The Italian fashion house Valentino bought advertising from a cat Stepan aged 13 that lives in Kharkiv, Ukraine. The pet posed next to the bag that cost 4 000 euros.
I personally believe that his expression encompasses the feeling of many an MM reader, and survivor in the total and complete fiasco that is, don’t you know, this planet earth.
Stepan is a celebrity cat. On most of its photos, it sits in a chair and looks thoughtfully at cocktails. People call the cat “the king of sad parties”. But the owner of the cat says it is not sad, it’s sleepy.
As he looks on dreamily at the wine, we can most certainly relate to his feelings, emotions and needs.
In ancient Greece a host at a dinner party would always take the first sip of wine to assure guests the wine was not poisoned and that is where the saying “drinking to one’s health.” comes from!
Stepan also got attention from Britney Spears who wrote in her Instagram…
“If I go quiet from time to time, you can catch me with this cat somewhere 😜😹🤪 !!!!”
I guess Britney understands.
Wine tasters call the smell of a young wine an “aroma” while a more mature bottle of wine has a “bouquet.”
This darn cat communicates so friggin’ well.
Let’s talk about wine.
Wine and life
There are 2 types of people: Those who drink wine and those I hate so much I scratch!
I know…
… many MM readers are American and really don’t drink alcohol, nor smoke. It’s mandated by the government and enforced by laws and society. So most Americans believe that it’s their choice. You know, for a healthier life, and all that.
Well, I live in Zhuhai which is next door to Macau.
- Life expectancy for men in the USA is 70 years. (HERE)
- Life expectancy for men in Macau is 84.2 years. (HERE)
Yuppur!
Cigarette smoking, alcohol guzzling Macau, China has a life expectancy much larger than that for America. I’ll bet you all weren’t aware of it.
“Wine improves with age. The older I get, the better I like it!”
Like all things USA, good news out of China is suppressed, while bad news is promoted with loud megaphones. Video 7MB
The death of free media-1-2022-02-13_10.42.42
The banning of alcohol and cigarettes in the USA has more to do with control than any health reason. And if you cannot see that, then you are deluded. Just like in ancient Rome.
Back in the days of Early Roman (194 B.C) women were forbidden to drink wine, in fact, it was so illegal that any husband who found his wife drinking wine was free to kill her without fear of reprisal!
It’s about lifestyle. Stress. Family. Tradition.
You simply cannot try to change your recreational habits, while living in an oppressive, tyrannical environment full of stress, personal distress and bad unhealthy food. You just can’t.
Anyway…
…here we will chat about cats and wine.
You got a problem with that?
”99% of the world's problems could be solved with a glass of wine! Or 2,3 half a bottle.”
I sometime lurk in and around wine lover blogs, and extracted this treasure trove of information…
What Are The Most Popular Types of Wine?
You know, guys, wine is very, VERY versatile. It can taste like sweet liquid candy, all the way to oily melted butter and everything in between. It’s sort of like how there are all sorts of colas, and sodas. In fact, I will go as far is to say that there are more different flavors and tastes in wine than there are for beer. If you can believe that!
Want to find out what wine you like best?
Check out just 18 different grape varieties, commonly referred to as international varieties.
They include light sweet white wines like Moscato and Riesling to deep dark red wines like Syrah and Cabernet Sauvignon.
Once you’ve tried all 18, you’ll actually have a pretty good handle on the entire range of wine. You’ll also know more about your personal preferences.
- Learn what the 18 noble grapes are
- Compare 200+ different types of wine
What Are the Most Popular Wine Regions?
Knowing that Italy, France and Spain are the top three wine producing countries (as determined by the European council of wine) in the world tells you three things.
For one, they probably produce the majority of bulk wine in the world. Two, they also produce some of the best wine in the world. And three, France, Italy and Spain are the source of all of the most popular varieties of wine in the world.
But that has been a changing.
There’s some most excellent wine out of Chile, and Australian wines are outstanding, and let’s not forget Chinese wines. So, while the European wines are the oldest and best established, and thus they are considered the “most popular”, they are in fact no longer.
By bulk of wine produced, nothing can compete against the Chinese wine industry.
- Learn about the top wine regions of the world
Why Do Some Wines Taste More Tart Than Others?
“Come on! It is not like I have a problem, I only drink a glass or 2 in days ending in ‘Y'”
Now that you know what wine is and where it comes from, find out what are the basic characteristics of wine? And no, I’m not talking about color, or bottle size.
Some wines taste tart. The tartness of wine is called acidity.
Some wines will warm/burn the back of your throat, which is the alcohol level.
Finally, some wines leave a lingering bitter/dry taste in your mouth, which is called tannin. Learn the basic wine characteristics, so you can better describe what you like.
How Can a Wine With No Sugar Still Taste Sweet?
In the wine world, we call this trait fruit forward.
How is it that a completely dry (ie no residual sugar) wine can taste sweeter than other wines?
There are a few factors that go into this phenomenon including grape variety, region and oak aging. For instance, if you have a Malbec from France compared to a Malbec from Argentina, the latter tastes sweeter.
The region where the grapes grow greatly affects the flavor.
How To Ask For Wine You Like
The oldest bottle of wine in the World is located in Speyer, Germany, inside one of two Roman sarcophaguses and it is said to date back to A.D. 325!
Now that you’ve tried some wine and have opinions, how do you communicate to others what you like? Well, it helps to know what regions or varieties that you prefer, but what if there’s a better way?
- Learn the common wine descriptions and what they mean
For me, I just sample different budget wines and try them. If the price is right, and they taste good, I buy ten or so cases.
Look Like a Badass When You Drink Socially
A wine glass by uniform form has a gently curved rim at the top to help contain the aromas in the glass, as a general rule the thinner the glass and the finer the rim, the better the glass!
Wine is social. Learn about basic social wine etiquette. It will help you maintain cool and calm, even in the most intense dining situations… say, dinner at Per Se?
- Motor skills: How to swirl, How to taste wine, How to clink glasses
- How to order wine at a restaurant
- How to order wine like a sommelier
- At home: How to open Champagne properly
When are Most Wines Meant To Be Drunk?
The best place to store wine is under the stairs! The worst place is usually in the kitchen because it is typically too warm or the fridge because they are too cold.
I suggest any time, all day. The more, the merrier.
But seriously, though. 90% of wine is meant to be drunk in the year it’s released. This is a fact.
Some wines do, however, improve with age.
Want to know the traits of an age-worthy wine? There are four traits: Acidity, Tannin, Low Alcohol and Residual Sugar. Not what you thought eh?
- Is your wine worth cellaring?
- Four traits of wines that age well
Why Wine Doesn’t Taste the Same Year to Year
If a wine tastes watery or is said to taste “diluted.” then the chances are good that it was picked during a rainstorm! And thus no grape farm worth its salt would pick them during rain, the hottest, sunniest days are apparently best.
Does this ever happen to you? You find a stupid-awesome wine and you buy a ton of it.
Eventually you drink up your stash and buy more, except the new wine doesn’t taste the way you remember.
Relax. You’re not crazy.
Check the vintage, more than likely you’re a victim of Vintage Variation. Vintage variation happens more often in cooler climate regions. So if you’re a Pinot Noir lover, pay attention to vintage.
- Understand how vintage variation affects your favorite wine
What Should You Expect to Spend on Decent Wine?
We all hear about them.
Those amazing deals on fantastic wines; either declassified, relabeled or sold through a stressful 3-day sale site. Yes, some of these deals are great, but you can still find great wines without a discount tag.
How much should you expect to spend on a decent bottle?
And if you’re buying in a restaurant, how much does that bottle of wine really cost?
- Read about the standard wine mark up in restaurants
Which is why I find a good wine and buy in bulk for my daily bottle or three.
Drinking Wine is an Adventure
A study in Italy argues that women who drink at least two glasses of wine a day on average have much better sex than those who don’t drink at all!
Well…
There’s only one way to find out if this study has merit and their conclusions are true. Don’t you know?
If you’re drinking the same old crap just to get drunk then you’re not really enjoying all the uniqueness wine has to offer.
Wine is an accompaniment to life experiences; where you are, and who you’re with.
There will always be peaks and valleys.
Expand your understanding by being experimental and trying new things. If you ask a wine expert what their favorite wine is, they’ll never give you a straight answer because the truth is, they love it all.
Conclusion
So you see, there’s no mention on how wine is made, or the nuances of the color of wine, because those aren’t (as) important.
Remember, pay attention to what you’re drinking and use those observations to make educated guesses to seek out new wine.
Use wine as a vehicle to enjoy the moment…
use wine to taste and savor the food…
“Meals without wine are not worth eating!”
Use wine to rest and relax your mood and emotions…
Some final thoughts…
If you are so inclined, may I suggest a nice delicious meal with the wine, with bread, some light music and some friends and a cat or two…
If you want guidance, there are all sorts of websites that offer suggestions for pairing wine and fondue. But here is my suggestion…
- Go to a store and buy a couple of bottles of wine.
- Make some fondue.
- Share it with friends and family.
It’s more important to prioritize what is important in your life, then strive for perfection. So, just get started.
If you’ve got a cat, well, you are half-way there already.
Do you want more?
Well, this article can fall under cats under my cat index , found within my happiness index, here…
Life & Happiness.
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French wines (old world) resonates with my tastebuds. Though, South African & Chile (new world) wines comes second. Somehow, Australian wines doesn’t agree with me.
Try St. Emilion (Bordeaux) wines, especially the Grand Cru & Grand Cru Classe. They age well; mellow down the tannin tartness & smoothing the alcohol with age. If it’s a good (harvest) year, get at least 2 bottles. One for after 5 years of ageing & another for after 10 years of ageing.
The first St. Emilion I tried was way back in 1991 & that got me hooked ever since. Thanks Claudia.
Good wine is a staple. TY for the quick lessons.
I confess I only drink wine in the warmer months, and to quell
any fatigue I might mix it with a bit of decent soda (I know,
heresy) and some ice.
Stepan looks like a male version of my cat Juna. She was found
in the woods under a juniper bush. She was living on her own
(about 6 mos. old) and was afraid of everything. She was advertised
as free to a good home, and my husband drove to get her. Now?
She is 4 yrs. and has lion courage. We have a rescue XL pitbull,
“adopted” at 8 mos. old. We lost our Doberman (my love) and Jackson
replaced her. Yikes! He was a terror. He ate a window sill. He chewed
all of my area rugs, until I wisely removed them. Well, Juna really
wants to be friends with Jack. She is quite brave around him. Pitbulls
are useless dogs except for giving love and kisses, but as a farm
ratter, he still sees cats as prey. He is coming around tho. Soon,
eventually, they will be sleeping together. I hope you enjoy the little
story.
Enjoy your wine and your friends. It is 8′ below zero, here in the
snow covered north, and we live in and around farms and woods.
People, many, hibernate in the winter with our wood stoves and
venture out to be with family and friends less often. The road is
covered with thick ice.
Best regards to you and yours,
Suzanna
Hi MM – Commander shared that,
Cool.
.
Question: Does that mean that felines don’t go through memory wipes? If so, wouldn’t that mean feline consciousness should evolve MUCH faster than humans? And, if so, then shouldn’t felines’ consciousness, by now, be the most evolved, the most enlightened?
.
Elsewhere, you’ve hinted that one of our goals, as skin-suits, is to evolve our consciousness in order to enable us to graduate beyond (or perhaps to escape from) our prison planet treadmill of endless reincarnation.
.
If so, shouldn’t felines have already evolved beyond their physical skin-suit stage? Shouldn’t felines have already moved on to a more ethereal existence?
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Yet, here they are with us, sharing our prison planet experience.
.
Am I missing something here?
Yes. You are correct. Felines do not go through memory wipes.
As I understand it, there are different paths for the evolution and growth of consciousness. Felines are on one such path. But comparing different evolutionary paths with each other is silly. It is like comparing apples to skyscrapers. There is no such thing as being the most enlightened. Instead, it is an accumulation of skills and abilities and understandings. A professional chef at the height of his skill might be an amazing, profound artist in his respective field, but is he better than say a programmer that developed the code for a high-resolution video games. Both are experts in their fields, but neither one is better than the other.
Felines seem to coexist within the physical and the non-physical simultaneously. They have evolved or lie above the singular physical existence. For them, physical or non-physical is the same.
You know, I have a couple of kitties – whacko fuckers do whatever and whenever they feel like.
Now then, the big boy had at least one brother – an absolutely beautiful Siberian going about 20# – not the most brilliant guy though: hit by car – deceased (in the form I knew him). Way more casual then your snooty wine buddies up top… aloof describes his attitude best. He’d be drinking Vodka, if anything.
I don’t give a shit about humans… if I ever get back to my ISBE source, I’m gonna look up THAT soul.
That soul will find you.
You’re missing what the Domain, Commander has already elucidated– in earlier Q&A sessions and in some amount of depth– about what cats are and why they are here, Professor.