by Philip M. Anderson
It is NOW a tradition that I write a blog post on Super Bowl Sunday outlining some wine I’ve experienced along with my Super Bowl prediction.  After Arizona failed 5 years ago to beat the Steelers and, thus, ruin my upset prediction, I have not missed a prediction, having correctly predicted the past three Super Bowl winners.

Before I give you this years winner, let me tell you about a new app I’ve downloaded onto my iPhone called, LetsPour.  I have no less than eight (count ‘em, EIGHT!) wine apps on my phone.  In a perfect world I would have one or two that would do everything I want them to do.  I’m STILL looking for a good food and wine pairing app but I haven’t run across that yet.  If you know of a GREAT one, would you please e-mail me at drinkwine@generalwinethoughts.com?  Thank you.

I have found that I use LetsPour each time we open a wine that’s at least average or above.  To date, since I’ve had this app, I’ve “poured” over 100 wines.  With each wine that you open, you click on “jump in” on the LetsPour app and you give as much information that you have on the wine or that you want to give.  It even has a scanner that you hold up to the bar code on the bottle that will tell you what wine it is, from the producer to the varietal, by reaching into its large data base.  This saves you time from having to input the data in yourself (which takes away from drinking the wine!).

I thought I would write about LetsPour because I find I use this ten times more than I use the others COMBINED.  If I want to “remember” what my favorite, top rated wines, wines I’ve tried are, all I have to do is look at my “pours” on LetsPour.  For example, the last great, five star wine we had was a 2001 Atalon Winery Cabernet Sauvignon from Napa Valley that we had this week with steak.  It was chocked full of fruit but also had the depth of a wine that boasts a decade of aging.

Here are four other SUPER wines that we’ve enjoyed recently:

2008 Gloria Ferrer Estate Grown Pinot Noir from Carneros and Sonoma, California.  Gloria Ferrer is known for their outstanding sparklers but this Pinot of one of the best Pinot’s I’ve ever had in a long, long time, and it was UNDER $20!  It was dirty and smokey on the nose with notes of black cherry and plum.  It went a little old world on the palate with some barn-yardy fruit.  A great mix of new and old world styled Pinot Noirs.
2007 Gamache Vintners Merlot, Columbia Valley.  This Washington wine boasts blueberries and dark cherries and was extremely smooth.  This went PERFECT with prime rib.  I had never had this producer before but will definately go back for more!
2002 Seghesio Family Vineyards Zinfandel, Sonoma, California.  We paired this excellent Zin, which we pulled from our “cellar”, with manicotti.  It has notes of blueberries, blackberries and raspberry jam.  As it opened up there was some black pepper that surfaced.  Delicious wine!
2006 St. Supery Vineyards and Winery Virtu White Wine Meritage, Napa Valley.  What a nice surprise THIS was!  Our friend Rick Bakas, who worked at St. Supery for about a year, never told us about THIS wine!  From the first “sniffy sniff” I could tell it had depth.  A blend of Sauvignon Blanc and Semillion, this wine was absolutely delicious.  Plus THIS wine has the word SUPER in it!

I pulled up the information on all of these wines we enjoyed from my LetsPour app and it was SUPER easy and SUPER simple on this SUPER Bowl Sunday.  So, now that you have some new wines I’ve recommended you try, we can get down to business.  I have have gone back and forth on this game.  The Giants have obviously perservered through some very stressful games on their way to this Super Bowl so they know what to do, however, two weeks in between games can throw all of that out the window.  Earlier in the week I was leaning the Giants way but I have changed my mind.  The swoon they experienced in the middle of the year shows me they can lose focus.  They DID lose a HOME game to my Seahawks, after all.

Here’s my take.  Both teams are very well coached and have proven quarterbacks.  Although defense wins championships in most cases, the Patriots, who have added incentive after losing to the Giants four years ago, thus spoiling a record shattering undefeated season, will have just enough offense to win this game….in overtime!  Yes, you heard it here first!  This will be the first overtime in Super Bowl history and the Patriots will win, 23-20, with 4:54 left in the overtime period, by kicking a 39 yard field goal.

Thank you for reading.  You can always follow me on Twitter or “Like” me on Facebook, if you’d like.  And remember, bottoms up!