Happy New Year! I’m looking forward to what 2024 has to offer. The Washington Husky football team plays Texas tonight in hopes of making it the the National Championship game against either Michigan or Alabama. It’s exciting for me because I’ve been a fan of the Huskies since I was a kid. I really think they can beat Texas and my prediction is that they will face Alabama in the Championship game. We will soon find out.
There is a lot of football in January, culminating with the Superbowl in February. I decided to shoot an episode for my YouTube channel called “Best Wines With Pizza,” which will go out today. Lots of pizza will be consumed during the football games and I personally prefer drinking wine over beer. Beer fills me up too quickly. Check out the episode, I found a couple of reasonably priced wines that really matched nicely with the pizza. I am now only eighty-nine subscribers away from one thousand on my YouTube channel. I am very excited to hit that mark.
Sage Rat Winery out of Yakima, Washington, is my 2024 “Winery Of The Year.” I will be reviewing a few of their wines on my YouTube channel so keep your eyes peeled for that. I’m also going to take a quick trip to Woodinville, WA to interview Andrew Januik, head winemaker for Jauuik and Novelty Hill Wines. He is a very talented winemaker, as is his father, Michael Januik. We are going to discuss among other things, why some children do not follow in the footsteps of their winemaking family. You see, in Europe, it’s almost a given that the kids follow the winemaking tradition of the family, which goes on for generations. That’s not always the case in the new world. Andrew and I had quite a discussion about this recently and I would like for you to enjoy his insights on that subject.
Although I’m a bit later than planned, I will be publishing an article soon on the different methods for making sparkling wine. The whole Pet Nat thing has my interest, which prompted me to work on the article. It’s a fascinating subject and I think you will find it quite interesting.
Another thing I am looking forward to is revisiting the theme of aging wines that are not expensive. It is hands down the most popular episode on my YouTube channel. This time the title will be, can budget-friendly wines improve in the cellar? I have aged inexpensive reds since I started storing away wines, with measured success. I will start digging through my modest collection and pull some out for that episode. It will be a fun episode and I hope a couple of them shine. So many people think you have to spend some serious money on wines for the cellar. This is not necessarily true. I will discuss the key elements in a wine that make it a candidate for aging. Price is not one of them.
Cheers!
Stan The Wine Man
