As a relatively new convert to being a plant-based eater (aka a #vegan) I'll admit I've been dragging my feet in the final step of conversion - vegan wines and beer. But I'm now only buying wines that don't use animal products.
This led to my first interesting encounter with a Sommelier this weekend. It was a BYOB affair with no corkage fee (nice!). On short notice the only vegan wine I could find was a Kaiken Malbec. Normally this wouldn't be an issue, ...
... but the restaurant featured Italian cooking with chefs and staff from Italy, including the above mentioned Sommelier. He tried his best to be polite, but I could tell he was offended I brought an Argentinian wine into his establishment.
In my defense, he had never heard of 'vegan' wines before. So when I suggested that animal products are often used in the maceration process that drew a blank. That said, there are Italian vineyards who focus on organic wines ...
... many of which refuse to use animal products in the production of their wine. But Italian wine classifications do not ensure the product is vegan or organic. I'm looking forward to some taste testing of said vegan Italian wine options in the near future. /end
24 years ago today the Northridge #earthquake (actually 2 near simultaneous 6.9 quakes) caused death & severe damage across Southern California. I lived in Burbank at the time and clearly recall feeling powerless against the forces of nature. #northridge
There's little warning for a quake (just enough to duck under a desk if you have a warning system like they do in Japan) and the damage is done almost all at once. So we establish tougher building codes, do drills, and train first responders.
Earthquakes like the Northridge quake are the result of pressure building up in fault lines that run all through Southern California and pretty much every where else in the world. (Even here in Florida, there's a huge fault just off the coast.)