Good evening and happy long weekend to everyone whether you had Friday off, or have tomorrow off. The picture above is 100 percent Decilitre (glass of wine and palm trees), as someone may have gotten his knuckles rapped by some Kraut shysters for kontent copyrighting. As a reward for his artisticness I’ll be taking him to the last day of FIVB Volleyball Women’s Nations League here in Canadia. This is his 1st live sporting event and a tester for me bringing him to the futbol in July.

I had a decision to make as I know he won’t last more than an hour or two. The #1 team in the world is the USA and they play at 2 pm v the Krauts, then Canadia plays at 5 pm v the Dutch (drools). I’ve made the decision to take him to the US game as the timing works right for not missing dinner although if he is well behaved we will stay for both. He will get antsy even if I fill him with popcorn, pemmican and bannock. Oh, did I mention the arena is on the Indigenous reserve right next to the city? I sooo hope they have indigenous snaxx.

I’m doing this for 3 reasons, one is the reward for Decilitre drawing the banner image for me, the second is that women’s volleyball is far more entertaining than men’s and thirdly is that I love tall women. They do miss out on my penchant for curves but I’ll take it!

Instead of a travel story I will give you a couple global Snaxx that have been sent by the kommentist party.

First off we will do booze cake wars!

I received in a care package awhile back some Jack Daniels chocolate cake from Balls. It was incredibly moist and also came with chocolate chips! Hoo boy there is a lot of alcohol in this! If I lit up a smoke and had this cake the aftertaste would be “night after the country bar”. Even high there is no way you could finish the whole thing in a binge. I know that they cook off the booze but this does taste like you could get a buzz off of it.

Next cake is from the islands mon! Courtesy of Dok Zymm I give you Tortuga Caribbean Rum Cake. Ooh so tropical and spicy. This definitely has less of a night at the bar feel than the Jack Daniels one. You definitely get the rum right of the start while it doesn’t feel like a shot of straight liquor the taste is definitely there. Also, you can definitely house this whole thing in one munchie binge. Personally I like spiced or dark rum more than the white stuff but that means no sugar and more hangover. With a night on the rum I find the next day I 100 percent smell like a “rummy” as the scent comes out of my pores. In fact I got a nickname when travelling through Australia by a friend called rum breath due to Bundaberg rum.

Finally we stray a bit from the cake wars and go to Fritos Chorizo flavoUr! I had mentioned to Balls that my Latin Market had sold out of them so he sent me a bag. Exceso Calorias? Hell yes! Exceso Sodio? Muy bien! These taste like you had a chorizo corn dog and that’s fantastic. I was very pleased to see these in the last care package! I’ll definitely get them again when they’re in stock here. I took the family to the market that has an absolute kickass restaurant in it for lunch yesterday. Birria and carnitas for all! Here is their menu should you ever be up here.

Wine time!

I apologise to Don_T for not speaking about Chile and Carminiere this week but BFC is heading to Spain and wants a quick lowdown on one of my favoUrite wine countries.

Let’s begin with the rules for reading the wine label when you’re at the store.

The laws have changed throughout the years as far as the denomination pyramid for quality but this is where we’re at now.

VP is known as Vino de Pago which tells us it has to be made in a single place from a specific area and bottled there too. There are 19 of these around Spain.

DOCa is the highest ranking you can have in Spain. This region must have had DO status (below) for a minimum of 10 years. Its pricey too! Wines from here must cost at least double the average of DO wines. Right now there are 2, Priorat (Catalunya) and Rioja.

DOC Is by far the largest level in Spain. There are 68 of these and they have to follow a bunch of rules like ageing processes, grape varieties, wine making rules. These regions must be recognised for at least 5 years for the quality of their product while in the VC category.

VC is the step that the regions are in who want to achieve DOC status. Moostly in North America we will see DOC wines and DOCa is you’re daddy warbucks.

The next most important thing in Spain is ageing and the rules therein. This bit of info will help you when you are in the Spanish section of the wine shop.

The most common ageing designation is Crianza which must be aged a total of two years. For reds they must be in barrels over a year and for whites six months. Next up the ladder is Riserva which must be aged three years before selling it with one of those years in oak cask or barrels. For white wines it is two years with six months in oak or barrels. Gran Riserva is the top of the heap with that classification having to be aged five years total with two years in oak or barrels. For whites they must be aged four years total with six months in oak.

You can see that white can easily get over oaked so the timeline is exactly the same for barrel ageing and the rest of the time will be spent in stainless steel tanks.

When in your local wine section you’ll notice the same producer selling all three classifications and the price difference. You are basically paying for the time it takes for the reds to develop different features and depth in the barrels. If you see none of these then flip the bottle around and see what it tells you as then the bottle was not age classified.

Next week I will go in to depth with styles, varieties and regions of Spanish wines.

I would like to thank Gametimedecision who has become an real person friend through my visits to Toronto and environs. He told me something  a few weeks ago that resonated as I was about to rage quit my job of 16 years.

“Do not say or do anything you will regret until you take a step back first”

I’ve taken that step back. Will I go back? Probably for a bit as it is best for my family. However Decilitre starts school this year and next summer being home with him during the days will save us a boatload of money. I can still work in the business that I love which is wine and food. In that job it does gring you but you bring home very little baggage.

He is a Decilitre original for you GTD. It’s on my wall in front of me so when I was working I would see it.