Quotes, like wine, are all about context. Remove the context, and you’re left with nothing. With wine, if it’s good enough, lack of context might not matter. With words, sometimes it’s damn funny. You be the judge– here are the quaffable quotes from the month of November with links to their original context.

“get ye to a winery” was a playful reference to Hamlet…

“there’s more to wine than kangaroos” poked fun at the Yellow Tail community…

“Thanksgiving is not a time to compress, it is a time to de-compress” just came out like that…

“when you send Aunt Rabbina to the liquor store, tell her to look for penguins” another poke…

“I purchased the Chardonnay, because the label has a tandem on it. (Oh, like you’ve never bought a bottle of wine based on the label, c’mon).” labels are fun, so what if they’re not high brow…

“The sport of bicycling is, after all, a social activity wherein one connoisseur meets with another and they “expert” with each other for a while about their expertise.” looping words like this in formal arguments is known as begging the question…

“Any one up for a contest of first empty glass? I’ll be the guy on the bike.” when we discovered a wine company with the word tandem in it…

“Knob Stoppers (does that sound dirty?)” in the write-up of wine stoppers made of vintage door knobs…

If you’re not into bringing your wine to the door knobs, as we were a few weeks ago, then perhaps you would care to bring your door knobs to the wine? A perfect gift for that kitschy someone, these Vintage Knob Stoppers (does that sound dirty?) are available from southmoonunder.com. Check them out here. Can you do this yourself? Yes. Should you? That remains to be decided. Happy knob stopping!

Well the Turkey weekend is here and we will all, hopefully, have our fun, our sun, our Turkey (or in our case, Quorn Roast), and our projects. What’s that? You need something to do to work off the Tryptophan? Bring out the power tools, here’s your first project:

Over at the friendly, well-designed, and just plain cool, instructables site, they have a post detailing how to build your very own bicycle stereo. Now, you know you’ve always wondered what to do with that old cruiser you have that you just can’t get rid of. This is it. What’s that you say? You need a wine to accompany your build a bike stereo project? Of course you do, that’s what we’re here for.

Might I recommend The 2006 Little Penguin Shiraz? It’s smooth, friendly, highly drinkable. And, most importantly for the holidays — when you send Aunt Rabbina to the liquor store – it has a recognizable icon on the label. We’ve always been suckers for a handsome label.

We’re also suckers for wise-guys here at Wine and Wheels, and these Aussies won’t disappoint. From the tasting tips section of their official web site:

How to get the most out of drinking the Little Penguin wines.

The Basics:

1. Open a bottle of wine.
2. Pour it in a glass.
3. Open your mouth.
4. Tip wine into your mouth.
5. Swallow. (preferably before reaching full capacity)
6. Enjoy. (In moderation, of course.)

Happy listening and Penguin Turkey Day, Wine and Wheels readers!

It has been a long weekend of too much Cascading Style Sheets but it’s here. The new version of WineandWheels.com is live. I’d like to take this chance to welcome you officially to the new site, and to apologize for our mess, and ask for your patience as we wipe up the wine spills and clean our hands of bike grease.

There are a few bugs with the new design; we’re aware of most of them, but please post any remarks, questions, bugs, or suggestions in the comments or to tips@wineandwheels.com.

Thanks for stopping by, and don’t forget to tell your friends about us!

–Eric Mills is the senior editor of Wine and Wheels, and when he’s not wracking his brain with CSS and web design he is purchasing bottles of wine because they have nifty labels.

You like wine, and you like to read and ride. That’s why you’re here, you are smart. You already know, then, that we like things built for two. Two-ism is where Tandem Wines enters our dialog. Their use of the word “tandem” is in accordance with their philosophy of — what shall we say — ‘inlineness.’ The wine and wine and the vine, to them it’s all one. Tandem.

Perhaps my favorite of their thoughts on wine falls into the category of what they call “deliciousness.” Yes, we like our buzz words here at Wine and Wheels.
They write:

Deliciousness : our Peloton red wine blend expresses this best. 180 degrees from terroir, this wine is about deliciousness and who wins the “first empty glass” contest.

Any one up for a contest of first empty glass? I’ll be the guy on the bike. Read more about Tandem Wines and their philosophy here.

Ever a sucker for a good ad, I have to admit that I was conned by this one. I brought it closer for examination after removing it from the front door, I raised an eyebrow: how did they know I still needed to buy wine for Thanksgiving? I had purchased a few bottles, but then I had to review them for the Thanksgiving post. How do they know I don’t need the ingredients for pumpkin pie? Then I snapped out of it and stuck it to the fridge. Much like a good wine will dim your surroundings momentarily causing you to focus on it and it alone, a good advertisement will steal your attention and then return it to you.

The brilliant part of the Thanksgiving meal is that it is… well … the Thanksgiving meal. Think buffet: the word buffet originally refers to a piece of furniture, and is currently taken up to signify a meal served on that same long piece of furniture — the buffet line. Thanksgiving is great because you might just need an extra piece of furniture to hold all your dishes of mashed potatoes and pumpkin pies. If you’re hosting Thanksgiving, you might even need another table for your wines.

Yes, that was wines, plural. Wine.com has a page recommending bubbles for toasts, a red for the main course, and some overpriced dessert wine. Nope. It’s Thanksgiving, sure you’ll want to put a modicum of thought into your wine and food pairing, but you’ll be with your family, friends, fireplace, cat, television; Thanksgiving is not a time to impress. It’s a time to de-compress.

Comfy loafers, warm house, good company. Use this coming holiday to re-acquaint yourself with some old standbys when it comes to your wine selections. We will make one recommendation here at Wine and Wheels: get the same number of bottles as the amount of guests you plan on having, and vary the selection. (Because, as Mark Oldman says, “running out of wine is the cardinal sin of entertaining”). Other than that, your traditional or non-traditional Turkey, Tofurkey, or Quorn Roast with all the fixins’ will have enough variety and choices that — gasp — any wine will work.

Print this list, and take it with you to the local wine shop:

Reds

• 2002 Nobul Red Tempranillo is excellent, pick up two bottles
• 2004 Falesco Vitiano no stranger to us, we prefer 2004 over 2005
• Formulae
• Sheldrake Point Gamay Try something new? Gamay is great in colder weather
• Want a peppery red but something easier to find? Follow your Tempranillo with a Chilean relative of the Cabernet: get a Carmenere and serve it right when everyone is starting on the last ten minutes of their first plate of food

Whites

• Columbia Winery Cellar Master’s Riesling: you know one of your relatives only likes white
• Their Gewürztraminer is also excellent, again we prefer 2004
• Solex Chardonnay, even if you don’t like Chardonnay, you’ll like this one
• And if you do like Chardonnay, we’ll have to chime in on the Red Bicyclette… again

Other

• Tawny Port is a great post dinner sipper. This will be the most expensive on your list (if you use this list), but it should last until another day. Try Churchill’s.

Be adventurous! Despite what your Uncle Jimmy thinks, there’s more to wine than kangaroos.

Call it what you will, some people have sensitive ears. Despite what anyone thinks about darkness, temperature, or steep hills: the true enemy of a bicyclist is wind. Wind stops you from climbing that hill in under 8 minutes; wind chills your ears all red and tingly. I call it the Rothgery Ear.

Regardless of how you explain it, it’s simple: riding for an extended period of time in windy or cool weather bothers your ears. The continual wind noise can cause headaches, and if it’s cool outside, the ears will get red and chilly. Luckily the solution is simple, affordable, and like all things Wine and Wheels really appreciates: compact.

They’re called 180s, and although I never had an issue with ears on bicycles before, I don’t know what I would do without them. We first picked up a pair at a ski sale for $7.00. We liked them so much, that we bought another pair direct from the manufacturer for 3x that amount. They’re worth it. It’s often the case that sports and hobbies have both useful and gimmicky equipment. We’re here to tell you what’s what.

Thumbs up? Yes, these are not gimmicky

You can order them here. The product written up in this post is the “cold weather running” pair of 180s.