CapaBunga.

Choosing stocking fillers can be fun, especially if said stocking fillers are for wine-lovers because there are so many to choose from.
In Vinomaker's stocking this year was the Capabunga, an innovative, liquid tight, silicone closure for partially used bottles of wine, so that they can be stored on their side in a refrigerator. The folks at CapaBunga also came up with the CapaBubbles a product which turns a partially emptied sparkling wine bottle into a screw cap, (a product absolutely not necessary in Vinoland).  But this post is not about how useful, and fun, CapaBunga's products are.  No, this post is about the fun, whimsical, bottle-shaped UPC code on the Capabunga's packinging.  I just love it, it's a great design.  God is in the detail.

On the fourth day of Christmas...

...I got a little bit fed up with wine and decided to have a Christmas beer instead.
Anchor Brewing Company's Christmas Ale is something I look forward to each year - if I can find it.  This Christmas Ale is a limited production and is only available during a specific period: early November through mid January.  But honestly, I have never seen it in the shops for that amount of time.  I buy it as soon as I see it because it sells out fast.
With a different, tree-adorned label every year this ale is medium bodied, quite dark, pleasantly spicy and altogether delightful. Throughout the year I often imbibe in an Anchor Steam Beer, or sometimes a bottle or two of their Porter, but it's the release of this San Franciscan brewery's Christmas offering that I eagerly await every autumn.
My purple, polka-dotted glass just adds to the festivities.

Every family has one.

A black sheep that is, except mine. My relatives are all pretty straight-laced, verging on boring if truth be told. So I had to take a quick road-trip-in-a-bottle to Amador County to find one.
The Black Sheep 2002 Zinfandel had definitely seen better days. The wine was still recognisable as a Zinfandel, but a lot of the wonderful aromas of raspberries and pepper, that you expect in a young and robust Zinfandel, were all but a distant memory.
The Black Sheep was accompanied, to the mini Vinoland party, by a 2007 Rapscallion (now we're talking, we have several of these in my family)...the Prodigal Son couldn't make it this time - he is holidaying down in Paso Robles.

A blot of mustard.

This morning heralded a rather sunny but frosty start to my day at a chilly 29 degrees.  It was a very still morning so, perhaps taking advantage of a near perfect temperature differential, the hot air balloons were out en masse, floating high above the commuting Vinogirl below.
Also present in abundance, but in this instance very definitely planted on terra firma, was the mustard flowering amongst the vines.  The mustard has been blooming for about 3 weeks now already, perhaps the earliest I can ever remember, no doubt due to the little bit of rain we had in October.
With barely any traffic on the Silverado Trail it was a very pleasurable drive to work on this still rather Christmassy December morn.