We have blogged about this wine before. Tom picks it up at our local grocery store on sale every so often.

This is a fun and easy-to-drink wine. Absolutely nothing to complain about here. The price is right. The nose is spicy. The taste is fruity and the finish is fairly complex and lengthy. California certainly does know their red wines.

It is a late-October evening in Michigan. It is very dark out there, cold, and raining. Tom was happy to see me come home because sometimes a Friday night drive in the dark rain can be tenuous for me! (There are some aggressive and angry drivers out there.)

For dinner, I sauteed a fresh, chopped mushroom (big one)  [that I got from the food co-op that I belong to] in olive oil and butter. I browned pork chops in olive oil. . .then, combined the chops and mushrooms with some broth and let it simmer. Then, I added some thickener. I will serve this with potatoes  and a fresh salad (I still have some baby-lettuce leaves from my garden).

This food co-op that I just joined should be interesting. I split a share with my neighbor and she brings me a grocery bag full of random fruits and vegetables every Monday, which is my share. For example, this last week I got apples, a pineapple, fresh spinach, one mushroom, one beet. . .isn’t that hilarious? But, I like the challenge it gives me to make sure I use everything. (I made a delicious apple cobbler with the apples last night.)And, yes, I cooked and ate the beet.

Cheers!

 It has become tough times when I am blogging about a less than $6 bottle of Cabernet.  This bottle is embarrassingly cheap and I want to state that you should never – i repeat  - never bring this to a party.  However, it is  also very drinkable.  You can find this Beringer Cabernet Sauvignon at any grocery or liquor store.  I think I bought it on sale for about $5.   

You know that feeling wine gives you at the very back of your cheeks nearing your throat?   A tingling, burning feeling that prevents you from being able to chug a whole bottle?  This wine has very little of those tannins that create that feeling making it more of a grape juice with a tinge of alcohol.  Therefore, if you are planning to get into a wine chugging contest  - this would be the one to do it with.  

To sum it up, this is a cheap bottle of red that gets the job done.  It is not bad, but by no means a great bottle of wine.  The label on the bottle makes is appear to be far more superior than a 2 buck chuck, but its definitely in the same boat.  It is  a rough economy so go ahead and enjoy drinking this bottle, I just repeat – DO NOT BRING IT TO A PARTY.

 2.5 Stars

So I had an interesting encounter yesterday with a worker at a liquor store. Yes, I do like a good glass of wine, and in our state, the only place to buy it is in a liquor store.  Ridiculous, yes, I know. We should be able to buy in the grocery stores like so many other states, but that’s a different story altogether.

My husband and I are planning a trip to Napa in a couple of weeks, and in doing my research of our destination, I’ve found that there is a winery there that if you visit during harvest, which we are, and they are pressing grapes, you may have the option of stomping grapes, ala Lucy.  Really?  Oh my gosh, how fun would that be?  Now my husband isn’t too keen on the thought, but I think it will be a ball, even if I’m the only one doing it.  He can take pictures.

I thought it might be nice to try some wine from this vintner before we go.  My husband found it at one local liquor store for $45 a bottle.  That’s a little steep for us, so maybe we’ll just wait until we get there.  I was passing a liquor store close to our old house and decided to stop in and see if they had it. 

I was meandering through the wine aisles when a little old lady with a horrible bleach-job asked if she could help me.  I told her the name of the vineyard, Grgich.  Odd name for sure.  She proceeded to tell me that not every wine makes it into our state.  Yes, I’m well aware of that fact.  I informed her that my husband had indeed found it at a local store and I was just checking to see if they carried it.  when I told her the name, she said she had never heard of it.  Then she tells me, ‘well, it’s not going to say that on the label.’  Um, yeeeessss, it will.  It’s the name of the vineyard where it’s produced.  Again, ‘It’s not going to be on the label.’  What the hell does she think the label is?  how else are we supposed to tell Rutherford from Far Niente from Beringer or Grgich?  It would all say ‘Cabernet Sauvignon’ or ‘Merlot’.  She made some other comment like she was going to go and ask someone, but decided she was really too busy with straightening her register to ask.  When I left, she didn’t make any kind of eye contact.  Big shock.  They actually pay her to be there and tell people that the name of the vineyard won’t be on the label. What a nutcase!

Tom buys this wine whenever it is on sale at our local grocery store. And, he opened a bottle of it tonight for our Friday night cocktail hour. (Full disclosure: We started our cocktail hour with a martini.)

I am making a pasta primavera tonight for dinner. I have cut up fresh orange, yellow and red peppers, a fresh clove of garlic, and I have cut up 3 chicken breasts into bite-sized pieces. I will saute the peppers and garlic in olive oil, then saute the chicken . . . and I’ll add freshly-diced tomatoes to the peppers and combine everything with angel-hair pasta and spices. Yummy. I have also harvested a new crop of lettuce and onions from my garden and will make a salad.

This wine is really quite delicious. One might think from the price that it is marginal, but I like it very much (which is why we continue to purchase it over and over again). The flavors are in-your-face fruity with undercurrents of  black dirt. Nice tannins. . .good finish. Happy Friday!

Von Anita

…wie das Blut der Erde. Komm schenk mir ein.

Das Napa-Team: Irene, Marion, Nico, Skyler und...

Dieses Napa Valley ist einfach traumhaft.  Kein Wunder, dass es Millionen von Touristen hierher zieht. Napa Valley ist nach Disneyland, das zweit beliebteste Touristenziel Kaliforniens. Also nix wie hin zur Weinprobe. Die Autofahrt hatte ich mir viel weiter vorgestellt, in anderthalb Stunden waren wir (Skyler der super Chauffeur, Irene der excellente Weinguide, Nico der quirlige  Entertainer, Marion die französische Weinexpertin und Anita die deutsche Weinexpertin)  schon da.

...ich

Vor uns lag das Valley mit den riesigen Weinanbaugebieten, eine Weinkellerei edler als die andere. Hunderte von Weinen. Die erste Weinprobe gab’s bei Clos du Val. Neben dem Wein wurden wir nett von dem Sommelier unterhalten. Die Themen reichten vom hart umkämpften Weinmarkt bis hin zum Peanut-Butter-Verbot an amerikanischen Schulen.

Die Weinprofis bei der Arbeit

Bei Joseph Phelps Vineyards, hier hat man einen wundervollen Ausblick über das Weingut. Ihr Flaggschiff Namens Insiqnia für sage und schreibe 200$, war wirklich so exzellent, dass wir uns, wenn schon keine ganze Flasche, zumindest noch ein Glas extra gegönnt haben.

Der Chauffeur und der Entertainer

Unsere dritte Weinkellerei, ein nachgebautes Fachwerkhaus aus dem Rheinland, Beringer, zählt zu den ältesten Weinkellereien im Napa. Ursprünglich hatte sich hier eine deutsche Familie angesiedelt um ihr Glück mit dem Weinanbau zu versuchen.  Das Weingut wurde aber von einem australischen Imperium aufgekauft, welches wiederum einem Deutschen gehört.

Insgesamt haben wir 18 Weine, mit Geschmacksrichtungen von A bis Z getestet. Danach waren wir ganz schön müde und sind ganz schnell ins Bett gefallen.

We’re enjoying this California Shiraz that Tom picked up at our local grocery story (2 for $11).  It has been a stormy Saturday but it has finally stopped raining. The birds are singing and the grass is much greener. The forecast calls for very hot and humid weather now that the rain has passed. I had planned on a long run this morning, but the thunder and lightening forced me to stay inside. It was actually a pleasant respite. I will run tomorrow, instead.

This Shiraz is full of fruit and spice. Although simple, this wine is easy and fun to drink. . .a cheerful everyday wine for any kind of meal or for just sipping on the patio. I have so many leftovers from this week (because I was a cooking machine all week) so I will serve this wine with leftovers from Thursday night. I had made chicken parmesan, which was delicious (in my humble opinion). Basically, I dredged boneless, skinless chicken breasts in a mixture of spicy bread crumbs and parmesan cheese, browned in hot olive oil, then transfered to a baking dish, covered with tomato sauce. . . baked covered; then, removed the cover and added some cheese and baked some more. I served this with thin spaghetti tossed with olive oil, freshly ground salt & pepper.  I am reheating that dish tonight and making a fresh salad from my garden. Cheers!

It should be noted that this post is being written by a “wine geek”. True “wine geeks” are convinced beyond all doubt that white zinfandel is NOT wine but some pink, fruity aberration on a level with soft drinks and Hi-C Fruit Punch.

With that in mind, here is a scary fact; according to Sutter Home, the culprits responsible for the “white zin” craze of the 80’s:

One in ten bottles of table wine opened in the USA is white zinfandel!!

Sutter Home, alone, accounts for the sale of 4 MILLION cases of white zinfandel per year. To put this number in perspective, I recently ordered a Pinot Noir from California of which less than 100 cases were made.

In a recently published list of the wines most ordered in restaurants for 2007 Beringer White Zinfandel was 2 and Sutter Home White Zinfandel was 4th.

White Zin begins its life innocently enough from the vines of the noble red zinfandel. The juice sits on the skins just long enough to take on the light pink color and then sugar is added to give it that sweet (no longer tastes like real wine) taste. Apologists claim it has a purpose in life in that it gives novice wine-drinkers a bridge to the world of real wine. My contention would be that white zin drinkers either stay with white zin, or when they do attempt to move up to red wine, they end up purchasing something in the same price range as their white zin and end up with the “plonk” that goes under many names i.e., Turning Leaf Merlot, Hacienda Cabernet, Cavit Pinot Grigio and quickly exclaim “yuck, if this is what red wine tastes like, I’ll stick with my white zin.”

I really wish I was more tolerant of white zinfandel lovers. I don’t wanna be a wine snob, honest. I guess it’s just when you know the pleasure that sipping a great wine can bring you just wanna to share that sensation with the world. It isn’t costly, it isn’t difficult. It just takes experiencing that “wow” moment that will never come from a glass of white zinfandel.

Happy Father’s Day to all the fathers reading this today. Here we are, the first day of summer and the longest day of the year. It was a hot and sunny beautiful day.

We chose this California Stone Cellars tonight (following an icy gin & tonic) to go with our dinner. This wine was on sale  at our local grocery store (2 bottles for $10) and what a value. The wine is a  concentration of summery ripe berries and a bit of dark earth. This is a good summer wine to enjoy while reclining in a hammock, watching the sky and  feeling the breeze!

For dinner, I brined chicken in saltwater and then made a barbecue marinade. I put everything (minus the brine) in a ziplock bag for the afternoon. Now, we are grilling the chicken and I am making a salad from lettuce and onions from my garden along with cucumbers and avocado from the store. I will also make potatoes and a vegetable. I want to be sure Tom has a great Father’s Day meal!

Home from a conference in Orlando. My flight was delayed due to serious thunderstorms so I am just getting home here at 10:00 p.m. and having a glass of this Cabernet. It’s good! How’s that for a blog entry? It’s also very good to be home to good old Michigan where the nights are cool and the air is fresh. . .

When they first renovated the Beringer mansion which is used for the reserve tasting I was worried that they might lose some of the charm, but they added outdoor tables on the patio that greatly expand the usability of the site. However, I have to say that when they are busy it is a bit of a madhouse, the layout seems to make navigation difficult with some bottlenecks by the door that make people have to turn sideways to slip through. But, when things are less than crazy it should work alright.

Would I have designed it that way? Not really, the outer doorways enter at the sides of the tasting bars, right at the employees entrance, it is an uncomfortable and confusing experience for the folks entering and the people working at the bar. It might have better to use a U shape coming off of one wall like the new bar at Rutherford Hill. They would have gotten more bar space and less confusion.

They could have used the exterior walls more effectively, either for display, or by placing some small, circular standing tables, to take the pressure off of the main bar during high traffic times. On the other hand one big improvement was the re-opening of the main front door to the mansion, which had been blocked and ignored for so long. That is a very nice change, and shows a shift towards greater visibility and brand determination. Nicely done!

Read about our design books.

Good news, Beringer has added a small deli next to their main tasting room where visitors can pick up ready made sandwiches and other items. There are tables outside on the patio and I was told that they are going to continue this primarily on the weekends. It wouldn’t surprise me if this becomes a standard fixture. Once you add food at a winery it is hard to go back.

Another nice addition in the reserve room is a wine pairing platter of cheese and sausage for $20 that can be enjoyed with any wine tasting. When they first renovated the mansion I was worried that they might lose some of the charm, but they added outdoor tables on the patio that greatly expand the usability of the site. I have to say that when they are busy it is a bit of a madhouse, the layout seems to make navigation difficult. But when things are less than crazy it should work quite well. Would I have designed it that way? Not really, the outer doorways coming up on the sides of the tasting bars is an uncomfortable experience for the folks entering and the people working at the bar, but they didn’t ask me. It might be that a center island bar might work better there, or even a U shape coming off of one wall like the new bar at Rutherford Hill. Of course, the re-opening of the main front door to the mansion, which had been blocked for so long, is a very nice change, and shows a shift towards greater visibility and brand determination. Nicely done!

Either way, the addition of food was very considerate. Beringer is such a destination winery that people like to spend a significant amount of time there, and if they have to leave to eat, they’ll probably go someplace else after lunch, and miss their tour slot. They have some great tours.

I may be biased, but I feel that all of the Foster’s wineries in Napa and Sonoma really understand hospitality. They set a good example for the other big, corporate wineries that can sometimes be impersonal and tight. Read about our newest winery tour book, The Amicis Winery Guides: Dream Tours of Napa & Sonoma.

Half-jokingly, a wine publicist and good friend recently remarked to me: “I mean, come on, let’s face it. No offense, but how many people read your blog anyway?” As much personal satisfaction that my blog gives me, I recognize that I’m no Eric, Alder, Tyler, or Franco.

But that’s partly what makes me all the more angry (and I promise this is my last rant for the week) when one of the truly influential sources of food and wine journalism publishes disinformation, like Dorothy Gaiter and John Brecher’s supercilious take on 2004 Barolo, published last week in The Wall Street Journal, or their truly offensive and imbecilic “10 Ways to Save Money Ordering Wine,” published on Saturday. (I apologize in advance to my friend J, a WSJ editor and writer I admire greatly for this second harangue about his colleagues: the poorly delivered humor in my post about the 2004 Barolo piece was simply that — poorly delivered.) Especially in this day and “age of responsibility,” when many of our nation’s restaurateurs find themselves gripped in a day-to-day battle for survival, Dorothy and John’s tips for not being “hosed” by restaurateurs (they actually use the word hose! in the WSJ!) and the accusatory, paranoid tone or their article are no less than nefarious. It’s important to acknowledge that restaurant-going consumers are feeling the financial pinch these days as well: Dorothy and John’s readers would have been better served by “tips on how to find value on the list at your favorite restaurant.”

Here are some highlights from their piece…

1. Skip wine by the glass.

I studied Italian literature at university but it doesn’t take a Ph.D. to figure out that a glass of wine costs less than a bottle. Wine by the glass is one of the ways that we find new wines we like without having to pay for the bottle. Better advice would be: when ordering a wine by the glass, ask your server if you have the option to purchase the whole bottle at the bottle price if you like the wine.

3. Bypass the second-cheapest wine on the list.

A generalization like this is simply stupid, irrelevant, and inappropriate. Honest restaurateurs (and most of them are honest) price their wines in accordance with the prices they are charged by wholesalers. Better advice: figure out what you want to spend and ask your server or sommelier which wines in that price point meet your expectations in terms of style, aromas and flavors, and desired pairing.

6. Never order Santa Margherita Pinot Grigio.

Even Eric and Charles — two palates who really do know something about Italian wine — liked Santa Margherita Pinot Grigio when they tasted it blind in a New York Times tasting panel. Dorothy and John, come on: this is insulting. Better advice: order what you like and enjoy when you go to a restaurant. Whether you like Pinot Grigio by Santa Margherita, white Zinfandel by Beringer, or first-growth Bordeaux (wines many would consider over-priced but coveted and thoroughly enjoyable nonetheless), then go for it. You go to a restaurant to have fun… not to be scared of being ripped off!

9. BYOB.

Dorothy and John, I hate to break it to you but bring-your-own-bottle is appropriate in two cases: 1) when a restaurant doesn’t have a beer and/or wine license; 2) when you bring an illustrious and expensive bottle that doesn’t appear on the restaurant’s list. And remember: whenever you bring your own bottle to a restaurant, be sure to order a bottle of equivalent value. Thrift, Dorothy and John, is no excuse for rude behavior or bad tipping.

Here you come again, Dorothy and John, Just when I’m about to make it work without you.

Today I went to a wine, chocolate and cheese pairing at Kakayo Chocolate Company where owner, Colleen Wong-Sala, graciously treated her guests to a tantalizing array of organic chocolate truffles. 

(photo courtesy of sweetspot.ca)

We began by pairing a white chocolate matcha green tea truffle with goat cheese and a fruity sparkling wine.   To participate in the tasting, guests were instructed to lick the cheese to coat our tongue (this gave a couple of us the giggles- the thought of licking cheese is a bit odd but surprisingly effective/fun) followed by a bite of the truffle, a full bite of the cheese and then a sip wine. 

After moving from white to dark chocolate filled with a spicy Mexican chili ganache and a glass of Zig Zag Zin and Beringer’s Third Century North Coast Cabernet Sauvignon, guests were gifted with more truffles and were out the door. 

The quality of the organic chocolate was superb.  Flavour combinations innovative and what’s best is that the chocolate be customized. 

If you are in the market for some chocolate to serve guests at an event or to treat yourself, I would recommend stopping by Kakayo.  I really enjoyed it.

Kakayo Truffles

Beringer Estates 2007 California Collection ($11) (8/10)- A solid choice for a Pinot Grigio, exactly what one would expect. A crisp and refreshing white with a peach flavor and a bit of citrus. We recommend this wine by itself or as a compliment to grilled fish or chicken.

Beringer 2007 Pinot Grigio, California Collection

Al recente EICMA 2008 tenutosi a Milano la Beringer ha presentato una nuovo sistema frenante a dir poco innovativo.

La Beringer è specializzata in impianti frenanti per veicoli aereonautici leggeri,
e il progetto Inboard Brakes incarna tutta la più avanzata tecnologia in questo settore, ma trasportato nei veicoli a due ruote.

Questo nuovo impiante frenate è molto semplice nel funzionamento, praticamente i dischi risiedono all’interno del mozzo e integrano le pinze a 4 pistoncini ad attacco assiale.

Il sistema risulta molto compatto e poco esposto ad agenti atmosferici, e il problema del surriscaldamento è stato brillantemente risolto dai tecnici Beringer prelevando l’aria da appositi fori presenti lungo tutta la circonferenza del mozzo.

VANTAGGI 

• Riduzione dell’ inerzia
• Riduzione del peso
• Maggiore affindabilità
• Assenza di aggancia a forcella

SVANTAGGI
Il kit "inboard" si compone di Mozzo, dischi, raggi, pinza freno dando poco spazio alle future personalizzazioni della moto e vincolando tutti questi componenti tra di loro.

We have had this California Beringer Cabernet Sauvignon recently and blogged about it. But, every night is a new night with wine tasting!

Tom chose this wine for our Monday night. It is snowing, it is dark. It is a December Michigan winter night. This wine is very nice and a good value (I believe Tom purchased it on sale for $5.95 at our local grocery store). The wine is rich with blackberries and a vanilla finish. It is dry with structured tannins. This is lovely and will go well with our dinner tonight. I am reheating a beef stew that I made yesterday. For those of you that are interested, I took a 3 lb. beef chuck roast, cubed it, dried it on paper towels, seasoned it with salt & pepper and then browned it in a very hot skillet with about a tablespoon of hot olive oil. Once the beef was browned, I added a chopped onion and chopped garlic (2 cloves).  After the onion and garlic had softened, I added about 4 oz. of tomato sauce, the rest of a bottle of merlot (probably 6-8 oz.) and a 14 oz. can of chicken broth. I also added bay leaves and thyme. I covered the skillet and let that simmer for about 2 hours. Then, I transferred everything to a large, covered pot and added cubed red potatoes (unpeeled) and sliced carrots.  Once the vegetables were cooked, I thickened the broth with flour mixed with chicken broth. and added green beans. It is a savoury and comforting meal.

Tony just IM’d me on Skype. . .yay!

This Beringer California Collection Cabernet Sauvignon 2006 is Tom’s choice for this Sunday night. We have had a very nice weekend together and this Sunday will top it all off for us.

This California wine has a lovely, flowery nose. The taste has a strong vanilla flavor on the front and a blackberry on the finish. The tannins are soft and smooth.

Confession time: I just didn’t want to grocery shop this weekend. I put it off and put it off. So I rummaged through our little freezer and pulled out two very thick pork shops. I browned those and now they are simmering in the skillet in chicken broth along with peeled, cubed potatoes. I will thicken the sauce after the pork chops are fork tender and I’ll make a vegetable and call it good. I will probably end up going to the grocery store Tuesday night after work and getting everything I need for Thanksgiving.

This will be my first Thanksgiving in 23 years without Tony. Tony is in Paju, South Korea, working as a teacher. I miss him terribly and I can’t imagine sitting at our Thanksgiving meal without him!

The first tasting for I Heart Napa Cabs is a 2004 Beringer… Check it out to hear my thoughts!!

The 2005 Beringer Founders Estate Cabernet

This month’s choice turns to a deeper shade of red with Beringer’s 2005 Founder’s Estate California Cabernet Sauvignon, a deep, lush red with plenty of quality berryness (berrosity?) for your palate.  I’ve had $20 or $25 bottles of Cabernet that were not as good as this– and this one’s only about $7 if you buy it in the right place.

(To back up a minute here, I should explain that we are working on becoming wine snobs– we just lack the budget and the education.  So you will likely see us use terms such as “berrosity”– but hey, you know what we mean.)

So back to the Beringer.  As you may know, Beringer is one of those larger vineries that produces tons and tons of wine each year; these are not “boutique” wineries with some guy in his second career, mid-mid-life crisis at the helm.  No, the Beringer folks are generational winemakers, and they produce so much (pretty good) wine each year that they can’t possibly grow their own grapes.  Still, considering the volume they produce they do a pretty good job at making a variety of wines worth their price tag (at every price tag).  To give you an example, their 2004 “Private Reserve” Cabernet Sauvignon sells for $115 on their website.

But of course, we go through three or four of these a week, so the $115 version isn’t the one we’re looking for.  At about $7 (on sale or through Total Wine, where I got my last batch for $6.47 each), you can pick up a very good “stock” Cabernet that is plenty good enough for most meals with friends.  This is a deep, strong Cab with balanced flavor; it doesn’t need decanting or any such, just pour and enjoy.

Wine.com says: “The Beringer Founders Estate Cabernet bursts with bright cassis, black fruit and sweet brown spice aromas with just a touch of vanilla that leads into a juicy mouthfeel. A balanced dose of structured tannins and its long finish make this unmistakably a California Cabernet. However, this Cabernet doesn’t need to be cellared; it’s ready to drink now.”

The “Tasting Notes” blurb says: “Beringer Founders’ Estate winemaker, Ron Schrieve, believes in “getting his boots dirty” and walking the vineyards daily during harvest to determine just the right time to pick. “I wish we got frequent-driver miles, because I’d have a million of them from running up and down the state,” he says. “But tasting grapes is the only way I can be sure I’m getting as much flavor as possible.” As each vineyard block reached the peak of maturity, the Cabernet was harvested and rushed to the winery, and Ron kept each lot separate until he assembled the final blend. After vinification, Ron aged the wines in French and American oak barrels for 12 months, helping the flavors come together and imparting sweet oak and brown spice nuances. The resulting wine has a deep color with bright cassis, green tea, black olive and sweet vanilla spice aromas that lead into a fleshy mouth that has, as Ron says, “A big Cab flavor.” Black fruit, cassis, and spice flavors are supported into a long finish by fine-grained, assertive tannins.”)

I’ve read a few snobby websites that complain that this doesn’t stand up to a pricier Cabernet– well, maybe not, but look what one entreprenurial author recently discovered:  “Robin Goldstein, who worked his way through Harvard and Yale as a freelance travel writer and critic for the “Let’s Go” and Fodor’s guide books, recently published a paperback based on research he and his collaborators presented earlier this year in a paper to the American Association of Wine Economists.  He found that in blind tastings most drinkers preferred cheaper wines to the storied expensive ones; for instance, drinkers, when they did not see the label, preferred the taste of a $9 Beringer Founders’ Estate Cabernet Sauvignon to a $120 wine from the same grape and the same producer: Beringer Private Reserve Cabernet Sauvignon. They preferred a bottle of Domaine Ste. Michelle Cuvee Brut, a sparkling wine produced in Washington State that sells for about $12, to Dom Perignon Champagne, which sells for about $150.”

Go figure!

San Fransisco based Advertising Agency Publicis & Hal Riney enlisted the award-winning director Olivier Gondry, along with artist Su Blackwell, to create an engaging stop motion animation for Beringer Vineyards. To see just how much blood, sweat and paper went into creating the ad, you can see the making of the animation here