Featured User: Carmen

Carmen Daniel, whose username is “ Camille Offenbach ”, joins us as this week's Featured User! My name is Carmen, I was born to a loving, but teetotalling, California family in the 1970s. I earned my art degree in San Francisco in the 90s and went on to become an art teacher. After years of writing unsuccessful personal ads on Craigslist, I met Joe and we decided to start a family. Now I am a mom and a teacher-- life is always full and exciting. A glass of wine at the end of the day is a welcome coda. D: What sparked your passion for wine? CD: I have to blame Katie at tableWINE in Pacifica, CA. I wandered into her shop a few years ago and my kids fell in love with her Lego room and we fell in love with terroir, volcanic dirt flavors, exotic Mediterranean islands, and too many amazing grape varietals to mention. I also have to give a shout out my great-uncle Allan Eisenman. He bucked my mom’s no-alcohol rule at Thanksgiving one year and brought a dessert Moscato from Trader Joe’s. He said it was “raisiny” and I had no idea what that meant until I tried it and it blew my mind. D: What wine region are you wild about right now? CD: Georgia (the country, not the state). The DOQI WINERY Kakheti Rkatsiteli comes up a lot on my feed. We see it, we buy it, we drink it, and if we are feeling particularly generous, we give it away to people we really like. It’s got a great balance between sweet and dry, a wonderful color and its delicious, full stop. D: What is the most unusual wine you’ve ever tried? CD: We had a Tokaji Essencia at a dinner and tasting once and it was quite extraordinary (in the way a buttery-smooth, cave aged blue cheese has a lot to say). I understand why people would pay a lot of money for it. D: What is your golden rule for wine? CD: I have the “arsenic list” saved on my phone and if a wine is on it, we’ll pass. Other than that, I am happy to give almost anything a try. D: Say you’re not allowed to have wine, what is your second option? CD: Depending on the time of day-- in the morning I’d like a cup of vintage Pu-Ehr, a fermented/aged black tea from China, which can be as interesting and terroir-y as a good wine. After 5 PM, I’d take a shot of the smokiest, chumba-wumba mezcal available. D: Choose a movie, book, quote, or song and pair it with a wine. CD: Going back to the Caucasus Mountains, I’d pair the Kakheti Rkatsiteli with “ The Color of Pomegranates ”-- a stunning Soviet-era film homage to a medieval Armenian poet. Like the wine, everything in this movie is steeped in gorgeousness, history, texture and artistry. D: If you were a wine, what wine would you be? CD: I’m a fourth-generation Californian (via Mexico and Germany) and I’ve lived on the San Mateo Coast for most of my life. The Oro en Paz oak-aged Chardonnay would be me. Buttery, with a touch a honey and oak (I was born in an oak-studded valley…).