Josh Kingsley

I’m a beer guy. Nothing about that comment is breaking news about me. I talk about beer in some capacity in probably 25% of my columns. This next comment may be surprising: I’m a wine guy. Red to me more specific. I like whites, but love reds. My wine journey is interesting. It started in college when I went to visit my buddy, Clint at his school. One of his roommates, PJ, was getting a business degree — I think — to check a box before his real passionate schooling: culinary school. The night itself doesn’t stick out beyond it being the first of two pieces of advice PJ gave me. PJ made the group dinner and talked about pairing wine. I briefly chuckled mainly because this crew, self included, was totally unrefined. However, it became incredibly clear I needed to trust the process and let PJ do his thing.

Dinner was awesome and so was the wine. After the meal I asked PJ where the wine knowledge came from. His simple answer: read a book and go from there. His specific book was Fear of Wine by Leslie Brenner. I bought it immediately, read it and loved it. There wasn’t a goal beyond basic understanding. It seemed like a skill I should have. Wine goes with food and I like to eat. The book told me some key things:

Lingo: grape types = varietals. Dryness feel in mouth is because of tannins. Stuff like that.
Certain regions do certain things well.
Basic food pairing guidelines.
General wine making process.
What you like is most important.

Great book. What I read over 20 years ago still resonates. I’m not a sommelier, but I can handle a wine list.

Next Step: Walla Walla

Things took a massive step forward in 2007. Clint’s family owns and operates hotels. I worked for them for roughly eight years. The most interesting stop was a construction project in Walla Walla. That town is in the SE corner of Washington state close to the Columbia Valley. I moved up there for six months to work on a construction project, and ended up opening a wine bar in the new hotel. The entire location and process put me in a ton of tasting rooms talking wines with the makers. We had great food impeccably paired by experts. I loved every minute. The added bonus was making the journey with a co-worker, who later became a girlfriend and eventually my wife.

We made it back to Walla Walla once and are well overdue another one. That town rocks for a wine weekend.

During our time there the town had well over 100 wineries within a 15 minute drive. Some of the small places have since blown up. A place called Waterbrook was a small Main St. stop, but look at the website to see where they are now. Another spot called Amavi was a little shop around the block from the hotel, but is huge now. On the other hand some of our personal favorites don’t exist anymore. Colvin Vineyards was my favorite place when living there. It was a couple as a side hustle. They made nice Bordeaux style blends and bottled interesting varietals. I think one of them was a chemical engineer. The other notable subtraction is Whitman Cellars. Whitman was down the street from the hotel.

Whitman and a Bottle of Lightning

Walla Walla is a red wine region. My time there certainly spins my favor toward red. The expectation in 2007 was every tasting room pouring a nice Cab, Merlot and Syrah. Surprises came in the form of blends, other varietals and whites. Whitman was fairly standard. Their Cab was nice, their depth was in the Syrah space in the form of multiple vintage years, and I don’t remember ever seeing a white. We got to know these people well as neighbors. Most of their bottles were $30-50 in their tasting room. Then came the notable exception.

One day the proprietor made a comment about a new bottle coming in the value space. They soon put out a $10 bottle called Killer Cab. The description given of the wine: a repress of all grapes from the year. That last statement is somewhere in the laughable to cringeworthy spectrum for most wine enthusiasts. We all laughed. Hard. The Whitman guy — really cannot remember this guy’s name — smiled back upon seeing that reaction for the hundredth time, and simply said “just wait.” We grabbed a bottle day one, and…man, was he right. It was about as drink-ably tasty of a $10 bottle as I’d ever had. Also… that I have ever had since. The stuff was a gem and a reminder. A gem locked in my mind most favorably. A reminder to drink what you like, and also to trust top notch wine makers.

I close this wine talk with my go to wine advice to anyone who asks: go to a wine store and pick anything that rates 90+ points and costs < $20. That’s the ratio.

College Football Note

The Tennessee Volunteers made an interesting signing for their football team yesterday. I loosely follow college football, so the signing thing normally goes right over my head. This one jumped for two reasons:

It hit the ESPN main headlines, and
The guy’s name is Emmanuel Okoye.

The second point made me immediately ask if there is a relation to Christian Okoye. Emmanuel is from Lagos, Nigeria. Christian is from Enugu, Nigeria, which is close to Lagos. Neither started as an NFL football player. Christian initially came to the States as a discuss thrower upon recommendation of Olympian, Innocent Egbunike. Former Giants defensive end Osi Umenyiora set up a developmental academy in Nigeria, and found Emmanuel. I spent some time on Google looking for relation. There is none. Okoye is a fairly common surname in Nigeria.

Apparently I was not the only one to question. The Tennessee blog I linked actually called him Christian in the opening line (I expect it edited by the time you read this, but still). Bottom line is we have a new Okoye to follow. This has interesting story line potential in a few years.

Football Season: Finally Set

The schedule release is a key date for me annually. First, the season becomes real. Second, I can start my Milwaukee watch party planning. Most important, I can plan my life and travel around target games. That last point gains importance annually. My work with Arrowhead Kingdom makes it more important. Last season we leaned into tailgate events with major success in Cincinnati and some bad luck (hurricane) in Tampa. Arrowhead Kingdom and founder, Doug, base in Tampa, and certainly know how to tailgate. They blew the doors off Jacksonville to start the 2019 season, and filled a minor league soccer stadium for a Super Bowl LV watch party. CHIEFS fans from all over missed a good one last season in Brady’s swan song.

This season brings a couple previously circled dates. The first is the next edition of Jacksonville. More on that one in a bit. The second the finally Rodgers vs Mahomes in Green Bay. Well, the second part of that is happening, but in New York. It’s just not the same. I’m still planning a Green Bay event and look forward to hosting many, but Jordan love in December in a notably cold location takes substantial luster off the date.

Jacksonville is going to be on fire. Literally for one as it is North Florida in September. The NFL needed to switch the GB and Jax dates – just sayin’. None of that changes the reality of the party we are throwing. We have a ticket block and massive tailgate planned. Jacksonville is the date many have circled for their CHIEFS vacation. Check out our plans and keep us in mind.

The Schedule

Our Kansas City CHIEFS have SIX Prime Time games and a seventh in the Germany game. Marquee teams get marquee matchups as they deserve. Patrick Mahomes is once again on display for all to see. Here are my other observations:

The Detroit Lions go on display in game one. Like most I felt surprise. Dan Campbell’s team deserves a big game, but this feels a stretch. The Lions’ long time away from Arrowhead factors in no doubt, but I see more to this. All the words on the street had KC playing the Bears in Germany. I got into the Germany game last week and KC’s call to protect the Bears for home. Scheduling the Lions week one smells a bit like retaliation.
More spread of the divisional games. Recent years backloaded the CHIEFS schedule with divisional games. This season there are three in each half. However, the trifecta of both Bronco and a Charger game in October is odd.
Apparently beating the Raiders is a holiday thing. That team will suck and the CHIEFS have them on Christmas and right after Thanksgiving. Happy Holidays!!
The CHIEFS host blatant playoff previews in December. Arrowhead welcomes the Bills in week 14 and Bengals in week 17. Top seeds and byes almost certainly up for grabs in both spots.
A perfect spot for the BYE. Directly in the midpoint of the season right after an international trip? Yes, please.

I see another 14 win season, which means three losses. Although I’m not quite ready to officially call any games I will share some gut reactions. At least one loss comes in the week 4-6 run. I fear a Denver split coming. The only fear is the end of one of my all-time favorite streaks (15 consecutive losses and counting) coming to an end. The will be one head scratching loss similar to Indy last season. The Denver and head scratching loss may be a single game.

Viewing Pleasures

I’ve slacked on the movie and such recommendations. My 8+ hour flights to and from Europe gave me a bit if screen time, which I have not relayed. I closed my flight over watching “Yesterday.” This movie came out in 2019. It’s a simple concept: everyone in the world forgets about the Beatles…except for one guy.

Ed Sheeran joins the cast as something like himself. The movie follows the story of a wannabe rock star that becomes one overnight. Plus a ton of Beatles music.

The trip back was almost all TV. I routinely avoid shows for fear of the binge. Sopranos, Breaking Bad, Game of Thrones, The Wire, Yellowstone and many more venerable shows. Never seen an episode. I know myself. One episode means a binge watch of the series, and I don’t have the time to dedicate. An eight hour flight with a six hour show? That’s doable, so I watched White Lotus.

The show crashed on the scene with HBO backing and Jennifer Coolidge raking awards shows. This series is, well, it’s something. For starters it’s incredibly well done and thought provoking. It’s also heavy and takes all the HBO risks to earn it’s TV-MA rating. I don’t want to ruin any plot points so can’t say much more. If you love TV drama this show is for you.

Josh Kingsley — ArrowheadOne and Arrowhead Kingdom