No Wine Over $20-Reviews and the LA Wine Scene

My dear Cuban amigo and muy talented artist Iggy-tones writes: "Lately I've been traveling up to Shell Beach in the Central Coast because I currently have for sale a two bedroom house that I own. The house is a block and a half from the shore. The whole area of the Central Coast is growing grapes. Do you have some recommendation of interesting wines and wineries to visit on one of my trips there?"

Toss a 70 mph pitch down the middle to Barry Bonds and he couldn't hit it as far as I can unload on this topic. Paso Robles is my favorite California wine country tour. I love to visit. Consider this. Paso was the up and coming wine region in the state until Sideways. Miles puked in the Fess Parker tasting room (it was the Fess Parker winery wasn't it?) and everyone forgot about Paso. Like the 101 just ended in the Santa Rita HIlls AVA. Why oh why do I love Paso? Because it has been somewhat forgotten, cut off at the knees by Santa Barbara. Paso got all the way to the altar and the bride (all us consumers) took off. But the wine did not change in Paso Robles. The changeover that has been taking place in Paso ever since Tablas Creek arrived has continued without interruption. I am talking about dumping the cab and chard and replanting with syrah, grenache, mourverdre, grenache blanc, rousanne, marsanne and every other southern France cutting the folks at Tablas Creek could bring into the country legally with full papers and full quarantine. No mongrels in the Tablas Creek nursery. They are the modern Library of Alexandria for Southern France vinifera.

Tablas Creek is the tip of the iceberg. There are dozens of wineries with production facilities, tasting rooms, storage..the whole mushpucha. Consider Justin who still makes a very popular and Napa-priced cabernet named Isoceles. Then there is Pipestone which is a 10 acre site planted, owned and operated by a wonderful couple who abandoned careers in environmental law and biochemistry to live in the middle of nowhere and learn how to make wine and live peaceably with the cougars. Justin, TC and Pipestone are part of the Far Out Wineries contingent. They are located at the greatest distance from Paso Robles. Well worth the ride for the terrain, the wines and the hospitality. This ain't Napa. Or Santa Barbara/Solvang.

And how about Clautiere? They made lingerie before turning their attention to wine. If wine can be sexy then it will be a Clautiere wine. Their parties sure look like a lot of fun. Clautiere is located on the unfashionable East Side of the 101. Where the Westside has rolling hills and deep pockets of microclimate bounty the unfashionable Eastside has low hills and hot dry dusty roads...with some very old Italian farmer fields (another kind of bounty). Clautiere makes very good wine at very attractive price points. Finally, the best indicator that Paso is still developing as a region of repute, the sourcing wineries (e.g., those wineries without walls) are growing in number...like Anglim of whom I have written before.

I have not hit every one of the Far Out Wineries. I have to mention Saxum and Linne Calodo, two notable wineries who are not Far Out even if their wines are pretty heavy dude. I will also mention another highly reputed winery L'Aventure however I have not tasted their wines. Sadly, few of these wineries produce much wine under $20. Tablas Creek, Clautiere and Pipestone are exceptions. Of course, I am a wine club member with each.

Paso has not stopped being the next big thing for want of its own very funny movie. It is well worth a visit. They have their wine festivals. Summer is blistering hot. We like to stay in Cambria and drive up to Paso for the day returning to the cool ocean air for the evening.

2005 Tablas Creek Cotes de Tablas Blanc ~$15: This is my third vintage of this wine. As with the red (named just Cotes de Tablas) the wine is ready to drink right away. Nose is summer melon. Flavors are fresh, light fruit, well balanced. 75% viognier and Rousanne. A small does of Grenache Blanc adds a little backbone. The sweet-ish viognier fruit really stands out making this a wonderful summer evening wine with a meal of salmon. Hey- that's what we had!

2005 Tablas Creek Esprit de Beaucastel Blanc $9 in split: I bought this from Jim Ruxin. More on Jim later. Best kept wine secret in LA and beyond. Grenache Blanc dominant so the smoke is in your face but not quite like standing over my BBQ. 70% Rousanne and 25% GB. A young wine that needs at least a year. Even in the split. Serious wine.

The Tablas Creek Wine Club is the best deal I know. They make great wines without exception. They discount generously to club members. And the pedigree is peerless. This is the best of southern France in California.

WRONG!!! The Jints won. The Pats lost. If you love dee-fence you were on the edge of your seat. If you hate the hype (guess who) you kept nodding off (like me). At least the wines were excellent.

2004 Ojai Vineyard Westerly Sauvignon Blanc ~$20 (at 2003 Wine Cask tasting): Grassy, lively acid, pretty well balanced. Complemented the salsa and chips and roasted peppers. 13% alcohol.

1995 Frederic Esmonin Mazy Chambertin $40 way back when: Such a disappointment from what coulda shoulda mighta been. Brown red color. Not a nice nose. Tired flavors. Un-quaffable. Went back twice and it was even closer to le morte. Mazy - or Mazis - is the legendary Gran Cru vineyard. You can keep La Tache and the other DRC slopes. This is the one. Unfortunately, Frederic Esmonin is not the producer. I purchased a mixed case of 1995 and 1996 burgs by Esmonin and a couple other vignerons reviewed in an earlier blog entry. Only the 1996 Esmonin Ruchottes has been memorable [ed. see preceding link]. This was so far over the hill not even Randy Moss could have caught it. It is wines like this that drive me back to Becky Wasserman!

1997 Williams Selyem Riverblock Pinot Noir probably $50 on release, north of $200 today: God bless Dotore' and his bulging wine cave. He bagged this bottle forcing me and the missus to guess. We agreed right away on New World. The smoky nose and flavors were so brawny that I leaned towards a rustic and somewhat silky Carneros pinot, producer unknown. Big Lou nailed it. Is it Williams Selyem? Yes it is. She also called a pretty good game as guest analyst noting that the TV timeout allowed Belichick to thoroughly preview his challenge to Giants having 12 men on the field question during the ridiculously long and endless commercial break. The Cheater challenged and won. Not that it made a difference. Back to the W/S wine. Once again this shows W/S pinot noir wines age wonderfully and rank right at the top. Of course, Riverblock is the best Rochioli grapes W/S gets these days.

...and a couple more in the preceding and following days...

2005 Tablas Creek Bergeron ~$25: It is Rousanne. It is delicious. Middle weight with an orange and lemon peel nose. Fresh and high acid. I guess they do not make it in this style - of the Savoie - that often. I really enjoyed this wine. Please suh can I have summah? 13.5%. Now how hard was that?

2006 Crios de Susana Balbo Malbec $10: Young red wine probably produced by tens of thousands cases. Middle weight. Tastes like Syrah and/or Carignane. I do not know what to expect from Argentine Malbec. I know the Argentine vintners are making moves to export more so they must Parker-ize their wines. Here is an example. The good news is it is not so ripe as to be undrinkable (like a couple of Paso/Napa wines I can think of). 13.5%

MONDO VINO...directed by Jonathan Nossiter, released 2004.
I missed this the first time around and there are numerous posts on the featured "players" and film reviews online. I wrote mine before reading the others. I remember the hubub in the press but never saw the film. I certainly enjoyed it in 2008. Can't say much has changed except the Mondavis, who are portrayed as wine Gods with all the powers of Zeus and company (a role they all seem to relish on camera). They are no longer the Mondavi Winery Mondavis. They are now the former "international imperialists" who "secretly" investigated three Italian wine families, two of whom were the Antinoris and the Frescobaldis, to decide which would be their lucky partner in Luce.

Of course, we all know now that these kinds of theatrical exercises in corporate and personal excess will never be repeated again under this name. Here Tim Mondavi explains away the bad blood that spilled out of the Ornellaia deal and James Suckling avoids claiming creation of the term Super-Tuscan. Stay to the end and an Italian wine merchant tells what he really thinks about wine globalization and all this deep pockets whoop-de-doo.

We also see how the Mondavis found their tipping point in the Languedoc. The project they had proposed to undertake, apparently under the guidance of Michel Rolland, failed fabulously as French democracy prevailed and the rich Americans were sent packing by the new Communist mayor who fulfilled his most important campaign promise...preserving the indigenous wine industry from outside interlopers. Near the end of the film we learn Mondavi friend and consultant Rolland is the new partner with a Bordelaise in a new mega-wine-development in the same area.

Politics plays an odd role in this film on wine. The French director Jonathan Nossiter (who is American born but internationally educated) lets the viewer know that the Antinoris and the Frescobaldis were ardent Fascistas in WWII. The scenes are almost comic as the younger the family member is on camera the stronger the historical truth is acknowledged. The older folks downplay Grandpa's support for the fascists as simply going with the flow. The grandkids leave no doubt the old man loved Mussolini. The director must have thought he hit a vein. He juxtaposes the unfortunately fascist Italian patricians with an unfortunately prejudiced Argentine family (it is the world of wine). Isn't it always just a little creepy when upper class folks living in a "modern" nation feel they have to prove they are not really anti-semitic? The director asks the particular Argentine vigneron about Peron's friendship with Mussolini. He clumsily answers "hey Peron really didn't have any problem with the Jews". While it makes for titillating cinema Nossiter commits a mistake by painting nations and peoples with too broad a brush.

Mondo Vino sets up fairly simply. You have the good guys like Neal Rosenthal who nearly chokes on his pastrami screeching about the Parker-ization of wines globally and the imminent disappearance of terroir. Another good guy is the Languedoc vigneron Aime Guibert of Mas de Daumas Gassac who successfully led the resistance against the Mondavis overwhelming his town.

Then you have the bad guys. Michel Rolland laughs all the way to the bank...day after day. Micro-oxygenation apparently means monetizing bullshit in French. Robert Parker plays the do-gooder bumpkin with roots firmly planted in the radical 60s. He aims to "level the field" and remove wine appreciation from the cold pecuniary grip of the bloodless distributors. The problem is he loves the attention, the awards, as well as rubbing shoulders with, and being one of, the big names in wine. He is a dupe of his own dictatorial (fascistic?) palate. In a poignant scene his very good friend Michel Rolland - who Parker proclaims gets no benefit from their friendship when Parker "objectively" tastes Rolland's wines with Rolland at the table - laughingly (this is one happy dude) talks about how the wine merchants of Pomerol should give Parker his own plaque in the village for all the $$ he has made them.

Neal Rosenthal declares Parker's love for Merlot dictates his palate preferences...along with the rest of the wine world that covets his 90+ points and the mountain of orders that follow. There does seem to have been some film fallout for Mssr. Rolland who has had to "re-organize" as they say in the business world.

Mondo Vino is not Mondo Cane, the legendary international film of my youth. It is more Michael Moore than David Cronenberg. Yes, I am saying that Mondo Cane and its many successors were forerunners of the Cronenberg style.

In real life things are seldom so crisp and clear. The Mondavis are not bad people. Michel Rolland and Robert Parker cannot possibly be this buffoonish (can they?). Michael Mondavi describes the family's flaw as making business decisions based on family emotions. The director definitely captured some very good moments if wine and the business of wine intrigues you. Probably the best moments are conversations between burgundy vigneron Hubert de Montille and his daughter Alix who compete for family leadership as most crusty. Of course, theirs is the only wine I would like to try after watching the film. Read about the Montille estate in a blurb from the Beaune Imports website.

Rosenthal is right. Terroir before "Parker-ization".

Hats off to Nossiter for making a film worth watching.

RENT IT

We attended a wine dinner sponsored by a couple of nice gentlemen who call their business Wine Vine & Dine. The theme was Cotes du Rhone and they poured seven representative wines (three white). They purchased most if not all bottles at Du Vin in West Hollywood, a premium retailer with one of the best French wine selections in the city.

The dining room doubles as a deli. The chef served spuds, quiche and lamb chops (yummy). One diner wondered what he had against vegetables. The food was good but the wines were the main act.

A tasting is always something of a show. Why do people go into the wine business? The business is something like entertainment. It has glamour, lifestyle, enough complication to make it "intellectual". Ultimately, it comes down to the actors. Robert Mondavi was like Caruso or The Three Tenors. Everyone can't be Pavarotti, however, there is plenty of room for lesser stars (long as you are not sharing a booth with Luciano). Nyuk nyuk [ed. cue Curly vid].

And in the wine business you always end up with the wine. Here is what Joe and Will of VWD served up.

2006 Abel Clement Cote du Rhone Blanc $10: Blend of Claret, Grenache Blanc and Picpoul. Pale yellow. Light, fresh, just enough tartness in the flavor. Perfect to begin the tasting. 13%

2005 Condrieu Cave de Chante Perdrix $29: I am not fond of Viognier. Others at our table liked this wine just fine. I usually write the same notes...foxy, flinty, dry. The guys talk about peaches. I only taste the pits. This is not bad wine by any measure. It is nice to drink (if you like Viognier). Chalk it up to a bad marriage between the taster and the grape. 13.5%

2004 Cairanne Vieux Clocher Cotes du Rhone Villages $10: Strong red color. Tannic, lightweight body, toasty, dry. Opens with 10 minutes. Taste the grenache. Me likey. Good value. Not sure I would buy it over something else. 14.5%

2003 Guigal Cote Rotie Brune et Blonde $80: Every show has to have a big number, the show stopper (we hope). Like Le Marseillaise in Casablanca. This was tonight's show stopper. Syrah from the most well known producer in the Rhone. And it was excellent. The glasses were tough for getting much aroma. Not with this wine. Roasted nuts. Middle weight body. Dense, blacquisimo cherry fruit (that is very very dark cherry flavors). Beautifully made and wonderful to drink. I prefer these wines to most home grown syrahs which, it seems, have to be over-ripe in order to achieve this density and weight. Of course, I would never pay $80 for this bottle. I would rather spend twice as much for an aged La Landonne! Hey - 13%!

2004 Chateauneuf du Pape Lieu dit Les Combes d'Arnevel $39: Grenache based blend. Joe points out that as many as 14 different varietals can go into the CdP blend. Maybe that is why I rarely cozy up to a CdP wine. This one is light, with dark fruit. It is also spiny which in my vocabulary means it is lean, somewhat rigid, but not austere. 14.5%

2005 Gigondas Cuvee de Beauchamp Chateau de Montmirail $34: Imported by Beaune Imports. This should be the star as the 2005 vintage has been highly touted. Darkest wine of the evening. At first, I am put off. Too deep. The master beckons. Violets in the nose and flavor. Can taste the alcohol. After a rough start it comes together. Now I am liking it more. Getting balanced. Another example of a syrah wine that is not overripe but has plenty of stuffing. May be my favorite wine in the group. 14.5%

NV Muscat Beaumes de Venise Vignerons de Beaumes de Venise Vaucluse $21: A dessert wine. Golden color. Tastes like a young Sauternes, sauvignon blanc peach and chalkiness. Almond, wax. Very nice. 15%

Nice show.

As they say in the blippin teen franchise Bring It On movies...it's already been brung...al fresco dinner party hosted by Dr. and Mrs. Dotoré. Four couples with open minds and palates giving the tBoW team a clear shot at tasting wines we like to drink OR anything we care to pull from the cellar. The guests are in training and bring what they can find in a decent wine shop that might keep up in the wineocracy.

2006 Mas Amiel Le Plaisir Rosé $15: NBW selection, sweet, lipstick and strawberries. Grenache Noir, Carignane and Syrah. 13%

2006 Tablas Creek Bergeron $20: Screw top, 100% Rousanne, not too ripe, melons, smoke, flinty, even Dotoré gives an excellent Paso wine its due. Here are notes from the Tablas Creek blog that describes why this version [ed. 250 cs only available to wine club members] is differs from the Estate Rousanne. "Each year, we make a little early-picked, cool-microclimate Roussanne in the style in which it's made in the Savoie region in France (where the Roussanne grape is known as "Bergeron"). This citrusy, higher-acid version of Roussanne is great with fresh seafood, oysters on the half-shell, and fresh cheeses". 13.5%

2004 Don Luis Cetto Viognier $15: Big hit with Guadalupe Valley wine fans, sauvignon blanc-like in its absence of ripe fruit. In fact, not a lot of fruit at all. Feline. Riesling-like petroleum nose. Delicious, palate-filling, hint of citrus, opens up in 20 minutes, lime comes through. A bit earthy and dusty to me. A large house Guadalupe wine with a fine rep. When you are there get the olive oil. 14%

2006 Barraud Mâcon-Chaintré "Les Pierres Polies" $20: NBW again. Tastes like chardonnay without the tropical fruit or banana notes. Middle weight. Oak, rich. Fruit for a young Burg. Re-buy. 13.5%

2006 ZD California Chardonnay $25: Mainstream Napa chardonnay. Much of Napa chardonnay is being pulled up. This is rich wine in light oak. Ripe fruit, restrained. No tropical fruit flavors. Too restrained. They left out the excitement here. 13.5%

2003 Drew Julia's Vineyard $: NOT Santa Rita Hills pinot noir. Santa Maria Valley PN. Powerful spices in the nose. Thyme, sage. Spicy flavors too. Dotoré says Drew wines are often idiosyncratic. Try it with turkey chili. Would be great with Thanksgiving dinner! Could handle the cranberry. [ed. found the Gatekeepers label which is also very nice and more widely available wine] 80 cases. 14.5%

2006 Ca' D'Gal Lunine Moscato d'Asti $18: Think of these wines like the Bring It On movies. Summer fun. Lightweight. Zingy and refreshing [ed. that crosses the line]. A little fizz and some difference in the fruit profile. I am linking to the NBW site where they say nice smart things about this wine. I feel like a total cheer slut. Arguably one could match the wines to the cheer-characters. This one tastes like apples and has a good acid zing. The Morandini still stands at the top and Bartenura at the lower end of the scale. However, like the movie kids say in IM-ese...BIO! 5%

Back to the cheer-ocracy...[ed. you do mean the Wine Spectator? IMO nyuk nyuk]

It is axiomatic to oenophiles that you have to sit on some wines for awhile so the wine can develop in the bottle. I am coming to the conclusion that this is just one more corollary to the magic chef and the hallowed ground marketing themes that have created the Parker/Rolland two headed monster. Wine does age in the bottle. But does it get better? Recent pourings/tasting have concluded otherwise. The 1996 Burgundies flopped like Vlade Divac taking a charge. And here we have some pinot noir bottlings from the fabled Santa Rita Hills that also fell well below high expectations when purchased on release.

To be fair, tBoW must own being swept up willingly in the SRH hype and falling for the bombastic fruit forward styles that came from the region. How times and palates change.

This was a somewhat free-form tasting that began with white wines of curious interest and closed with five "heavy hitters". Be sure to check out very good friend David McMillan's delirious and delicious political content at the end of this post.

2006 Treana Central Coast Mer Soleil Monterey $10: Purchased online at wines.com. 55% Viognier 45% Marsanne. Dotoré asks "what are they aiming for with this wine"? Too much oak, alcohol, everything. More like a California chardonnay than a white Rhone blend. Awful. Whatever they were aiming for it could not have been this wine. 14.5%

2005 Andre Perret St Joseph $40: A Robert Chadderton selection and the first I have found unimpressive. Highly regarded producer. Would like to taste his reds. Foxy flavors make the Marsanne Rousanne blend taste more like a Viognier. Worth $15 but not what tBoW paid. At least the alcohol is a decent level. 13%

1999 Jean Luc Colombo Le Rouet Blanc Hermitage: Online press on this winemaker is appealing; terroir driven, opinionated, non-traditional. However, this wine did not show well. Acidic and lean out of the bottle. Out of balance. "Nun piss" says an irreverent taster who will never be on Chris Matthews. Somewhat madeirized. Parker says "mature". Soiled flavor as in earth. Not a very good wine. [ed. had to go with red label]

2006 Curran Grenache Blanc $26: tBoW is a Curran fan. This 2006 has been reviewed on two other occasions prior. It may be heading over the hill. Fruit presence more pronounced than old world wines squeezing life from our tongues. Marked contrast to the Rhone efforts. But the wine is out of whack. Enough time has passed to come around as these wines seem to need 12 months. We are struck by how generally mediocre are the white wines, despite expectations.

2005 Lamargue Costieries de Nimes $10: At the insistence of our honored guest we opened this delightful bottle from Languedoc. 50% Grenache Blanc, 50% Rousanne in the blend, reasonably balanced, gentle enough to sip gently, low enough alcohol to sip again and again, and easily the best of class on this day. Great value. 13.5%

disappointed and unimpressed with the white Rhones we moved on to the featured showing...Santa Rita Hills pinot noir.

These wines came right out of the tBoW cellars of yours truly and Dotoré where they have been since release.

2002 Ojai Clos Pepe $40: What could be better than pairing the original Santa Barbara/Central Coast winemaker Adam Tolmach with one of the premium new era growers (and winemaker) Wes Hagen of Clos Pepe. The wine is awkward and even a bit vegetal. Truly Adam Tolmach is somewhat of a tortured soul. Take a moment to read his own notes on this wine. I prefer his Syrah wines.

2002 Sea Smoke Southing $50: Rich, dense pinot fruit. Very smoky even though that has nothing to do with the label name. Let's pretend it does. Entry level for the most collectable SRH label. But not the best wine from the region!! 14.3%

2004 Kenneth Crawford Clos Pepe Pinot Noir $40: Thin, acidic, more like a vin ordinaire Syrah from southwest France. Something happened here between the vintage, harvest and vinification. Further evidence that Syrah is the wine to seek from SRH? I'm convinced. [ed. I never noticed how similar are the Sea Smoke and K-C labels.]

2002 Melville Carrie's VIneyard Pinot Noir $60: That is correct sir. We ponied up three Jacksons for this monster wine. It is rich. It is ripe. It is eating the little dog. This wine, alcohol and all, was preferred to the K-C, Sea Smoke and Ojai efforts. Nobody would ever confuse this with an old world pinot noir. But they might confuse it with a zinfandel port from Sonoma. 15.1%

2004 Paul Lato Goldcoast Pinot Noir $30: Elegant, balanced, delicate, smooth, silky, some smoke. Paul gets it right every time. In the vintages tBoW owns he made 75 cases. Why didn't we buy more? That's right, we had a limit. Dumbkopf!! 14.5%

So here is the real question. Given the recent tastings of SRH and Burgundy (avoiding impulse to write French Burgundy), from which region is tBoW likely to pick his next pinot noir wine? Domestic, and in the following order....Williams Selyem and Paul Lato in a dead heat; then select Oregon bottlings, then select SRH bottlings. If we go "old world" we will be looking for recent vintages from less fashionable regions....from Becky Wasserman and North Berkeley Wines.

Still have a taste for satire and a contemporary POV? Try David McMillan's News In Color on youtube. 75 entires and climbing. Here is one of my currents faves. WARNING: this material can be political.

I have begun to think of my cellar as a bunker. Members of the tBoW tasting team seem to share this view. The Act of Purging is as essential as other necessary functions that keep a storage center clean. We don't want "impacted" cellars. Here is what the Venice tBoW tasting team came up with recently at a hosted dinner on a balmy winter Saturday night in LA.

NV Moet & Chandon White Star $30: Who buys this wine? I am guessing I had my last bottle of White Star more than 20 years ago. Probably longer but who's counting? I might have been counting if I remembered the marque wine of Moet as having distinct lemon and pear flavors backed with a clear and firm spine. Rich and a bit sweet. Is it worth $30? Probably because I am hard pressed to think of another $30 champagne that would produce something supposed to be consistent this consistently (that is what a marque wine is supposed to do). Check out the smarmy corporate marketing video here. Who made this? Hammer Studios? tBoW liked the wine and encourages you to lower your snob quotient and accept any pours you may be offered this holiday season. Widely available at Kirkland Nation (aka Costco).

2005 Tablas Creek Roussanne $24: They make this wine in two styles. This is the "traditional, i.e., French" one. A bit smoky, aged in oak. Firm with pear and melon fruit flavors. Actually restrained and needing time to open a bit. Only 600 cases. 14.3 %

2006 Arnaud Gaujal Picpoul de Pinet $13: Value wine from the value region of Southwest France. We do not need a recession to recognize there are wines from the Languedoc that are and have been great finds for years. Delightful bright and fresh. You cannot go wrong with this wine. Serve it with salad and it holds up to any dressing I can think of [ed. the white wine acid test]. I know this will read wrong BUT the nose and flavor reminded me of shaving cream. A bit soapy but that is the dryness. Well balanced. Nothing out of sort. A tBoW bargain and I would buy it if I saw it. 13%

2000 Ch Petit-Figeac St-Emilion Grand Cru $40: Here is (one of) the problem(s) with Bordeaux. You can't tell the all-stars from the journeymen. Case in point. Chateau Figeac is a big hitter. Highly collectible (if you collect Bordeaux). And a St Emilion which is at southern end of the Girond and mostly if not all Merlot. But there are only about another dozen OTHER wines with the name Figeac. There is Franc Figeac, Yon Figeac...enough to confuse the Figeac family not to mention the unsuspecting consumer. This particular Figeac wine is from the 2000 vintage that actually delivered on the century wine hyperbole. Everybody buy now! The wine was tasty. Needed time to open up but then that is pretty standard with Cabernet Sauvignon-Merlot-Cab Franc blends from Bordeaux. Drink enough of them and you will pine for the good old easy going big and blowsy Napa versions. You have to like Cabernet a lot to buy these wines. And you have to like the French style which means sit and wait 10 years or an hour. 13%

1998 Ch Blanzac Cotes de Castillon $20: Another uncelebrated (at least outside France and England) region near Bordeaux. This is another problem with Bordeaux wines. Wine collectors who wish to impress ASAP with their wine knowledge can easily "master" the First Growth wines of Bordeaux. There are only five. Too bad the 1st growths are so pricey because what good is newfound knowledge without opening the stuff you are touting? Of course, as in most of France (as well as Spain and Italy not to mention Austria and Germany), there is plenty of very good wine in the less heralded corners of the region. Mastery in the petit regions of Bordeaux, however, is another matter. Like studying for the LSAT. tBoW and Dotoré long ago realized if one is going to study wine then one may as well study the OTHER region of France with equally difficult lessons and infinitely greater rewards. That would be Burgundy. This nice Merlot was tight upon opening even at 10 years and even though from the unglamorous Cotes de Castillon. So chances are it was well made. It never had a chance to open because our host sucked it down like a sandworm hunting spice. He said he liked it. Urp. 13%

The dinner was Cassoulet which is a typical dish in the Languedoc. The red wines typical of Languedoc are Syrah, Grenache and Mourvedre. tBoW taster Tootsie usually does it up pretty good.

Just because the economy is in the tank does not mean we cannot enjoy fine wine. Huddling with pals amidst the economic collapse can prove a good tonic. You just have to know how to balance the U20s with the O50s. Here is our plan for finding a way to balance U20 selections with O50 [ed. over $50] indulgences. Purge your cellar and scour the sales bins at local high end retailers for the O50s. Hit the Kirkland bins for the U20s. Pressure your wine pal into playing the piano (no please OK). Now you can create some spice and verve for a special event like Valentines Day at the home of a dear pals. We had our own little V Day massacre with IGTY's [ed. igottatellya] Williams Selyem collection showing how it all gets done.

Presto NV Prosecco Brut $10: Nothing special here however a sparkler is a good place to begin an evening. This is dry, not fruity like I would expect from Prosecco. If you were buying a sparkler for a party of 100 this would be a great selection. Picked up at Whole Foods. 11%

2007 Louis Jadot Macon Villages $12: I liked this wine. Another bargain U20. Stone fruit (as they say) meaning the fruit is not way ripe. Reminds me of fruit pits in your jugo. In a good way. Dry. Easy quaffer. Quick finisher. What's not to like?

Root:1 Sauvignon Blanc $8: A Kirkland Nation wine presented in a brown bag. Yup. We tasted it blind which was fun. Picked it out as Sauv Blanc immediately. That was easy. Grassy style. Of course that also threw us to California which we amended to New World [ed. cheaters]. It is the Chilean juice from ungrafted vinifera root stock that is all over Costco. The Cab is all the rage and this was pretty good too. This wine has stuffing meaning it is a bit weighty in viscosity. Bitter in the mid palate like a wheat grass drink you get at the spa. Lemon grass too. Another great buy and I guess we can all say tough times demand smart U20 buying! I prefer the Ugni-Colombard reviewed elsewhere but this works also for 75% the cost.

2001 Rochioli Estate Chardonnay~ $70: Rich rich rich. Closed at first. Continued to open for more than an hour. Toasty and buttery on the nose and in the mouth. Technicolor flavors and lush. Dotoré detects a note of tropical fruit and claims it is papaya. Yes. This is the Estate bottle not one of the vineyard designated wines. Like its brother Estate Pinot Noir it is a consistently well-made wine that you can always count on...if you are willing to pay. Of course, next to the vineyard wines these are cheap. Wine of the evening. 14.2%

2005 Linne Calado Contrarian $40: 64% Rousanne and 36% Viognier. Smoky, dry. I can taste the Viognier and I do not like Viognier. This was a better wine for me a few years ago but now I am displeased. I also wonder - and here is my beef with Linne Calodo and others - if this is a common blend in the Rhone or SW France? I think not. Tell me I am wrong. Matt Trevanian, who is a winemaker of well deserved and considerable reputation, likes to blend Zinfandel with Cabernet and Syrah and other grapes that are non-traditional and IMHO do not work very well together. Chalk it up to my problem but I was disappointed. I expected more having fond memories of at least two earlier bottles.

2006 Williams Selyem Sonoma Coast Pinot Noir $70: Yummy. Onto the Williams Selyem wines. I would hope the next time this winery sells it goes to Sees Candies. They are that yummy. This has some smoke. Color is kind of dark although each of the next three wines from WS are actually kind of light for California wines. Of course, that is not precautionary for WS Pinot Noir. It is a good sign. This wine is...delicious. Showing forward fruit and softness than the other two which have their own charms.

2006 Williams Selyem Sonoma County Pinot Noir $70: A bigger. More full in flavors and pronounced nose. Also forward and kind of simple. These are the entry level WS wines meant for early consumption.

2006 Williams Selyem Central Coast Pinot Noir $70: The most distinctive of the set. Pronounced cola and sasparilla flavors. A bit more acidic but not volatile in the least. tBoW's personal fave in the set. What a great host, eh?!?!

2001 Beaulieu Vineyard Napa Valley Syrah Signet Collection $15: As happens at most tastings somebody has to tap the host to pour something for which he feigns reluctance. Call it the old "I can't open that it was gift" ploy. That was this bottle. Sooprise sooprise!! The wine was quite tasty. 2001 was a terrific vintage and even though Diageo owns BV with the same effect of Chrysler buying Mercedes Benz or Ford taking over Jaguar this was a decent bottle of wine. Warm, soft, rich, bit of mint chocolate. After a little time it shows some Napa valley floor, redwood flavors. Good luck trying to figure what vineyard(s) where. 13.5%

Best finish of the evening was Dotore' showing off his new chops on the keyboard. Nice.

Jim Morrison sang "Strange days have found us. Strange days have tracked us down. They're going to destroy our casual joys<. Can we use his gravesite as metaphor for the 2008/9 economic collapse? His fevered fans have trashed his grave like our fevered wall streeters trashed...you get the point. I hope we all listen to his moody lyrics and act with the anger he showed singing. Troubled rock stars are a cliché today. We can only hope boom-to-bust traders, AIG executives and hedge fund managers will become tired clichés tomorrow. I can foresee a new era of celebreality shows that replace the Bad Girls Club; maybe Broke Brokers and Bad Bankers, or TARP Traders; re-enact the hey-day of unbounded greed and self-interest. Thursdays at 9:00 on the WB. Strange days have come!!
Yeh!!

tBoW reports on wines from yesterday and today, encountering mysterious memories along the way.

2005 Domaine Labet Cote de Jura Flor de Savinin $27: Purchased at Palate wine shop. Let's not mince any words. This is a strange wine. tBoW has actually reviewed it before. [ed. recently too] It is so unusual it can only be likened to a Patti Smith song you have to hear at least once more to make sure you did not get it. It is plenty acidic but not volatile. The flavors are dry lemon. Oh? You have never enjoyed dried lemon in your Omega Trek mix? Flavors are bright, woody. Izit oxidized? We thought so before. We are not sure how we feel about it this time except that it is not offensive and it is interesting. I would not say it is an Amy Winehouse of a wine because its picture isn't everywhere you turn...but it is STRANGE.

2007 Barrel 27 "High on the Hog" French Camp Vineyard, Paso Robles White Wine $20: Barrel 27 is a small production, sourced-wine project from the Central Coast. This Rhone-style white is a blend of 54% Viognier with the balance Roussanne and Marsanne. All the fruit is from Paso Robles' French Camp Vineyard. An oily texture, full bodied, balances the foxy Viognier and more sour Marsanne/Rousanne fruit. Good to know interesting wines are still coming out of Paso. tBoW would buy it. 15.1%

2000 Wellington Cabernet Sauvignon Vineyard "that time forgot" $n/a: When tBoW was still buying bottles of Cabernet Sauvignon in the 1980s he "discovered" Wellington VIneyards in Sonoma. All they do is make a small amount of superior quality Sonoma wines which they sell at bargain rates - for Sonoma and Napa, anyway. The story helped hook tBoW on the wine club. A doctor purchased an old Italian farmer's small acreage vineyards blessed with old varietals scattered throughout the flat acreage. The farmer always sold off the fruit holding back a small batch for his own "red" commonly referred to as a field blend. This was a nice way of saying he had no idea what vines where planted where on the site. The MD, being a scientist, DNA-identified each and every plant on the property. His son became the winemaker and they began to blend the most interesting bottles using the now known locations of old old vines on the property and properly labeled the contents. They also planted new vines and bottled the same old Chardonnay and Cabernet. The most intriguing bottling from Welly-Welly was the Noir de Noirs Old Vines which blended four varieties from the estate and their neighbor, the more famous Pagani Ranch, including Alicante Bouschet, Lenoir, Grand Noir and Petite Bouschet. The stuff was big and hearty without being overwhelmingly acidic or ripe. It was just thick and warm, like a Pendleton blanket. This estate Cabernet Sauvignon is soft and tasty at 9 years old. It is fruity more like a Mendoza Malbec than a Sonoma Cab.

If you love Cabernet Sauvignon from California's premium winegrowing regions for this varietal (Napa and Sonoma) you really should look at Wellington Vineyards. Great wines at great value. Please note the label posted is from a current release and not the 2000 bottle reviewed.

Kings Ridge Pinot Noir $18: Nice light ruby red color more like Burgundy than an Oregon Pinot Noir. Willamette Valley floor juice sourced form multiple vineyards. Has Oregon smoke, some acid, on the beety side of the flavor spectrum for Pinot Noir. Kings Ridge is a somewhat new project worth checking into once again. tBoW has a wine trip set for Portland in May so maybe we will encounter the Kings Ridge crew? 13.11%

SUMMER'S BEST LOCAL EVENT IS COMING UP JUNE 13 & 14. I am referring to the TOPANGA CANYON ART STUDIOS TOUR: tBoW travels through Topanga Canyon often. Once a year the Topanga cooperative art gallery hosts a tour of local artists who live in the canyon. This is hands-down the best one day summer activity for people who want to know more about the venerable, charming and mysterious canyon. If you want to see how and where Topanga artists live then you must buy a ticket at the gallery and spend Saturday and/or Sunday June 13 & 14 driving around Topanga. HIGHLY RECOMMENDED.

To blend or not? Since the 1970s California vintners have chosen to produce bottles of one varietal; in those days it was the ubiquitous Chardonnay or Cabernet Sauvignon. This was not always the case when the blended California Chablis and Hearty Burgundy where the state's flagship wines. In Europe the general preference is to blend grapes, with notable exceptions. tBoW prefers blended wines because they are more interesting PERIOD. With that, let us hasten to immediately confute ourselves by reviewing and praising a French wine that is Gamay-based (perhaps 100%!!) while suggesting an international and a couple of domestic wines should go into a blend. Go figger. Here is an easy-to-follow link that will freshen up your Beaujolais IQ.

2003 Corcelette Morgon $18: Peter Weygandt imports this wine purchased at Woodland Hills Wine Co. Showing some toughness when opened. Made me wonder if it was over the hill. Woody, receding "fruit-line". Either the wine was not ready or it's time had passed. 30 minutes later the fruit emerged, showing a supple quality that was quite lovely. Lots of cherry fruit. Showing some age in the color and the fruit. Not exactly vibrant. More like mature and perfect. One would guess this wine could go another couple years. Really shows how refined Beaujolais wine - and a single varietal - can be. 13.5%

2004 Tablas Creek Syrah $32: Through the TC WIne Club. A gentleman bruiser. Not so big and tough to put one off but plenty solid around the middle. Rich and ripe Paso fruit. Dense without being overstuffed. Great steak wine. Put it in the Panoplie! 14.5%

2007 Trenel Macon-Villages $16: A Robert Chadderdon selection from a house that tBoW counts on for premium wines. However, this is unimpressive. Chardonnay without much flavor. Why not blend it with Viognier? Fairly lean. Not over-oaked (if at all). Just ordinary. Not what I expect from producer or importer. Even the best hitters strike out sometime, right? [ed. ekchooly the best hitters strike out a lot; this is a first for Chadderdon] 13%

2005 Tablas Creek Roussanne $23: tBoW is going to write blasphemy. I wish Tablas Creek would blend all their varietals, red and white. We like the blends so much, e.g., Esprit de Beaucastel, Panoplie, etc. There is nothing wrong with the single varietals. I just find the blends do a better job of showing the terroir. Maybe it is the young vines and the single varietals will be more interesting in the future. This Rousanne is lovely, with a solid tannic spine. It is medium weight. I just do not find it very captivating. The Esprit de Beaucastel Blanc, on the other hand, is dynamite with explosive flavors, and strong character. And the EBB, like the EBR, needs some time to develop. 14.3%

BONUS VIEW FROM THE WINEMAKER HIMSELF...JASON HAAS

tBoW posed the blending question to Jason Haas and he replied promptly. Here is a distillation of his thoughts. He got so pumped up he posted a longer reply on the Tablas Creek blog Sunday May 31. Be sure to check it out.

This is a great question. There are a couple of different reasons for us to do single varietals (recognizing that 80% of what we make, including our flagship red and white wines, are blends).

I think you're right that the single varietals often need more time to really show well than the blends do. This makes sense; we have a lot more tools in our toolkit when we're working with blends. Grapes like Syrah and Roussanne that are fairly monolithic when they're young can be opened up with the additions of Grenache Blanc and Picpoul, or Counoise and Grenache. We typically hold back these wines for quite a while before we release them.

Thank you Jason for these very educational comments. Makes me want to bust open a 2005 Cotes de Tablas AND a Vermentino!

Last minute travel to Lake Tahoe. No time to plan the wine program. Will have to rely upon the fetching wench to quench the thirst of masses (including tBoW). She turns in a stellar performance in the wine department and in the boggle pit and makes a very strong case why Navarro Vineyards and Winery of Mendocino belongs in the constellation of Under-the-Radar stars along with Tablas Creek of Paso Robles.

2007 Canayli Vermentino di Gallura $18: Torrontes-like given the oily texture, fruity flavors. Somewhat rich. Slight bitterness. Very good choice for the just-flew-in from-LA arrival wine. 13.5%

2007 Parteaguas La Borde Vieille $50 (?): Refreshing lime with all the acid backbone. A wine made by Hugo d'Costa from Guadaloupe Valley in Baja Mexico. Check out previous tBoW posts on the slowly advancing wine scene in Baja. This wine is made in Guadaloupe at d'Costa's Paralelo or Casa Piedra winery with juice from the winemaker's French vineyards. That's right. He ships the Old World juice to the New World. Not surprisingly, it tastes French. 13.5%

2008 Domaine de Fontsainte Gris de Gris $11: Epic pink Corbieres gumbo yaya blend of 60% Grenache Gris and Grenache Noir; 5% Syrah; 10% Mourvèdre; 15% Carignan; and 10% Cinsault. Red luminescence on a cool summer evening in the world class alpine resort Lake Tahoe. Beautiful color. Firm and masculine. Balanced. Very nice and easily the most heroic wine of this trip and super value. 13%

2005 Tablas Creek Esprit de Beaucastel $30: Best value at $69 on the wine list. Sure there are restaurants all over The City with better wine lists and better values. However, they may not have a better wine in terms of pure vine to vine comps. And it is tough to find a better setting than a table on the dock at Westshore Cafe with a sun setting in ultra slow motion over the lake. The label says honey and peaches. The blend is 70% Rousanne, 25% Grenache Blanc and 5% Picpoul. We taste the flinty, mineral and smoke Grenache Blanc. Peaches come around in a bit which is just fine since we may never leave this setting and just hang in the endless twilight for another couple hours. 14.5%

2007 Cascina Ca Rossa Nebbiolo di Roero Rosato $19: This is pink Piemonte 100% Nebbiolo wine, probably young vines, bottled quickly for equally fresh consumption. A bit flabby without much character or spine. It is plummy with some tannin so maybe plum skins. 13.5%

2007 Navarro Mendocino Pinot Noir $23: The winery's "entry level" bottle. Why do we not own more Navarro wines? Blackberry flavors. New world all the way with the plummy yummy while and not in the overripe style. It has to be the northern climate. You need a case of this wine. From their Summer Sampler. 13.8%

2007 Navarro Navarrouge $14: Now here is an interesting blend of "Mendocino natives": Valdiguié, Syrah, Zinfandel, Carignan, Pinot Noir, Cabernet, Petite Sirah, Grenache, and Cinsaut. This is meant to capture the best ready-to-drink qualities from Southwestern France. Think Languedoc, Montpelier, St. Chinian, Fagueres. Straightforward, no apologies Dago Red. Soft, nice but just enough acid to keep it bright and fruity. Navarro's companion to Tablas Creek's excellent Rhone style Cote de Tablas. Loved it. 13.9%

2007 Navarro Chardonnay $25: The piece de resistance, show stopper, surprise winner. Out of the pack, from nowhere. Having just trashed Chardonnay as pretty much a varietal holding little interest for tBoW along comes this wine we would never pick as California Chardonnay. No oak. No bananas or pineapple/mango/papaya. How about minerals and stone berries [ed. what are stone berries?], creaminess, starwberries, cheescake and, yes, some pineapple. North of Sonoma is a winery making awfully good wines THAT WE LIKE at very fair prices. 13.6%

The sun hangs high every day at the beach. Chairs face the lake so we can watch mountains which never go anywhere. Like us. Boggle skirmishes become battles as the lake laps on the sandy shore of our very tiny, very quiet inlet. The day is endless. The sun never goes down...until it finally fades to orange and pink. Warm breezes become cool relief. We watch the boats tied up on the blue, then blue black, then black lake. Dock lights make it all look like some long summer party.

Turn in and do it again tomorrow. We once spent three weeks in August up here and the third was absolutely timeless.

Holidays are here. tBoW is getting ready for a big Xmas day party. Touring local wineries today. Here is my holiday bling collection courtesy of a Downtown LA vendor. Have to make a shopping stop there next week. Here are the wines bringing holiday cheer.

2005 Fitou Bel Armant Chateau Champ des Souers $15: This may be the third time tBoW has reviewed this wonderful little Languedoc/Corbieres wine from Beck Wasserman. Toffee nose, soft, vanilla, fruity. Balanced well. Blends Grenache, Carignan and Mourvèdre. Just very pleasant and completely enjoyable. 13.5%

2006 Domaine des Croix Beaune 1er Cru Les Bressandes $39: An perfect example of when it is time to break the U20 barrier. A Becky Wasserman Selection by the winemaker for Camille Giroud, David Croix. Les Bressandes is one of the great under-the-radar Burgundy premier cru vineyards. This wine is made by an under-the-radar young and upcoming winemaker who handles it beautifully. This is his eponymous label. The dopey phrase iron fist in a velvet glove comes to mind although it probably has no application to Burgundy. Having said that [ed. apologies to Larry David but honestly we have been busting over-used and convoluted "phrasing" for decades; consider "unchartered", "there you go", "if you will" and worst of the worst, like nails dragging across a chalkboard - what's that? - "IT IS WHAT IT IS"! As Dotorè insists, no it isn't.] the wine is focused with a cherry-ish fruit core. Very few feral flavors or aromas, light on tannins, showing polish and skill tBoW picked it off a WHWineCo mailer - and since we bought it blind - this proves the wisdom of having a local wine store you can count on. 13%

2003 Domaine Maxime Chomel Crozes Hermitage Sassenes $23: Hermitage is one of the great vineyards in the Rhone. Crozes is the step-bother, much larger with many wines from the collection of secondary vineyards. This wine has lots to recommend; hand picked, 330 cases, 100% Syrah from old vines. This wine is a bit dirty right away. Is it Bret? Probably not but it is tannic and rustic just the same. Black red color. Syrah bended with Marsanne/Rousanne which gives some sweetness. Raspberries. Quaint. 13.5%

2006 Michel Sarrazin Givry Champs Lalot $20: Strong vanilla on the front palate. Gaminess, creamy flavors. Light to medium weight. Gentlewine for gentle men and women. Givry is one of the lesser appellations in Burgundy, in the the Cote Challonais; a value region for a broker who knows what they want. A North Berkeley Wine pick. They pick the barrels and blend the juice under the producers' label but it is an NBW wine. Very nice. 13%

2008 Evesham Wood Willamette Valley Pinot Noir $18: This Oregon winery is in the southern end of the Willamette Valley near Salem. We have had some wonderful and some ordinary wines from EW. This is in the latter group. We would have liked to have been impressed but were not. Flavors are nice enough. It is just that we can think of enough other wines we could have for the price point or less (see Fitou and Sarrazin). In fact, price point is an issue generally with Oregon Pinot Noir. Our experience is the best values are between $30 and $40. Of course, you could write the same for Burgundy. 13%

Happy Hannukah!

Thanksgiving is an extravaganza to be indulged at every age. The day is all about indulgence in your favorite activities. AMC has all the Godfather movies. There are college hoops, college football and the pros. A buncha abundanza. Many folks will make some effort to re-enact or recognize the "first" Thanksgiving. There will be plenty of political talk at the table. Some adult may look at everyone and suggest everyone say what are they thankful for today. Should that happen here is how tBoW will reply [ed. it did, he did].

I am thankful for being alive during an era of wine production that is wonderfully wide ranging in terms of regions and styles. I am thankful the Parker era is finally past. I am thankful that I am living at a time when local wine bars are sprouting like truffles in the fall. I am thankful Dotoré takes my calls and that I have plenty of great friends (IGTY, Mouse, M&J, Large) and family (Mrs. tBow, tBow kindt, the TOs) [ed. Turkey Queen stage left, her creation above] who have good palates and appreciate wine because it is so interesting.

What about the Bird? A partner-in-wine is essential if the guest list will be lengthy [ed. Large partner below]. The T-day meal has become a vinous gauntlet. The only thing missing is Sly Stallone to shoot/punch/explode the corks off the bottles. Yo Pinot! Cut me Mick. G'head. Do it.

Maybe you dined at your sister-in-law's like we did. Did she produce a fat brown bird or two bathed in truffle suffused butter? Stuffed with oysters and cherries? The only part of the Thanksgiving meal I will concede has gotten out of hand is the license for anyone to make an awful side dish...and serve it. This year it was a candied yam casserole topped with mini marshmallows. Like Billy Wilder's closing line from "Some Like It Hot", when Jack Lemmon pulls off his wig so Joe E. Brown can see he has just proposed to a man in drag Joe E. replies...nobody's perfect.

Here is what got opened.

NV Charles De Fere Blanc de Blanc $10: That is correct sir. A U20 champagne. Yeast streams out when the cork is pulled. Acidic, citric but not lemon or lime. Have to go to the flavor wheel. Has a bite. At this price, quality, alcohol level and cachet it is a wedding planners dream. From Du Vin, an outstanding wine shop in West Hollywood. 12%

2006 Domaine Alary La Grange $14: French Rousanne and another U20 winner. Good tannins with soft fruit makes it an easy Old World pick. Imported by Weygandt-Metzler makes it another easy pick for price and quality. 14.5%

2005 Sea Smoke Southing $50: The big ticket big rep wine of the day. Went so quickly tBoW could to get a second pour! Muscular strong nose. Alcohol is in your face. Extracted fruit. For my palate it is hard to distinguish Santa Rita Hills Syrahs from the Pinots. So excuse me for saying these wines are completely over-rated. There are quite a few other Santa Rita Hills fruit bombs out there less than half the price. Dotoré has a 2001 and a 2002 that will be sampled shortly. Large and tBoW Jr loved it. So call me a curmudgeon. Maybe if I could have gotten that second pour...? 14.7%

2005 Andrew Murray Syrah Roasted Slope Vineyard $30: Speaking of SRH Syrahs here is one of those often touted. Sweet juice. Nicely balanced. So unlike Old World Syrah, i.e., no roasted meats or coffee flavors. Like the other SRH/Central Coast wines best with food. 15%

2004 Linne Calodo Sticks and Stones $145 in Atlanta restaurant: If you like a big alcohol jammy fruit bomb this is your wine. Matt Trevanian likes non-traditional blends however this is his Rhone style from Paso Robles; 57% Grenache 23% Syrah 20% Mourvedre. In the moth it is still somewhat restrained for a really ripe wine. 15.8%

2006 Palama Mavro Salento $29: Picked this up at 55 Degree Wine shop in Atwater Village in LA. Charcoal nose less pleasant to The Large who likened it closer to paint thinner. However, it was agreed this Southern Italian wine from Puglia was the best with the Bird. Middle weight blend showing rich dense dark berry flavors that contrasted well with the Central Coast wines also strutting their stuff. 80% Negoramaro 20% Malvasia. Special thanks to blog with same interests for the label image! 13.5%

1985 Conti Boca $40: Score a double win for Italian wines. The Mavro took down the Bird Trophy while this rare and unusual wine took the Wine 'O Day hardware. This wine was contributed by Chef Tash (picut4d above) who learned of it at a Barolo tasting. It is in the northernmost corner of the Piedmont. At 24 years the wine is on the downside although that should not be taken to mean it is "over the hill" or any such diminution. This is sipping wine. It is like a great Barolo made in the style of the Piemontese old masters, think Giacomo Conterno and Rinaldi. Funky muted nose right away that opens for the next hour. Deep red brick color. The wine blends Nebbiolo with a local varietal Vespolina and sometimes Bonnarda. Like classic Barolo it is slow to open but as it does we get the delicate if masculine flavors of the high hillsides. All tannins have melded. Soft, pure, delicate dark fruit. A treat. This is the kind of wine that I will guarantee locals in the know [ed. Nino of Da Felicin] are sure to collect. Please read about the region's vinous history, this particular house, and this particular vintage! 12.5%

Black Friday observation...the watch collection from Burberry advertised in the Nordstrom catalog seems without inspiration. This is the best they can do? A Timexwith a "signature" plaid strap?