A rocket ride.

It is Bonfire Night (or Guy Fawkes Night) here in Blighty.  I see lots of fire, fireworks, goodies and wine in my very near future.
The Wanted Zin, a 2017 "Italian Zinfandel aged in American oak," is Thud's choice of wine for this evening's festivities.  Vinified from grapes sourced from Puglia (the 'heel' of Italy's 'boot'), The Wanted Zin is produced by Orion Wines (a company based in Lavis, Trentino), whose business plan is to "produce the best and most interesting wines possible at fair prices."  What is there not to like about that?  Sounds good to me.
The back label exhorts the imbiber to, "Be daring and let this wine take you for a ride."  Seems like I may be in for a bit of a vinous-voyage with this one.

My mini Vinitaly.

Week 7.  Tonight my class and I went Italia!  From sparkling to fortified, we had 26 wines to taste through.  So after a short film about Phylloxera, accompanied by a Spumante and a Moscato d'Asti, we were off.
The grumblings began with the very first still, white wine which was a 2010 Sardinian Vermentino from producer Arigolas which was just charming - or so I thought.  Dr. Krebs, yet again, had to point out that not all wines of the world are made in Napa's image. And that, like the wines of Spain and Portugal, Italian wines are really intended as an accompaniment to food.  So someone piped in and suggested that the Vermentino might pair well with calamari, at which point the professor regaled us with a story of meeting a model, down in San Diego in the 70s, who had posed for the International Calamari Council's (or something like that) industry calendar wearing nothing but calamari.  He never did find out which month she had been!
There were several standout wines for me tonight.  Amongst the whites, besides the Vermentino, I enjoyed a Sicilian Notalusa, 2009 Grillo and a Campanian Feudi di San Gregorio, 2010 Falanghina. My preferred reds of the evening included; a Terre dei Sicani, 2008 Nero d'Avola (IGT Sicily); a Luisi, 2010 Barbera (DOC Asti); a Zenato, 2007 Amarone (DOC Valpolicella); a Fattoria del Cerro, 2008 'Vino Nobile' (DOGC Montepulciano);  and, last but not least, my favourite of the night, a Rivetto, 2008 Barolo (DOCG Serralunga).  Not surprisingly, the majority of the class enjoyed a Ponti, 2009 'Super Tuscan' (IGT Toscano) priced at $120.99.  Of course they did, it was the wine that was most Napa-like!
Next...

A controlled state.

In further answer to Thud's question, in the comment section of my last post, there are a lot of things that are indeed normal in Utah - food, toasty weather and loving family members.  However, in some ways Utah-normal is very different from the California-normal that I have become accustomed to by living in the Golden State for so many years.  One of the biggest differences for me, and one which I consider to be grossly abnormal, is the existence of state run liquor stores.
Alcohol beverage control states, commonly known just as control states, are states that exert a state monopoly over the wholesaling and/or retailing of some or all alcoholic beverages.  Utah, along with seventeen other states, is a control state.  As an adult, a wine lover and an Englishwoman having restricted access to all things alcoholic is anathema to me.  Call me old-fashioned, but I believe that there are some walks of life that government should not meddle with.  Ergo, the informed decision by a consenting adult to consume alcohol should not be of concern to any legislature, state or federal.  But let's face it, the USA's attitude to alcohol on the whole is very different from the norm that I grew up with in England - the land of the free is after all  the country that visited the Volstead Act upon it's hapless citizens.
From the Utah state government's point of view, is there a better way to collect profit and taxes from exercising a monopoly over the sale of alcohol?  I don't think so.  Cha ching!  As it turned out, I was more than happy to fork over some tax revenue to the state of Utah.  I was pleasantly surprised to discover that the particular state run liquor store that I visited, in Springville, had an impressive variety of domestic and foreign wines to choose from and I exited the premises with two Italian whites.  If for some reason I found myself residing in Utah, I would probably be fairly satisfied with the rather decent assortment of wines available to me.  The prices were normal and in the end it didn't matter who ran the store.
Now, don't get me started on the national 21 year old minimum drinking age...