Mr. Picky Makes Wine Tasting Easy

Love you Mr. Picky!

PERFECT! So, as you swill down the alcohol and drive the Pass taking MY life in YOUR shaky hands, you can also be fooling around with the GPS on your phone at the same time! You can now hunt down and find MORE alcohol sales facilities AS you drive!

My family and I live in the Valley. It has SO much more to offer besides booze, gambling, and a bicycle race track through our residential neighborhoods and school zones.

Believe it or not, there are several really nice little towns up here I recommend everyone come and see before the wineries completely bury them in bars...er..."tasting rooms" or they are sucked up by Armenta's Army as additional tax-free land to build more gambling facilities on. He has already gobbled up a hotel and restaurant in town, devoting both...right down to the new names...to the alcohol culture.

Los Olivos is almost gone, nearly its entire downtown devoted to wine bars/sales outlets. Solvang is working hard to catch up, and Santa Ynez is well on track as well, on its way to becoming yet another Bacchanalian boozefest.

There are even bike-n-booze tours offered here, where you can pedal your way through the Valley, "tasting" the various alcoholic beverages on offer as you whiz through residential neighborhoods, running stop signs and terrorizing slow pedestrians.

Be VERY careful on the Pass, folks; the drunks are out in force up there, well-fortified with their overpriced fermented grape juice, their firm sense of denial, and their unyielding belief that "we don't drink wine to get drunk, we are refined people..." blah, blah, blah.

Hate to break the news but, wine is alcohol. It isn't milk or juice. Alcohol alters the consciousness. That cannot be denied, no matter how much it's dressed up in "refinement".

Sorry if this isn't a popular viewpoint, but we are very proud of this area and love it as it is...and are NOT interested in seeing it turned into a bar/casino. People have been coming here for decades for the natural beauty, horses, flowers, historic Mission and Danish architecture & food. We aren't interested in any more of the alcohol culture moving in and fouling the area.

If you want to see the Valley before it is completely Santa Barbara-fied, you better hurry, because I guarantee at this rate within no more than another 12 months, the beauty, peacefulness, and history that is this area will be completely supplanted by wine bars, traffic, gambling, and aggressive bikers.

Kudos to what Holly said. Also keep this in mind: You don't have to be *legally* drunk to be dangerous and held liable if you cause an accident. You also cannot gauge your own sobriety, and it is not always possible to gauge someone else's sobriety.

I'm sure the usual nasty comments will come in from the winos...I mean oenophiles trying to justify their drinking and driving but the three points I made cannot be refuted.

If people want to damage their livers, kill brain cells, and give themselves a false sense of haute culture then by all means go for it, but all I ask is that they keep it off the road.

Speaking of Highway 154, this JUST came through on my e-mail:

http://www.noozhawk.com/local_news/artic...

What a great idea and service for those interested in fine wines. The previous comments are well taken, though just because someone is interested in wine, doesn't mean they drink and drive. Maybe there can be a recommendation, as part of the application, that stresses having a designated driver.

Kudos to Mr Picky for giving information that people need.

It would seem the serpent-like Mr.Picky is polarizing our Eden. One can see the vaguely satanic nature of the little fella in the accompanying cartoon. Glass half full; with any luck we can train the ostriches to chase these ghastly drunks off the land. Now that would be a show.

"One can see the vaguely satanic nature of the little fella in the accompanying cartoon." -Jeff-

From what I see in the cartoon it looks as though the ol' pickster has had at least one too many. I would hope he has a Designated Driver, and given how wasted he looks, maybe even a Designated Drinker as well.

Bill, if I’m not mistaken you are volunteering for the position. Teetotaling turncoat!

And a scholar asked, Should a man drink wines, ales and liquors to excess?
He then said:
He who drinks too much wine will feel the price of that ecstasy the next morning.
For exotic liquors must be taken in moderation or all will pay the penalty of misuse.

Man is the only creature to have the ability to create intoxicants.
No other animal has the taste for spirits.
Nature allows no other animal to taste of that pleasure, because nature depends upon all other animals to remain stable and predictable.
Man is the only animal that is allowed the dubious privilege of overindulgence.

Have you ever seen another animal drunk and falling down in the street, sobbing, stinking, and acting totally insane?
No, I haven't, Master, replied the scholar.

Then you haven't met my horse, the Master stated.

Plllleazze, calm down! Drunk driving is not about winerys it's about irresponsible people. Remember....Jesus drank wine and no one ever called him a drunk. And obviously you don't know Mr. Picky whose face is characterized above or you wouldn't use the word Satanic in the same email. What do you see in a Rhorschach ink blot.....Satan?

Jesus actually turned water into wine, which in today's parlance makes him an Enabler. Bottom line; Mr. Picky has come up with a very useful tool for helping folks more knowledgeably enjoy what's already at hand in the beautiful Santa Ynez valley. Wine appreciation and tiny-horse enthusiasm needn't be mutually exclusive.

This came to me from a native speaker of Aramaic. For what it's worth, I've also read that the original greek has been mistranslated and that the wine of which they spoke was nonalcoholic. I cannot mount an open and shut case for this, but considering that Jesus spoke Aramaic I'd say this makes one think. Here is the quote:

"To answer your question about drinking the Wine if it is alcoholic!
The Wine at Jesus time was not alcohoilic (sic) at all, but in our time (now) is considered alcoholic as they add a small percentage of alcoholic subistances (sic) to make it more attractive to the test and to be addicted for finally all it boils to > making money < this is the name of the game !!"

Also I'd like to address CathyMc's comment: In your excitement, you did not read that my criticism was drinking and driving. While ideally I think we should all lead lives free of unhealthy habits, my attacks all along have been about *driving* after drinking. To wit: "all I ask is that they keep it off the road."

Also Cathy, you apparently failed to see that Jeff was being sarcastic with me (nothing new from the pro-booze crowd) when he used the word "satanic".

For what it's worth, I'm not the one whose going ballistic and telling people to calm down, I'm merely point out that since the advent of the automobile, the context of alcohol in our culture has changed and Jeff and yourself fail to rationally address the facts I've presented.

Cathy, methinks thou doth protesteth too much..

The article is about a GPS application, so you can locate wine sales and consumption facilities, drink, then get in your car and DRIVE to the next one so you can drink some more.

Wine is alcohol. Alcohol impairs your judgment. We all know this. No matter how loudly or how often one shouts the contrary, those pesky facts keep popping back up.

Pretending that modern-day wine is not alcohol is just silly. It IS alcohol. It DOES impair mental acuity. And as ridiculous as the whole chi-chi "wine culture" is, it ceases to be amusing when these yahoos get behind the wheels of their vehicles and DRIVE to the next alcoholic beverage consumption facility.

Until your family has been touched by the actions of an impaired driver, you cannot know what a horror it is. Pretending it's "not so bad" because "it's just wine" is a fool's presumption. Go look at any "wino" sleeping in a doorway. He's drunk on WINE. It may have a screw cap and not be as pricey, but it's WINE.

Wine is alcohol. Alcohol intoxicates. You can deny that all you want, and scream at those of us pointing out this fact all you want, but that doesn't change it.

Don't drink and drive. It's that simple.

Folks who without irony insert the faux-academic phrase 'original Greek' into the discourse are typically immune to the nuanced slings and arrows of sarcasm, I’ve found, and are drawing much of their practiced ire from red-letter editions of the Word. I think CathyMc has a more capable grasp of sarcasm than you, Bill; in the original Greek or Aramaic. And thank you for recognizing me as being a card-carrying member of the pro-booze crowd. I usually fumble my card and drop it into the gutter when trying to present it. You have saved me that embarrassment. Now go pour yourself a nice glass of Mr. Picky-recommended wine and do it responsibly.

Jeff: I don't know if you remember the famous "Rumble in the Jungle" between Muhammed Ali and George Foreman but there was a point in the fight where Ali said to the much stronger Foreman "is that all you've got George" as Foreman was wacking away at Ali's body. Ali then knocked out Foreman using his superior hand speed.

This discussion reminds me of that fight. CathyMc and yourself are throwing everything you can at Holly and I but nothing is affecting us. The proof is in the fact that all you have is the predictable sarcasm, and most importantly, you are unable to address the points raised. Cathy's reference to Jesus was either a weak attempt to try to get the discussion off topic, or she doesn't see that even if it were alcohol he was drinking that it doesn't address the subject at hand.

This dialogue is yet another example of how you people simply cannot confront the real issue at hand which is *drinking and driving*, which is what you are justifying.

If you feel so cocky and confident about your lifestyle, why don't you attend a Mothers Against Drunk Driving meeting and tell someone whose had a family member killed by a drunk driver that you think a little booze (A.K.A. is some circles "one for the road) is ok?

My dad was nearly killed by a man with a 0.069 blood alcohol level so your arguments don't impress me any more than the foppish-looking "Mr. Picky" icon.

Deal with it, drinking and driving is all about gambling with other people's lives, and you know it.

Jeff, it's your body and your liver, and you have the right to poison it however you wish. Far be it from me or anyone else to stop you. I absolutely support your right to put into or take out of your body whatever you like.

However, your rights end when you get behind the wheel of a vehicle. When you are driving, you take the lives of others in your hands; it's not just about you and your rights anymore.

I appreciate your attempts at humor via sarcasm. You are clever and cute and that's nice. You have a great imagination, and kudos to you.

However, I support what billclausen mentioned, especially the part suggesting you put in a little time at a MADD meeting. May I carry it a bit further and suggest you meet with the family of the DA who was killed by an impaired driver on the Pass, or make a visit to the morgue to see what's left of the victims of impaired driving?

If this makes me a wet blanket...GOOD. If it helps one person reading this discourse to make the decision to call a cab or a designated driver instead of drinking ANY alcohol and driving, then I'm thrilled.

Again, the focus of this discussion is a GPS application which enables people to locate alcohol sales and service establishments. The Valley is a big place. They aren't walking to these places; even though there are well over 100 of them and counting (and increasing weekly), there is a lot of distance between them.

Meaning people are driving. Drinking and driving.

And all the sarcasm and personal attacks against those of us who clearly see that fact doesn't change it.

Good try, though:-)

Have a nice day!

I Love Mr. Picky! I used the App this past weekend while Wine Tasting in the Valley... and for the record...I never drink & drive, I always have a DD.

I respect your views to be anti-alcohol, and understand your sad to see your towns have so many wineries....but please don't hijack this article to push your own views which have nothing to do with the app the article is about.

It just seems immature. Instead use your energy by going out and talking at high schools, talking with local law enforcement to increase patrols in your area if you very concerned.
Back to what this article about is Mr.Picky App. It's a wonderful way to find all the little unqiue smaller vineyards in the Santa Ynez Valley. They are truly beautiful scenery and a great way to tour the valley. Remember to get a DD, like I always do. The last time we were down we reserved at the Santa Ynez Valley Marriott a Chauffered Vintage Car Package and went around in an amazing restored classic car of all the vineyards we wanted to see. It was really the best way to visit the vineyards, not drink & drive...plus I checked it out and it broke down to be about $10 more than getting a cab for 4 hours. It was really fun, and I highly recommend it...but don't forget your I-Phone and Mr. Picky.