, oh you really need some fredge Friser. Oh you know, they're never in my I don't ever think about Chick fil A.
Yeah, I just we just don't. We really just don't too fast food anymore, hardly at all. And part of it is because my husband has uh foods and stuties. Right, It's like, eh, it's just not even worth it. I make it better exactly.
Speaking of making it better, let's talk about the French and wine for a moment, shall we.
It is bubble season. I mean, do you have any go ahead, I'm gonna correct you.
WoT we were gonna say that, But for many people it's bubble season. We're celebratory. There's nothing more celebratory than a wine of sparkle, a bottle of sparkling wine. And today on our blog, if you've ever wondered about how bubbles became bubbles and why it's only a champagne if it's from the Champagne region of France, you can check it out on the blog today. So let's start with a little bit of that. Yeah, when we talk about
how we make wine, it's pretty basic, right. I mean, you've got the grapes, you've got a little fermentation, you've got a little sugar, you got a little whatever. But what makes it bubble? When it is? What makes one wine bubble and another wine not so.
When yeast consumes sugar, it releases two things, alcohol and carbon dioxide CO two.
And so that's why.
When we are making if you've ever taken yeast and added it to some warm water, and some sugar. Because you're going to make some bread, it's going to start bubbling. So that's a good thing because that's what triggers the rise in yeast bread.
So same thing happens when we're making wine.
The question is are we going to trap that CO two that's produced from the fermentation process or are we just going to let it breathe off naturally? And so if you're just if you're just taking grape must, so that's the grape juice from crushing grapes, and either allowing natural yeast that's kind of floating around the vineyard, or
you're injecting a commercialized yeast for wine making. That yeast, once it starts consuming the sugars from the grape must, it's going to produce alcohol and carbon dioxide.
So in theory, you could make any wine a sparkling wine totally.
You just have to capture it.
So typically, so like champagne, a secondary fermentation is going to take place in the bottle. And the reason why champagne is as expensive as it is and why it has kind of this rich brioche bread biscuit yeast flavor to it is because they allow the wine then to
remain in contact with the expended y cell. So after they've done their hard work and they've consumed all the sugar that they can, they've produced the alcohol, and they've produced that carbon dioxide which has been captured because they've they've put it in this bottle with a beer cap on it.
Then it's going to sit there and it's just going to hang out.
The wine's going to hang out intermingling with the lees or the expended e cells. That's known as surly and a lot of wines do that, whether they've if they're trapping it to kind of capture that the bubbles, or even if they're not doing that.
Chardonnay often or you'll.
See descriptions of it's spent six months on the lees.
That's what they're saying.
They're they're leaving that expendedy cell uh in contact with the wine to give it a different flavor profile.
Is that what you see in the bottle, like the silt in the bottle of the wine.
It can be especially if they are sometimes that is just that natural process if they have not fined and filtered the wine. Finding it helps remove some of the proteins out of the wine that can occur from harvest and everything that's going into the wine itself, but also sometimes that sediment can be from the grapes themselves if they have not filtered it off.
But you'll hear terms like.
You know, then you're racking the wine off of the expended YE cells. So I kind of described the difference between method champ and wahs.
So that's the method used to.
Make Champagne, crimon kava, all of these sparkling wines that are in that Champagne fashion versus the Italian sparkling wine called Prosecco, which most people kind of know about. Prosecca was made in It was actually a French wine maker with last named Charmont who came up with the charmont or tank method. And so what happens with that is after fermentation, they rack that wine off. Takes place in the stainless steel tank, but they'll rack the wine off of the expended E cells.
What does that mean racking the wine?
It's getting that wine off of your expended YE cells. Okay, okay, they want to get rid of them. So I'm just using an example here.
Like your gravy separator, you're going to put it into a gravy separator and you're going to run the wine off and put the rest of the waste off, and you're.
Going to put it some You want to get rid of these because you don't want that.
You want to clean, crisp.
Flavor profile for persecco versus having that discidy, briosh, bready kind of flavor profile that you have with those wines that are made and more of that traditional method. You also can find if you are doing more of the natural method, which is the ancient method of producing sparkling wine. It's what method Championwaw stems from. They also they don't remove it at all, so you will find bubbly wines that will have a little bit of that cloudiness and sediment in it.
But it was are they the wheat beer of wine making? Is that what sort of sort of you know a lot of.
Those also naturally petulant wines, their pet nats or what they're known of, they do tend to take on. I wouldn't say wheet beer. I'd say it's more of kind of like almost that sour beer. It almost has kind of that kind of tangy taste profile, which I if you have beer drinkers who at the first thing I asked, do you like sour beers?
Well, yes, I do.
Well, I'm going to point you over here to these petro you know, naturally petulant wines, because they, to me, have a lot more of that kind.
Of close proximity to those sour beers.
I had some interesting questions on the Common Spirit Health text line at five six six nine oer So is sparkling wine and cider technically the same thing?
First of all, yes, wine is made from Vitus vnifera and or some type.
Of talking about sparkling smarty pants. They know it's made with two different things, So yeah, I mean sparkling cider.
It's okay. First of all, if it's the l chipo.
Ones that you're going to get at the cap end in your grocery store that are made to look like champagne, no, those have probably had CO two injected into apple juice right to make them bubbly.
Are you talking about my Martinelli's? Is that what you're talking about right now? Because I love the Martinelli's. When I want to feel fancy without any alcohol, I am going for the Martinelli's cranberry apple and I regret nothing.
And I'm not judging.
I'm just saying it's it's just injected with CO two. And if I'm going to do that, I'm probably going to do something with all that sugar.
I'll be doing sparkling water.
So this one, Mandy, what does your guests think about champagne from New Mexico. First of all, we cannot have champagne from New Mexico.
It is Grue. And I know what you're talking about. It's right outside of Albuquerque, and I love Gruet. Greue is actually a champagne house in Champagna. The two sons came over, found a little micro climate right outside of Albuquerque. I've brought in Greuet. I love it. You've had it before with me, Okay, But these they send back every vintage. They send back wine that is certified by the champagne house in Champagna, but you cannot call it champagnecause it's not made in Champagna.
In the first that's like a law.
Right.
Things you have to know about Europe.
There are certain places like in Germany, they exactly prescribe what you can put in beer, right, and you have to follow and the rules for beer go back to the fourteen hundreds. What are they for wine in front of.
It really just depends on the region.
You know, Champagna itself, it's relatively new in terms of wine making, but like especially when you look at like Burgundy and Bordeaux, a lot of these wine making regions that have that rich history. Yeah, you are dating back to Middle Ages of when they're starting there, starting to establish some kind of the rules that they now still
will adhere to. Thanks to technology, some things have been improved, but there are certain requirements, like it has to be grapes grown within this certain you know, specific village.
For it to be called whatever.
You I mean, that's right, it's kind of crazy, but I also kind of like it. And I always think that the Commonwealth of Kentucky should have passed some kind of rules about bourbon because now people are making bourbon all over the place, and I'm like, y'all, it's not real bourbon unless it comes from Kentucky. And I don't even drink bourbon. I'm just a snob about it. Mandy,
why is the wine yogi sounding kind of sad? Is it because you and a rod are eating and drinking, you need to make her happy next time and eat and drink just saying no, the wine Yogi totally respects the fact that a Rod and I are trying to take off our thanksgetting weight. I don't think you're bothered by that. No, no, not at all. No, trust me, it's the weather.
It's the weather. I'm trying to be serious.
I just watched the NPR on Saturday Night Live with Alec Baldwin.
So yeah, this ask your guest about chocolate wine. Is it really wine?
Now?
What is? I've seen it?
I've just not because I love dark chocolate with like a bold red like a Timbornello or a just what you should do Rioha or Malbeck?
What is this chocolate wine business?
Time?
It is basically they're taking cheap wine and it's usually going to be a sweet based red, cheap wine that they're adding in probably cheap chocolate into. And yes, it is a thing, and it's not my thing. And but if what does it even taste like? It tastes like like chocolate.
You who with wine in it?
Oh? No?
I mean is it as bad as the diet red bull with wine? I don't know.
I just smelled that now I was I had to had to you made a good choice to not I couldn't do that.
Not consume that. I'm just I'm just saying some people love the chocolate wine. It's not my thing.
I would much rather have chocolate fondu and a beautiful Chammi Sarrah that I'm gonna enjoy them together on my palette with and keep the two separate.
Mandy, I thought you were against mommy wine culture. Look, we're not talking about knocking back a box of Phrensia every single night, which to me is much much different.
I love wine.
I love having a beautiful glass of wine with a really incredible meal. Unfortunately it doesn't like me. But I do think that you can have and appreciate wine and not be in the mommy wine culture where everything you have is like Mommy drinks because of you. I mean, you know, it's like there's a difference there, truly is, and I think that the nuance of it is important.
It just is. So I'm glad you asked the question. I hope I answered it so.
According to her explanation, someone was asking for clarification. Technically, sparkling wine is healthier because the yeast is eating the sugar, which means there's less sugar and sparkling wine compared to others that are probably just injected.
With CO two.
Now, so all wine when it is made goes through the same fermentation process. Yeast is going to consume the sugar and it will it's going to release two things, alcohol and carbon dioxide. Sparkling wine just captures both red.
Wine white wine. Oh, it's still going to consume the sugar.
Now, the question is when do they stop the fermentation process.
How much sugar was in? How many bricks of sugar.
And they measure it by bricks brix How many bricks of sugar was in the grape must to begin with, some grape varietals are going to have higher levels your beastlings, for example those moscato. There are grapes that are going to be naturally higher in sugar when they begin the fermentation process than others, say a Cabernet franc or Sirah or Merlow.
They're going to have those higher bricks of sugar.
So when they stop the fermentation process, that level of sugar that's left. The residual sugar is a term you'll often hear wine folks use rs residual sugar will determine how sweet that wine is. In fact, I go through a breakdown in the Black Post your different terminology when you're looking at sparkling wine, what does this mean when I see brute extra brute.
Let's talk about that now.
Let's talk about that for a minute, because I think that is the most confusing labeling in the history of labeling. But she actually doesn't just break down what it is. It tells you how much sugar per leader is in these and it's visually the way you have it written super helpful. But let's start at the very bottom. When you're talking about sweet wines. You know, your lambruscos whatever you got there, that's going to be do I don't even know if I've ever seen.
A do d o at u x.
Oh they're out there, Yeah, they're out there, and uh they those are going to be deaf.
That's your sugar water, as my nephew calls it.
And wine, yeah, that's your that's definitely it's going to be in that chocolate wine.
Okay.
Yeah, So and then they're just going to step them up where it really gets confusing, and I think on English labels is extra dry because extra dry it's lost in translation. So instead of it being demi sec which is half dry, or demi do which is half sweet, they decided to put in their extra dry and that you are still going to have some residual sugar in
extra dry. If you like dry wine and you don't want residual sugar and you don't want a sweet wine, you want to look for brute or anything above brute. So that's when you get extra brute. Brute, not tour. That's what you're looking for, is the term brute, and that is the French term for dry.
To be clear, root in a tour will suck the moisture out of your mouth and it is like fabulous. You better be ready because it is. I bought that one time and I you know me, I like dry wine. It was too like the I felt the water evaporating out of my mouth with every bubble that popped.
That's why you need to have immediately right next to it.
On a slice of back yet that also has a butter on it, and then that you've replaced the moisture and with fat.
Here's the question wine yogi. I bought prosecco from Costco a few years ago. Is it okay to store upright heated basement on a shelf.
So with sparkling wines, the whole laying down of a sparkling wine isn't necessary per se, because eventually what's going to happen is if you store it for too long, you're gonna lose your bubbles. If it's too warm, you can actually trigger more. If there's any residual yease leftover, it can actually trigger another fermentation, and it'll explode your bottle if it gets too hot. So you have to
be really careful with storing wines. I typically do not store my sparkling wines laying down just because they're already under pressure. If you think about it that it doesn't think the gas itself is also creating that seal.
The whole reason.
Why we lay wines down in a wine cellar, in a cold wine cellar, not hot next to the furnace. The reason why you do that is because you want that wine to stay in contact with the quark so that the cork doesn't dry out and then allow air to seep in and begin to oxidize that wine.
When you already have something.
Under pressure, that's not going to happen what's going to happen before that is you're going to lose all that pressure and that bubbly wine is going to be flat and then it's it's not sparkling wine and you need to pour it out.
This is a good question.
What's the best kind of wine to give as a gift when you don't know if the person prefers red or white?
You can always go.
Rose, Always go right down the middle with a beautiful rose. And honestly, I personally think that if you are around the holiday season and if you're not really sure what kind of wine that they drink, going with kind of something that is very middle of the road, So a sparkling rose that way.
Yeah, if it.
Is for the New Years or you know, the holidays, Christmas or whatever that they want to enjoy some bubbles, they can if you're not sure, if you're even more nervous about that, I personally I would always show up with just one of each.
Here's a red, here's a white, and then let them kind of.
You can, you can't go wrong, and then that wayactly if they can enjoy what they want and then they can regift whatever wine that they didn't like.
I am a queen regifter.
Will I'm just gonna say this, guys, when I do drink wine, I cannot drink red wine at all anymore. And I know most people drink red wine because it has lower calories and a lower blood sugar had I cannot drink red wine at all, and everybody brings me red wine and I'm just like, no gifts, It's fine. I don't eat anything. It's it's good, so be aware. That's a great question textor I appreciate that. And as Crystal does so well when she is here the wine Yogi.
By the way, she got a great blog post about all of this stuff, plus some suggestions and a bunch on shark huterie that we didn't even get to that. I love a good shark COUCHI board. I mean, come on, snacks, meat, cheese.
There's nothing better. Anyway.
Now it's time for the most exciting segment all the radio of its guide in the world.
Of the day. All right, what is our dad joke of the day, please, Anthony.
I don't think I'll ever find a stable job, because honestly, I'm not that comfortable around horses.
That was bad. I knew where that was going. As soon as you said, I did, I really did.
I was thinking about it, you know, being a horround horses, et cetera, et cetera.
Anyway, on today's word of the day, please it is noun parsimony. Oh, this is one of those words that I always have to look up when I see it.
When you're splitting hairs, you're parsing something.
Maybe that sounds kind of right when you're parson.
It's a parsimony is being, it's snobbery, it's looking down your nose at someone.
Extreme frugality or stingyness.
Parsimony.
I'm not.
I'm not parsimonious, So I'm just thrifty.
Mercury is the closest planet to the Sun on average.
How close is it in miles?
I'm seven thousand.
I'm gonna say one hundred thousand miles.
I have absolutely no idea.
Come on, guess, guess thirty six million miles and you'd be right.
Oh my, yeah, we're a little under.
I'm assuming if we were right there, right, it would.
Have already burned to a crisp by now. Yeah, I'm not good.
At space stuff. I freely admit that. All right, What is our Jeopardy category.
What other than Christmas movie? Coorse in twenty eighteen bended cumber of atch?
What is Grinch? Correct?
Alistair sim is among those what is a Christmas Carol?
No? Dang it?
Among those who have played this Dickensian.
Mayn Crystal Crystal with Epenezer screwed, basically.
His heartwarming Frank Capra classic is It's a Wonderful Life?
Correct?
What is in this film Santa Tell's buddy?
There are thirty tang it? What is elf? Correct? What's one? Here we go?
Two memorable bits from this nineteen eighty three classic, the leg lamp Crystal Mandy?
What is a Christmas Store?
That a tie?
That's a tie to.
Two good Let's go to wearable tech Friendship brace Let's inspired Kim Shoey's designs for this rhyming brand of high tech trackers.
Crystal Crystal.
That is, oh dang it, Crystal winds.
And and you had one you always talked about you? I know now I'm on.
I've moved on my garment, and I will say my garment is a far superior.
Brand I have. I have the Samsung the same.
I might I might switch over. Google's gotta watch now, and I love my Google phone.
I just got a new pixel and I gotta tell you Samsung phone. Yeah, and I together how they get your Crystal.
They get you in the family and then you're like, oh gee, I might get something else and they're like, no, no, no.
That won't happen with us. And now I'm gonna need to like, I got a Samsung fridge.
I just saw a post on X that said no nuts. I can't remember what I was gonna say, but I'm out of time anyway, Crystal, ILL see you next time. Merry Christmas, Mary Young Lady