One thing about wine and jiu jitsu is that they both keep you humble. You think you know everything about wine then one pops up that knocks your socks off and you are clueless about it. In jiu jitsu it's a little more obvious because if you're not up to snuff you're gonna get tapped out (made to submit). This is easier said than done because we're human. And the daily struggle seems to be always to keep yourself in check so you can learn a lesson whether it be vitis vinifera or perfecting and arm bar, both being extremely beautiful. It's funny too because while I can talk about jiu jitsu to wine people I can't do it to them, at least most of the time. It is frowned upon to just slap a Rear Naked Choke on a wine customer because he or she is behaving in a shoddy manner. Though I'd like to. For instance let's say a douchebag customer comes in with his toxic attitude (we'll call him AK) and is rubbing you the wrong way. Practicing patience is valuable so you can try to add kindness and value to his day by exposing him to incredible wine even though inside my mantra is that "as soon as this person is no longer a customer I'm going to rip his head off." Can you see why patience is a great virtue? By going the extra mile one can put out joy to the world and make a living. But even though wine is fantastic sometimes people are not, myself included. So let's practice some patience in wine, giving ourselves time to understand how botany, soil chemistry and the art of winemaking give us so much joy and additionally patience with others so we don't have to slap on the Rear Naked Choke. I'm talking to you AK. Peace.

.     Hey everybody, hope your February is going well. We at Wine Republic are having a great time and looking forward to the rest of the year but specifically coming up is the dinner with Vann. This guy Erik Skaar is skilled. At first glance this guy might have just rolled out of a Mixed Martial Arts gym. My type of guy already! And this man can cook. Even beyond that is his wine policy. Now I'm not the biggest fan of corkage fees at restaurants but I get it. Not this guy, Erik says that if you bring a wine in and share a glass with the owner and head wine person there is no fee. Now this may seem like not much but this to me shows an establishment that is constantly about aquiring knowledge. And when I'm talking about knowledge I'm talking about four courses starting out with a little Cremant de Limoux (What?!, don't know what Cremant is? Think Methode Champenoise except not from Champagne), Smoked Sturgeon with Chenin Blanc, Scallops and black truffle with Penedes (Spanish!) vino, Dry aged duck with green apple rolling with Alsatian Pinot Noir then winding down with Milk Chocolate cremeaux (I don't even know what this is!) with mountain huckleberry and caramel, paired with Dulce Monastrell. Is your mouth watering? Mine is. So join us here. Also we're editing our 2nd video for Jiu Jitsu wine clips of past matches and interviews with winemakers at original and talent as Erik Skaar. We look forward to seeing you soon. Peace.

     So I've been talking smack about Jiu Jitsu Wine for so long it was time to put up or shut up. And today is the day that I posted my first video on Jiu Jitsu Wine channel on Youtube. It premiers this afternoon at 4pm on my channel. It's only 2 minutes and some change but the next ones will be longer when I figure out the shooting schedule. You can watch it here. Also our Red tasting is coming up drinking up some lovely vino from Italy and Spain. Organic wine at Wine Republic. Stay tuned!