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July 3 2006
I have my weekly post on Wine Sediments posted here. In honor of the 4th of July I take a quick round-up of typical long weekend summer activities: camping, bbq, baseball with a vinous bent and I include a link to a recipe for Blueberry wine.
Yesterday, I went over to my brother’s house. He’s a good amateur chef and generally turns out very nice foodstuff’s for guests. I had visions of pairing the Trader Joe’s Amarone and the Trader Joe’s Ripasso with some hearty bbq fare—a smoked Boston butt for pulled pork, smoked pork spare ribs and a grilled tenderloin bathed in a sweetly hot bbq sauce from a Michigan company called Cherry Republic that does a slew of products with cherries.
I figured that the Amarone is a heavy, dense wine made for red meat, so the smoking would translate for the pork and the Ripasso is made from grapes in the Italian DOC Valpolicella that is fermented, then aged in barrels ontop of Amarone lees, which add some texture and flavor inexpensively.
Alas, both wines were exceptionally disappointing. I decanted both of them and the Amarone was done in the hour it was decanted and the Ripasso never got started in order to be done. The Ripasso was thin, short and flabby. I swore to myself I would never use the word flabby to refer to a wine, but this one fits the bill. My two cents: skip both at TJ’s and go for the Rabbit Ridge Zinfandel, which I passed over in favor of adventure.
June 26 2006
I have an off-beat post on the Wine Sediments portion of the Well Fed Network today. When I sat down to write it I had a cup of coffee and nary a notion of what was going to come out—part of the fun is I usually have an idea of what I’m going to write, but I never outline it. My editor, I’m sure, loves this because I usually submit a draft that is somewhere in between version 1 and version 1.5 when in fact, version 3 is probably decent enough to publish.
Tongue firmly in cheek, I wrote a column on remainly appropriately unapproachable at wine tasting parties—the parties are a phenomenon that is attracting the likes of Mr. & Mrs. Joe Average. Which, really, leads me to the notion that maybe I am a bit of a wine snob. Eek.
You can find the post here.
In related news to the wine tasting parties, I’ve been in house cleaning mode in order to get my
bachelor pad ready to sell so my wife and I can move to a house a little more accomodating the development of a family. Interestingly, I found a book that I had forgotten about called, "Drinking, Smoking, Screwing."
It offers short stories and essays from notable writers on the vices in our life. And, Art Buchwald wrote a short and funny essay in 1954 on having wine at a dinner party. With full attribution to Mr. Buchwald, I’m appending the entire, short essay below.
Some Heady Phrases on Wine
Art Buchwald
1954
The problem of besting your friends atwine talk becomes increasingly difficult. It isn’t enough to drinkwines—you must be able to talkabout them, if not intelligently, at leastat length. Alexis Lichine, who wrote a book called “Wines of France,"and who is up to his neck in the wine, has given us some provocative phrases that can be used at thedinner table, either in your own home or as a guest in the home of a friend.
If you’re serving wine in your own home Mr.Lichine advises you to be very modest. When the bottle is put on table, apologize to your guests. "I’llhave to beg your pardon," you might say, "but this isa small, red wine, inconsequential, withhardly any character." If your guests contradict you, startbuilding slowly. After tasting it, remark to some one, "Inspite of everything, I do believe some breed,even if it hasn’t hit its pinnacle." If no takes the bait, go a peg higher. "Youknow something, I believe this wine is declaring itself. Why yes, it certainlyis. It does have manifestations of greatness at.” By this time, if your remarks still go unheeded, let out all stops. "The French consider this wine as one of most magnificent sovereigns. Theylaughingly call it the Napoleon of Burgundies. It’s a pity it has to be wasted h clods."
Drinking wine in some one else’s homeis a much easier problem The host is alwayslooking for compliments and if you’renot careful, some of the sillier people at the table may start giving them.
The thing to remember is always bepolite. After tasting the wine a comment like this might be used, "Yes, itdoes have a pleasingshimmer. Isn’t it too bad the nose doesn’t live up to thecolor for it could have been a big, stout boy." Don’tlet up just because you’ve won the first engagement. You couldcontinue by saying, "How sad it didn’t come fromnoble soil, because I’m sure it might have taken on a prestige ofits own. Yes, I’ve seen it hap-pen, time and time again, with underprivilegedwines." Or ifyou wish, "It’s provocative, I’m sure, but Iwouldn’t dareput it up against a Haut Brion." Or, "What adelightful name. It almost tastes domestic in flavor."
When speaking of vintages, never referto a wine as 1935 or 1936.Always drop the nineteen and refer to them as thirty-fours, thirty-fives, thirty-nines, etc. Learn the names of afew rare wines and throw them around as much as you can. If you can associatethem with a good Frenchrestaurant, it always helps. For example, never say, "I like a Margaux." It’smuch better to reminisce, "I remember a Margaux I once had atthe Grand Vefour in forty-six. What a noble lunch that was."
Never refer to "wine, woman andsong" in front of connoisseurs. Next to wine, the other two are soinferior they should not be mentioned in the same breath.
It may be useful when talking aboutwine to know that Bordeaux comes in slim bottles and Burgundy in squat ones.This always impresses.
When ordering wines in restaurants, study the card for a long time evenif you don’t understand what you’re reading. Cluck occasionally, and then turn to the sommelier and ask himto advise you on what to order. Never accept his first suggestion. He istesting you, and you don’t want to lose face.
Always carry a vintage chart with you.If you’re not sure of the best wine years, take the wine card to thewashroom and check it against your vintage chart.
When drinkingchampagne, always make a remark about the bubbles. You can either take the sidethat you like the bubbles, or that you’re against them. Our favoriteline on this subject is, "I like champagne—because it always tastes like my foot’sasleep."
What is really interesting to me is the fact that this was written over 50 years ago. Truly, the more things change, the more they stay the same.
June 19 2006
I have a post over on the Wine Sediments portion of the WellFed Network. I’ve consistently been in the Monday slot, which is either good, or it’s bad, depending on how you look at it.
Monday’s are a tough slot. You don’t want to be too over the top, yet inoffensive isn’t the route either.
Either my writing is too general and not inflammatory enough to stoke the weekly fires, or I’m the wine blog equivalent of Matt Lauer from the "Today Show"—just likable enough to be inoffensive.
And, in that vein, I play the role of observer and layperson ala Lauer in a segment on gadgets—in this case, wine gadgets including the very cool Pek Wine Steward—a personal, one bottle preservation system that can increase the lifetime of a bottle of wine up to two weeks.
You can read the post over here.
June 12 2006
I have my weekly post on Wine Sediments today.
Tom Wark at Fermentation had a post on his site on Friday that got my wheels turning. Essentially, his post was a pithy overview on how to get an education in wine. While at once humorous and daunting, at the end of the day learning about wine is a long road—an enjoyable road, but long, indeed.
What if our kids learned about wine (and responsible alcohol consumption) at the same time they were learning other developmental skills—like soccer, for example. If so, would you have the next child prodigy on your hands? Would their knowledge be so advanced to that of their peers who discover wine in their early twenties that they might be able to ascend to the wine inner circle? Certainly your odds would be better in wine then in soccer based on competition alone, right?
My article today on Wine Sediments is more frothy than what I’m describing here. But, please don’t share my secret ... my unborn child is going to be the Tiger Woods of wine ... a verifiable prodigy born to make a difference in the world of wine ... the Yo-Yo Ma of wine ... you can read it here.
June 4 2006
I have a post today on the Wine Sediments portion of the Well Fed Network. You can find it here.
This week’s column is a touch on the long side, but stay with it because I think the matter of taste and reviews is a fascinating subject and I try to relate it everyday examination of the art, or the subjective items in our daily lives.
The genesis for the post was a panel review of wines in a local foodie magazine that reviewed the same wine with three widely divergent tasting notes—from strawberries to cherries to blackberries. I found it very interesting and more than a little peculiar that three people in the same room drinking at the same time would pick up different FRUIT in the wine. While this is easily understandable, the backbone of the article is whether this makes any sense when alleged experts can’t agree on the difference between a strawberry note and blackberries.
This research also led to my rant earlier this week about the joker at the Las Vegas Review Journal that wakes up with his knickers in a twist to pontificate on tasting nuances that are preposterous.
Thanks and good living and drinking ...
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