Nurse the Hate: Thinking Wild Card Weekend in the Finger Lakes

 

I am in the Finger Lakes right now visiting some wineries to talk about things like native yeast programs, dosage philosophies, and rootstock selection.  It must be nice for the winery people to talk to someone that cares about their upgraded fermentation vessels when 95% of the visitors say things like "I don't like sweet wines, but this riesling is actually pretty good" in regards to a world class wine the winemaker has painstakingly crafted.  It would be like showing up at their job and saying "You know Nancy, most nurses I have met have been self destructive nymphomaniacs with a fierce appetite for cigarettes and relationships with abusive men, but you seem OK."  What are you going to do?  Most people are simple apes.

The wines here in the Finger Lakes have improved remarkably from the first time I came here about 20 years ago.  Back then it was mostly country bumpkins making simple sweet wines meant to get bachelorette parties and Moms shitfaced.  The level of winemaking knowledge and investment level here has skyrocketed.  The best rieslings here remind me of good producers from the Pfalz and Rheinhessen.  They have a combination of citrus fruit purity, linear acidity, and great balance.  These can be serious wines.  Sure, there are still a bunch of sweet bullshit wines from vidal, niagara, concord, etc. but they are still well made regardless if they are "serious".  As long as they stay in their lane with rieslings, gewürztraminers, some sparklers, and maybe cabernet franc in warm years, the wines are worth your attention.     

The wineries I was visiting are located great distances from each other across the region.  This left me plenty of time in the car driving past terrifying dilapidated trailers and crumbling houses flying "Trump Won" and "Don't Tread On Me" flags.  If you are living in a sunken trailer with garbage strewn all over your property, I am going to point out that perhaps the Golden Trump Years might not have improved your situation much, unless of course, you previously lived in a mud hut.  It's sort of shocking the level of rural poverty in this part of New York once you get away from any of the lakes.  It's like Arkansas with worse weather.

The one unifying thing appears to be a love of the Buffalo Bills, who had almost as many flags represented as the various thinly veiled hate messages.  I'm on board.  In fact, as I am writing this I am sipping on a "Pills Mafia" from Thin Man Brewery.  As an old season ticket holding family of Bills fans, I am pulling for Buffalo this weekend.  Unfortunately for them, they have to play New England for a third time in zero degree weather with winds whipping around the stadium on Saturday night.  I will not be there in person, but I will raise a can of Pills Mafia to the hearty souls that brave that weather.  I'm not touching that game otherwise.  I have no idea what is going to happen.

Let's move onto a game where I have an opinion.  I like San Francisco.  I think Dallas has beaten lousy teams, and lost to good teams.  The Cowboys are not great at home, have injuries all over the place to their explosive playmakers, and Dak just doesn't look right.  San Francisco is coming off two high pressure games, the last one a come-from-behind win over the Rams.  I think as opposed to them being gassed just to get in, they are feeling confident they can beat anyone.  I am going to see if the very public Cowboys get enough action to move the number to 3.5, but if it doesn't, I am still on San Francisco +3.

I am going to make a small bet on the Raiders.  Until I see Cincinnati win a playoff game, I am going to assume it can't happen.  I also have some questions about Joe Burrow's health.  Burrow got hurt in his knee on the last snap he took in that debacle of a finish vs Kansas City two weeks ago.  He then came out of the gate saying "I'm not playing" against Cleveland as opposed to the coach saying "we are resting Joe".  I think something is going on there.  If Burrow isn't 100%, that will be an issue against a very strong Raiders defensive line.  I don't think the Raiders are very good.  They could just as easily be 6-11 and pointing fingers right now, but if Burrow is playing injured the Bengals suck.  Raiders +5.5   

Season Record:  34-33 (last week plus season win totals)