Name:	Toasted Head Merlot
Rating:	3 Stars
Winery:	R. H. Phillips
Vintage:	2005
Varietal:	Merlot
Country:	United States
Region:	California: North coast
Retail Price:	13.99 USD
Alcohol:	13.5%

Plum Island - Nelson DeMille

Nelson DeMille introduces one of his best Alpha Male characters named John Corey in this book. John Corey is a convalescing NYPD homicide detective on leave after being shot in the line of duty.

The book opens with John resting up at his uncle's place on Long Island and gets pulled into a double murder investigation by the local police Chief Maxwell. Tom and Judy Gordon are found dead on their back deck from close range shots to the head. John knows the Gordons because they had befriended him during his R&R.

Tom and Judy Gordon are top level scientists conducting experiments with biological pathogens at a secretive Government research facility on Plum Island. It is initially feared that Tom and Judy were killed because they were part of an operation to sell biological warefare germs (Anthrax) to a terroist organization. As a result, the FBI and CIA are called in to mask the information and keep the public from panicking.

During his quest for the truth, he discovers a little about wine making and vineyards, historical societies, nasty little viruses, and top secret government research facilities.

This book has all the things I liked in a book. It was a fast read with very clever wit. It was a real treasure of a read. John Corey is a great character that you will want to hang out with again if you can keep up with him and put up with his wise ass cracks.

Now that I am committed to spending more time on the blog here, I have decided to share reviews on some of my favorite and not so favorite books. I'll warn you now that it won't get real deep here. I read mostly fiction. Some of my favorite authors are;

• Dan Brown
• Dean Koontz
• Nelson DeMille
• James Patterson
• Stephen King

The reviews will be brief to keep from giving away too much of the book and I will rate them based on if I would recommend it to a friend or not. I hope you find one you like from my Extremely Amateurish Reviews.

Name:	Fetzer Riesling
Rating:	3.5 Stars
Winery:	Fetzer Vineyards
Vintage:	2006
Varietal:	Riesling
Country:	USA
Region:	California
Retail Price:	12.99 USD
Alcohol:	9.88%

Kentucky is one of 18 states that does not allow wine sales in grocery stores, and it also doesn't alow shipping wine to residential locations. A coalition is looking to make changes that will allow for sales of wine in Kentucky grocery stores soon.

The Kentucky Food with Wine Coalition announced December 16th that more than 100 Kentucky supermarkets will hold a petition drive to gauge support for allowing them to sell wine.

The goal is to demonstrate that consumers across that state want to see this law change. But traditional liquor stores don't want grocery stores jumping on their bandwagon.

As Kentucky farmers make the switch from traditional crops (tobacco) to grape and wine production, allowing wine sales in groceries will be e benefit to Kentucky's agriculture industry.

If you are from Kentucky, contact them and let them know you support changing the law to allow for sales of wine in groceries. They can be contacted at:

Luke B. Schmidt
Food with Wine Coalition
P.O. Box 1311 Prospect, Ky 40059
foodwithwine.org
Email:mailto:join@foodwithwine.org
502-292-2898

We purchased a condo at 1502 Calypso Resort and Towers in Panama City Beach and ate at Guglielmo's Italian Grill and Pizza. I have posted a short review of it over at my other blog.

Name:	Cigarzin Zinfandel
Rating:	4 Stars
Winery:	Consentino
Vintage:	2005
Varietal:	Zinfandel
Country:	USA
Region:	California - Napa Valley
Retail Price:	30.00 USD
Alcohol:	14%

Lucinda and I had a date. Not an appointment, but an actual no kids, Lucinda shaved her legs, I made reservations and we got dressed up and went out to eat kind of date. When we get an opportunity to do this, our restaurant choices are limited here in Madisonville, KY. That is why we decided to go to our favorite local Italian restaurant Difabios. Difabios is owned by Pete and Laura Difabio and they make some of the best Italian dishes I have ever eaten that we did not cook ourselves at home. Remember, this is a date, someone else had to cook :)

We sat at our table and the waitress was quick to present the wine list. Typically, every wine I have seen on any kind of list at a restaurant is priced at close to twice what you can buy it for retail. Keeping that in mind, I perused the list and we decided on a red zinfadel. It came highly reccommended by the waitress (as is her job) but it also got a thumbs up from Pete Difabio himself.

The Cigarzin was a reddish/brownish color with a nice subtle boquet. The flavor, though, was a real slap in the face, and a good slap at that. I didn't expect that much flavor from such a subtle smell. I cant begin to list pommegranites or red cherries like the manufacturer states, I just know it tasted great.

As we were finishing off dinner and still sipping our wine, Laura difabio approached our table with a few slivers of semi sweet dark chocolate. She told us that she and Pete had tried this wine at a tasting in Chicago and letting some chocolate slowly melt in our mouths while sipping the wine would take it to another level.

We tried it and just let me say Lucinda didn't need to shave her legs because that was orgasmic alone, We both had a winegasm.

This is a very respectable every day wine. If you have not tried this one, I would suggest going out and getting a bottle and some semi sweet dark chocolate, and a babysitter.