Excelsior! (as told by Daring Drew)

  • by Drew

My friend Ted and I were putting together a case of nice wine to lay down for drinking in 5 plus years. We have different experiences and preferences, so we were making selections together so we’d each have some new and unexpected treats to enjoy at some point down the line. We came across an inexpensive bottle of South African Cabernet Sauvignon called Excelsior that I’ve tasted before. It is very different from California Cab. Somewhat dark cherry fruity with a clear dose of that charred thing that so many South African reds have. Definitely worth a try for less than ten bucks I told him.

He laughed and said his Aunt had a friend Stanley that she’d known many years. Quite a few years ago he met her after lunch with this friend in the city. Turns out the friend in question was none other than Stan Lee of Marvel comics fame. You know, the guy who created Spider-Man, the Fantastic Four, the Avengers, Daredevil, Iron Man, etc. etc. etc. A lifelong comics fan, Ted freaked. Then he calmed down and over time, has built a relationship with Smilin’ Stan.

Marvel comics fans will know that Stan Lee is well known for exclaiming “Excelsior!” somewhat frequently. So Ted bought a bottle and said he’d send it to Stan, giving my name for having made the recommendation. Cool, maybe I’ll get lucky and get a signed photo or something, I thought. Well, I got something even better.

Stan Lee sent me a signed photo, and boy did he sign it. He turned it into a veritable work of art! He also gave me a new nickname that I must insist gets frequent use by all friends, family and acquaintances. Daring Drew. That’s right. Daring Drew. Call me Daring Drew.

Many thanks to Titanic Ted for helping me secure this treasure, and many thanks to Stan Lee for giving me a cool nickname. (According to Titanic, Stan the Man has given others less cool nicknames – I could have been Droopy Drew or something.)

Without further ado, I share a link to a photo of the photo, taken by Captivating Carol (now I’m handing out nicknames) right over here.

By the way, for the winos out there, our cellar selections included Frog’s Leap Cab, BR Cohn Olive Hill Cab, Dry Creek’s Mariner Meritage, and Joseph Phelps Napa Cab.

Excelsior!

Lovin’ the Stinky!

  • by Drew

Saw an interesting license plate the other day: ILUVPITS. My first thought, in spite of the dog paw stickers on the trunk, was armpits. Clearly it was a reference to pit bulls, but I couldn’t help but think, “who loves armpits?”  Even when you’re right out of the shower, they’re still, well, pits. I know there are pit fetishists, and I’m sure my lovely wife will be googling it as soon as she reads this post. Sure she writes about the lovely nose of the better vintages at Celebrate Wine, but here she’ll no doubt be waxing poetic with comments about armpit squirters the world around.

And talk about a French connection, eh? Between pits and wine I mean.

Don’t get the wrong idea. I love the French. Bill O’Reilly is an idiot. Boycotting France is stupid. They are the only world power that had the balls to tell Bush to shove it when he couldn’t prove that Hussein had weapons of mass destruction. Maybe that’s why O’Fuckly was so loud about it. Let’s be so busy hating the people who refused to go to war without reason that we forget about the big fucking lie our president told the entire world…and us, the American people. The Evil Blimp (Rush Limbaugh – that’s from a mid-90’s song, by the way) was shouting that we should hate the French because they don’t thank us enough for helping out in WWII and I kept asking if anyone remembered Grammar School Social Studies when we learned that France was a primary backer of the American Revolution. Oh yeah, but what have they done for us lately. Besides inventing the blow job.

But I digress…my point is that I love the French. I love their culture, I love their art, I love their music (Serge Gainsbourg, Telephone, MC Solaar…aural ecstasy!), I love their wine, and I love their stinky pits. Well, not literally. Personally, I’m kind of into deodorant, and I’m not saying that the French are pit fetishists. I think they, like many Europeans, just don’t care. They’d rather musk it up naturally than try to cover it with floral aromas. Hell, I remember when a good friend in college, a native Frenchman, started using deodorant, and his roommate threw a party. Though I was happy for all involved, I recall a sense of loss. We had Americanized my friend. We had taught him that Quarter Pounders and Big Gulps were good, and stinky pits were bad. We had taken something natural and made it, somehow, unclean.

 Oh well.

Then again, maybe the plate had nothing to do with pit bulls. Maybe the driver is just a big fan of Angelina and Brad, and all their little adopted babies. How do you think their pits smell? I mean Pitt’s pits and Jolie’s pits, not the baby pits. I think Brad’s smell like nutmeg and clover honey and Angelina’s smell like purple ditto ink. I bet I’m right.

ZINFANDL

  • by Drew

Since I first brought up vanity plates thanks to MOONBEAR, NUGABUG and (to a much lesser extent) H34ME, I have been seeing them anywhere. Nothing special for the most part until last night. On the Sprain Brook Parkway around 9pm I saw a red Acura with the plate ZINFANDL. I thought that was kind of cool. Don’t know what I would have thought if the car was white, though.

Hyperbolicsyllabic-Tequila-Phallus-mistic*

  • by Drew

VodkasI know this guy who works for this liquor distributor and sometimes he shows me cool stuff. Almost a year ago he showed me a vodka that had just been released. It’s called Bong vodka. The bottle is shaped, well, like a bong. There is even a little plastic medallion on the front that can apparently be popped out for conversion from vodka vessel to water pipe. He pointed that out to me. I think it’s considered a selling point.

A few months later he showed me Stolichnaya’s new high-end vodka, Stoli Elit. It comes in a ridiculously tall, skinny bottle, with a heavy metal topper. Somewhat phallic. I said something like, “First you had the bong, now what’s this…dildo vodka?” We had a nice chuckle. A nice, long chuckle. (Sorry, couldn’t resist.)

Who knew what was coming – (no giggles).

Today he showed me some premium tequila from AsomBroso. They do the standard three variations, but they certainly do it their way. first, the tasting notes:

  • El Platino: Silver – which has a killer bite, very big on the black pepper, and very good.
  • La Rosa: Reposado – They age it in used Bordeaux barrels where it develops a pink hue and a distinctly floral aroma and flavor. A little perfumey for me, but very interesting, and somewhat smoother than the silver.
  • Anejo: Anejo (no fancy name). It spends 5 years in oak, so it’s very smooth and balanced. Very nice and incredibly expensive. On the shelf around $200 for a 750ml bottle. He told me they’re serving it in bars for like $30 a shot. He gave me a little and I was like, “it looks like you poured me about $11.50 worth.”

Here’s the thing: the bottle. I thought Stoli Elit was phallic. Oh man. This thing could do some damage. Seriously, they could have called this Dong Tequila. I’d pay $30 for a shot of John Holmes Anejo, wouldn’t you? Enjoy at your own risk.

Click here to see it.

*With apologies to Isaac Hayes.

Mmmmmm… Vinegar-y

  • by Drew

I just added a bunch of new headers to the site. I like doing new headers. Did you notice that they periodically change? Once every minute, actually. But that’s not the point of this entry. I’ll talk more about the headers later. Right now I want to talk about a particular header.

One of the new ones uses a part of an old vermouth ad. A nice young lady, kind of flapper, with a happy smile and a small vermouth. I only mention it because I discovered a love for sweet vermouth a few months ago and created (I think) a drink that is great for Summer sipping. I haven’t name it, but I’ll take suggestions. It’s very simple to make.

You need about 2 ounces of sweet vermouth, such as Martini & Rossi Rosso which is inexpensive and perfect for this recipe. Mix it with the juice of about half a small lemon in a cup of ice. Shake or stir well and strain into a chilled cordial or wine glass. It’s also good over crushed ice – cold is key to the super yumminess – but don’t let it get too diluted. Of course, when you taste the sweet and sour perfection with a hint of vermouth-y bitterness…well, I guess you either love it or hate it. And if you love it as much as I do, you’ll polish one of these suckers off in one gulp.

Oh, and one side note for those of you who have not yet tasted sweet vermouth. It is nothing like dry vermouth – the stuff you use in martinis. It is a whole other flavor profile. I will warn you that it has a kind of vinegar smell. Don’t worry, that’s normal. I opened an old bottle I had kicking around a few months ago and assumed it had turned. I bought a new bottle and it smelled the same. Part of the charm, I guess.

PORTONIC

  • by Drew

A cunningly precedented* new drink name that should be all the rage this summer – the PorTonic. The hardest part will probably be finding a bottle of White Port. Doesn’t need to be expensive, Offley makes a White Port that retails in the $10ish range.

Pour 2 parts Tonic, 1 part White Port over ice. Stir and garnish with a twist of lemon or lime. Or both. Be a maniac.

It’s that simple and quite refreshing. Super yummers!

*For anyone wondering about my use of the word ‘precedented,’ you must have missed the The Daily Show With Jon Stewart presents America: The Book. which I enjoyed in audio format as The Daily Show With Jon Stewart presents America: The Book, The Audiobook.

Rock Rabbit – Summer White

  • by Drew

Rock Rabbit LabelWe’ve finally got some warm weather in the northeast, so it’s time to talk about yummy summer whites. Now I am a red wine drinker all year round, and maybe I’ll wax poetic on summer reds (that are delicious and not wimpy) in a later post. For now, let’s talk about one of my favorite new finds – Rock Rabbit Sauvignon Blanc from Rock Rabbit Winery.

Rock Rabbit makes a Syrah (or Shiraz – even they can’t decide in their POS materials though Syrah won a spot on the label on the current vintage) and it is pretty good. Nothing over the top spectacular to my palate, but good, solid, fruity, medium-bodied.

The real standout is the Sauvignon Blanc. It is aromatic and full in the mouth. Great fruit flavors with tame acidity (particularly for a Sauv Blanc). It’s fine with classic Sauvignon Blanc fare, but the depth of flavor and roundness in the mouth makes for a wine that can tread in food pairing country heretofore dominated by Chardonnay. Yeah, it’s that big and good.

What’s the secret? About 6% Gewurtztraminer in the blend. It balances the expected citrus flavors with a touch of ripe honeydew. It elevates the aromas of stone fruit. It rounds the wine’s mouthfeel to something like a mildly oaked Chard without the toast, butter, or bitterness.

It’s an easy afternoon sipper that would be delightful with anything from steamed lobster to grilled chicken, for around 13 bucks in metro New York. Super yum.

© 2025 Drew Bancroft. All rights reserved. Totally.