Coronavirus

[Big RR]

I agree, lay the bottles down if you plan to keep them, mainly for the reasons Andy posted.

FWIW, I'm still not convinced on the suitability of anything other than cork for laying down wines for extended times; unlike synthetic stoppers and screw caps, corks permit some a small amount of air exchange when stored, and this exchange can affect (IMHO) the wine's character. I've read papers concluding corks are better and others concluding they are not; I guess only time will tell as the price of corks keep rising, but I'm not sold on it yet. I'm not wedded to cork, I've had bottles (ones laid down) which leaked (spoiling the wine, but making an expensive salad dressing), and other bottles of wine I laid down in my cellar becoming corked, but I still defer to the tradition until I'm sure something better comes along.

[MajGenl.Meade]

Good points all. No, not even my best efforts, aided by my life companion Margaretta, could get through 80 or so bottles in less than two months. I'd lay 'em down if they were going to be around for more than 6 months - which I hope not. Aging is not the issue, except for us.

The house is up for sale; we have an offer (pending bank approval of the buyer's loan). Then is USA? UK? Still here in SA for a time?

A lot depends on the Covid lockdown. Y'all probably know we are not allowed to leave the province (Free State). The US Embassy is keeping me (and others, natch) updated on "repatriation flights" which require approval of the SA gov't (see rules on provincial borders as well as "no fly"). Problem there is that they all fly to exotic places like Turkey or Ethiopia or Germany and then one must have a prearranged onward flight to the USA - not sure how approval for that works.

So back to the wine. I prefer screw-tops, believing that air is not my friend. Also, one does not need to rinse out the empty bottle before dumping it in the trash bag - just screw the top back on to avoid smelly spills and leaks. From the trash bag (before Gob says anything). And then it's off to the trash dump, the great ride though mountains of garbage, and the happy informal recyclers eager to offload the Tucson.

Almost every wine we purchased is 90+ points and the most expensive bottles at 95+ only set us back $35 or so, on average. If I'd spent $100+ per bottle, I might consider a brief nap for some of them but . . .

2016 Mulderbosch Faithful Hound bordeaux blend last night (4.5 stars; 90 pts) which I see is about $17 in the USA and a little less than $10 here. Maybe tonight an Owl Post pinotage. Tough life.

[ex-khobar Andy]

I'm not a great fan of points but it's always a good initial indication. Our local Lucky's supermarket closed down a few months ago (seems like a lifetime - it was January) so they were selling stuff off. I went by the wine store - they had a 92 point claret (Wine Advocate rating IIRC) for $6.50 reduced from something like $22. They had about four cases. "I'll try one of those."

Got it home, had it the next day. "Ooh that's good. Better go back tomorrow and pick up a few more."

All gone.

Moral of the story: carpe diem. Especially when the diem is 750 mL. Carpe it with both hands.

[Big RR]

Meade--the main reason for laying wines down (to me at least), is that you can buy them when they are released (at a far lower price) and then age them for 20+ years (for the good ones), saving hundreds per bottles. I have a few cases of wine in my cellar I bought when my daughters were born (the oldest is 30) and, if you could even find them, I have saved hundreds per bottle on some of the bordeauxs and good california wines. You do need a good place to age them (I have a walled off corner of my basement that had great temperature and humidity control, but there are many commercial units of varying sizes), but it's worth it if you want to drink good wines (sometime, clearly not every night , but it's a lot easier to open a $50 bottle of wine than a $300 bottle).

BSG--you're right; I've made that same mistake many times.

[MajGenl.Meade]

Ah, Big RR, if one only had a place to lay wine down for more than a year or two. That and still keep the wine. Since 2008 we've lived in 8 different places in two different countries. It's tough hanging on to a cellar when you can only bring 2 bottles each through customs! Otherwise, I'm with you there

ex-kA lucky bastard!

[RayThom]

Wine snobbery can be so contentious. Cap, cork, stopper, pump? It's all so confusing.

What I need to know is what is the best way to store a box wine? Standing straight up, or on its side?

[Big RR]

Ah, Big RR, if one only had a place to lay wine down for more than a year or two. That and still keep the wine. Since 2008 we've lived in 8 different places in two different countries. It's tough hanging on to a cellar when you can only bring 2 bottles each through customs! Otherwise, I'm with you there

ex-kA lucky bastard!

Meade--I had friends who had their wine collections (several hundred bottles) shipped to Europe (England) and Asia (Japan) when they were transferred, so there must be a way to get them through customs, but I do understand not everyone can store wines longterm. I am having troubles in considering downsizing in the next few years and trying to see how I could keep wines in a much smaller place. I'll figure it out, but it will affect my choices.

Ray, sure there' a lot of snobbery, but I always keep it grounded by saying the only purpose for keeping wines is to drink them, and you should drink what you like.

BTW, box wines are special because they can pretty much be stored any way you want.

[BoSoxGal]

Immunity to Covid-19 may be lost in just a few months and it could be caught again like a common cold, new research suggests.

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech ... gests.html


I knew it! Fuck.

[RayThom]

It sounds as though COVID is becoming a seasonal virus.

♩ ♪ ♫ ♬ "And it’s one, two, three,
What are we fighting for?...

... And it’s five, six, seven,
Open up the pearly gates,
Well there ain’t no time to wonder why,
Whoopee! we’re all gonna die."

[dales]

Country Joe and the Fish - Another local bay area band.

[Econoline]

GIMME AN "F"!

[Big RR]

Immunity to Covid-19 may be lost in just a few months and it could be caught again like a common cold, new research suggests.

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech ... gests.html


I knew it! Fuck.

All is not lost BSG; see the later discussed of t cell mediated response. Long after antibody titers decrease, T cells will respond to the antigenic provocation and attack the viruses; they also create chemiocal that boost antibody production. It is the reson we have long term immunioty to a number of diseases we may have had in childhood long after the circulating antibodies have decreased. It has been recognized that even rubella immunity is maintained long after the titers have decreased, which is why they don't routinely do antibody titers on women of childbearing age for this disease--longterm immunity is the norm, not the odd happenstance.

[BoSoxGal]

‘A chance’ doesn’t inspire much confidence in me, especially considering the known coronaviruses that cause common colds are able to reinfect over and over again.

And did we happen to notice the bit in the article about the high number of covid19 recovered who have heart issues months later?

If people in America continue fucking around about this virus, we will not only have 2-3 million dead, we’ll have many more millions disabled for life by the long term cardiac, pulmonary and neurological damage caused by this lovely virus.

[Bicycle Bill]

-"BB"-

[Gob]

The house is up for sale; we have an offer (pending bank approval of the buyer's loan). Then is USA? UK? Still here in SA for a time?

UK has a healthcare system, you may be grateful of that at your age!

[datsunaholic]

‘A chance’ doesn’t inspire much confidence in me, especially considering the known coronaviruses that cause common colds are able to reinfect over and over again.

Possibly, but the main reason common colds reinfect over and over is because they mutate so rapidly as to be unrecognizable to the immune system after only a few generations. COVID-19 hasn't been shown to mutate that fast... but being a Novel virus, our immune systems don't have any built-in immunity so it can hit hard the first time. So much research has yet to be done.

I mean, if this thing just keeps reinfecting everyone, killing off 1% of whoever contracts it there is nothing we can do to stop it, just slow it down, but eventually only those with immune systems capable of combating it before it wrecks the lungs or other organs will be left... evolution in less than a generation.

[Guinevere]

The house is up for sale; we have an offer (pending bank approval of the buyer's loan). Then is USA? UK? Still here in SA for a time?

UK has a healthcare system, you may be grateful of that at your age!

That would be my vote. Or move to Massachusetts where we have mandatory health care at the state level and subsidies based on income. Go to the western part of the state where its less expensive to live (but the winters cold and snowy).

On wine - I have no basement (thus no cellar) so I only buy what I will drink in the next several months. But I do keep them on their side. I prefer corks for reds, but fine with screw top for white and rosé. I’ve had some really good boxed wine, especially from the smaller producers. It is the most environmentally friendly way to ship, and keep the wine sealed well if you’re drinking as say, your house red. Sadly, the small producer I liked the best (they made a great organic cotes du rhone) no longer exists.

[MajGenl.Meade]

Don't want to derail the thread so . . . Covid, yeah. That's a thing, eh?

P.S. getting out of the cold is required. We have (and have been paying for) Medicare+ coverage so, you know, heart bypass with no invoice etc. very nice. I'd be covered in the UK and so, I guess, would Lynn but there we have the hassle and expense of getting her resident status. I vote USA; Lynn votes staying somewhere warmer in SA until one of us croaks, the economy collapses and healthcare becomes a national tragedy (the latter two are odds-on).

Back to Covid - it's getting bad here too. SA had the quickest and toughest lockdown of any, I'd say, but a lot of that was on paper. They can ban alcohol sales, cigarettes and whatever but cannot enforce many of the rules. People in many areas are not masking, not distancing, and the government is incapable of defying the taxi bosses, each of which is a guaranteed hot spot for co-infection.

And we learned today the buyer had 100% loan approved by two banks. Perhaps in 3 months the deed will be registered and we will have to go. Somewhere.

[ex-khobar Andy]

-"BB"-

First of all, and on topic, I agree with this tweet.

But the rabbit holes you can go down. Dave Gorman is an English 'comedian' - for want of a better word - who tells no jokes but explains how the world is, and is massively funny. He is also a talented user of Power Point or whatever program. He first came to my attention because he did a one hour standup on attempting to find all the other Dave Gormans in the world.

I just went to YouTube to find the link. It's three hours, not one. Seriously, don't start to watch it unless you have three hours available. I just started it to make sure that it's the piece I remember and tore myself away 25 minutes in, in order to finish this post.



But he does not look anything like the Dave Gorman of BB's post. It's a while since I saw Dave Gorman's video essay on locating other Dave Gormans but he appears, from his Twitter pic, not to have aged well. But I also noticed this his Twatter handle is @_davegorman. With an underscore. Dave Gorman (the English 'comic') is @davegorman - no underscore - I know this because I looked it up. I don't know if DG(1) knows _DG(2) so I'll have to watch the next 2 hours and 35 minutes of the video to find out.

Meanwhile I'm on @_davegorman's Twatter feed. He live in Tennessee and is apparently a fan of James Mackler who is standing for Senate. Never heard of him (they are after all a whole state over from me) so I went to Mackler's website. He is trying to unseat Bill Hagerty (R - Tenn) who is a big Trump fan. In fact Hagerty tweeted this:



I think I'll stop digging.

[Crackpot]

That part of the mountain is unstable (a collapse there ended the project. Though the attempt and the resulting catastrophic disaster and resultant damage to a historic entity would have a certain poetic justice.