I guess it’s sort of trite to wish yourself a happy anniversary, and borderline creepy to do so to a non-sentient website that you’ve created, but here we are. This past Friday, March 9th, was exactly one year from the date of my very first post on Pop & Pour. The brevity of that piece (something that got lost along the way) didn’t conceal my evident ignorance about what I was getting myself into and my indecision about what I wanted this site to be. 152 posts, 730 tags and 181 comments later, it’s turned into more than I ever could have hoped. By big-game Internet standards it’s still a tiny operation, a blip on the search engine radar, but I initially didn’t know if I’d keep up my posting beyond the first couple of weeks, and I especially didn’t know if what I put out there would be picked up by anybody. Twelve months later, I’m psyched that there are people who actually read this blog (I was at a very good friend’s wedding this past weekend, and when I was introduced to the groom’s mom, the first thing she said to me was that she was a regular PnP reader! Thanks Chris!) and humbled by the opportunities that have come my way because of it (my monthly calgaryisawesome.com column, as well as a sweet new gig that will be announced shortly). Here are a few insider Pop & Pour stats, accurate as of today thanks to the crack team at the WordPress Analytics Department, detailing some of the numbers behind PnP’s first year: Read the rest of this entry »
Happy Anniversary, PnP
12 03 2012Comments : 5 Comments »
Tags: abstract, anniversary, fiole du pape, germans should read pop and pour, Germany, happy anniversary, kung fu girl, pop and pour, search engine radar, wine blog, wine reviews
Categories : Miscellaneous
Wine Review: 2005 Wegeler Winkeler Hasensprung Riesling Spatlese Trocken
26 04 2011What better way to inaugurate popandpour.ca than with my favourite kind of wine? This German Riesling was previously featured in this post from the PnP archives about how to decipher German wine labels; if you’ve read it, you now know that this Riesling from producer Weingut (“wine estate”) Wegeler is from the Hasensprung (“hare’s leap”) vineyard near the town of Winkel in the Rheingau wine region of south-central Germany. It’s been classified with the Spätlese (“late harvest”) ripeness designation, meaning the grapes were picked at a slightly riper level than the baseline Kabinett level for top-quality German wines, but it’s also a Trocken (dry) wine, which means that there will be very little if any residual sugar left in it. The word “Trocken” is a key hint on this bottle, because most Spätlese wines are at least somewhat sweet, but those stated to be Trocken definitely won’t be. So before you deride all German Rieslings for being too sweet for your palate, take a closer look at the label! Read the rest of this entry »
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Tags: 2005, german wines, Germany, rheingau, Riesling, Spatlese, trocken, Wegeler, weingut, white wines, wine reviews, wine scores, winkeler hasensprung
Categories : Wine Reviews
Wine Review: 2009 Muller-Catoir Mussbach Riesling Kabinett
24 03 2011After last night’s CNDP debacle, I wanted to make sure I bounced back strong tonight. So I turned to my go-to varietal (Riesling) in my go-to wine country (Germany) to bring you the first ever non-dessert white wine featured in PnP, the 2009 Mussbach Kabinett Riesling from Muller-Catoir. I bought this wine a few months ago from Bin 905 on 4th St and 23rd Ave SW, on which visit I discovered that they have the most ludicrously large German Riesling selection in Calgary, probably in Canada…it’s like Anglo-Saxon Mecca in there. I don’t go to Bin a lot, but I foresee a few periodic Riesling pilgrimages in my future. Read the rest of this entry »
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Tags: 2009, German wine, Germany, Kabinett, muller-catoir, mussbach, pfalz, Riesling, wine, wine reviews, wine scores
Categories : Wine Reviews
Wine Review: 1989 Schloss Reinhartshausen Hattenheimer Nussbrunnen Riesling Beerenauslese
19 03 2011Today was as good as it gets in terms of wine-drinking occasions: we had two great friends over to our place to celebrate their recent engagement. They are both amazing people and are perfect together, so this was definitely cause for opening something special. Most people might think to toast news like this over Champagne — me, not so much. We went with German Beerenauslese dessert wine instead, and once we tried it, there was no doubt that we came out ahead. Read the rest of this entry »
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Tags: 1989, BA, beerenauslese, dessert wine, German wine, Germany, hattenheimer nussbrunnen, reinhartshausen, Riesling, schloss reinhartshausen, wine
Categories : Wine Reviews
Tips & Tricks: How to Decipher a German Wine Label
18 03 2011In preparation for a special celebratory edition of PnP tomorrow, I thought that tonight I would run over the finer points of wrestling with German wine labels. German wine is often a struggle for people, either because they often think that every German white on the shelves will be sickly sweet (totally untrue) or because they don’t feel like wending their way through 16-letter words with two vowels on the label (go figure). I’m actually a huge fan of German wine labels because they provide what so few other Old World labels do: information. Once you learn how to decode them, you can tell a lot about your Teutonic wine before you even open it. Read the rest of this entry »
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Tags: German wine, German wine labels, Germany, Kabinett, Prum, Riesling, Spatlese, trocken, Wegeler
Categories : Tips & Tricks




