As you may have seen our friend BC Dick has labelled me the above and actually he isn’t wrong. He’s here visiting this weekend so I am taking him to the futbol, and full family trip to dinosaur country.

First though this week I had to take part in a four hour session about Culture change at the company that employs me full time (not the resto).

First of all taking away 4 hours of my day just ads it to the end. The moderator asked us to put our phones away and turn off our email accounts. No. That just isn’t going to happen.

Secondly who the fuck gets paid for shit like this? “Collaborate with your peers on how your culture journey has gone and what it means to you.” I’m raging that I have to sit through their propaganda. I’m so sick and tired of company ticking boxes to make themselves feel better. Mental health sessions, chair yoga, mindfulness are on our other monthly sessions. Ok, mental health is sooo important, I struggle regularly seems like in May especially. My issue is that if you bring up your struggles to your boss that your career will get torpedoed faster than a billion dollar sub outside of Odessa. You forever will live with that black mark and if you want to advance (I do not) you have no shot. My boss is great however the stigma around having mental health issues is still there. Corporations seem to think that all of the “checking boxes” is doing their due diligence when reality is that the mindset has to change for the “company care” to be effective.

Third is the people who gobble this rah rah corporation shit up who fire thumbs up and applause emojis during this garbage. There’s an hour long breakout room where these asshats had better carry the weight as I am not interested whatsoever.

On to better things. Travel story.

As you may know I was in Mexico a couple of weeks ago for a wedding. This was my first international travel since a wedding in Playa del Carmen in 2019. I was a good boy on the trip a couple weeks ago but during the 2019 trip some nights got away from me. One night in question I drank all day, then had pre dinner wines, and continued through dinner. Mrs. Cola decided that she wanted no part of my circus and went to bed as she should have. I then linked up with other troublemakers from the wedding group and got high school wasted. I now know that when I wanted to go back to our room I walked out of the resort and down a palm lined road. When travelling I normally have a knack of knowing where I am at all times even when wasted. This one evening I was waaay past that and I ended up 3 hotels over. I waltzed into the lobby (posh) and knew I was in the wrong spot. The doorman looked at my wristband and told me to come with him. He loaded me into a golf cart and drove the mile back to my hotel. When I exited his golf cart I fell face first into the bushes. Upon arriving in my room and waking my wife I had apparently also changed shirts with someone. So wasted all day, bleeding, and in someone else’s shirt. This was not my finest moment.

Therefore this past trip I only got loose once. It was the wedding night and since I am not used to my wife coming out the whole evening I ghosted her and just went back to the room. Not a fine moment but at least the next day I found out that I wasn’t the only one to do that with their significant other.

Prairie Wino time.

Soil type! We are still looking at Australia and this week we will take a deeper look at the Coonawarra region in South Australia. The region is 380 kms south of Adelaide and is named after the Aboriginal word for “honeysuckle”. This is the most famous terroir specific region down under and it’s mostly due to the terra rossa soil.  Terra rossa here is due to the red sandy loam on calcrete which is very good for drainage all through the limestone coast. The terra rossa here holds a lot of moisture which helps growing vines and it drains very well. The limestone that these wineries are on is very good for restricting root growth as you want all of the growth to occur on the vines and not underground. Also it’s a very flat strip of land which is not normal for growing vines as throughout the world you see vineyards on rolling hills to take advantage of sun and moisture on the slopes. The climate here is a cool maritime climate as it is only 90 kms from the sea . Coonawarra  enjoys long warm summers very similar to Bordeaux.

Here Cabernet Sauvignon is king and the region in total has 90% red grapes planted. The cabs come through with plum, cassis, and cherry flavoUrs and have very soft tannins. They will not dry the hell out of your mouth and teeth. The Cabs from here also aren’t fruit and sugar bombs which a lot of Australian reds are. Wynn’s is the big player here as they were one of the first vineyards and they own A LOT of area here. You will also get your big hitters like Penfolds and Seppelt. This always comes back to what I say about Australian wines, they export their really good stuff their mass produced stuff but you have to try to fine their middle of the road vineyards to really experience what they grow.

So, if you are looking for a cab from down under make sure it is from Coonawarra first and then go from there.