#OH and I forgot we all got a big turkey for the holidays as gifts

[inkteresting-art]

Well it official, my work place sucks and has favorites, my work just gave out Christmas bonus to management andand not any other staff members. I work in a hotel and work very hard as a janitor to keep this place looking good inside and out for almost 8 years AND doing extra by cleaning rooms, and that's what they do... give the management who sits on their asses all day 400$ for "great work"

How about the cleaners that keep this business going?! we got coffee thermos with the company's logo.. I'd quit if there was a better placement in this stupid town right now I swear. I'm grateful for at least getting something but that just pisses me off learning this.

[isthisthingeven0n]

our second christmas : d.d

brief summary: it is your second christmas as a family and as you’re all settling down for christmas eve, a few unsuspected visitors turn up

word count: 1.8k requested: yes by an actual babe who has waited MONTHS for this christmas piece, so shout out to you @galxydefender​ i hope it was worth it! warnings: literally none, this is a wholesome fluffy christmas piece

* masterlistin’ / masterlistin’ 2.0

(everything on my blog is my own writing. if it is shared on another page or website know it isn’t me. all rights reserved. - i have to start doing this as I had some shit on my other blog with plagiarism)

it’s currently christmas eve in the UK when i’m posting this. so if you’re already in the 25th merry christmas and happy holidays to you all! thank you for all of the love, support and patience you guys have had for me. it means more than you’ll ever know. 

“You sure you can reach that, bub?” You ask your little boy as he stretches his arms up, trying to secure the newest bauble to the Christmas tree.

David leans against the doorframe, watching as your son pushes the string onto one of the branches as he giggles, smiling to you. “Good job, Son!” David cheers as he walks in, holding his hands up as your son gives him a high five. “Looks amazing, Y/n.” David mutters to you as he kisses your cheek whilst your son admires the fairy lights illuminating the branches.

Behind you remain the three stockings you have hanging up, some already filled in preparation for tomorrow morning. You can’t stop your smile from growing as David wraps his arm around your waist as you lean into him. 

The fire is on low heat with the stockings above - which you protested against heavily since your son was now starting to walk and had a tendency to grab things. But it all felt perfect. Your first Christmas in a new home, your family home with your two boys, it couldn’t be better if you tried. 

“I love you,” You mutter sweetly as a sigh of content leaves your lips and David glances to you. 

“Oh yeah?” He questions, quirking an eyebrow as you roll your eyes. “Just how much do you love me?” 

Turning in his arms, you wrap yours around him. “Enough to have pushed a baby as big as a small turkey out of me.” You state, reminding him of the hours you spent in labour as he remained by your side, never letting go of your hand. 

David gives you a curt nod, trying to hold back his laugh. “Yeah, I’d say that about does it.” He states, a smile growing across his lips as you shake your head, only to feel a tug on your leg.

“Hey, little man wanna join us?” You question and your son nods, his big brown eyes staring straight back at you. 

Bending down, you lift your son into your arms. David rests his hand on your lower back, still helping you in little ways as your son coos to his Dad. 

“Oh, you wanna see Daddy?” You look at your little boy, seeing him nod as he stuffs his hand into his mouth, a habit he’s still trying to break. 

David reaches out, removing your sons little chunky fingers from his cheeks. “Dude, you gotta learn to use this,” David picks up one of the many dummies you have lying around the house and your son starts sucking on it immediately. “see? That’s so much better than making your little hands all wrinkly.” David chuckles as he takes a hold of your son, resting him on his side. 

A knock on the door interrupts David’s dance along to George Michael. “I’ll get it,” You say, brushing your hand across David’s arm as you near the front door to see several blurred figures through the frosted glass.

Opening the door, your hands cover your mouth in shock as all your friends stand before you in Santa hats. “Holy shit.” You mumble as Zane is the first to reach out, wrapping his arms around you tightly. 

“Watch your language Y/n.” Zane warns as he squeezes you lightly before pulling away. “Merry Christmas, baby!” He laughs as you step back, letting everyone file in as David turns around with your son in his arms, a bright smile spreading across his face.

“No way.” He chuckles, placing your son down as your little boy waddles over to Carly immediately.

“Hey, little fella.” She beams as she lifts him up, ignoring how he pulls at her hair. 

“How come you’re all here, I thought everyone was out of town.” David asks in disbelief as everyone takes a seat in the living room whilst your little boy bounces on Carly’s knee whilst his eyes remain fixated on Corinna. 

“We managed to sort somethings out.” Natalie shrugs her shoulder. “Christmas isn’t the same without spending part of it with this family.” She motions to everyone as they all nod in agreement. “Plus, any Christmas has to be better than last year.” Natalie adds and you groan at the thought of what a disaster it truly was. 

“Before you blame me once again,” David speaks up, holding his hands in defence. “may I just remind you all that we were brand new parents, trying to balance some form of sleeping pattern and moving.” 

“You still forgot about the Turkey, babe.” You pat his arm, never forgetting how you and your little boy woke up in the middle of the afternoon to the sound of burning and yelling from the kitchen. 

“Which won’t happen this year.” He states confidently to you, trying his best to beam without making it look like a grimace. “Chipotle wasn’t so bad last year though.” He mutters under his breath, ignoring you shaking your head in disagreement. 

“Anyway,” Heath claps his hands as he glances down to Mariah. “we have a little surprise for our main man.” 

Hesitantly, you stand up and help your son to his feet. “What’ve you done, guys?” You nervously question, looking around to see them all smiling to one another. 

“It’s just a small surprise.” Mariah adds, trying to ease your evident nerves as your son grips your leg. “And he’ll love it, I’m sure.” 

Another knock on the front door sounds and Mariah gasps loudly. 

“I wonder who that could be?” She questions loudly as Heath walks toward the front door as the faint sound of Christmas bells follows him. 

“Did they?” You turn to David who is already laughing at the same thought you’re having. “No,” You shake your head as Emily walks in dressed as Mrs Claus, closely followed by Alex dressed as Santa himself. “Oh my god.” You burst out laughing, unable to stop yourself as Emily skips over whilst Alex tries his best to not frown. 

“Now, I’m looking for a young boy named Jamie,” Alex states in his best Santa voice as he moves his big white beard. “is there a Jamie here at all?” He looks around, noticing you kneel down beside your son. 

“Jamie, Santa is here!” You smile brightly at your son who hides into your shoulder. “Aw honey, Santa is very friendly and he’s got a gift for you.” 

David walks over and kneels by your side. “Jamie, want me to go with you?” He questions and his son reveals his face and nods. 

Taking his hand, David walks with Jamie over to Alex who sits in the armchair whilst everyone watches in complete awe. 

Alex shifts in the seat as Emily stands by his side, leaning on the chair as she holds a big red box with a bow on top. “So, young boy,” Alex leans forward as Jamie looks up to him with big doe eyes. “what would you like for Christmas this year?” 

Jamie hums, looking to David to answer on his behalf. “Well Santa,” David starts. “Jamie has been desperate for a new spiderman toy and he’s been really good this year.” David explains and Alex nods in response.

“Well, that I know is true, Jamie.” Alex states as Emily passes him the box. “Which is why we got you this for Christmas, all the way from the North Pole.” His deep voice starts to falter and you stifle back a laugh from across the room.

“How come David didn’t dress up as Santa?” Carly leans over to ask you. 

“I didn’t want Jamie being traumatised by David so early on.” You explain and she chuckles at your comment, knowing it’s true.

As Jamie reaches up to take the present from Santa, he accidentally grabs a handful of his beard and pulls on it. 

The room falls silent as Alex’s beard sits below his chin and on his neck whilst Jamie stares straight at him with wide eyes. “Oh no.” You whisper as David looks over to you in a blind panic. 

You rise to your feet as you notice Jamie’s lower lip starting to quiver and he drops the box to his feet. 

Emily reacts first as she reaches into her pocket and passes over a candy cane to Jamie. Immediately he stops still, taking the candy cane and shoving it into his mouth.

Everyone lets out a vocal sigh of relief and David laughs lightly. “I think it might be time for Santa and Mrs Claus to get going! They’ve got a lot of children to see before the morning.” David states happily, helping Alex fix his beard as they quickly depart, waving to everyone as they go. 

As the front door closes, David looks back to see Jamie still sucking on a candy cane. “I think that went well.” He says with a shrug as you raise an eyebrow, your hands resting on your hips.

“As well as suppressed trauma that he’ll have when he’s a teenager I’m sure.” You joke as David takes a seat with you and everyone else, continuing to discuss old memories until it’s time for Jamie to go to bed. 

As everyone begins to leave, you walk back from Jamie’s bedroom. “You get him to sleep okay?” David asks as you nod, wiping down your jumper. 

“Yeah, told him if he doesn’t sleep Santa will come back so he did his best to knock himself out.” You joke with him as you say your goodbyes to all of your friends. 

Once it is the two of you, a sigh of relief leaves your lips. “Alone again,” David hums as you walk towards the tree. “and since we’re alone, I’ve got a little surprise.” He grins to you as you pause. 

“Well, ditto.” You respond, and David leans back. “Come on, I wanna go first.” You take his hand, sitting in front of the tree with him as the presents remain perfectly wrapped. 

You reach out, taking the small rectangular box and placing it in front of him. 

“Okay,” He mutters, picking it up as you wipe your hands across your leggings. 

David glances up, noticing you focusing on the box. “Go on then,” You laugh nervously as he unties the ribbon and tears at the wrapping. 

As David opens up the small box, he pauses and looks straight at you with watery eyes. “No,” He trails off as you nod. “you are?” He questions quietly, watching as you nod again before wrapping his arms tightly around you. 

“Merry Christmas, baby.” You say to him as you kiss him softly, feeling his hands wander down to your stomach. “From me and baby.” 

[shes-an-oddbird]

Christmas at River’s End Mall

Summary -  A Christmas AU in which everyone navigates their seasonal jobs, relationships and Christmas spirit, or lack there of, through woven together tales inspired by holiday prompts.

Chapter 5 - Naughty and Nice

Summary -  While on a delivery run, Bobbi contemplates why Hunter insists on earning holiday cash at the Christmas Tree Lot instead of taking a job at her coffee shop.

Prompt - Naughty and Nice Relationship - Huntingbird POV - Bobbi

“Kora, I’ll be back in thirty, okay?” Bobbi glances at Kora who is carefully testing the now working espresso machine. She twists the lever to dispense the coffee and it spurts angerly at her before filling the cup. She stares back at it terrified and Bobbi has to fight back her amusement “You gonna be okay?”

She turns quickly, smiling and nodding eagerly. “Yes, I’ll be fine.”

“Call if you need me.”

The machine spurts again. “Will do.”

Bobbi smiles and picks up her carriers of coffees and tea, places them on a pushcart and heads out of the shop. Mockingbird’s doesn’t usually make deliveries, but enough mall employees had gotten together and pleaded with her to send a coffee cart around during the hours they were too busy to get away. It had worked out well enough; bringing in extra income and tips certainly didn’t hurt this time of year. She had a long list of friends and family she wanted to get gifts for and unless some of them got bumped to the naughty list, she wasn’t going to be done in time. Something Jemma points out to her every time she delivers her tea.

“I have most of them, just a few more to go.”

If most was three and a few was something like twelve.

She runs into several shops and then drops by May’s office with the second cup of tea on her cart. May gratefully accepts it and Coulson who is sitting across from her at the desk pouts over his lack of beverage. “Daisy can show you how to get the app.” Bobbi waves good-bye and continues her route.

She swings by the North Pole with two large coffee cups, having promised Elena and Daisy the first batch once the espresso machine was back up and running. Elena practically meets her at the elevator but Daisy she has to hunt down amongst the crowd. She eventually finds her and several kids huddled around a table stacked high with envelops. Daniel, a new volunteer she’d met the other day at the coffee shop was with her, helping the kids write out their names. She’s not known him long but already he is one of her favorite customers. He took his coffee black, tipped well, and looked at Daisy with hearts in his eyes. They’d even had a long conversation about her Antique Espresso machine and he thinks he has a lead on where she could get the part she needed to get it running.

“What are you guys doing?” Bobbi asks cheerfully.

“Writing letters to Santa!” The kids answered in unison making her laugh.

“Yep, and in a few hours, we get to open them all back up and reply to them.” Daisy whispers to Bobbi as she takes her beverage. “Hey if you’re heading outside, tell Hunter to set aside a nice tree for me and Simmons, we haven’t gotten one yet.”

“Seriously, you guys usual have it up by the time the turkey’s out of the oven on thanksgiving.” Bobbi had known Daisy for years, ever since May signed her up for the Big Sis Little Sis program and they’d been paired together. Never once had December rolled around without a tree already up.

“Busy.” Is the only explanation she gives.

Bobbi waves it off and hurries out to the mall’s main entrance. Set up in a sectioned off portion of the parking lot is a white tent with a small forest spread out around it. The twinkling lights were just starting to become visible as the sun arced towards the hills in the late afternoon hour.

She couldn’t even begin to fathom why Hunter took a job at the Christmas tree farm. She offered him a spot at her shop if he needed extra holiday cash but he was adamantly against the proposition. It worried her, even if she tried not to let it. She thought they were in good place, the best they’d been since the divorce but maybe she was wrong.

She slips into the tent, dunking under the low hanging lights. Hunter is just checking out a family and she waits patiently while he helps them load it into their truck.

“I’m taking ten.” He shouts through the tent before he jogs over to her. “What are you doing out here?”

“Thought you might be cold.” She hands him the last of the to-go cups and his eyes light up.

“Someone’s trying to end up on the nice list.” He pulls off his gloves before he takes the cup and holds it tightly in his hands. She raises an eyebrow at his contented sigh. “I take it all back.” He adds suddenly.

“Take what back?”

“Every time I called you a demonic hell beast, you’re just an angel with an edge.” He takes a long swig of the still piping hot tea and clutches it to his chest. “Why is it so bloody cold all the time?”

“Because you’re working outside in December, you can still have a job at the shop, I just hired Kora but were only going to get busier, oh, you could be the delivery boy.”

“No, no, nope, no,” Hunter shook his head. “We already decided that wasn’t a good idea, but I’ll walk you back.” She frowns, because he decided it wasn’t a good idea. But she doesn’t want to start an argument, so instead she lets him take her hand and they return to the warmth of the building.

They make it up to the second floor and detour so Hunter can ask Fitz again if wants to tickets to the soccer match and Bobbi tries not to visibly cringe at the reminder. She had decided that she wanted to get him a signed jersey for Christmas, something he could wear to the game but it was pricey.

They find Fitz out front fussing with the controller of a remote-control car but not actually driving it.

“Hey Fitz, what are you up to?”

“Hiding, it’s insane in there.” He gestures at the store where a line is six customers deep and both registers are manned. Bobbi can hear the impatient babble of the customers and one man’s loud exclamation.

“Hey! Can I ask where you found that? I looked all over for it.”

“It was the last one on the shelf.” The other guy looks more than a little smug about it but the first one brushes it off.  

“Could I get one of these from the back?” He shouts at the register worker.

She glances at the box and then back at him. “I’m afraid that’s are last one sir, we won’t have another shipment of them till after the holiday.”

“Sucks for them, doesn’t it, should have gotten their shopping out of the way early.”

Bobbi snorts at Hunter’s suggestion. “You’re one to talk, you’ve not bought anyone, anything.”

“Different circumstances, I don’t intend to give anyone anything.”

Bobbi rolls her eyes. She knows that’s not true or he wouldn’t be working outside in the snow.

“Gentleman, gentleman please!” There’s a crash and Bobbi looks up to see that one of the men has pushed the other, sending him into a display. The other man swings back quickly and there is a sickening thump as his fist makes contact with the man’s jaw. There are several screams and many customers run for the door while others gather around the scuffle like they’re in a high school hallway.

There is another crash as they roll into a shelf of miniature sound speakers.

“Security is on their way!” the manager who had been working the other register shouts but neither of them is listening. A mother with a screaming baby is trying to pull her older child out of the way but he only stares wide eyed at the fight until the tussle knocks over another stand that barely misses him.

“Alright, somebody’s going to get hurt.” Bobbi surges forward, grabbing the fellow who’s clearly winning the fight and hauls him off of the other guy. The second guy, instead of standing down immediately flings himself fists first at the pair and Hunter steps between them, narrowly missing getting his own lights knocked out.

“Come on gents this is ridiculous, its Christmas time, I’m sure we can work this out.” Hunter reasons as the man struggles against his hold.

“I think we’ve got a couple of names for the naughty list this year.” Bobbi’s remark doesn’t sit well with the guy she’s holding back. The man in her grasp swings his elbow back at her, trying to get free. He mumbles something crude under his breath and she tightens her grip, bringing him down to his knees. Mall security comes storming in moments later. Hunter’s detainee immediately starts to cooperate, but it takes a couple guys to restrain the man who had started the fight. As soon as he’s been hauled out of there, Bobbi finds a pair of large brown eyes staring up at her.

“Are you okay!” Jemma has rushed over from her post at the gift wrap station. She’s worriedly fussing over her while Hunter laughs it off and the manager tries to thank them both. Fitz and the other employees are attempting to right the disaster that has occurred. It takes several minutes for the pair to pull away. As exciting and adrenaline filled as the last few minutes had been, they both really needed to get back to work.

Despite this Hunter insists on walking her the rest of the way back to the coffee shop. Making her laugh the whole way about how May should fire her security staff and hire the two of them and Daisy who took down a robber the other day.

“I think she would if that was her department.”

“Oh right.” People often forgot that May didn’t run everything at the mall. “Well Love, it’s been a pleasure working with you, but I’ve got to return to the icy hell that is Kringle’s Tree Farm.” He bows dramatically and Bobbi wants to grin at his antics but instead she sighs heavily.

“So how come you won’t work with me?”

“What’s that?”

“You’re freezing your ass off out there hauling around Christmas trees, when you could be here serving up warm coffee and sweets.”

“Better tips?”

“Hunter.”

“Bob, you know what it’s like when we spend too much time together, all we do is fight.”

She shrugs. “I thought we’d been doing alright so far.”

“Yes, but were not spending every waking moment together, trust me we’re one hundred percent compatible, just fifty percent of the time, I don’t want to waste that fifty percent working with you, there’s so much better use of our time.” He steps up close to her, pressing a long kiss to her lips. Bobbi feels a smile stretching across her face. Hunter was an idiot, but most of the time he’s a well-intended idiot. “Alright that’s fair, but tell me next time, communication isn’t exactly our friend either.”

“Fair.” He agrees. “I’ll see you after work?”

“You know it.” She gives him another quick peck before stepping slowly backwards into the coffee shop. “I’m supposed to tell you to set aside a nice tree for Daisy and Simmons.”

“I’ve got commission to make, they’ll get what they get.”

[the-witch-and-her-husbands]

I Think I’ll Skip This Christmas, This Year

Bah, humbug!

Perhaps that was a little strong. Jilomena sighed. Christmas WAS her favourite holiday, after all. But it had been a crazy year, mostly passing by in a blur. She could hardly get her head round the fact that it was December already.

She dragged her tired self around the small kitchen. Her new small kitchen. She’d moved to the area in February. It was a quiet town, and the neighbours seemed nice enough. Linda was hard work at times, but Jil was still fond of her.

Mentally, she ticked off the things she still had to do. Work had been hectic, and Jil was incredibly low on energy. Why rush about driving yourself mad because it was the Christmas season? And don’t get her started on how expensive it all was....

Ah, yes. Presents. She still needed to get something to send to her sister and her sister’s husband and her nephew. Ungrateful bastards that they all were. She wondered idly if they’d send her anything in return. You shouldn’t give to receive, that was true, but it would be nice to get SOMETHING. Probably just a scarf, or a pair of socks. Again.

What would her perfect gift be? She mused idly, staring out the window as she sipped her hot chocolate. Maybe some sort of completion to the year just gone, a meaningful connection with someone.

Her mind drifted, unfocused eyes not seeing the snow falling outside. Linda’s friend. Alex Hughes. She’d met him briefly in one of the local shops. He’d seemed interesting, it even seemed as if a spark had passed between them. He was older, but still handsome, funny and self-depreciating. A tasty silver fox, the type that she was normally drawn to. And oh, those glasses! It made her want to remove them slowly before going in for a kiss...but she was getting sidetracked.

They’d even gone so far as to exchange numbers, but nothing had happened. He’d never phoned her, and she wasn’t quite forward enough to phone him. Linda had said he’d had a tough time of it. Perhaps she was expecting too much.

She sighed, attention returning to her list of unfinished tasks. Halls to deck, tree to trim. Really, she just needed to catch her breath.

Explaining to Lettie that she was spending Christmas by herself this year had been fun. Lettie couldn’t understand why Jil wanted, no, NEEDED, some time alone. Couldn’t understand why she was passing up a family holiday in Bermuda to be ‘stuck in all that horrid shitty snow.’

But the frozen landscape outside her window was like a picture from a calendar. She loved Canada, loved the snow blanketing everything with its uniform whiteness. Like the world made new. Even if the house seemed to have a chill she could never quite get rid of, it was still wonderful to her. The way the snow sparkled on the evergreens took her breath away.

Lettie hated winter. Jilomena loved it. Lettie preferred warm weather and springtime.

Thinking of springtime made Jil think of Alex again.

He’d been visiting Linda when she dropped by. This time, there was actually a mention of the two of them going for lunch together, but they couldn’t seem to agree on a day that was convenient for the both of them. A shame. They laughed and agreed that they’d try to keep in touch.

They didn’t. Not until it was summertime. He was heading to his lake house for the weekend. He had a boat. Would she care to join him?

She DID care to join him, but this time she put paid to it by getting a severe sunburn. Second degree burns. Linda had nagged her incessantly, telling her over and over that she needed to wear sunscreen, the sun was hot and didn’t Jil know that?! Burns were a bad thing to have...

Ah well. Too late to do much about it. She’d set her mind to forget it and concentrate on the holidays.

Work occupied her days. Time passed in a blur, and already it was Christmas Eve.

She’d decided to hell with tradition, she was going to have her Christmas dinner on Christmas Eve that year. It would have driven Lettie to distraction, she thought with a smug smile as she popped the world’s smallest turkey breast into her nice and hot oven. But this way she could get it over with, and spend Christmas Day slobbing about in her pyjamas, watching crap on the television and picking at leftovers all day.

Let’s see, she mused. Potatoes, check. Peas, carrots, and corn, check. Stuffing, check and check! She loved stuffing. Cranberry sauce...uh oh.

She quickly ransacked the cupboards, trying and failing to find the cranberry sauce. Oh, damn. She sighed heavily. There was no use pretending that she could have dinner without it.

She turned off the oven and got on her boots, ready to trudge back out in the snow. Luckily, the Valu-Mart was still open if she hurried.

Jil arrived several minutes later at her destination, cheeks pink with the cold and exertion. She stalked straight for the condiments aisle, weak with relief when she managed to grab the last jar of cranberry sauce on the shelf. It wasn’t her usual brand, but she was past caring, grateful she was able to have it at all.

Only one line was open for checkout. Just her luck that there was a customer already waiting. She sighed inwardly as she got in line behind him.

When he turned to place his item on the counter, she gasped audibly. ‘Alex! Oh my God!’

He looked up, confused for a moment. The look turned into a wide smile when he saw who it was. ‘Oh, hello again, Jilomena. Just doing a little last minute shopping. I’m on my own this year, needed a break, it’s been insanity...’ He trailed off, gesturing at the lonely jar of cranberry sauce that he’d put down.

‘Me too! But why are you...’ She stopped, seeing the item he’d put down. ‘You mean...you forgot cranberry sauce too?!’ She laughed then, a big belly laugh of pure mirth until her eyes were watering. It was too surreal to be believed.

He joined in, once she held up her lone item for purchase.

The sales clerk stared at them impatiently, wanting them to finish having hysterics and buy their damn cranberry sauce and go home so she could close up.

‘Well. Put that back and we’ll combine our efforts,’ he managed at last. ‘ We can go to mine, or I can come to yours. That is, if you’d like to....’ He trailed off then, a nervous smile on his face.

‘I’d love to. I’ll bring the stuffing.’ She slipped her hand into his as the exasperated clerk began to ring up the purchase at long last.

Who would have thought, she mused as she followed him back to his car. Perhaps there is such a thing as Christmas magic...

‘Merry Christmas.’ He gave her a quick kiss before opening the door for her.

‘Merry Christmas!’ she repeated with a grin, sliding herself inside his car.

I’m so glad I didn’t skip this one, this year, she mused with a smile.

[spazzbunn]

Christmas With Friends

Today was pretty big. It was Christmas Day in Zootopia! The kids were opening their presents, the adults went out to get some items thanks to the gift cards they got, it was even snowing. Overall, this Christmas was really starting to feel jolly. Especially for a house full of mammals. The home had its two owners inside the warm comfortable shelter that kept them cozy from the snow and cold wind outside. Michael and Katrice, the rabbit and red panda couple. They both were huddled close with their paws holding looking over at their fully decorated Christmas tree they made together. It was full of lights and ornaments and had a big bright yellow gold star on top. It truly looked breathtaking for the two of them. Amongst the noise that surrounded them was the television and the voices of their good friends. One other sound was able to catch their attention. A click with a sound of a flash. They turned around to witness what was behind them. It was a tall and slim figure with yellow and white and little bits of black spots and areas around this body. It was Hammy the cheetah. Having to wear his suit being of cranberry red and pine tree green tie to fit the Holidays. He had with him his camera, taking a moment to take pretty good looking pictures on whatever he saw as stunning. It was his passion. “Sorry, just that felt like a postcard moment.” Hammy said as he turned his camera around to show the small screen to have the two witness his very professional photography. “Dang Hammy. This looks good.” Michael told him as Hammy was happy with his work being liked by all. “Thanks. I’ll try to have this be in a postcard for next year. Just hope I don’t forget.” Hammy rubbed the back of his neck with Katrice patting him on his back. “No worries. Just send it to us. I know Michael won’t forget Christmas moments.” Katrice smirked at her rabbit who blushed slightly but nodded. Hammy went into the kitchen to lay down his camera by the counter since the table was full of different types of food to snack on. Michael went over to one side of the living room as Katrice went another. Both of them wanting to be good hosts for their guests, who also were their friends. Michael went over to a group of mammals on the couch. Watching television as it is playing some videos on a tabby cats phone. Next to the male tabby was a male coyote, a male african wild dog, and even a male silver fox. The bunny walked around and sat down next to the tabby. “Hey Jake.” Jake looked over. “Oh hey dude! I’m just showing the guys some videos about this crazy show in Japan.” Milo, the african wild dog, took a sip of water from his red cup. “Yeah. It is very odd. Who the heck would even think of stuff like this?” “Maybe odd mammals?” Shadow the silver fox stated. Having to have no red contacts or any red or purple on his fur. He wanted to look clean for his friends. Mainly, because his girlfriend otter Karen got him to be cleaning the dye off. “That, or the show itself knows its audience?” Evan Coywise, the coyote, told the guys as they all pretty much agreed with his theory. “Eh. Hey, thanks for inviting us, by the way.” Milo said to Michael with the rabbit feeling happy to hear that. “Yeah. This Christmas get together is pretty sweet.” Shadow says as he looks around to see Tod coming back with a plate of food. Having mac n cheese, some turkey, and corn on it. “Oh hey Michael!” Tod the reddish orange fox went over to sit down at the last empty seat of it as he takes a bite of the mac n cheese with the fork he had. “I was kinda surprised everyone showed up early.” Michael says as he looked to see everyone was accounted for. “Well it is rare for us to hang out together. We all are different, but we still care for each other.” Milo points out as he takes another sip of his drink. Tod looked over at Milo. “You must have drank the philosophy juice or something.” Shadow laughed from Tod’s joke as Michael and Jake watch a bit of the weird game show as they questioned about if they both could ever compete with getting a show like this. The answer seemed like a ‘no’ to the tabby and bunny. Katrice in the meanwhile went over to the side of the house where the chairs from the kitchen were moved as a couple of mammals used them to sit down and starting to draw. One pig, the other a rabbit, and the last a raccoon with blue fur where its black should be. All three of them were female and another common thing was they were artists. Katrice raised a brow. “Hey you three. What are you all doing?” The gray rabbit with brown ears and brown stylish hair looked up at the red panda. “Oh sorry! We are doing a sort of challenge here.” “Oh?” The red panda seemed curious to know. Helena looked up as she fixed her glasses. “Yeah! We are trying to draw the tree you guys have and post our artworks on our tweets. The most liked picture wins” “Ah cool!” Said Katrice. “What would the winner get?” “Bragging rights.” The raccoon said as she took a sip of Dr.Pepper as she kept drawing with a smirk. “Oh, after we finish up, we wanna know if you wanna chat and eat with us in the kitchen.” “Awww. I’d love to. The kitchen seems a bit crowded though.” Katrice saw that inside were Hammy, Diana, Karen, and the brown bear Lou and the other rabbit Gerry. All of them talking and laughing and cracking jokes. “We can slip in fine.” Helena says to Katrice. “Besides, I am about to call quits before my paw breaks.” She sets her paper down on an empty chair they had. “Ehh. Same.” Fever and Trish said in unison as they gave their artworks to Hel as she puts them on top of hers. “I think I am gonna get something to eat as well.” Katrice said to her friends as the girls got up and the four of them started to head into the kitchen. Michael gets up as well, his stomach growling since he had to skip breakfast along with Katrice since they were busy cleaning and setting up the food. “Sorry guys, but I gotta get something to eat.” “It’s cool dude.” Evan says to him. “Hey, could you get me a bread roll? I want to finish this crazy show with the guys before I eat.” Michael obliged as he went around the couch and started to head towards the kitchen where he witnessed his girlfriend and their friends having fun. He walks in to go find a roll as Katrice comes up to him and smiles. “Well, everyone seems to be having fun here.” “Heh. I know. We did great Katrice.” Michael says with him smiling back at her. This got the attention of the skunk who saw the two being cute together and calls out to them. “Awwwe~ You guys having a little date over there?!~” Diana jokingly said with a smug grin. Her glasses even added more smugness to it. Michael and Katrice blushed and were trying to act cool with Diana laughing softly. “I’m just joking you guys.” Karen sipped her cup of tea. “Diana is a jokester I found out. She looks so sweet but yet can act like a spice at times.” “Eh. I just am Yin and Yang really. Both inside and out.” Diana ate a cracker as Lou thought about her sentence and snickers.. “Ok, that’s pretty funny. Especially since you are black and white.” Lou laughed as he was eating some cheese and grapes on his plate with Diana looking at herself but then smirking and trying not to laugh as well. She really walked into that one. Karen smiled along with Michael and Katrice while the mammals then hear that familiar click. Hammy had his camera out and took another picture to treasure. “Sorry again. Just, this whole gives off good vibes. I wanna cherish these you know?” Hammy put the camera down back on the counter as everyone was telling him it was fine. “Yeah dude. Nothing wrong with taking good pictures with friends.” Lou said with Karen and Diana agreeing. Michael looks at the roll in his paw. Then he remembered what he went in here for. “Oh! I almost forgot!” “Forgot about what?” A mammal came into the room with everyone looking over to who said that. It was Daniel the weasel. He was a pretty chill friend of Michael so of course he had to come and celebrate with him and his girlfriend and his friends. He was in the bathroom having to have to take a phone call from his parents. He was finished so he came down to see what was happening. “Oh nothing Daniel. I just gotta give Evan this roll. Also I planned on eating as well.” Michael tells Daniel as the weasel goes to the fridge to pull out a bottle of water. Michael looks around with his mind wanting to get a bowl of Katrice’s mac n cheese. She always makes the best food ever. Before the bunny could get started with getting a bowl, Gerry comes over and gives a big hug to both Michael and the red panda. “Jeez your hugs are pretty strong” Katrice said as he lets go with Michael holding on to the roll for dear life. “Hey I give bigger hugs too.” Lou stated with him going to get some sugar cookies. “Sorry, but I was just about ready to head out. My family is gonna head on over to my other family for dinner as well.” Gerry explains as he took a sugar cookie and started to eat one. “Awww. Sucks you gotta go.” Fever said with her and Trish eating some ham as Gerry sighed. “Well, the Holidays are pretty busy this time for year after all.” The light brown rabbit said as he took another bite. “You was pretty chill to hang around.” Daniel tells Gerry who took that compliment. “You gotta hang out with Michael and some of us at ‘Boys Night’” Gerry rubbed his chin. “I think I got time this weekend. So yeah!” He finished his cookie. “Besides, I am gonna throw a New Years Eve party so we can spend more time together!” “Wooo! Boys night!” Jake shouted as he and the rest of the guys came over. Evan seeing the roll and thanking Michael as he takes it and begins to eat it. Fever looked at the whole group that was in the big clean kitchen. Full of laughs and full of cheer. She was there when Hammy took that picture of Michael, Katrice, Lou and Karen with Diana as well. It was starting to give her an idea. She poked on the shoulders of Michael and Katrice as the two looked over and she whispered something into their ears. Both the bunny and the red panda’s ears stood up and had the same smile as their friend. “Hey Hammy.” Katrice says with the cheetah looking over to her. “Got enough space for one more picture?” “Of course!” Hammy said with pride. “What you got in mind?” Michael then spoke up. “We want to take a Christmas picture. Together with all of us here.” Everyone looked at each other. Quickly, they all pretty much agreed to that idea. “Alrighty. Been a rarity since I done one of these.” Trish said as she finished her plate. “Same here.” Jake said as he sipped his drink of cola. “Where would we take the pic at?” Milo questioned with Evan looking over at the tree. “Hmm. What about the Christmas Tree?” Evan points out. “Sure!” Michael and Katrice said together. “Alright!” Tod says as he went over to pick up a chair and carry it in the living room with everyone starting to follow. Karen and Shadow held each other close in front of the tree. Same with Michael and Katrice. Tod sets down the chair far away from the group so the photo can get the whole view of the mammals, the tree and decorations, even a glimpse of the snow outside. The group starts to form big with Lou being perfectly in place of the camera. The same goes for everyone. Hammy would be the last as Tod goes to join in the photo. He sets the camera down onto the chair and sets up the camera to be timed as it begins to beep. Quickly he runs in and fills in the last spot. “Oh! We should say Merry Christmas.” Katrice tells everyone with Michael loving the idea. “Sounds good my pumpkin spice raccoon. But why?” Michael asked in confusion. “Idk. Seems holly and jolly.” The red panda says with the camera starting to beep more, saying it was close to take the photo. “MERRY CHRISTMAS!” The group all shouted at the same time as the photo flashed and clicked, the picture being taken. Everyone would pretty much agree. This Christmas was the best one yet. Maybe, even the best one ever. They were glad to spend it together. Merry Christmas to all of Zootopia, and to the people that mean a lot to me.           - Spazzie Bunnie Katrice belongs to @msitubeatz Fever belongs to @feverwildehopps Trish belongs to @trashasaurusrex Helena belongs to @helthehatter Diana belongs to @skeletonguys-and-ragdolls Gerry belongs to @androace-bunny Evan belongs to @wartoxdude Hammy belongs to @hammytotherescue Jake belongs to @kingdomofkitten Shadow belongs to @n-p-wilde Karen belongs to @azshade Lou belongs to @firecracker-art-lounge Milo belongs to @juantriforce042 Tod belongs to @thefoxninja17 Daniel belongs to @owningsuperset7

[justsmilestuffhappens]

7 Free day [Songs]

F!ve Christmasses

<*buckle up*>

A Christmas that never was

A - Another Christmas, Another empty house, Another reason,There is no Santa Claus, May all your Christmasses be white,Though mine are blue, It's just another Christmas without you

Buck took another swig from his glass that matched his eyes. Not that he could notice that with how watery they were now.

Who was he to ask them to stay though?

The music station he'd landed on was ironically perfect for how he felt but horrible at the same time.

What was he supposed to have told them even if he did? 'Take me with you'?

Buck looked at a picture of Christopher and Eddie from when they went to the zoo together a while back.

A ding interrupted the song as he saw Eddie had sent a message to everyone. It was a picture of Christopher smiling on his back holding a snowball. How cute?

A drop of water fell upon his screen and for a second Buck thought it was his A.C. until he realized no it was him.

Where did the empty hole in his chest come from?

It was just another couple of days then things would go back to normal. Right?

Maddie and Chimney were on their honeymoon. Hen and Karen had their new child who was warming to them and Denny. Bobby and Athena had May back with them and Harry and were celebrating Michael's recovery.

When would he finally be able to do something about his feeling?

Buck took the bottle and before he could have a second thought downed the half that was left, straight into the sink. He wouldn't put Bobby through seeing him like this, had to stop it now before. Just before.

He grabbed some water and began his trek up the stairs letting the darkness claim the lower floor.

Sip after slow sip Buck got his eye's clearer. He sent a "hope you're having fun, give my little bud a hug for me please" before silencing his phone.

Feeling emotional drained even when he'd done was nothing but sit around and cry for a bit Buck settled into bed. His comforter welcomed him not like a warm hug but as a hollow one.

12:01 am. The clock read. "Merry Christmas." He whispered to no one.

In the morning he'd be fine. He'd shower get to work and go to the party he'd been invited to later. Alone.

But for now he just needed to sleep. To forget about how miserable he felt for a couple of hours.

It wasn't anyone's fault.

Why did they have to leave?

He missed them so much. Did they miss him too? He wished they'd come back as his thoughts drifted into sleep.

A Christmas that was meant to be

β - Feeling Christmas all around, And I'm trying to play it cool, but it's hard to focus when I see you walking around the room, let it snow, it's blasting now, but I won't get in the mood, I'm avoiding every mistletoe until in know, it's true love that he thinks of, so next Christmas, I'm not all alone, boy

"Where did all the mistletoe go?" Chimney asked Hen as they walked upstairs.

Buck was sitting with Eddie. This two day Christmas was looking to be a dull one.

No very close or exciting calls but they weren't complaining on this Christmas eve. They'd be home for a bit tomorrow but back in later on in the day.

"Yeah. I noticed that too. Did Bobby tell you anything about it?" Eddie asked looking back at Buck.

"Huh? No. Maybe we lost a few last year or they were getting old and falling apart." Buck shrugged while sipping some hot chocolate Bobby made earlier.

They wouldn't find where Buck had stashed them. Well not till after Boxing day and it'd be too late by then. No kiss grenades this holiday season.

Eddie got up to get himself a cup as Buck's eyes never left him. Hen and Chim may have seen him but they didn't say anything though however painful it was to watch.

"So buck, you coming with Maddie and me for Christmas or ya got other plans?" Chim asked from hiding his hand of cards from Hen.

"Yeah. Probably party hop. Think Eddie's gonna have his abuela over and said I was welcome to swing by. How 'bout y'all Hen?"

"We're going to Athena's to drop off some gifts and visit for a bit then it's a movie marathon while watching Denny play with the new stuff he gets this year."

Eddie came back to sit by Buck taking a good warm gulp.

"Mhm. It's no Abuela hot chocolate but Bobby made it pretty good." He hummed sitting closer as they watched a rerun on t.v..

The alarm blared as Bobby came out of his office.

"Snow machine buried a guy who was drunk on the job. We're closest, let's go."

Buck didn't plan for the others finding the mistletoe hidden under spare heat blankets in the storeroom when they got back.

"Weren't you the last one on cleanup duty?" Hen said looking at him from over the box.

"Oh! That's where they were. I must have came to get something and forgot. Good thing too with all the cold and flu going around really." Buck looked anywhere but at the team as Bobby took the box and placed it in his arms.

"Well it's a good thing we found them before Christmas was over huh? Why don't you go finishing hanging them like I told you to before and I'll get started on dinner." His words left no room for protest even if buck never would anyways.

When he was done putting up the box Eddie laughed at him. "What's so funny?" Buck had to ask.

"This your way of telling people to kiss your ass?" Eddie asked pointing behind Buck.

He felt the mistletoe he'd forgotten in his back pocket. "No. I'm just distracted I guess" buck shook his head.

"You feeling okay?" Eddie asked coming over to feel his forehead.

"Don't dad me. I won't hear the end of it from Bobby." He joked.

"Can't wait to be off so we can relax with mi Abuela and Christopher tomorrow man."

"Well we've only got a couple hours. With any luck we'll be out before the next big call."

As fate would have it buck jinxed them with a house fire from someone deep frying their turkey in the middle of their dinner at the firehouse."I'm sorry." Buck said as they were on their way.

"Not your fault the universe likes picking the worst time Buck." With the fire out they were able to go home.

Buck went to his and picked up some clothes before going to spend the night at Eddie's to Chris's surprise. It was a good Christmas.

"Mistletoe Buck" Christopher shouted as he came back with popcorn before they opened a gift at midnight.

Buck froze as Eddie kissed his cheek then continued into the living room.

He winked at buck but before he could ask they were fully into opening all their gifts except the ones that Abuela would be bringing over. Buck had to ask him later if that was a one time thing.

A Christmas that almost wasn't

− · − ·  / I'll find my way back home, And light up every tree, We will hang our stockings for you and one for me, 'Cause Santa called me to make sure I'm prepared, He said "Pack your bags and tell them You'll be there",

Buck could put up with anything for them, he would put up with everything for them. Once he was done he'd be coming home.

His dad's passing right now was like one final act of spite against them. Buck didn't care about their inheritance, or the house, or the cars. But responsibility fell on him with mom gone and Maddie in her current state.

At least one of them had to come and with Maddie pregnant he'd bit the bullet. He always would.

Their dad wasn't some monster, more so a ghost before he was even dead. Buck barely remembered much of the time they spent together.

He'd been here since the beginning of December. One week became two and a half and he was getting desperate. With the funeral already long passed and only the house left he was glad they'd been understanding of Maddie skyping for the reading the will.

It was lucky someone already wanted the house and the cars weren't something he'd wanted buck to have anyways.

Now all he had to do was get to the airport for the first flight from Hershey to Los Angeles.

A snowstorm chose two days before Christmas to stop Buck's in his tracks. He stayed at the airport praying that he'd make it home but doubtful with what the news said.

He eyed one of the cleaning staff messing with a Christmas tree as he was throwing away his water.

"Come on. Please. Why do you do this every year?" The young guy had muttered as he tried turning it on again.

"Need some help?" Buck asked coming over.

"No. Sorry sir. The tree's just being finicky." He checked the plugs but it wasn't working.

"Have you seen if any of the bulbs are loose?" Buck asked whilst looking at it.

"What?!"

"If people touch it while walking by they could have messed up a bulb. All it takes is one sometimes to mess up a whole string of lights."

Buck helped him look as within a minute bits were back alight. "Holy shit. Sorry I didn't mean to say that. You know your stuff mister."

Buck laughed. He couldn't be more than a couple years older than this guy.

"Yeah. We used to have people decorate our house a lot. You pick up on things even if it's just watching people work." With that Buck moved back to his seat.

He looked at his phone to see a new message. It was a picture of Christopher standing next to a hanging shelf on the wall where their stockings were. His was on the other side of Chris's opposite Eddie.

"We miss you. Can't wait for you to get back. Christopher says to make sure to tell you we love you." Buck reads as he holds his phone closer to his chest as if it's the last source of warmth in a frozen land.

"Just my luck. Snowstorm. I'll tell you as soon as we're about to leave. I'm coming back, one way or another."

Buck fell asleep somehow in those chairs after securing his bag and phone.

He woke to a person dressed as Santa shaking his shoulder. "What?" He said groggy.

"Shh." They covered their lips and beckoned Buck to follow. Buck's body was on autopilot as he followed.

Santa silently pointing at a single present under the tree. Buck hesitated to pick it up and read his name.

As Santa urged him to open it with a wave of his hand, Buck did so.

It was a little ceramic firefighter figurine that looked like him. The kind you put in a little village on a table.

Buck looked up from his hand but Santa was gone. The next thing he noticed was waking up to people talking.

"Flight 811 now boarding." Buck jumped up too quickly as he moved to get in line. With the snowstorm subsiding even for a while he hoped they'd make it out.

He felt around for the figurine but it wasn't anywhere as he looked to where he was seated.

After texting Eddie that he'd had the weirdest dream but he had to turn off his phone soon for the flight the plane took off.

Buck made it home for Christmas eve with a few hours left to spare.

He got to the house just before 11 to Eddie already opening the door pulling him inside for a kiss.

"God I missed you."

"I missed you too. Both of you."

"Christopher's asleep. Take a shower and let's sleep. He's gonna love seeing you in the morning Buck." Eddie brought his bag over to their room as Buck hopped in the shower.

Buck was already asleep in the bed once he'd dried off in only his towel.

Eddie shook his head getting boxer briefs on him so Christopher wouldn't be seeing him naked in the morning. In their rush he couldn't ask Buck about his dream but it didn't sound bad so it could wait.

Christopher was shaking buck awake shouting you're finally back it's Christmas it's Christmas buck! It was the best way to wake up.

"Presents!" Christopher said only for Eddie to correct him.

"Breakfast first?" He said.

"Breakfast can wait. I want to see Christopher open my gift. How about only one then a breakfast break. I'll start it while you and your dad pick one each." Buck suggested kissing both of them as he got up to start.

Christopher opened a new video game as Eddie picked a dress shirt wrapped around a new thermos. Buck was given a present as he placed the food on the table. Inside was a new wallet with a gift card for one of their favorite restaurants in it.

After they quickly finished their eggs Buck went to check his stocking and froze when he looked down at the same figurine from his dream.

"Hmm. That's cute. Hey look Christopher we got our own too." Eddie said beside buck pulling their stockings to spill them out.

"I had a dream about this?"

"Your psychic?" Eddie joked.

"I dreamed Santa gave me this at the airport but I lost it." Buck said still staring at it with wonder.

"Santa brought you back just like I asked him Buck."Christopher said hugging him.

"Aww. You know I'd come back Christopher. Even if it was late I'd come back for you two." Buck said looking up at Eddie.

A knock at the door had Eddie moving to let their guests in.

A Christmas that could be

Д - singing to the deer in the sky, singing as they jingle, jingle, jingle tonight, singing to the moon, set it free, you're the angel on the top of my tree, singing to the spirit above, sing your heart out with all of your love, Santa's coming for us,

Eddie watched as the Christmas lights danced on Buck's face while they wheeled into the park set up.

"So a Santa Claus went dark side and now we've got a Krampus slasher on the loose?" Buck asked Cap while they drew closer to the crowd.

"No. The police have a very naughty Santa. We've got a stabbing victim and some decorations that have become a hazard so we need to clear them as much we can to prevent more injuries." Bobby said coming to a stop with the mess in view. Chimney and Hen pulled up beside them as they hopped out.

Eddie saw why there was a problem with finding the Santa it was like a mini convention. It unsettled him that whoever it was could possibly get away with it.

Hen was treating the stabbing victim while Chimney looked to see if any other bystanders were hurt.

"Buck, Eddie, we're getting this metal reindeer off her. Ma'am stay still until its completely off and we have you looked at. It doesn't seem you were cut too bad but you should still let us treat you. 1. 2. 3." Bobby ordered as they lifted the heavy lawn ornament.

"I'm fine that fucking reindeer isn't gonna kill me."

"I'm glad to hear you're still in high spirits miss but please let us have a look at you."

Chimney came over to check her after putting a neck brace.

"So these things were stacked?" Eddie asked as he and Buck moved the deer away from it being in the way or people touching it.

"Has to be some funky welding sculpture. Must have broken off when they bumped it too hard while evil Santa ran for it." Buck surmised.

"Alright! Santa's who have given statements and shown I.D. you are free to go. If you have any information on the assailant please call the department." Athena shouted before she came over.

"Hi Athena. Did they give a disruption." Bobby asked as she hugged him before pulling away.

"Caucasian male, thirty to forty but he'd got a forearm tattoo of a rabbit and a birthmark on his neck so that's something." Athena gestured.

"Hopefully y'all find him before he hurts someone else." Buck said.

"You know it. Strangest thing is no one in the crowd saw where he ran to. They were too shocked trying to help the victim which while making it harder is worth it since one of them was pre-med and helped as much as they could."

Buck moved with Eddie to try getting more of the heavy decorations further from the walking path that they'd been shoved into.

After they pushed the original reindeer sculpture and some other large decorations Buck heard Eddie before he felt himself being punched in the back of his head. "Ow! What the fuck?"

In the next few seconds things moved too fast. Buck whirled around to defend himself.

Eddie ran back closer from where he'd been going to regroup waiting for buck to catch up.

The anti Santa was suddenly there and pissed off. Buck got a good right hook in before there was suddenly blood.

Everyone froze or at least buck did as he took in what he saw. Eddie was finally over and checking buck before turning to the bad Santa.

A metal angel tree topper had fallen and lodged into his arm with its trumpet?

"Don't pull it out! You need to get to a hospital then you're under arrest." Eddie told him while his anger seemed to deflate.

Buck looked past Eddie's shielding him with his body while rubbing his head.

"You're under arrest. We're gonna get you treated and booked sir." Athena said coming over as the Santa gave up.

With him in cuffs and his arm wrapped until he'd gets to the hospital in a second ambulance things were finally calm again.

"Buck keep the ice. Chimney says you don't have a concussion but you feel the slightest bit bad I expect to be told." Bobby said while they packed up what little gear they used.

"Hey Eddie. Santa Claus is coming to Ow!" Buck said inside the truck earning a shake of Eddie's head while Bobby radioed that was a strike for Buck having a concussion earning a groan of I can't make bad jokes?

Eddie wanted to hit him for joking but that would contradict his desire of wanting to see buck hurt. "He was in the box. Guy must be a contortionist." Eddie told buck which only earned a shocked gasp from buck and a quiet no way.

Once they were back in the station he was watching Buck like a hawk along with Bobby as they waited for Hen and Chim.

"You know the last time someone looked at me that hard we had sex" buck joked trying to lighten the mood.

"Like you could handle me, especially right now." Eddie scoffed.

"I don't have a concussion! And I can handle a lot of things, you'd be surprised. Haven't gotten any complaints yet." Buck puffed his chest and wiggled an eyebrow.

"I'm not looking for a one night stand though buck." Eddie regretted how that sounded.

"Who said it's gotta be one. I may not be buck 1.0 but I've got his experience. Just don't go for random hookups anymore." Buck came over.

"Are you just asking me out because you got hit in the head?" Eddie turned to look buck in the eye.

"Maybe that punch was the kick in my ass i needed to finally ask you what I've been too scared to."

"Ask me later, after you're all good. If you still feel like it."

"I will. I'll ask you a million times if I have to. I'm serious. I've been thinking about us for a while I just didn't want to risk anything"

"Good. I look forward to you asking me out at the Christmas party Bobby's hosting with Athena."

With that they went back to sitting around waiting for the next call. Hen and chimney joined as Bobby finished their late lunch.

Buck wasn't lying. He'd ask Eddie again tomorrow and have Hen say he didn't have a concussion too.

But for now he was content to sit here together. At least it was out in the open now and there was hope.

How Christmas should be

5 - I found, what I was looking for, a love that's meant for me, a heart that's mine completely, knocked me right off my feet, and this year I will fall, with no worries at all, 'Cause you are near and everything's clear, you're all I need, underneath the tree

Buck felt electrified like a living Christmas light. Today was the day he'd finally put it out there. He thought Eddie felt something too and it felt right.

Once they were off he'd confess that he'd slowly been falling deeper and deeper in love with his best friend. He had to find out if they could be more.

Their shift had been long with only one major call of kids breaking a fire hydrant and causing havoc with multiple injuries but not too bad that anyone would need to be hospitalized.

As buck was getting ready for the shift to end and to tell Eddie about them the alarm blared.

The shift in temperature had caused the ground to unsettle and a couple to slide off a cliff.

They'd gotten the first woman up but her girlfriend was further down.

Buck repelled lower to get her as Eddie was set to descend with the other girl safe above now.

Buck got a harness on her and they began pulling her up along side him when a large rock fell towards them.

Before buck could think of anything else he moved to shield her and took a hit to his helmet.

Eddie screamed his name as they continued to pull her up.

Buck looked to be okay as he followed behind her being taken into Eddie's guidance.

Once they were topside Eddie was asking if buck was okay while Bobby and hen took the other girl.

"I'm fine dude. My helmet took the most of-"

Before buck could finish he was tumbling. He didn't know if it was his adrenaline leaving him or his injury finally feeling so painful but he felt as Eddie got him before he could full hit the ground.

With his helmet off they could see the lump forming.

"Damn it. Thank God you're off the blood thinners finally." He couldn't tell who said it but guessed it was Eddie.

"We'll take him in ourselves. Hen, the girls are good right?" Bobby said as they moved him over to the ambo.

"They only had a few minor scrapes. Chim and I got him. You two can follow." They were at the hospital in a blur. So much for today being the day. His plan was ruined.

"It's just a mild concussion. You'll be fine. Stay with us Buck" chimney said besides him on the way.

"It's ruined."

"What's ruined?"

"I was gonna tell Eddie"

"Tell him what? You've still got time, "

"That I-"

"Buck. BUCK open your eyes! buck buddy no, stay awake man."

He woke to Maddie sitting next to him on her phone as the tv was quiet.

"Good. You're awake." She said looking over. "You gave us a little scare."

"What time is it?"

"It's 10 thirty. You've been in here for a good two hours. Doctor says you'll be fine but don't want you pushing yourself too soon."

"I'm ruining Christmas"

"No. Christmas is fine. You might be out if your next results are good. Even if you did have to stay here, it's not a problem for us to visit you here or wait a couple days for you to get out." Maddie put a comforting hand on him.

"Is Eddie okay?"

"Why wouldn't he be? He's safe at home with Christopher. Its a little late to visit but if we're still here he said he'd stop by tomorrow. You aren't in pain and you're talking fine. Hopefully those are good enough signs towards you getting out."

The doctor explained more. Buck could leave now but they would suggest he stay. However if he's careful and being watched by others she felt he would be fine.

With Buck signed out Maddie and him got to her place where Chimney was waiting with a late dinner. "Dude I'm starving." Buck said smelling the food.

"You're always hungry Buck. Figures with how big you are your body needs the extra energy" chimney said as buck looked over to see his bag and gifts from his place in the living room.

"I got your stuff from work then wrung by yours after. You'll get to do what you said tomorrow after you rest." Chimney said knowing smirk on his face.

"What did buck say earlier?"

"Nothing mads."

"That he-"

"I had a concussion! Wasn't I a patient? Isn't this a breach of trust or something?"

"He might have said he needed to tell Eddie something." Chimney said earning an exaggerated face.

"Is that why you asked if he was okay at the hospital?"

"There's no breach of trust if you brought it up to her buck. And from what we've seen, concussion or not you two are obvious to everyone but yourselves."

"You really do have a boy crush."

"Stop calling it that. Sure Eddie's attractive, and. I may like him more than a friend should." Buck quieted at the end.

"Don't tell him this but I've caught him checking you out before." Chimney said.

"What?"

"Maybe it's not so one sided Buck. Just talk to him." Maddie looked at him with understand.

After that awkward but supportive dinner and some good sleep they were up and ready for the get together with the others.

Everyone promised to open their gifts together before some of them had duty later in the day.

Buck took a gulp of eggnog as he waited for a chance to talk to Eddie face to face.

He came in with Christopher and they helped get the gifts from Eddie's truck.

Once the kids were gleefully playing with their newest toys buck took the chance.

"Can I talk to you outside for a second?"

"Sure buck. Let me get my jacket."

So they took to the front as the kids were in the back and in Harry's room.

"Yesterday I was planning to tell you something important."

"Hen might have told me."

"What?"

"She just said we needed to talk. You said so in the ambulance before we had to leave you to finish our shift then it was too late to take Christopher for only a half hour before he needed to be in bed."

"Yeah. That's okay. It would have been nice but I still got to see him and give him my gift today." Buck said. "But about that. I know we're friends. I know I might come off as straight but I-."

"You're not the only one."

Buck continued on needed to get this out before realizing what Eddie said.

"I've been into guys before, I just haven't been into many, not as quickly as I was into you. I want that for us. I know that it might be hard but I feel like we could have something."

"I think. No. I know I'm in love with you. I'm willing to try this but I don't want to lose you." Eddie said pulling buck closer.

"You won't. I'll always be here. Its where I want to be with you. I love you two, both of you."

"We need to talk about other things. I have to tell you stuff you deserve to know and the truth."

"I'm here. Whenever you're ready. Now or tomorrow but soon if it's important. As long as we're in this together we've got as much time as you need."

Buck finally did something he'd been thinking about doing for a while. He kissed Eddie the way he wanted. The way he deserved to be kissed. They stayed there with their foreheads connected breathing as the cold air blew.

"I can't believe they knew about us wanting this." Buck admitted still holding Eddie thinking about going back in.

"I can. We see the others every day and if I look back it's been like this for a while. I felt like this."

"Let's go inside. The kids are probably already back in. I want to play with Chris's new jeep. He said he loved it because it looks like mine."

Eddie grabbed Buck's hand and led him in. They were joined at the hip like usual the rest of the afternoon. Christopher was as happy as could be and they were too.

Buck felt like this was what he'd been looking for for so long. They'd work together to make this relationship last. He was in it and he knew Eddie was too. "You feeling good Buck?" Athena asked sitting next to him.

"Better than I've ever been." Buck told her with a smile and he meant it. "Merry Christmas Athena"

"Merry Christmas Buck." She hugged him as Christopher came over with his new drone.

"Cool bud. But you know your not supposed to play with it in doors right?"

"I know buck. Thank you for the jeep."

"Sure thing superman." Buck scooted over for Christopher to sit between Eddie and him. He felt warmth fill him as Eddie and him listened to what Harry and Denny showed Christopher and played with him earlier.

[the-ego-fic-train]

Silent Night

(Been working on this one for a while, so it’s a bit longer. Happy holidays!)

Sean and Signe put up the last stocking.

Then they stood and basked in their glory.

Their tree was luscious and well decorated, despite it being plastic. The decorations popped and sparkled with the Christmas lights.

“It looks amazing,” Sean gaped. Signe was very good with color coordination. The entire house was sparkling with red, green, and gold.

“It’s our first Christmas in the house,” Signe nuzzled into Sean’s arm. “I had to make it beautiful.”

“Well, you did an amazing job, Woosher.”

“Thanks coffee bean.”

They stood for a moment, admiring the coziness.

Signe let out a sudden gasp.

“What time is it?!”

“It’s about--” Sean looked at the clock. His eyes popped open. “Shit! We’re gonna be late!”

In a mad frenzy they gathered their things.

“Do you have the presents?” Sean called down the stairs.

“Yeah! It’s upstairs in the closet!”

“Why’s it in the closet?”

“I was scared Sam would open them! They were snoopin’!”

Sean did his best to carry as many of the presents as he could.

“There are only a few left,” He told Signe as she headed upstairs to get the second armful.

She came down the stairs with her arms full of gifts.

“Did you get the sweaters?”

“No, my arms are too full.” Signe set the gifts down and went to get the “Santa Bag” as Sean called it. It was pretty much just a pretty looking red back that was big enough to carry all of their presents.

Sean raced to get their ugly Christmas sweaters.

He sifted through the closet until he found them on their hooks.

They were both essentially the same sweater, except one of them said “Mommy Claus“ and the other said “Daddy Claus.”

Sean slipped on the Mommy Claus sweater as planned.

As Signe finished putting all of the gifts in the bag, Sean tossed the Daddy Clause sweater at her.

“Ready?”

“Yup!”

Sean’s egos had been hard at work with decorations.

Marvin was putting tinsel in every location he was physically able.

Henrik and Chase were preparing dinner.

Sam, Jacque, and Robbie were decorating the tree.

And Jackieboyman was trying to figure out how vinyls work.

“Robbie, move it a smidge to the left.”

Robbie moved the ornament he had just placed, and stared at Jacque with a “are you proud of me mom?” face.

“No. My left.”

Jack and Signe rang the doorbell.

“I got it!” Sam called out. They got up and raced to the door.

Sam swung it open to see Sean and Signe in Elf hats, carrying a bag bigger than Sam.

“Signe!” Sam gave Signe a big hug. Sean rolled his eyes with a laugh. “I guess you’re cool too,” Sam laughed at Sean.

Sean scooped them into a hug.

“How’s your first Christmas been, kiddo?”

“Super fun!”

Out of nowhere Marvin sprints through the living room.

He stands in front of the door and blows a handful of fake snow into Sean and Signe’s faces.

“Merry Christmas!” He squealed. He darted off to toss some snow on Jacque, who angrily shook his fists at the teleporting magician.

“Signe! Sean!” Chase greeted, “Glad you could both make it!”

He pulled them into a hug. Over Chase’s shoulder, he could barely spot Henrik and Grayson carving a steaming turkey.

“I would give you both a hug but I am a mess right now,” Henrik laughed.

“Need any help?” Signe offered.

“Oh thank you, but we are just about done. You can go help with the tree! I’m sure they’d love your help.” Henrik smiled as he carved.

Signe brought the massive bag of presents to the tree, which was already beyond full of gifts.

“Are those for us?” Sam asked excitedly.

“Yup! Wanna help me put them under the tree?”

Sam nodded eagerly.

Sean finally realized how much Jackie was struggling.

“Need some help?”

“Augh! You scared me,” Jackie gasped. He looked down at the floor and twiddled his thumbs. “Y-yes please...”

Sean put the vinyl Jackie was struggling with onto the record player. It began spinning to the tune of Christmassy tunes.

“Y’know it’s okay to ask for help,” Sean told Jackie, “Even if you think it’s not.”

Jackie nodded.

“Jackie!” Henrik called out, “Your biscuits are about to burn!”

“Shoot!” Jackie ran off. Then he stopped. “Thanks. Sean.“

Sean gave a smile and a nod.

A little while later everyone gathered around the Christmas tree.

“Go ahead, Sam.” Chase smiled.

Robbie lifted Sam up, just so they were tall enough to reach the top of the tree.

Sam stuck the star on top.

There was applause.

“Let’s eat!”

Dinner was fantastic.

Everyone was taking time to enjoy themselves, and to be happy about where they were.

They all laughed and told stories together.

Chase had originally come up with the idea to wear Christmas sweaters.

Chase’s had a shark tangled up in Christmas lights on it.

Henrik’s had a reindeer.

Sam’s was the Jacksepticeye sweater.

Jackie’s had Deadpool’s face on it with a Christmas hat.

Marvin’s had a star.

Grayson’s had a Christmas tree.

Jacque’s had Christmas lights that actually lit up.

Robbie had a really adorable snowman.

They all looked like a family.

After they finished dessert, Sam became jumpy to open presents.

“Okay, okay!” Chase finally gave in. “Let’s get into those presents!”

Sam tore through wrapping paper and ribbons.

“Whoa!” Sam pulled out a pair of Spider-Man web shooters. “Thanks guys!” They hugged Signe and Sean.

Sam got the Spider-Man gloves, an authentic doctor teddy bear surgery kit from Henrik, a B-B gun from Chase, a magician’s starter kit from Marvin, a gardening set from Grayson, a pack of easels and paint from Jacque, and posable zombie figurine from Robbie.

“Thank you all so much!” They smiled.

Everyone looked at Jackie. He hadn’t put anything for Sam under the tree.

Jackie was standing with his arms behind his back.

“I--um... forgot to wrap it,” He said nervously. None of them had seen Jackie so nervous before.

“That’s okay,” Sam chuckled.

Jackie hesitantly pulled out what he had for Sam. It was a large green and blue cape. It had a septiceye in the center, and blue lettering said “Septiceye Sam.”

“I made it,” Jackie smiled, “Because I know how much you like superheroes, I wanted to show you that you’re one too.”

Sam squealed. They tossed it over their shoulders.

It was a perfect fit.

Everyone had gotten a present for Sam, but they also did a secret Santa for one another.

They all went searching for their gifts.

Sean tore his open first.

“Whoa!” He grinned as he turned around the lamp. It was a lamp with tiny cut out star designs and a lightbulb inside.

Signe opened hers next. It was a tiny cactus with a pink flower resting on top.

“Thank you!” She said as she admired it’s tiny pot.

Chase was next.

His present was a t-shirt that said “Bro Hard or Bro Home.”

“I think I’m in love...”

Henrik opened up a collected set of Neal Shusterman’s Unwind,

“You know I have a mind for dystopia!”

Jackie’s stood about 3 inches taller than he did. He tore the wrapping paper off of it.

It was a 6 foot tall cardboard cut out of Ryan Reynolds dressed as Deadpool.

Jackie let out a squeal.

Marvin opened up a deck of playing cards all designed to look like different types of fruit.

Grayson opened a set of candles all shaped like flowers. They smelled like heaven.

Jacque opened a set of copic markers and almost started crying.

Robbie opened up a small duck plush. He didn’t understand what it was, but he began hugging it and knew their bond had formed for eternity.

“Uh..?” Sam wandered to the back of the tree. “Who is this from?”

He held up a medium sized gift wrapped in brown paper. It was sealed with electrical tape.

Sean swiped it out of their hand.

“Maybe you shouldn’t open that...”

“Please? It’s for me!”

Sean let out a sigh.

“Fine... don’t say I didn’t warn you.”

Sam opened up the present.

It was a small brown bear with a green ribbon tied around it’s neck. Underneath the ribbon was black thread that must have been used to sew it’s head back on. At least, Sean thought that.

On the ribbon was Sam’s name embroidered in blue.

The brown paper had something written on the inside of it. The handwriting was sharp and in such black ink that it bled through the paper.

“Merry Christmas, kiddo.

From: Santi”

Jack stood outside the house with a tiny smile on his face. He had to fight so hard in order to get that present to Sam. It was all he had. He wanted to walk inside. He wanted to be a part of a family again.

But Anti regained control.

“Why am I wearing a Christmas sweater with the Grinch's face on it?” he wondered aloud as he headed away to spend his Christmas alone.

[wennjunwho]

Seventeen 13 days of Winter

So kids Christmas is aproaching and I’ve been preparing since October, so here’s the thing: 

Here are a bunch of dialogue prompts, scenario prompts, etc. Choose two (you can mix and match or only send one, or send one of each, idk whatever you see fit) with the name of one of the boys form SVT and I will be writing 4 full lenght fics leading up to christmas and one fic every day starting Dec. 12!!!

Have fun kids!!! If yours doesnt turn into a whole lenght fic I will make it either a bullet point or a text scenario so don’t worry!! (also do keep in mind that the 13 days of christmas is each for every guy)

[x] = taken

Dialogue Prompts: 

“Oh how convenient that there is mistletoe above us.”  [x]

“Have you got your presents yet?” “No, I’ve got ages.” “Christmas is tomorrow…” [x]

“It’s a time of good will, not whatever the hell you’re doing”  [x]

“Who have you got for secret Santa?” “I can’t tell you. It’s called secret Santa for a reason.” [x]

“Come out in the snow with me!” “I’d rather stay inside where it’s warm and I can’t slip over on my ass.” [x]

“You’ve never been ice skating!?” [x]

“Is this the first time you’ve seen snow?” [x]

“It’s New Years, aren’t you going to kiss me?” [x]

“All I want for Christmas is you…” [x]

“You’re not going to spend the holidays alone and sad. I won’t allow it.”[x]

“Why is there no decorations at the top?” “Because I couldn’t reach up there.”  [x]

“That is the most thoughtful gift anyone has got me.” [x]

“You’re useless with wrapping presents!” [x]

“You know i could never leave you alone on your favorite holiday.” [x]

“I know that people usually kiss under mistletoe but.. I had other things planned.” [x]

“Are you seriously crying over Rudolph..?”  [x]

“You spent how much on decorations?!?!” [x]

“How did you know? I only ever told one person.” [x]

“If you throw that snowball you’re declaring war” [x]

“You don’t have to go to all this trouble, you know” [x]

“Secret Santa is bullshit” [x]

“No offence meant, but I do not trust you to carve the turkey” [x]

“Step away from the cookies.” [x]

“You know, you remind me a lot of the Grinch. The only difference is in the end, his heart grows three sizes, but you stay an asshole.” [x]

“What do you mean I have to dress up like santa?!” [x]

“Santa?” “No, it’s the Easter bunny. Of course it’s Santa.” [x]

Scenario Prompts

  a)  Character A and Character B, sworn enemies, are chosen to prepare the company Christmas Party. [x]

 b)  Character A can’t wrap gifts to save their life. Character B is their neighbor and can help. [x]

  c)  Character A’s ex will be at the Christmas Party A is attending. Character B poses as A’s fiance.  [x]

  d)  You made me a Christmas playlist but it’s just Mariah Carey’s “All I want for Christmas is you”. I can’t tell if you’re hitting on me or if it’s a joke   [x]

 e)  We’re neighbors and I just got locked out of my apartment, I was baking cookies that will burn if I don’t get in there quick   [x]

  f)  I met you on Christmas but haven’t seen you since, until today on Christmas day, are you an angel? Wait, you actually are?  [x]

  g)  I’ve never seen snow in person before, until now, what is this white stuff falling from the sky? Why are you laughing at me?  [x]

  h)  There’s one Christmas cookie left, so I challenge you, winner takes the cookie  [x]

  i)  I drew your name out of the Santa for secret Santa that we’re doing with our friends and I really had no clue what to get you, we don’t know each other too well so on the day of the gift exchange I asked what you wanted but I couldn’t think of anything. you pulled me under the mistletoe oh god [x]

  j)  it’s hella snowing outside and the power went out on the third floor (aka your floor) of our apartment building. You come up to my door, asking for blankets because you’re freezing but I just pull you inside and oh wait you’re actually very nice  [x]

  k)  I got a candygram a week ago and it had a cute Christmas poem on it in which I was compared to an angel, I’ve been trying to figure out who it was but it finally hit me when you held the door open for me and said ‘no problem, angel [x]

  l)  we went through a really bad break up a month ago, but I already bought you a Christmas gift. it’s too late to return it now and I know you’d really like it so I show up to your house on Christmas Eve and present the new watch I bought to replace your old one that’s nearly falling apart and I swear I see tears in your eyes  [x]

  m)  Person A has just been through a terrible break up and has found themselves alone during the holiday season. They end up going back to their hometown, where, out of pity and familial obligation, they get invited to a Christmas party. At first, they awkwardly stand around, trying to keep out of sight, but it’s hard to do when a certain cutie accidentally pulls them into a kiss instead of another partygoer that happened to be wearing the same outfit…  [x]

  n)  Character A is stuck working in coffee shop on Christmas Day and Character B is the lonely soul spending their whole day there. [x]

  ñ)  Character A and Character B compete in Christmas house decoration. [x]

  o)  Character A returns to their birth-town for the holidays. Character B is their estranged childhood best friend. [x]

  p)  We have spent christmas together since we were children how did I just realize you’ve never gotten me a present??? [x]

  q)   we’re going ice skating for the first time this year and it’s pretty obvious that you’re secretly an olympic figure skater or something how the hell are you so graceful you’re literally twirling around on one foot on a frictionless surface and i can barely make a left turn [x]

  r)  you asked me what i wanted for christmas and i was feeling really sarcastic so i said “a unicorn” and you actually went out and got me a stuffed unicorn i hate you so much but actually it’s really cute and i might sort of love it [x]

  s)  i know we hate each other but it’s christmas eve and your flight was cancelled please come inside  [x]

   t)  i live below you and i was minding my own business watching the snowfall out the window WHEN I SAW A BODY FALL ARE YOU REALLY PUTTING UP CHRISTMAS LIGHTS NOW   [x]

   u)  we were playing in the snow and you suddenly tackled me to the ground and now…we’re just…staring… at each other…  [x]

   v)  YOU DON’T LIKE MARSHMALLOWS IN YOUR HOT CHOCOLATE? WHY DO YOU HATE LOVE  [x]

   w)  TREE DECORATING (bonus points if one of them is doing it completely wrong omg why am i in love with you)  [x]

   x)  “i did that annoying thing where i put loads of smaller boxes inside one big box and you’re getting really mad but you don’t know that the ring is in the smallest box and i can’t wait to see your face  [x]

   y)  i didn’t know that this holiday party was a dress-up thing and when i came to get you, you answered the door in your full-on GRINCH COSTUME and i almost had a fucking heart attack   [x]

   z) You forgot christmas shopping was a thing and now we´re here, in the middle of Christmas Eve trying to get one gift for every one of your friends, also did I mention I´m kind of falling for you [x]

The prompts came from here, here, here and here 

Have fun kids!!!

[wineanddinosaur]

VinePair Podcast: Sparkling Wine Is Having a Moment

December is traditionally the month when wine drinkers think about sparkling wine the most, whether to augment their holiday celebrations or to bring a bit of cheer to cold and dreary weather. However, the incredible range and diversity of sparkling wines now available in the United States make a strong argument to turn sparkling wine into an all-seasons beverage.

To kick of VinePair’s celebration of Bubbly Week, Adam Teeter and Zach Geballe are joined by guest host and VinePair staff writer Tim McKirdy to discuss some of their favorite offerings, why American sparklers are taking off in wine regions all over the country, and how Prosecco, just like Champagne, has turned itself into a luxury brand.

Listen Online

Listen on Apple Podcasts Listen on Spotify

Or Check Out the Conversation Here

Adam: From Brooklyn, New York, I’m Adam Teeter.

Tim: From Queens, New York, Tim McKirdy.

Zach: And in Seattle, Washington I’m Zach Geballe.

A: And this is the VinePair Podcast. And before we get into the podcast, a word from today’s sponsor. This podcast, and Bubbly Week, which is occurring this week, when this podcast is airing, and it’s all about bubbles, and it’s one of our favorite weeks of the year here at VinePair, is sponsored by Luminore by LaMarca, J Vineyards & Winery, and Otello Lambrusco. And with that, we’re on to the pod. So we’re going to talk about bubbly in a little bit, but before we jump into all things sparkling, Tim! You’re our guest host for this week. It’s great to have you, a staff writer at VinePair. Obviously, we’ve explained to you the rules of the game, so what have you been drinking recently?

T: Well, thank you guys for having me on. So, yeah. What have I been drinking recently?

A: Besides tea, obviously. Because I want to say this. I’ve noticed that in every British program I watch recently, there’s a lot of tea consumption. And do you guys really like tea, or is it just a ruse? Do you put it on for the tourists?

T: Well, I would say that’s better than your comment you made to me the other day about dentists and British people. I like tea, but if I’m drinking it for the purposes we normally have hot drinks, to get going in the morning or whatever, I prefer a coffee. But if I need something to warm me up in the afternoon, I will go for an Earl Grey. But I haven’t been drinking a lot of that recently. To return to your original question, as my 10 Instagram followers will know, I tend to drink a lot of Martinis, and I recently discovered a Japanese vermouth. It’s not actually technically a vermouth because it’s made with a sake base, but it’s Bermutto, and I thought that it’s the perfect pairing for some of the range of incredible Japanese gins that are out there these days. So, yeah, I’ve been using that for my Friday night Martini and will probably add a little bit more vermouth then I typically go for, just because the flavor is incredible. I’ll normally go like super dry, just a splash, but yeah, maybe even go up to a two to one.

A: Wait, where did you discover this sake-based vermouth?

T: So this was actually a product I’ve received as a sample and enjoyed, and it was sent to me as a gift by someone. So we were doing the huge vermouth roundup, and I was reaching out to try tons of different sweet vermouths for a different story that I was writing about Negronis, and the person that I was in contact with with like, “Well, you have to try this dry vermouth” because they actually happen to know that I’m a big Martini lover as well. So they sent that along, and it’s wonderful. And it’s hard to glean the name of the producer from the bottle. There’s not too much information on there, but if I get it, maybe we can add it to the show notes.

Z: Or you all can go follow Tim on Instagram, and we can make sure he posts a picture of the bottle there.

T: That’s what I was really aiming for there. You know, you’ve got to follow me now.

Z: Double that follower count for you. We’re going to go from 10 to 20.

A: Seriously Tim, come on, man.

T: It’s an incredible, a really wonderful Martini, and really highlights some of the amazing Japanese gins that are out there these days, too. So yeah, go out there and look for it, there can’t be too many on the market. So if you find one online, it’s probably the same one I’m drinking.

A: Well now I’m jealous, but that’s fine.

Z: Wasn’t that the point of this whole, this whole bit here, Adam?

A: It’s also not the first time I’ve been jealous of Tim, so it’s OK. Zach, what about you?

Z: To me, the most striking thing that I had this last week, I taught a class about Rioja this past weekend and opened the current vintage, or I guess they’ve just switched vintages, but the 2007 Reserva from López de Heredia, I think we’ve talked about him a little bit already on this podcast before honestly, their Vina Tondonia, which is one of their single vineyard Riojas. And two thoughts struck my mind. One is: I just adore those wines. They’re definitely not the thing that I want all the time. I have to be in the right kind of mood and place for them to work for me, whether it’s the reds or even the whites. But the other thing I’d say is, it reminded me in doing it for this class, it brought back all these memories I had of selling it as a sommelier and how much I had to fight with that wine in a restaurant setting, because it really needs like four or five hours in a decanter before it really is enjoyable. And for me at home, whatever, that’s fine, I’ll open it and then come back to it in the evening when I’m ready, and I actually encourage the people in my class to open it hours beforehand. But boy, it was a pain in the ass in restaurants, and I love the wines, and it’s not meant as a knock on them, but it was hard as a sommelier to explain to people that like, well, really, if you want to enjoy this wine, you should have ordered it four hours ago.

A: Oh my God. Yeah, I’ve only had their wine once or twice. I don’t remember how long it was decanted for.

Z: The white is a little bit more forgiving. The reds are just typically—

A: Oh, you had the red. I thought you had had the white.

Z: No, I have had both, although the red is the one I had the other day, and delicious with time to open, but you gotta plan ahead. It makes sense this past week of Thanksgiving, where all the food you prepare takes a long time to queue up. So it’s kinda like, the wine equivalent to making a turkey or something like that.

A: So can you just explain so what would it be like if you hadn’t given it time? Is it just incredibly tight and there’s nothing there?

Z: And maybe one day we’ll do a podcast topic about some of these wine terms that are hard to define, like “tight,” but basically to me, when I describe a wine that way, what I would say is that the overwhelming sensation of the wines are the structural elements. So the tannins and the acid, it’s kind of the equivalent experience you get sometimes if you have a white wine that’s too cold, where sometimes all you taste is the acidity in the wine and the fruit profile and the aromatics are really muted because the wine is too cold. With reds, serving temperature can affect that, but it’s more often just with wines like that that are aged for a very long time in barrel, and then for very long time in bottle, they just need that time in a decanter, or at least being open on your table or something to really fully start to express themselves. And so when you taste it just freshly opened, you taste nothing but really tart fruit and a lot of tannin and almost aggressively medicinal quality. And then when you come back to it, three, four, five hours later, the fruit is a little bit more generous, although still quite dry. And then you get much more of this savory, but not off-putting notes that you get when it’s just freshly open. So more of the leathery, wood, smoke notes that I really enjoy, but it takes a little while to come out of the wine when it’s just been opened.

A: Interesting. Interesting.

Z: What have you been drinking, Adam?

A: Oh gosh, a few things. Drinking a lot more wine lately, obviously, than cocktails. And beer, ‘cause I love beer. I drank a really great KCBC beer Kings County Brewers Collective, but I forgot the name of it. It was their seasonal this year, but just a delicious, hazy IPA. That was pretty tasty. But then on Saturday night I made fresh pasta with truffles, and I opened a bottle of Cogno Ravera Barolo that was dope. Really, really, really, really good. I think it was our No. 1 of the year two years ago on the VinePair list. And it was just a beautiful bottle. And again, the reason I was asking is because the same thing happened with the Barolo. I popped it and let it sit for like 45 minutes in the decanter, and when we first drank it, it was all tannins still. And then 30 minutes later, it had completely opened. So I guess basically an hour and 15 minutes sitting in the decanter, and then it was beautiful. But it was just crazy how that happens. So, yeah, that’s basically what I’ve been drinking recently.

T: Look at you guys, men of the people, popping out the decanters.

A: Shut up, Tim. Shut up Tim, usually —

Z: Why did you bring Tim on this podcast, again, Adam?

A: Because it’s fun.

T: Actually I saw that, Adam, I think I saw you posting it on Instagram and I was like, wow yeah, that’s the way to spend a Saturday night.

A: No, that was the second bottle. Remember, I texted you this, you messaged me on Instagram. And I was like, yeah, I made a mistake. Like we’re doing a Zoom with some people at 10 p.m. and it’s only 8:30, so I’m going to pop another one. And now that I’ve already had this bottle, I’m going to have another bottle, and continue watching my football game.

T: It’s a whole new meaning to the term double decanting.

Z: Oh my God.

A: Yeah, totally

Z: Tim with the fire today.

A: Always the fire, it’s the best. But it’s funny, ‘cause I really haven’t had a lot of cocktails recently. I love a Martini. Tim has inspired me, but I haven’t made one yet this season actually as it’s gotten cooler, I think I need to later this week. I don’t know if I’ll do it tonight.

Z: I mean, it’s a great week for it. We’re recording this obviously before Thanksgiving and is there a better couple of days to be drinking Martinis at 2 p.m. than on Thursday and Friday of Thanksgiving week?

A: When you’re with your in-laws?

Z: Hmm, fair enough. I don’t know. You might need the Martini. I’m sure Naomi’s parents are lovely, lovely people.

T: I’d like to think of it like if New Year’s Eve is the Super Bowl of drinking, then Thanksgiving is the playoffs, right? You know, we’re leading in the season, we’re getting there. So, you know, mid-week Martini might be appropriate. Who knows?

A: I agree, Tim. I have another question for you before we jump into today’s podcast, how’s your storage unit doing?

T: My storage unit is brilliant. I wanted to come live from that, but this is maybe not a problem not all of our listeners have, but living in New York, having an incredibly small apartment and basically being confined to that apartment for gosh, eight months now, my girlfriend and I had the realization the other day of “why don’t we get a storage unit?” And it’s honestly a game changer. I got my wines in there that I want to age, you know, it’s temperature controlled. I say my “wines that I want to age,” there’s like 12 bottles, no illusion. But honestly, this is a game changer. If you live in New York, public storage, it’s wonderful. You get a great deal. I highly recommend it.

Z: Do you have a promo code for us, Tim? So we’ll save 10 percent off if they drop your name?

T: 10 pounds off with “McKirdy Martini”

Z: 10 pounds. Oh my goodness. That’s actually funny that you mention that, though. ‘Cause I actually, my wife and I, we rent a house here in Seattle, but with a child it became clear that with Covid and quarantine, it was not big enough. So we actually also rented a storage unit a couple of months ago, and it has also been a game changer in our house because now my wife and I don’t have to fight about how we’re going to find room for anything, any new toy for our son, because we put all the old toys in storage and yeah, I’m team storage locker, too.

T: Yeah, my girlfriend and I said, think of all the things that we can buy direct to storage. It’s brilliant.

A: I can’t. You two are too ridiculous. So let’s jump into bubbles, shall we? Always a fun time of year, always a fun topic. This is one of my favorite weeks of content we do every year. And it’s really awesome that for the past three years, it’s been sponsored by Luminore by LaMarca, J Vineyards & Winery, and now Otello Lambrusco. But it’s a celebration of all things bubbles. I didn’t drink as many bubbles in early Covid just because it didn’t feel like it was a celebratory time, but I’m really ready to drink bubbles now. And just of all kinds, do either of you drink bubbles regularly? And if you do, do you have one that’s a go-to or a kind of style as a go-to? And don’t say Champagnes, Zach. I know you’re a somm, but we don’t need to tell everyone else.

Z: I would say that I do drink sparkling wine, a lot, including Champagne. My wife is a big fan as am I, to be fair. I would say, though, that as far as go-tos, it’s been really interesting. That’s been something that I think has changed a lot for me over the last couple of years. If you had asked me this question a few years ago, I think I would have said Crémant and I would’ve just left it there, and I still drink a decent amount of Crémant. For those who are unfamiliar with Crémant there’s a range of different regional Crémant appellations throughout France that refer to basically wines made in the traditional or Champagne method, but not in Champagne itself. And they can often be really, really good. They’re not usually aged as long as Champagnes. Certainly not as long as vintage Champagnes, but even your standard Champagne bottlings typically spend more time aging than most Crémant, but they’re very good. They’re often very good. They’re serious wines. They’re taken very seriously by the producers in most cases. And they’re obviously significantly more affordable in many cases than Champagne, but for me, actually, I surprisingly, perhaps to myself, have found myself actually gravitating towards drinking a lot more Prosecco than I used to. It started by visiting the region a couple of years ago and having some Prosecco that was — let’s say it was just a different category of Prosecco than I was familiar with from just working as a sommelier and as a wine drinker here in the States. Fortunately, a lot of those wines have become more available in the U.S. over the last few years, or at least here in the Seattle market. And I find myself really enjoying a lot of the balance that you find in Prosecco that is actually sometimes harder to find in a lot of sparkling wines, because the Prosecco is typically not quite as acidic and typically has a little bit more residual sugar. And so it’s a little bit more balanced unto itself, whereas sparkling wine, especially Champagne and Crémant, is delicious and an awesome pairing with a lot of foods, but if I just want to have a glass by itself, I actually find myself more gravitating towards Prosecco and I think that’s something that’s been a broader trend in this country. And that people have realized that if they’re just going to have a glass of something sparkling, I think more than ever before, that thing is Prosecco. And I guess I’ve just caught up with the trend.

A: Interesting. Tim?

T: Yeah. I definitely am a lover of all sparkling wines. I think it’s probably up there with my favorite styles or go-to bottles. It’s something I definitely drink quite regularly. When it’s just a normal week, probably not during the week, but a normal weekend, I will be looking for something in the store that’s a little bit more budget-friendly. Like Zach says, I do tend to find a lot of value in Crémant wines from France. Tons of great American sparklers as our friend Keith Beavers likes to call them.

Z: And only Keith, let’s be clear.

A: Yeah, no, I think he’s onto something, people. I actually think “American Sparkler” is a great name for sparkling wine from the U.S.

T: Let’s make that happen.

A: Let’s make it happen. We’re making it happen.

T: I think Cava as well as is another style of sparkling wine that I think if you know where to look and spend just a couple of bucks extra, I think you can find some amazing wines in there, aged on lees, that are just fantastic.

A: Nice. I mean, it’s interesting. Yeah. I don’t drink as much sparkling wine as I would like to, but I do think I’ve found myself recently drinking a lot more American sparkling wine, like the stuff from, for example, Domaine Carneros, any of those kinds of producers like that are out in California. I think that there’s some people doing really interesting things. Also a lot of the Italian sparkling wine — not just Prosecco, but Franciacorta as well as the stuff coming from other areas that are just really interesting as well. I think that there’s a lot of delicious sparkling wine out there that also is more than just Champagne. And I think the reason I’m saying more than just Champagne is, I would love to drink it all the time. I think it’s absolutely delicious, but I just can’t afford that. For the Champagnes that I enjoy, they’re always well above 60 to 70 bucks a bottle. And it’s very rare that I drink reds or whites that I love that are above 60, 70 bucks a bottle. So to justify that in Champagne all the time is very, very difficult. So I don’t do it. But there’s bottles in the 20s and 30s that are from everywhere else that are equally delicious in the right moment.

T: To your point there, Adam, I think as well with domestic sparkling wine, you named Domaine Carneros. I’d say another go-to for me as well — you’ve mentioned it on the podcast before — but Gruet. I think you manage to capture that Champagne flavor profile. Some might argue that the nuance might not be there as with a $60 bottle of Champagne, but you capture that overall flavor profile. You can also find those wines practically everywhere, which I think is a huge plus. And they’re also budget-friendly. One of my favorite things to do in the “before times,” as we’re calling it these days. So living in Queens, some people might be familiar with some of the neighborhoods here. There’s a neighborhood close to me called Jackson Heights and they have the most amazing momo trucks. So what I would typically do is pick up a chilled bottle of Gruet, go down there, stick it in the larger size of the brown bag, and take along some cups and order some of those momos. And that pairing for me, it’s just one of the most incredible things. It’s something I would normally do to kick off Thanksgiving as well, but I’m not sure that’s going to happen this year, but that is a pairing that we might get onto pairings today, but that’s a pairing that isn’t very classical, but I want to put that one out there and claim it for myself, if I can.

A: Oh yeah. I read about that, that you do that in a publication called Eater, I think. There was an article written about how you do that, but I wasn’t sure if it was you because it mentioned a husband, so I’m not sure if it was you.

T: Well, what can I say? The quality of journalism and reporting these days, fact checking is not what it was.

Z: This is great, though, because I actually think Tim points to a really important story, whether it’s about the American sparklers or just sparkling wine more broadly, which is one of the cool things that we’ve seen emerge, at least I’ve seen I think, and it’s not exclusively the province of America, but I think you’ve seen it here a lot is this interesting approach to sparkling wine that that is there are producers that are making wines that are very much modeled intentionally after Champagne, in terms of the choice of varieties, the winemaking methodology. But you’ve also got producers who are working with almost every variety possible, whether it’s Germanic varieties like Riesling, and Gewürztraminer, and Müller-Thurgau and making sparkling wines from those, or making sparkling wines from other aromatic white varieties like Muscat and people making Pétillant-naturel or Pét-Nat wines here, there’s this incredible range of sparkling wines, and this kind of dovetails with the conversation, Adam, that you and I had with Keith a couple of weeks ago about American wine and some of the exciting places to look at. But one of the things that the U.S. has is a lot of these areas that are newer wine-producing regions that might not be quite suitable for big red-wine production. They’re cooler, they’re wetter, they have higher altitude, but they make for amazing potential spots for sparkling wine. And so this idea of expanding the idea of what sparkling wine means beyond this Champagne paradigm is really exciting to me. And I think those food pairings like the one that Tim discussed with the momos or the incredible range of cuisines that we see in this country. I mean, that is where sparkling wine shines. Besides just as a drink by itself, as I described at the beginning, but yeah as this incredible pairing tool, because sparkling wine itself is so diverse and can work with so many different flavors. And so I found incredible pairings at home with take-out Indian food and some interesting Pét-Nat Lemberger from here in Washington. That was a weird-a** pairing, but I thought it worked pretty well, especially with things like paneer cheese that work with a lot of different flavors. So yeah, the possibility space for those of us who are interested in drinking sparkling wine is really broad, and having a broader canvas of wines to work with is also super exciting.

A: Absolutely. And I think the thing that you’re picking up on that is really cool is just how delicious these wines are with a range of cuisines, and how well they go with a range of cuisines. I think a lot of people don’t think about that that often, right? I think we can blame movies and popular culture for this, but Champagne, or sparkling wine in general, but it all began with Champagne. Now it’s this celebratory drink, right? So you pop it at the beginning of a meal to cheers everyone. It’s the wedding drink when the bride and groom first come on and there’s the toast or whatever, but that there’s a lot more to these kinds of wines and they’re very complex. They have a lot of different flavors and aromas then other wines do that pair really well with even things like steak and roast chicken and stuff. That’s just delicious. You might be like, “Oh, I was feeling a red tonight.” Well actually like, you can do just a really delicious sparkling wine with lots of yeasty notes and a savory quality that makes it the perfect pairing for those kinds of things. I think, yeah, you’re right. The amount of fun that people are having with sparkling wine now is really interesting. I think that’s something that we’ve even seen in the re-emergence of Lambrusco. Like there’s this wine that got a really, really terrible rap in the ’70s and ’80s because the stuff coming over from Italy was just sickly sweet. But it’s a wine that comes from the same region as Parmesan cheese and prosciutto, right? And it’s made to go with those wines when it’s done really well. And it can be delicious and dry and easy to consume, obviously, cause it’s often lower alcohol, but then also just does beautifully with pizzas and does awesome with red meats and things like that and spice. And that’s been really fun to watch people discover that because it’s a great wine to have in your repertoire, along with, you know, whites and reds.

Z: Lambrusco is like the perfect wine for one of the few truly American foods, and that’s barbecue. And we’ve had, I guess we call it a spirited conversation about barbecue and what exactly that word means on this podcast, people can go back and listen to the barbecue wine podcast that we did over the summer to get more detail. I’m not going to reiterate everything that was said there, but I do think it’s important to point out that Lambrusco works really, really well with almost any variety of barbecue. And also is one of my absolute favorite pairings for a dish that I don’t personally have very often, because it’s not really what I do, but a very classic edition in December, which is a Christmas ham. Because as Adam mentioned, Lambrusco is from Emilia-Romagna, which is the salted pork capital of the world. So if you’re going to have salty pork, you should have Lambrusco.

A: It makes sense. It makes sense.

Z: And it is really like the capital of the world. I cannot overemphasize how much cured pork I had in my couple of days in Emilia-Romagna. It was — obscene isn’t even the right word. It was something beyond obscene.

A: I want to go to Emilia-Romagna.

Z: It’s very un-picturesque.

A: I just want to go there for the salted pork.

Z: And actually surprisingly also, and this is a thing that comes up in Italy, they have some of the best bread in Italy, which Italian bread is really hit or miss. Like just absolutely dreadful bread, uh, but Emilia-Romagna’s bread is good. Tim, I have a question for you, because we were talking about the culture and the context in which people drink sparkling wine here. And Adam made a dig about tea earlier, or at least hinted at it. But, I was going to say that I think there’s a perception in this country right or wrong that the Brits are more sophisticated when it comes to wine than Americans traditionally. Is the role of sparkling wine in England functionally different than what it is here? Is that something that’s changed, or what’s it classically like there? Or maybe in the modern day?

T: Yeah, that’s a great question. And I think, the simple answer is that, in my experience, I don’t think that British culture is in any way more sophisticated when it comes to wine or any other type of drinking, but I should add the caveat that I also grew up in Scotland, as well. So, that’s a whole different story. Just search for Buckfast and read about that. And if you’re not familiar with it, that will reveal some things about us as a nation. So I would say that sparkling wine, I don’t think it does have that connotation as only being for celebrations. It’s definitely present at the celebrations. Any occasion I can remember growing up, getting together as a family, there would always be Champagne there. But I’d say more in recent years, and this is even before I came of drinking age. I remember growing up and Cava being so huge in the U.K. And maybe there was some kind of breakout moment where we were told as a nation, “This is like Champagne, but it’s a lot cheaper.” And then at some point there was a shift. I want to say that it was probably about 12 years ago, maybe a little bit longer, where Cava changed to Prosecco. And you know, through the lens of, “Is sparkling wine only for celebration?” I would say absolutely not. Especially for the majority of the nation. It would stun me if Prosecco wasn’t the best-selling wine in the U.K. You know, maybe rosé or maybe something like Malbec might challenge it, but Prosecco is just so popular, and it’s everywhere, and it’s definitely not like the celebration wine. It’s wine for every day. It’s the wine for when my mum gets together with her friends, or when you go out to brunch with friends, or, I guess all the occasions that we have it here, as well, but it just always seems to be on the table.

A: It seemed to happen in the U.K. and in the U.S. around the same time for some reason. It just popped. Everyone, all of a sudden — obviously Prosecco was here for longer, but it feels like all of a sudden people were aware of it. And they knew it by name. And I think what’s become really interesting, now we’re getting onto the business side, is that yeah, during Covid right while Champagne sales slumped, Prosecco interest and sales continued to stay fairly high, and people were asking for Prosecco by name. So where they might call an American sparkler Champagne, they know now to call Prosecco “Prosecco.” It’s become this thing that is this just massive behemoth that people recognize as like the sparkling wine you can drink all the time. And yes, I mean, if you want to toast with it great, but also if you just want it on a Tuesday night with take-out, and then you want to watch Netflix, it’s a great wine to have, and it’s just been everywhere. And that, I think, has been really interesting. And the only thing I wonder about with Prosecco is like, how much more can it grow? Because it’s just grown so much, but it doesn’t really show a ton of signs of slowing. So, there definitely is still opportunity.

Z: Adam. I have a question for you and for Tim, of course, too, if he has thought about this. So, you mentioned the business side of it and the growth of Prosecco and the fact that it’s now a category distinct from Champagne, and then I guess sparkling wine more broadly. But what I wonder is the thing I haven’t seen a lot of, I’ve seen a little bit of it, but not a lot of it, is producers in the United States or other parts of the world really trying to go after Prosecco’s market share directly. So you see a lot of people pushing other kinds of traditional-method, fully sparkling wines as an alternative. Oh, you know, whether it’s Cava, whether it’s other Italian sparkling wines, whether it’s domestics, et cetera, but you don’t see people saying, “Hey, we’re going to try and make a wine that, flavor-profile-wise, is similar to Prosecco.” Now, maybe that’s because no one else is growing Glera. And so they’re not going to really make something that tastes exactly like it because they’re not growing the grape. But I think a lot of it is maybe that for whatever reason the success of Prosecco, no one has an explanation in the wine world. No one really understands it. They don’t know whether to credit it to the style of wine itself or just it’s relative affordability, and the fact that I guess the name resonates with people, it’s easy for people to pronounce and remember. That stuff matters, too. I don’t know. Do either of you have a read on why you’re not seeing more people making semi-sparkling, tank-method sparkling wines, and trying to push them as Prosecco alternatives?

A: I do. I think that sparkling wine, for the majority of consumers, is a lifestyle beverage. It’s much more similar to rosé than it is to other wines. And so when you’re talking about a lifestyle beverage, you’re talking about what else that wine represents, besides quality-to-price ratio, the grape it’s made from, whatever. Prosecco represents to most American consumers now a posh, Italian lifestyle. It represents this idea of Italy and Milan and what’s really funny is, and Venice, it represents everything. And I remember talking to a few French corporate producers about this last year at a conference. And they’re like, “But we are closer to Milan” and I’m like that’s fine. But we’re Americans, we don’t know where Omaha is compared to where New Orleans is. We don’t. We have a very weird idea about where things are in other countries. And so it’s like, wait, of course Prosecco is closer to Milan, and maybe Rome, too, but it just represents Italy as a whole. And in the same way that Champagne to people represents this posh French lifestyle. Which is why I think Crémant could never really unseat that in most Americans’ minds and make them aware of that. ‘Cause Champagne already represents that to them. So like “the budget-level Champagne from France,” I’m not interested in that. I’m interested in the lifestyle of high-end French culture and fashion and food, and that’s Champagne. Again, right now I don’t know what that could be for Cava. Can you tie that to Barcelona? It’s super close to Barcelona, but no one’s done that yet. No one’s really been able to figure out how to make you connect the culture of that sparkling wine to that lifestyle, because again, I think we’re still, as Americans, unsure of what Barcelona is as a lifestyle place. Whereas Italy and France, we really know. It’s fashion and food and all the things that we love. And that’s why I also think you don’t see American producers trying to copy it, because it’s hard. Like what are you copying? Yes, you can potentially copy the flavor profile and the price, but you can’t copy all the other things that it says about you. And I think sparkling wine is truly a product where Americans think a lot about what it says about them in the same way we think about the fashion brands we wear, or the kinds of furniture we choose to have in our homes or whatever. What’s the initial connection? The “brand-this-type-of-person” connection that people make to say, “Oh, well they drink these brands, they must be this kind of person.” And so it’s very hard to compete against. And like it’s interesting to me that it took the Italians this long to make it click, but they did. And now I think it’s just very strong.

Z: That’s fascinating, Adam. I know we’ve talked about that context or that idea in the context of Champagne specifically as a luxury brand item, but it had never occurred to me that it just is true in a different way for Prosecco — that’s super fascinating.

T: Yeah, I think you both raise really great points there about sparkling wine in general, and I guess certain sparkling wines becoming brands within themselves, right? Like Champagne, Prosecco, maybe Cava to a lesser extent, but I don’t feel like there are many others in the world, right? Like Corpinnat. That’s never gonna break out, or Franciacorta, sorry guys. I don’t think it ever is either. But looking at the business perspectives, Zach, I think there’s another interesting aspect here that someone mentioned to me recently, I can’t remember who I was speaking with. And they were talking about the fact that it was probably a very good idea that, as of late two thousands, the Glera grape was known as Prosecco. And then it was changed so that, when grown within Europe, it needs to be called Glera now. And I think that was a very savvy decision to protect the Prosecco brand, right? Because otherwise what could happen, you could have all these different producers in other countries where maybe they could make wine for cheaper and even undercut the price of Prosecco, use that grape and use it on the labels, and then that could create all kinds of problems for the Italians. So I think that’s an interesting thing to explore a little bit from the business side of things.

A: I don’t know. I think the other thing too, with the American styles, for whatever reason, they are just trying very hard to be either the Champagne equivalent or be so obvious that they’re not, that all I’ve ever seen in an American sparkling wine or in the majority of them — and I’m looking at a few of them on the floor of the room I’m in right now — they kind of copy the look of Champagne. The label, everything, and so you’re like ‘Oh, so this is the Champagne alternative.” And I always wonder, are they doing this in case the consumer doesn’t realize this isn’t Champagne? Or is this really what they’re going for? Or then they’re very modern, right? Ultra-modern-looking labels and things like that, which I also don’t think totally works. But again, it comes to that connection, right? I think if you had a sparkling wine region that was really close to New York, or really close to maybe L.A. or something else that we think of as being super posh, maybe you could have that tie into fashion and that tie into culture that would make it be a much stronger luxury product, but you don’t. And with Champagne or with Prosecco, you have that. And you look at how these packages are designed for both of those kinds of skews, and for the most part, they evoke other luxury brands. I mean, you look at Luminore by LaMarca and that blue, which is beautiful on the bottle, also definitely nods to Tiffany’s. It definitely does, we know that blue. You look at the Mionetto bottle, and it nods to Veuve Clicquot. You look at a lot of these different well-known brands on both the Prosecco and a Champagne market, and I think they just do a much better job than sparkling wine around the rest of the world at positioning themselves as what most consumers consider them to be, which is luxury products.

Z: And the last point I wanna make, ‘cause it ties all those things together in some sense to me, is that one thing I would encourage our listeners to think about is that Prosecco, Champagne, Crémant, Cava et cetera, these are only a slice of what’s possible in this sparkling wine realm. And I think that one of the encouraging things for me, as I mentioned before, is that producers and importers and distributors are starting to see the value in having a really wide breadth of sparkling wine options for people, whether that now includes things like Lambrusco, whether that includes Pét-Nat, whether that includes some other kinds of interesting wines. Whether it’s the variety, the methodology, whatever, sparkling wine is a really diverse category and it’s growing more diverse all the time. And while the classics and the tent-pole styles and icons are still delicious and worth investing in and worth checking out, I do think that one thing that will be exciting in Bubbly Weeks to come, hopefully, is discussing the incredible possibility space that’s still out there that we’re just starting to explore as a broader wine-drinking community.

A: Absolutely. Well, I hope everyone has a wonderful Bubbly Week and you drink lots of sparkling wine. I know I plan to. Tim, thanks for joining us as this week’s guest host. Always a pleasure to have you, sir.

T: Always a pleasure to be here. Thank you both for having me.

A: Yeah man. I mean, I don’t want to keep you away from your tea, so we’re gonna let you go. I’m sure you have a hot pot going with a little bit of a biscuits as well. Everyone, thanks for listening. Leave us a like, comment, review on iTunes, Spotify, wherever you get podcasts. It helps everyone discover the show. Zach, I’ll talk to you next week, man.

Z: Sounds great.

Thanks so much for listening to the VinePair Podcast. If you enjoy listening to us every week, please leave us a review or rating on iTunes, Spotify, or wherever it is that you get your podcasts. It really helps everyone else discover the show. Now for the credits, VinePair produced by myself and Zach. It is also mixed and edited by him. Yeah, Zach, we know you do a lot. I’d also like to thank the entire VinePair team, including my co-founder, Josh, and our associate editor, Cat. Thanks so much for listening. See you next week.

Ed. note: This episode has been edited for length and clarity.

The article VinePair Podcast: Sparkling Wine Is Having a Moment appeared first on VinePair.

source https://vinepair.com/articles/bubbly-week-podcast-2020/

[johnboothus]

VinePair Podcast: Sparkling Wine Is Having a Moment

December is traditionally the month when wine drinkers think about sparkling wine the most, whether to augment their holiday celebrations or to bring a bit of cheer to cold and dreary weather. However, the incredible range and diversity of sparkling wines now available in the United States make a strong argument to turn sparkling wine into an all-seasons beverage.

To kick of VinePair’s celebration of Bubbly Week, Adam Teeter and Zach Geballe are joined by guest host and VinePair staff writer Tim McKirdy to discuss some of their favorite offerings, why American sparklers are taking off in wine regions all over the country, and how Prosecco, just like Champagne, has turned itself into a luxury brand.

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Adam: From Brooklyn, New York, I’m Adam Teeter.

Tim: From Queens, New York, Tim McKirdy.

Zach: And in Seattle, Washington I’m Zach Geballe.

A: And this is the VinePair Podcast. And before we get into the podcast, a word from today’s sponsor. This podcast, and Bubbly Week, which is occurring this week, when this podcast is airing, and it’s all about bubbles, and it’s one of our favorite weeks of the year here at VinePair, is sponsored by Luminore by LaMarca, J Vineyards & Winery, and Otello Lambrusco. And with that, we’re on to the pod. So we’re going to talk about bubbly in a little bit, but before we jump into all things sparkling, Tim! You’re our guest host for this week. It’s great to have you, a staff writer at VinePair. Obviously, we’ve explained to you the rules of the game, so what have you been drinking recently?

T: Well, thank you guys for having me on. So, yeah. What have I been drinking recently?

A: Besides tea, obviously. Because I want to say this. I’ve noticed that in every British program I watch recently, there’s a lot of tea consumption. And do you guys really like tea, or is it just a ruse? Do you put it on for the tourists?

T: Well, I would say that’s better than your comment you made to me the other day about dentists and British people. I like tea, but if I’m drinking it for the purposes we normally have hot drinks, to get going in the morning or whatever, I prefer a coffee. But if I need something to warm me up in the afternoon, I will go for an Earl Grey. But I haven’t been drinking a lot of that recently. To return to your original question, as my 10 Instagram followers will know, I tend to drink a lot of Martinis, and I recently discovered a Japanese vermouth. It’s not actually technically a vermouth because it’s made with a sake base, but it’s Bermutto, and I thought that it’s the perfect pairing for some of the range of incredible Japanese gins that are out there these days. So, yeah, I’ve been using that for my Friday night Martini and will probably add a little bit more vermouth then I typically go for, just because the flavor is incredible. I’ll normally go like super dry, just a splash, but yeah, maybe even go up to a two to one.

A: Wait, where did you discover this sake-based vermouth?

T: So this was actually a product I’ve received as a sample and enjoyed, and it was sent to me as a gift by someone. So we were doing the huge vermouth roundup, and I was reaching out to try tons of different sweet vermouths for a different story that I was writing about Negronis, and the person that I was in contact with with like, “Well, you have to try this dry vermouth” because they actually happen to know that I’m a big Martini lover as well. So they sent that along, and it’s wonderful. And it’s hard to glean the name of the producer from the bottle. There’s not too much information on there, but if I get it, maybe we can add it to the show notes.

Z: Or you all can go follow Tim on Instagram, and we can make sure he posts a picture of the bottle there.

T: That’s what I was really aiming for there. You know, you’ve got to follow me now.

Z: Double that follower count for you. We’re going to go from 10 to 20.

A: Seriously Tim, come on, man.

T: It’s an incredible, a really wonderful Martini, and really highlights some of the amazing Japanese gins that are out there these days, too. So yeah, go out there and look for it, there can’t be too many on the market. So if you find one online, it’s probably the same one I’m drinking.

A: Well now I’m jealous, but that’s fine.

Z: Wasn’t that the point of this whole, this whole bit here, Adam?

A: It’s also not the first time I’ve been jealous of Tim, so it’s OK. Zach, what about you?

Z: To me, the most striking thing that I had this last week, I taught a class about Rioja this past weekend and opened the current vintage, or I guess they’ve just switched vintages, but the 2007 Reserva from López de Heredia, I think we’ve talked about him a little bit already on this podcast before honestly, their Vina Tondonia, which is one of their single vineyard Riojas. And two thoughts struck my mind. One is: I just adore those wines. They’re definitely not the thing that I want all the time. I have to be in the right kind of mood and place for them to work for me, whether it’s the reds or even the whites. But the other thing I’d say is, it reminded me in doing it for this class, it brought back all these memories I had of selling it as a sommelier and how much I had to fight with that wine in a restaurant setting, because it really needs like four or five hours in a decanter before it really is enjoyable. And for me at home, whatever, that’s fine, I’ll open it and then come back to it in the evening when I’m ready, and I actually encourage the people in my class to open it hours beforehand. But boy, it was a pain in the ass in restaurants, and I love the wines, and it’s not meant as a knock on them, but it was hard as a sommelier to explain to people that like, well, really, if you want to enjoy this wine, you should have ordered it four hours ago.

A: Oh my God. Yeah, I’ve only had their wine once or twice. I don’t remember how long it was decanted for.

Z: The white is a little bit more forgiving. The reds are just typically—

A: Oh, you had the red. I thought you had had the white.

Z: No, I have had both, although the red is the one I had the other day, and delicious with time to open, but you gotta plan ahead. It makes sense this past week of Thanksgiving, where all the food you prepare takes a long time to queue up. So it’s kinda like, the wine equivalent to making a turkey or something like that.

A: So can you just explain so what would it be like if you hadn’t given it time? Is it just incredibly tight and there’s nothing there?

Z: And maybe one day we’ll do a podcast topic about some of these wine terms that are hard to define, like “tight,” but basically to me, when I describe a wine that way, what I would say is that the overwhelming sensation of the wines are the structural elements. So the tannins and the acid, it’s kind of the equivalent experience you get sometimes if you have a white wine that’s too cold, where sometimes all you taste is the acidity in the wine and the fruit profile and the aromatics are really muted because the wine is too cold. With reds, serving temperature can affect that, but it’s more often just with wines like that that are aged for a very long time in barrel, and then for very long time in bottle, they just need that time in a decanter, or at least being open on your table or something to really fully start to express themselves. And so when you taste it just freshly opened, you taste nothing but really tart fruit and a lot of tannin and almost aggressively medicinal quality. And then when you come back to it, three, four, five hours later, the fruit is a little bit more generous, although still quite dry. And then you get much more of this savory, but not off-putting notes that you get when it’s just freshly open. So more of the leathery, wood, smoke notes that I really enjoy, but it takes a little while to come out of the wine when it’s just been opened.

A: Interesting. Interesting.

Z: What have you been drinking, Adam?

A: Oh gosh, a few things. Drinking a lot more wine lately, obviously, than cocktails. And beer, ‘cause I love beer. I drank a really great KCBC beer Kings County Brewers Collective, but I forgot the name of it. It was their seasonal this year, but just a delicious, hazy IPA. That was pretty tasty. But then on Saturday night I made fresh pasta with truffles, and I opened a bottle of Cogno Ravera Barolo that was dope. Really, really, really, really good. I think it was our No. 1 of the year two years ago on the VinePair list. And it was just a beautiful bottle. And again, the reason I was asking is because the same thing happened with the Barolo. I popped it and let it sit for like 45 minutes in the decanter, and when we first drank it, it was all tannins still. And then 30 minutes later, it had completely opened. So I guess basically an hour and 15 minutes sitting in the decanter, and then it was beautiful. But it was just crazy how that happens. So, yeah, that’s basically what I’ve been drinking recently.

T: Look at you guys, men of the people, popping out the decanters.

A: Shut up, Tim. Shut up Tim, usually —

Z: Why did you bring Tim on this podcast, again, Adam?

A: Because it’s fun.

T: Actually I saw that, Adam, I think I saw you posting it on Instagram and I was like, wow yeah, that’s the way to spend a Saturday night.

A: No, that was the second bottle. Remember, I texted you this, you messaged me on Instagram. And I was like, yeah, I made a mistake. Like we’re doing a Zoom with some people at 10 p.m. and it’s only 8:30, so I’m going to pop another one. And now that I’ve already had this bottle, I’m going to have another bottle, and continue watching my football game.

T: It’s a whole new meaning to the term double decanting.

Z: Oh my God.

A: Yeah, totally

Z: Tim with the fire today.

A: Always the fire, it’s the best. But it’s funny, ‘cause I really haven’t had a lot of cocktails recently. I love a Martini. Tim has inspired me, but I haven’t made one yet this season actually as it’s gotten cooler, I think I need to later this week. I don’t know if I’ll do it tonight.

Z: I mean, it’s a great week for it. We’re recording this obviously before Thanksgiving and is there a better couple of days to be drinking Martinis at 2 p.m. than on Thursday and Friday of Thanksgiving week?

A: When you’re with your in-laws?

Z: Hmm, fair enough. I don’t know. You might need the Martini. I’m sure Naomi’s parents are lovely, lovely people.

T: I’d like to think of it like if New Year’s Eve is the Super Bowl of drinking, then Thanksgiving is the playoffs, right? You know, we’re leading in the season, we’re getting there. So, you know, mid-week Martini might be appropriate. Who knows?

A: I agree, Tim. I have another question for you before we jump into today’s podcast, how’s your storage unit doing?

T: My storage unit is brilliant. I wanted to come live from that, but this is maybe not a problem not all of our listeners have, but living in New York, having an incredibly small apartment and basically being confined to that apartment for gosh, eight months now, my girlfriend and I had the realization the other day of “why don’t we get a storage unit?” And it’s honestly a game changer. I got my wines in there that I want to age, you know, it’s temperature controlled. I say my “wines that I want to age,” there’s like 12 bottles, no illusion. But honestly, this is a game changer. If you live in New York, public storage, it’s wonderful. You get a great deal. I highly recommend it.

Z: Do you have a promo code for us, Tim? So we’ll save 10 percent off if they drop your name?

T: 10 pounds off with “McKirdy Martini”

Z: 10 pounds. Oh my goodness. That’s actually funny that you mention that, though. ‘Cause I actually, my wife and I, we rent a house here in Seattle, but with a child it became clear that with Covid and quarantine, it was not big enough. So we actually also rented a storage unit a couple of months ago, and it has also been a game changer in our house because now my wife and I don’t have to fight about how we’re going to find room for anything, any new toy for our son, because we put all the old toys in storage and yeah, I’m team storage locker, too.

T: Yeah, my girlfriend and I said, think of all the things that we can buy direct to storage. It’s brilliant.

A: I can’t. You two are too ridiculous. So let’s jump into bubbles, shall we? Always a fun time of year, always a fun topic. This is one of my favorite weeks of content we do every year. And it’s really awesome that for the past three years, it’s been sponsored by Luminore by LaMarca, J Vineyards & Winery, and now Otello Lambrusco. But it’s a celebration of all things bubbles. I didn’t drink as many bubbles in early Covid just because it didn’t feel like it was a celebratory time, but I’m really ready to drink bubbles now. And just of all kinds, do either of you drink bubbles regularly? And if you do, do you have one that’s a go-to or a kind of style as a go-to? And don’t say Champagnes, Zach. I know you’re a somm, but we don’t need to tell everyone else.

Z: I would say that I do drink sparkling wine, a lot, including Champagne. My wife is a big fan as am I, to be fair. I would say, though, that as far as go-tos, it’s been really interesting. That’s been something that I think has changed a lot for me over the last couple of years. If you had asked me this question a few years ago, I think I would have said Crémant and I would’ve just left it there, and I still drink a decent amount of Crémant. For those who are unfamiliar with Crémant there’s a range of different regional Crémant appellations throughout France that refer to basically wines made in the traditional or Champagne method, but not in Champagne itself. And they can often be really, really good. They’re not usually aged as long as Champagnes. Certainly not as long as vintage Champagnes, but even your standard Champagne bottlings typically spend more time aging than most Crémant, but they’re very good. They’re often very good. They’re serious wines. They’re taken very seriously by the producers in most cases. And they’re obviously significantly more affordable in many cases than Champagne, but for me, actually, I surprisingly, perhaps to myself, have found myself actually gravitating towards drinking a lot more Prosecco than I used to. It started by visiting the region a couple of years ago and having some Prosecco that was — let’s say it was just a different category of Prosecco than I was familiar with from just working as a sommelier and as a wine drinker here in the States. Fortunately, a lot of those wines have become more available in the U.S. over the last few years, or at least here in the Seattle market. And I find myself really enjoying a lot of the balance that you find in Prosecco that is actually sometimes harder to find in a lot of sparkling wines, because the Prosecco is typically not quite as acidic and typically has a little bit more residual sugar. And so it’s a little bit more balanced unto itself, whereas sparkling wine, especially Champagne and Crémant, is delicious and an awesome pairing with a lot of foods, but if I just want to have a glass by itself, I actually find myself more gravitating towards Prosecco and I think that’s something that’s been a broader trend in this country. And that people have realized that if they’re just going to have a glass of something sparkling, I think more than ever before, that thing is Prosecco. And I guess I’ve just caught up with the trend.

A: Interesting. Tim?

T: Yeah. I definitely am a lover of all sparkling wines. I think it’s probably up there with my favorite styles or go-to bottles. It’s something I definitely drink quite regularly. When it’s just a normal week, probably not during the week, but a normal weekend, I will be looking for something in the store that’s a little bit more budget-friendly. Like Zach says, I do tend to find a lot of value in Crémant wines from France. Tons of great American sparklers as our friend Keith Beavers likes to call them.

Z: And only Keith, let’s be clear.

A: Yeah, no, I think he’s onto something, people. I actually think “American Sparkler” is a great name for sparkling wine from the U.S.

T: Let’s make that happen.

A: Let’s make it happen. We’re making it happen.

T: I think Cava as well as is another style of sparkling wine that I think if you know where to look and spend just a couple of bucks extra, I think you can find some amazing wines in there, aged on lees, that are just fantastic.

A: Nice. I mean, it’s interesting. Yeah. I don’t drink as much sparkling wine as I would like to, but I do think I’ve found myself recently drinking a lot more American sparkling wine, like the stuff from, for example, Domaine Carneros, any of those kinds of producers like that are out in California. I think that there’s some people doing really interesting things. Also a lot of the Italian sparkling wine — not just Prosecco, but Franciacorta as well as the stuff coming from other areas that are just really interesting as well. I think that there’s a lot of delicious sparkling wine out there that also is more than just Champagne. And I think the reason I’m saying more than just Champagne is, I would love to drink it all the time. I think it’s absolutely delicious, but I just can’t afford that. For the Champagnes that I enjoy, they’re always well above 60 to 70 bucks a bottle. And it’s very rare that I drink reds or whites that I love that are above 60, 70 bucks a bottle. So to justify that in Champagne all the time is very, very difficult. So I don’t do it. But there’s bottles in the 20s and 30s that are from everywhere else that are equally delicious in the right moment.

T: To your point there, Adam, I think as well with domestic sparkling wine, you named Domaine Carneros. I’d say another go-to for me as well — you’ve mentioned it on the podcast before — but Gruet. I think you manage to capture that Champagne flavor profile. Some might argue that the nuance might not be there as with a $60 bottle of Champagne, but you capture that overall flavor profile. You can also find those wines practically everywhere, which I think is a huge plus. And they’re also budget-friendly. One of my favorite things to do in the “before times,” as we’re calling it these days. So living in Queens, some people might be familiar with some of the neighborhoods here. There’s a neighborhood close to me called Jackson Heights and they have the most amazing momo trucks. So what I would typically do is pick up a chilled bottle of Gruet, go down there, stick it in the larger size of the brown bag, and take along some cups and order some of those momos. And that pairing for me, it’s just one of the most incredible things. It’s something I would normally do to kick off Thanksgiving as well, but I’m not sure that’s going to happen this year, but that is a pairing that we might get onto pairings today, but that’s a pairing that isn’t very classical, but I want to put that one out there and claim it for myself, if I can.

A: Oh yeah. I read about that, that you do that in a publication called Eater, I think. There was an article written about how you do that, but I wasn’t sure if it was you because it mentioned a husband, so I’m not sure if it was you.

T: Well, what can I say? The quality of journalism and reporting these days, fact checking is not what it was.

Z: This is great, though, because I actually think Tim points to a really important story, whether it’s about the American sparklers or just sparkling wine more broadly, which is one of the cool things that we’ve seen emerge, at least I’ve seen I think, and it’s not exclusively the province of America, but I think you’ve seen it here a lot is this interesting approach to sparkling wine that that is there are producers that are making wines that are very much modeled intentionally after Champagne, in terms of the choice of varieties, the winemaking methodology. But you’ve also got producers who are working with almost every variety possible, whether it’s Germanic varieties like Riesling, and Gewürztraminer, and Müller-Thurgau and making sparkling wines from those, or making sparkling wines from other aromatic white varieties like Muscat and people making Pétillant-naturel or Pét-Nat wines here, there’s this incredible range of sparkling wines, and this kind of dovetails with the conversation, Adam, that you and I had with Keith a couple of weeks ago about American wine and some of the exciting places to look at. But one of the things that the U.S. has is a lot of these areas that are newer wine-producing regions that might not be quite suitable for big red-wine production. They’re cooler, they’re wetter, they have higher altitude, but they make for amazing potential spots for sparkling wine. And so this idea of expanding the idea of what sparkling wine means beyond this Champagne paradigm is really exciting to me. And I think those food pairings like the one that Tim discussed with the momos or the incredible range of cuisines that we see in this country. I mean, that is where sparkling wine shines. Besides just as a drink by itself, as I described at the beginning, but yeah as this incredible pairing tool, because sparkling wine itself is so diverse and can work with so many different flavors. And so I found incredible pairings at home with take-out Indian food and some interesting Pét-Nat Lemberger from here in Washington. That was a weird-a** pairing, but I thought it worked pretty well, especially with things like paneer cheese that work with a lot of different flavors. So yeah, the possibility space for those of us who are interested in drinking sparkling wine is really broad, and having a broader canvas of wines to work with is also super exciting.

A: Absolutely. And I think the thing that you’re picking up on that is really cool is just how delicious these wines are with a range of cuisines, and how well they go with a range of cuisines. I think a lot of people don’t think about that that often, right? I think we can blame movies and popular culture for this, but Champagne, or sparkling wine in general, but it all began with Champagne. Now it’s this celebratory drink, right? So you pop it at the beginning of a meal to cheers everyone. It’s the wedding drink when the bride and groom first come on and there’s the toast or whatever, but that there’s a lot more to these kinds of wines and they’re very complex. They have a lot of different flavors and aromas then other wines do that pair really well with even things like steak and roast chicken and stuff. That’s just delicious. You might be like, “Oh, I was feeling a red tonight.” Well actually like, you can do just a really delicious sparkling wine with lots of yeasty notes and a savory quality that makes it the perfect pairing for those kinds of things. I think, yeah, you’re right. The amount of fun that people are having with sparkling wine now is really interesting. I think that’s something that we’ve even seen in the re-emergence of Lambrusco. Like there’s this wine that got a really, really terrible rap in the ’70s and ’80s because the stuff coming over from Italy was just sickly sweet. But it’s a wine that comes from the same region as Parmesan cheese and prosciutto, right? And it’s made to go with those wines when it’s done really well. And it can be delicious and dry and easy to consume, obviously, cause it’s often lower alcohol, but then also just does beautifully with pizzas and does awesome with red meats and things like that and spice. And that’s been really fun to watch people discover that because it’s a great wine to have in your repertoire, along with, you know, whites and reds.

Z: Lambrusco is like the perfect wine for one of the few truly American foods, and that’s barbecue. And we’ve had, I guess we call it a spirited conversation about barbecue and what exactly that word means on this podcast, people can go back and listen to the barbecue wine podcast that we did over the summer to get more detail. I’m not going to reiterate everything that was said there, but I do think it’s important to point out that Lambrusco works really, really well with almost any variety of barbecue. And also is one of my absolute favorite pairings for a dish that I don’t personally have very often, because it’s not really what I do, but a very classic edition in December, which is a Christmas ham. Because as Adam mentioned, Lambrusco is from Emilia-Romagna, which is the salted pork capital of the world. So if you’re going to have salty pork, you should have Lambrusco.

A: It makes sense. It makes sense.

Z: And it is really like the capital of the world. I cannot overemphasize how much cured pork I had in my couple of days in Emilia-Romagna. It was — obscene isn’t even the right word. It was something beyond obscene.

A: I want to go to Emilia-Romagna.

Z: It’s very un-picturesque.

A: I just want to go there for the salted pork.

Z: And actually surprisingly also, and this is a thing that comes up in Italy, they have some of the best bread in Italy, which Italian bread is really hit or miss. Like just absolutely dreadful bread, uh, but Emilia-Romagna’s bread is good. Tim, I have a question for you, because we were talking about the culture and the context in which people drink sparkling wine here. And Adam made a dig about tea earlier, or at least hinted at it. But, I was going to say that I think there’s a perception in this country right or wrong that the Brits are more sophisticated when it comes to wine than Americans traditionally. Is the role of sparkling wine in England functionally different than what it is here? Is that something that’s changed, or what’s it classically like there? Or maybe in the modern day?

T: Yeah, that’s a great question. And I think, the simple answer is that, in my experience, I don’t think that British culture is in any way more sophisticated when it comes to wine or any other type of drinking, but I should add the caveat that I also grew up in Scotland, as well. So, that’s a whole different story. Just search for Buckfast and read about that. And if you’re not familiar with it, that will reveal some things about us as a nation. So I would say that sparkling wine, I don’t think it does have that connotation as only being for celebrations. It’s definitely present at the celebrations. Any occasion I can remember growing up, getting together as a family, there would always be Champagne there. But I’d say more in recent years, and this is even before I came of drinking age. I remember growing up and Cava being so huge in the U.K. And maybe there was some kind of breakout moment where we were told as a nation, “This is like Champagne, but it’s a lot cheaper.” And then at some point there was a shift. I want to say that it was probably about 12 years ago, maybe a little bit longer, where Cava changed to Prosecco. And you know, through the lens of, “Is sparkling wine only for celebration?” I would say absolutely not. Especially for the majority of the nation. It would stun me if Prosecco wasn’t the best-selling wine in the U.K. You know, maybe rosé or maybe something like Malbec might challenge it, but Prosecco is just so popular, and it’s everywhere, and it’s definitely not like the celebration wine. It’s wine for every day. It’s the wine for when my mum gets together with her friends, or when you go out to brunch with friends, or, I guess all the occasions that we have it here, as well, but it just always seems to be on the table.

A: It seemed to happen in the U.K. and in the U.S. around the same time for some reason. It just popped. Everyone, all of a sudden — obviously Prosecco was here for longer, but it feels like all of a sudden people were aware of it. And they knew it by name. And I think what’s become really interesting, now we’re getting onto the business side, is that yeah, during Covid right while Champagne sales slumped, Prosecco interest and sales continued to stay fairly high, and people were asking for Prosecco by name. So where they might call an American sparkler Champagne, they know now to call Prosecco “Prosecco.” It’s become this thing that is this just massive behemoth that people recognize as like the sparkling wine you can drink all the time. And yes, I mean, if you want to toast with it great, but also if you just want it on a Tuesday night with take-out, and then you want to watch Netflix, it’s a great wine to have, and it’s just been everywhere. And that, I think, has been really interesting. And the only thing I wonder about with Prosecco is like, how much more can it grow? Because it’s just grown so much, but it doesn’t really show a ton of signs of slowing. So, there definitely is still opportunity.

Z: Adam. I have a question for you and for Tim, of course, too, if he has thought about this. So, you mentioned the business side of it and the growth of Prosecco and the fact that it’s now a category distinct from Champagne, and then I guess sparkling wine more broadly. But what I wonder is the thing I haven’t seen a lot of, I’ve seen a little bit of it, but not a lot of it, is producers in the United States or other parts of the world really trying to go after Prosecco’s market share directly. So you see a lot of people pushing other kinds of traditional-method, fully sparkling wines as an alternative. Oh, you know, whether it’s Cava, whether it’s other Italian sparkling wines, whether it’s domestics, et cetera, but you don’t see people saying, “Hey, we’re going to try and make a wine that, flavor-profile-wise, is similar to Prosecco.” Now, maybe that’s because no one else is growing Glera. And so they’re not going to really make something that tastes exactly like it because they’re not growing the grape. But I think a lot of it is maybe that for whatever reason the success of Prosecco, no one has an explanation in the wine world. No one really understands it. They don’t know whether to credit it to the style of wine itself or just it’s relative affordability, and the fact that I guess the name resonates with people, it’s easy for people to pronounce and remember. That stuff matters, too. I don’t know. Do either of you have a read on why you’re not seeing more people making semi-sparkling, tank-method sparkling wines, and trying to push them as Prosecco alternatives?

A: I do. I think that sparkling wine, for the majority of consumers, is a lifestyle beverage. It’s much more similar to rosé than it is to other wines. And so when you’re talking about a lifestyle beverage, you’re talking about what else that wine represents, besides quality-to-price ratio, the grape it’s made from, whatever. Prosecco represents to most American consumers now a posh, Italian lifestyle. It represents this idea of Italy and Milan and what’s really funny is, and Venice, it represents everything. And I remember talking to a few French corporate producers about this last year at a conference. And they’re like, “But we are closer to Milan” and I’m like that’s fine. But we’re Americans, we don’t know where Omaha is compared to where New Orleans is. We don’t. We have a very weird idea about where things are in other countries. And so it’s like, wait, of course Prosecco is closer to Milan, and maybe Rome, too, but it just represents Italy as a whole. And in the same way that Champagne to people represents this posh French lifestyle. Which is why I think Crémant could never really unseat that in most Americans’ minds and make them aware of that. ‘Cause Champagne already represents that to them. So like “the budget-level Champagne from France,” I’m not interested in that. I’m interested in the lifestyle of high-end French culture and fashion and food, and that’s Champagne. Again, right now I don’t know what that could be for Cava. Can you tie that to Barcelona? It’s super close to Barcelona, but no one’s done that yet. No one’s really been able to figure out how to make you connect the culture of that sparkling wine to that lifestyle, because again, I think we’re still, as Americans, unsure of what Barcelona is as a lifestyle place. Whereas Italy and France, we really know. It’s fashion and food and all the things that we love. And that’s why I also think you don’t see American producers trying to copy it, because it’s hard. Like what are you copying? Yes, you can potentially copy the flavor profile and the price, but you can’t copy all the other things that it says about you. And I think sparkling wine is truly a product where Americans think a lot about what it says about them in the same way we think about the fashion brands we wear, or the kinds of furniture we choose to have in our homes or whatever. What’s the initial connection? The “brand-this-type-of-person” connection that people make to say, “Oh, well they drink these brands, they must be this kind of person.” And so it’s very hard to compete against. And like it’s interesting to me that it took the Italians this long to make it click, but they did. And now I think it’s just very strong.

Z: That’s fascinating, Adam. I know we’ve talked about that context or that idea in the context of Champagne specifically as a luxury brand item, but it had never occurred to me that it just is true in a different way for Prosecco — that’s super fascinating.

T: Yeah, I think you both raise really great points there about sparkling wine in general, and I guess certain sparkling wines becoming brands within themselves, right? Like Champagne, Prosecco, maybe Cava to a lesser extent, but I don’t feel like there are many others in the world, right? Like Corpinnat. That’s never gonna break out, or Franciacorta, sorry guys. I don’t think it ever is either. But looking at the business perspectives, Zach, I think there’s another interesting aspect here that someone mentioned to me recently, I can’t remember who I was speaking with. And they were talking about the fact that it was probably a very good idea that, as of late two thousands, the Glera grape was known as Prosecco. And then it was changed so that, when grown within Europe, it needs to be called Glera now. And I think that was a very savvy decision to protect the Prosecco brand, right? Because otherwise what could happen, you could have all these different producers in other countries where maybe they could make wine for cheaper and even undercut the price of Prosecco, use that grape and use it on the labels, and then that could create all kinds of problems for the Italians. So I think that’s an interesting thing to explore a little bit from the business side of things.

A: I don’t know. I think the other thing too, with the American styles, for whatever reason, they are just trying very hard to be either the Champagne equivalent or be so obvious that they’re not, that all I’ve ever seen in an American sparkling wine or in the majority of them — and I’m looking at a few of them on the floor of the room I’m in right now — they kind of copy the look of Champagne. The label, everything, and so you’re like ‘Oh, so this is the Champagne alternative.” And I always wonder, are they doing this in case the consumer doesn’t realize this isn’t Champagne? Or is this really what they’re going for? Or then they’re very modern, right? Ultra-modern-looking labels and things like that, which I also don’t think totally works. But again, it comes to that connection, right? I think if you had a sparkling wine region that was really close to New York, or really close to maybe L.A. or something else that we think of as being super posh, maybe you could have that tie into fashion and that tie into culture that would make it be a much stronger luxury product, but you don’t. And with Champagne or with Prosecco, you have that. And you look at how these packages are designed for both of those kinds of skews, and for the most part, they evoke other luxury brands. I mean, you look at Luminore by LaMarca and that blue, which is beautiful on the bottle, also definitely nods to Tiffany’s. It definitely does, we know that blue. You look at the Mionetto bottle, and it nods to Veuve Clicquot. You look at a lot of these different well-known brands on both the Prosecco and a Champagne market, and I think they just do a much better job than sparkling wine around the rest of the world at positioning themselves as what most consumers consider them to be, which is luxury products.

Z: And the last point I wanna make, ‘cause it ties all those things together in some sense to me, is that one thing I would encourage our listeners to think about is that Prosecco, Champagne, Crémant, Cava et cetera, these are only a slice of what’s possible in this sparkling wine realm. And I think that one of the encouraging things for me, as I mentioned before, is that producers and importers and distributors are starting to see the value in having a really wide breadth of sparkling wine options for people, whether that now includes things like Lambrusco, whether that includes Pét-Nat, whether that includes some other kinds of interesting wines. Whether it’s the variety, the methodology, whatever, sparkling wine is a really diverse category and it’s growing more diverse all the time. And while the classics and the tent-pole styles and icons are still delicious and worth investing in and worth checking out, I do think that one thing that will be exciting in Bubbly Weeks to come, hopefully, is discussing the incredible possibility space that’s still out there that we’re just starting to explore as a broader wine-drinking community.

A: Absolutely. Well, I hope everyone has a wonderful Bubbly Week and you drink lots of sparkling wine. I know I plan to. Tim, thanks for joining us as this week’s guest host. Always a pleasure to have you, sir.

T: Always a pleasure to be here. Thank you both for having me.

A: Yeah man. I mean, I don’t want to keep you away from your tea, so we’re gonna let you go. I’m sure you have a hot pot going with a little bit of a biscuits as well. Everyone, thanks for listening. Leave us a like, comment, review on iTunes, Spotify, wherever you get podcasts. It helps everyone discover the show. Zach, I’ll talk to you next week, man.

Z: Sounds great.

Thanks so much for listening to the VinePair Podcast. If you enjoy listening to us every week, please leave us a review or rating on iTunes, Spotify, or wherever it is that you get your podcasts. It really helps everyone else discover the show. Now for the credits, VinePair produced by myself and Zach. It is also mixed and edited by him. Yeah, Zach, we know you do a lot. I’d also like to thank the entire VinePair team, including my co-founder, Josh, and our associate editor, Cat. Thanks so much for listening. See you next week.

Ed. note: This episode has been edited for length and clarity.

The article VinePair Podcast: Sparkling Wine Is Having a Moment appeared first on VinePair.

Via https://vinepair.com/articles/bubbly-week-podcast-2020/

source https://vinology1.weebly.com/blog/vinepair-podcast-sparkling-wine-is-having-a-moment

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Is It January Yet?

If you don’t/have never worked a retail job, this might be hard understand. I am over the Christmas Season. It can, just, go away. I don’t care about presents.I actually like giving gifts, but I hate the pressure of it this time of year. I’m cool with finding birthday gifts for folks. I just dislike having my family getting all over me, at the end of November to tell them what I want. I don’t know what I want, just get something you think I’d like, I’ll probably like it. I also feel like this time of year, there is such a hard emphasis on having to get people wonderful gifts. I’m a making type person. I like to make people stuff and then give it randomly, kind of a nicer thing to give someone a gift just because. 

And then there are all the people going nuts to put mounds of crap under the tree, to holiday up their houses and all that and it just makes me feel insane. It puts a damper on the usual chilly weather I like. Sweat shirts, jackets, boots, scarves, hats, gloves--all that shit, I like all of that. 

I work in a privately owned pet shop, and this weekend we had Santa pictures. The photographer always goes all out, the photos are so nice and the Santa we use is a real professional dude, I mean, he looks like you imagined Santa when you were a kid so thats nice, but it is two solid days of madness, plus the Friday night before when every crazy person is coming in because, every day from the end of November until Christmas Eve is filled with off the walls, bananas, craziness and this weekend is complete bedlam. How we go each year without an all out dog fight because all the animals are going nuts and people bring in ill behaved dogs, and it’s so nuts that even well behaved dogs and cats and birds and this year even a fucking turkey get a little tense. 

There’s barking and we have to block off by-ways through aisles so then we end up pissing people off who are just trying to buy their stuff and I totally get it, it’s crazy those two days. All the profits go to animal charities, so I’m a little put out by people getting pissy because, this is all to benefit animals who need it and we start advertising the dates weeks ahead of time. Get your shit together people. Really. 

I’ve had a crap, tough time this week. It’s been cold. My house is cold. I only keep the house at 65 (except for the animal room, which is kept at 72 for the bird, the snake and the chinchilla) and I am bundled up in a pair of sweats, a pair of legging, socks, slippers, a tee shirt, a long sleeve, a hoody and a hat to stay warm. I need to dye my hair, but I can’t because it’s so cold. Then, I forgot about the whole needing to eat thing today because Sundays are nine hour work days and ten hours I’m away from the house. And, because it’s so crazy, I get a 15 minute lunch, which was a crap 4 inch sub from subway. I got home and poured myself a glass of wine and then started thinking about what I’d actually had to eat today. It was a cup of coffee first thing and then...oh, more coffee from home...then that sub and maybe ten peanuts, some water..... and ahhhhhh, crap...I just downed this big glass of wine because as a person who cannot function in the world the first thing I do after a shit weekend of work is drink. 

What the hell is my life? 

I should be writing, working on my story, but I NEED to make the map of how all the short stories connect o tel the tale a little bit. Also, my mind was broken open by the lady who runs my writers group because I was blind to how I start almost every one of these short fictions. Now I’m like, “Oh great. I’m a hack. I write total crap, like a 14 year old girl” But I’ll get through that. 

Another reason I hate this time of year, particularly this year is because I am sad and alone. 

That’s as much as I am going to say about all the feels of depression. Or at least all the ones I’m going to say to the internet world. 

Yeah, I know, whatever, so here are some photos.

I’m cold.

Toki’s cold too. Except his butt.

Lu defies cold. He is filled with cold. His heart is ice. He hates all.

I never ate these. Adam West is disappointed with my lack of nutrition. 

That’s it. I would say I will promise to rate, but it’ll all be crap. So.