Oh boy! Sunday Night with Litre.

Banner image from Sonomamag.com

Guess who got [DFO] promoted to offseason Sunday nights? Well if you don’t like it, you can skip this and yammer away if you wish, this is the space for it.

Welcome to Sunday nights with Litre. If you like wine, weed, travel, and especially dumb travel stories then you have come to the right place. Imma going to try for 2 minutes to take your mind off of what is going to happen tomorrow. We may also learn wine stuff so that’s cool.

Dumb travel story time!

I ran across a bridge in central Europe naked (twice). Reason apart from me being an ass is that I had 4 other drunk backpackers convinced it was a tradition that backpackers have done for years. After we did it I told the guys and gals that I made it up and no one was mad, we just laughed and laughed. The bridge below is where we did it now name that town! It is way longer than it looks when running naked at 2 am. The next night they tried to hook other backpackers on this story and it worked so I had to do it again.

So, due to being inside for 2 years + I’ve noticed that I really miss social interaction so I set out to fix this by getting a part time job at a restaurant with my best friend.

For DFOers from 5 yrs ago you know I used to bartend a couple nights a week and regale you with cougar stories while I had a dart out back. These last two years due to the pandemic I’ve worked at home and I fucking love it.  It will not change as recently negotiated with my boss in Ottawa that there is no need for me to be in an office. If I have to go to a site, I will. (I smoke weed while I work, which makes it tolerable). I hate my regular job but it pays well and I get great benefits so I’m stuck til 50 but we will get into this later this offseason.

Song break.

My best friend was the manager at my old haunt and got a job at an Italian spot that we call a “Unicorn” in the biz for ridiculous tips. Since September she has said they may need part time help for servers and had definitely piqued my interest due to my lack of being social. I now have a job there after nerding out on their wine list for months and nailing an interview that really wasn’t one due to my experience. Do I need more work? No. Are we doing ok? Yes. However I describe tips as drug dealer money and this place has it.

Gotta bust this up because my next point bothers me and if you have gone this far, listen to this tune and continue. (London vibes)

I love/loved being a f and b server since I was 18 and the social acceptability of that in North America really bothers me. Servers are treated like trash by clients and their employers alike. In 2008 I was in Cesky Krumlov and my “older brother” and I took this dude out who was our server out for beers once his shift was done (He was 60, no kink). We also did this in Slovenia to our server in Ljubljana. We wanted to know why the stigma of serving was the way it differed in North America  to there and how happy they were being over 50 and doing it every day. Keep in mind tips are rare in Eastern Europe.

One answer to why they do it. Talking to people.

I miss that.

The new restaurant has been in town since the 70’s. It started out as a market and then expanded to a restaurant, market, and pizza place out the back. You are NOT allowed to consume pizza in the restaurant as it is purely for eating what is on the menu. Everything they do is Italian, fly specific Italian fare from there, only Italian bar (no vodka, coke, etc) and 100% Italian wine list.

So here we are. When I got my somm papers 20 years ago I fully skirted Italy. This risk has now bit me in the ass. Seriously, I passed with merit (while smoking cigs, and weed)  and everything you see on those somm movies is fucking true. Once I passed I had thought that I’d gotten away with one. Twenty years later it has bit me in the ass.

Wine time! Guess who is going through this with me???? You.

Basics. OK. In Italy there is 4 classifications (levels) that kinda mirror France’s but we have gotten in to that years ago here. These cigarette smokers are tight as fuck with their regulations which is a good thing. So, you have in order of kick ass DOCG, DOC, IGT, VdT. Now in normal circumstance these abbreviations you will see around the neck of the bottle of your wine. The level of kickass is NOT 100% as the IGT denomination may have less prestige but it also has less rules for what you grow and where.

DOCG (Denominazione di Origine Controllata e Garantita) – Kick ass. You could almost pinpoint the rows of the vineyard where these grapes were grown. There are 77 DOCG wines and most of them are in Tuscany, Piedmonte, and the Veneto. (Barolo, Barbaresco, Amarone della Valpolicalla, and Soave Superiore etc)

DOC (Denominazione di Origine Controllata) – We know the neighborhood where they were grown. There are 329 different DOC’s each one having their own rules about what you can grow, how much and where.

IGT (Indicazione Geographica Tipica) – Could be table wine or the most unreal wine you have ever had. (No rules) This allows foreign grapes to be added to Italian varietals like Merlot and Cab to Sangiovese to smooth it out. Usually lower quality than DOC however some big houses ain’t want no rules and sell their stuff under this denomination.

VdT (Vino da Tavola) – Table wine. Cheap and rarely exported.

This is my 1st Sunday column, we will get deeper next week. Super Tuscans!

Sports tonight? Sure!

SecsiMexi Futbol

Blue Cruise hosts Santos of the Lagoon. 7pm DFO

Colombia – Primera A Apertura (For teh degenerate gamblers)

Bucamaramanga v National Athletics

Cali Americans v Once Caldas

There is MLS but whatevs.

MLB

Meetings and arguing!

NBA

Donald Sterlings vs Hakeem Olajuwons

Bad Boys v Muggsy Bogues’

Tall Euro White guys v Steph Curry’s

Colorado Weeds v Oregon Wines

Pelicans?!? v Lebron Jameses.

NHL

Vancouver v Rangers

Other New York v Gordon Bombay and co.

Kraken vs Sharks in the sea battle we have all been waiting for.

Have a good night!