dirty gifts, dirty pleasures and a grip of Heineken

Near the small northwestern Colombian town of Puerto Triunfo, Pablo Escobar once built himself a vacation getaway befitting a man of his stature. Hacienda Napoles was just shy of paradise, spread across almost 5,000 acres (7.7 sq-mi.) and featured everything from pools to a bullring to an exotic zoo with hippos, giraffes, elephants, and more. Stories of enormous drug-fueled sex parties at Hacienda Napoles with some of Colombia's most powerful and most beautiful in attendance continue to circulate, contributing to the legend of Escobar. opulence at its height, this drug laced I want it,..i get it lifestyle makes what we lust for now further out of reach but somehow Spartan in comparison. however, pity our hearts and ceramic minds, our insatiable need to be involved with all celebs and to stay tuned to all the drama,…all the glitz and all the naughtiness …well, its almost like we all secretly want to be… modern day Escobars.

Today, however that paradise is in ruins and the days of spelling your name in cursive with a 24 inch line of pink flake have come and gone. Even at the PE palace, everything that could be gutted has been gutted by people looking for rumored stashes of coke or cash. Its only residents are families of refugees from the country's war against guerrilla fighters and about 20 hippos which roam the area with the same kind of impunity that Pablo enjoyed decades ago. I began Thinking about ole PE this morning as I recalled my 2009 thanksgiving après party 5hat went down gracefully in the basement of a friends home in a rural outskirt of Atlanta Georgia. An geographic eternity away from Colombia but little did I know how just how close to the legend,…the man,…the myth himself I actually stood.

After a brutal ending to a sixth or maybe it was the seventh game of billiards, a dozen and a half bottles of an famous green glassed eastern European lager, the sundry aromas crept down the flight of stairs and apparently took hold on my countenance. Initially, I was just one of the gang. ..one of four dudes hanging out working off the mysterious potions, hops, vinous libation and 20K plus calories when one member of the opponents team began wondering if I was actually who I said I was. Totally unprovoked and bizarre …this situation is, even as I write this days later, remains difficult to articulate. im not sure ive ever been in a situation where introductions were made, conversation was had, laughs were shared and then,..suddenly, all at once like the de-guising after a masquerade ball, you are instantaneously viewed as if you were …well, ..in this case, standing next to Pablos true cousin,… I was most certainly a Colombian secret intelligence agent camouflaged as a balding middle aged man with three kids and a bronze colored SUV. I suppose most of us have no real understanding of what it must be like to have relations of this nature and to be a literal living remnant of the PE empire. Like fleeing from an accidental childhood murder or a really bad lie, I guess the family of PE remains on high alert defcon 24-7 sleeping with an eye open looking to the rustling tree tops and an ear to the words of the street. On this night though, my curious nature and whimsy almost put me on the wrong side of the fence..or up in a tree, or in an unmarked Colombian police car..sheesh,…I dunno.

Strange things happening in a not so strange place makes for even stranger memories. lets just say that sharing a case of Heineken and copping a good buzz with a family member of an ex south American drug lord brings no measure of security to the situation. I think it could have been the beer actually. Simply that I never drink the stuff and then, suddenly, there I was guzzling the brew became my little wrinkle in time. an anomaly of astronomic proportions that invited a freakish injection into my personal time space continuum. this time round,…a denim clad Colombian expatriate. who,…what? …why??

Heineken lager
My first taste of Heineken occurred quite a few years ago. I had seen the advertisements, and I was under the impression that Heineken was a far superior product to any pathetic beer that the U.S. brewed. if you or any of your friends actually feel this way today, you should purchase a tongue scraper from a nearby health food store, go see an ENT and get your taste buds evaluated.

If I were to give a short description of Heineken's flavor, I would label it crisp and generically German-tasting. Heineken reminds me a lot of many characterless crappy German lagers I've sampled, such as Beck's and St. Pauli Girl. I don't know what gives the beer that distinctive nipping bitter metallic flavor, but it is unlike any domestic lager I've tasted, and I think that it's a good thing. well,..thank god anyway ! this beer does have a pretty good hop character for a lager and I suppose Heineken is a “refreshing” beer. It does have a light mouthfeel and a slight bitterness from the hops that I guess could be perceived as thirst quenching. I should also point out that Heineken has really sweet undertones, almost reminiscent of honey. There is not honey in this beer to my knowledge, but the sweet taste makes this stuff really noticeably sweet... almost to the point of oddity. I always say sugar rules in America. that’s goes for wine, desserts and I suppose some really popular beer too. so, next time you find yourself in the basement playing pool with a soft spoken south American that wears the bill of him cap low on his lobe, show him photos of you eating a cheeseburger at Disney world .

why the culinary smackdown?

I remember very well when I was first taking wine courses and developing my earliest sensibilities about which wines I liked and which ones I didn’t. I also recall quite clearly how many times in that same 2 to 3 year period that I came across or overheard a discussion where the so-called “pairing” of the night or pairing of the course came under fire. There are always two distinct angles that these wine pros of the time seemed to routinely thrash out – the first angle was the prickly, often nonsensical assessment that tore into the relatively insignificant, totally subjective nuances of the wine and the cuisine itself.

This angle was and still is built upon the opinion that for the given pairing, all of the micro aroma, flavour traits and characteristics of the wine are somehow misaligned with all of the dynamic savoury flavours on the plate. The commentary would rant on about shale-like black minerality or shistous slate aromas dominating the attack which prevented the herbaceous-ness on the middle palate to properly delineate the pithy, citrus characteristic of the Buddha’s hand crème fraiche foam that crowned the abalone custard..or whatever.. -it all seemed a bit over the top to me …I recall being impressed in a way at the time but also so utterly intimidated that I often felt as if id never understand all of this magical insight and that id never be one of the guys that really got it and could really make a wine and food pairing sing.

The other angle, which was based in a far less dogmatic and overly complex soliloquy seemed not so artificially ramped up, less fervent and probably a little bit more down to earth. It was all about the overall size of the wine and how, simply put, its sheer size and density just clobbered the food. It was very straight forward almost to the point of oversimplification however it was also often presented in a way that seemed as informed and academic as the other more spiteful, overly critical angle but without all the effusive jargon. This latter opinion or angle was based in the fact that most cuisine simply does not pair well, size for size, ounce for ounce with what was then the new breed of super extracted, massive, lavishly textured wines. The wines were just getting too darn big fer there britches…

The same folks that spoke in these terms were also the same folks that always talked about the raw enjoyment of wine and emphasized the fact that the best moments of a wine experience were made over the table and amid friends and family dining (eating) together. The wine in this classic scenario, without over thinking it, had to be a wine that honoured a wide variety of foods and all at once displayed proper taste of place, varietal distinction and technical correctness. If you rewind the tape a couple hundred years or just go out into the French countryside north of Marseille, you’ll never find a family sitting round the table drinking anything that even resembles the visual look of what is being poured a million times a night all across the world right alongside foods that don’t even try to fight back. I guess, after all these years, just like those old timers claimed and professed years ago when my tastes were tuned to the obvious and overt, I have come 180 degrees. These days, more often than not, I have a really hard time finding wines, especially reds that actually support balance with a plate of food. So,…in turn, I do what ever I can to foster my revelation and keep the youngsters off the lists as much a possible and try to source wines that are even handed and aren’t just gobstoppers. Unless im serving blue cheese, chocolate, charred beef, or BBQ, I want wines with underpinnings of refinement, elegance and finesse. A big young tannic Cabernet?...sure, all alone or with something equally monochromatic, but not with a sauced roast, or anything more complex than a grilled steak.

Critics have driven this problem of wines becoming bigger than big and as a result, most of us young connoisseurs have learned to accept and expect this style. In restaurants, it’s become the norm. So im here to do my best to be one of the new generation of calm collected wine lovers that worship distinction and fruit purity in a wine but want it to relate to what else in on the table. I feel like the selection of wines that do this is narrowing so it’s my/our responsibility to ask about back vintages, order Grenache with your steak instead of a young cabernet and petition our critics to evaluate on balance and innate spirit rather than extract and manipulation. Just like fresh lettuces and farmers markets all across the America, now is the time to fall back to the realm of temperance and moderation. And remember,..the culinary smackdown is a choice not an absolute.

making it come alive

If you’re passionate about wine, you’re bound to be passionate about food. Right?

The primary and overriding rule is flavor and enjoyment. If you want to find true wine and food harmony and that’s the goal, the journey will be about balancing the flavors of both the food and the wine so that you may taste them both equally. Above and beyond everything else that could be said about a pairing there is one golden standard. A qualifier of sorts. If the wine is either too delicate or too bold in comparison to a particular food, then it will do little to support the food and will either overpower or undermine the food’s character. The white wine with white meats and red wine with red meats philosophy has its place; yet a contrast can be attractive and quite complementary in its own way. For example, Salmon is oily and fatty and a Riesling is crisp with citrusy flavors and would provide a suitable contrast to the fish. A Chardonnay, however, may not complement the Salmon, as it might (style depending) add an unnecessary dollop of fattiness to the fish yielding a mush of richness without flavor delineation. The bottom line is trial and error, see what combinations appeal to your palate and go from there.

A matter of personal preference: If you enjoy both red and white wines you may find that lighter foods like poached or grilled fish, soups and vegetables actually do work better with white wines and that the more robust nature of red wines compliment red meats and dishes with heartier sauces and accoutrement. But if your preference is just red, and you always choose a red, some lighter reds do in fact pair well with fish, like salmon and Tuna, or even a simple roasted chicken. Remember, there will always be someone that just loves the idea of a full bodied red wine even when paired with the most delicate scallop! Regardless what any magazine or critic or wine store buyer says, the most important thing to remember is that you really enjoy the wine and food all at once. The experience isn’t necessarily about an intellectual adventure. It’s about enjoyment!
Remember, follow your own tastes and don’t be afraid to experiment.

Intensity for Intensity: if you find yourself strolling the grocery aisles pondering a really classic or proper pairing, I would say that the most important contemplation to make would be to consider the “body” or intensity of the preparation your planning to create or wine you crave and then once either the wine or the cuisine is determined, pair it with a partner of comparable intensity. This comparative can go both ways …a big full bodied structured white wine with richness, high acidity and complexity may just as well pair with something you might normally pair with a lighter red say,.. a pasta preparation with mushrooms, chicken & rosemary. In this example, what matters more than the color of the wine in relationship to the preparation is their relative intensity of flavor.
Another example of a situation where you could default to this rule would be while shaping a pairing for a white fleshed fish like swordfish. Typically, most people think white wine with Swordfish but wait!,…what happens when the swordfish is prepared with oven roasted garlicky chick peas and spicy Spanish chorizo? Suddenly, the default white wine (color) pairing becomes an option rather than an absolute. Another thing to remember, moreso than the fish or center of plate itself, the sauce, or componentry of the preparation is often the focus and element that’s intensity is considered when choosing the wine. This idea of matching intensity is what is meant when a wine is said to “stand up to” and balance a culinary preparation. So, remember, ask yourself how big the flavors are for both the wine and the food, then make the choice. You’ll find it’ll end up being less about region, or varietal and more about intensity for intensity!

Supporting or Contrasting: without question, there are some wines that really work well with “specific” elements of a given preparation because the wine either supports or contrasts the preparation. This is a slightly more cerebral approach than the “intensity for intensity” model though with a little extra thought and some experimentation getting this technique down will put you on the fast track to being a wine pairing pro. So here goes,. It is possible to “support” an existing flavor element or profile of a culinary preparation using a wine just as simply as it is possible to find harmony through “contrasting” and “opposing” that same element. For instance, a cream sauce with a richly roasted feathered game could be “supported” by a rich, buttery oak-aged chardonnay and could also benefit from a wine with a more refreshing profile and higher acidity. Using a leaner, brighter, drier white, the dryness of the wine synergizes with the salts, and the acidity cuts through the cream sauce, in this instance, a unique and refreshing balance can be found through “contrasting” the richness. Look for peppery notes in food to match or support the pepperyness in a wine, look for plumy round plush fruit flavors in a wine to counter the spiciness of a tomato barbeque sauce on grilled pork ribs. Use bright acidic whites to support acidic pickles, and vinaigrette on a salad. Use minerality in a wine to support the chalky minerality of a freshly shucked oyster.

Begin your journey to understanding wine and food with an open mind, eschew absolutes and choose pairings based on flavor rather than varietal or region. Remember first and foremost to keep it simple and focus on enjoyment and the raw pleasures of flavor. Keep in mind that contentment and its catalysts are subjective and that while there is science and there are the classic rules of engagement, in the end it’ll be up to you and you alone. After all.. it is not wine that commands your attention but rather rewards it!”

the hermano of overfished

Sitting with the east coast editor of the Tasting panel magazine the other day in the wine caves beneath the historical Santa Carolina winery just on the outskirts of Santiago, a number of curious conversations sparked. The varied and unpredictable results of high velocity verbal banter like this convo are what I like to call “fountainheads”. These are in essence, ideas, which normally arise amid a flurry of decentralized topics and thoughts that as you would expect, can only become logged and immortalized if I have a pen nearby. Not that I was ever a heavy drug user or that I should have some obvious explanation for why I need a pad nearby but normally I do. So anyhow, on and on we went discussing the nature of young Chilean wines and in one of the many rants this notion of crop rotation, then endangered seafood, then millions of people drinking immature red wines all coagulated and became one. Someone from the winery had moments before asked the entire table how everyone was enjoying what was a typically young, menacingly spry, fruit crammed Chilean Carmenere and most importantly, with a prideful grin on his face, the question was posed as it related to a giant, cheese filled ravioli slathered with a béchamel esque sauce , spiked with tidbits of cured pork and herbs. Rich? Ya think? Sure, …but not the rich that supports a massive deep purple hued young fruity red. Not in my book anyway. So after a quick gasp and deliberate refocus, this notion of crop rotation came about. Like a multinational seafood corporation that crashes an entire population of fish and just as the species is at the brink of extinction, they pull the plug, shift marketing gears and start selling the next largest dorsal demographic.

Similarly, where an Illinois parcel is soy one year and corn another, for the sake of diversity, not so much…for the sake of real sustainability yes! So, like the corn, and soy swaparoo, and the tilapia for sea bass, a part of the answer to resurrecting the impression of Chilean wine as a whole and mostly for the sake of food pairing, I think wineries in Chile need to start thinking about what they can produce that behaves like Yellow tail now that they’ve figured out how to make wines with finesse, balance and the structure to actually evolve. In other words, that same Carmenere, while inappropriate today, and perhaps forever for the above mentioned ravioli, will, in my opinion eventually lose some of its baby fat and become more about the earth and sophistication enabling a myriad of pairings thereby changing the impression of the varietal, as a category and maybe if they are lucky, Chile as a place of origin. The fact that someone thinks to pair a wine like that with a preparation as I mentioned is a whole separate issue but nevertheless, we learn not to shun but moreso to accept and more about what is and what will always be.

In the meantime, those of us with patience and the faith in the future of what can be, we ask for that crop rotation, we ask that this new breed of long(er) lived wines with the structure to develop personality are allowed to do so. Perhaps it’ll take a winery with the assets to do it first but the risk is really off the table. The proof is in juice. Hold those fruity ladies back a few vintages and turn something else loose in the meantime. I don’t eat tilapia unless I must but I sure am excited about my corn pudding and my seared sea bass.

did you say hydroponic wine ?

When I was a youngster I remember that my dad used to be pals with this guy that was alleged to be the founder of those glow sticks that they sell now just before Halloween and in home Depot check out lanes. He told me at the time that he had invented this really cool thing and that one day they would be used all over the world. I was enamored with the idea of that strange substance confined to a translucent tube, thrilled with the way you were supposed to bend it till it cracked and ultimately enthused about how once it cracked and it was shaken about, it began to glow like alien juice or something you might expect that Nasa would use on a remote space station. Well, this guy with his Cylum light stick invention was also an alfalfa sprout farmer. I’m not sure that he wasn’t actually farming something else also, but for the sake of legality so to not indirectly incriminate my own father, let’s just say that his house was essentially a massive metal walled garage with aisles of knee level hydroponic beds bubbling away. Each bed had several lights above it and the whole room smelled of fertilizer and something green,…very green. I suppose my dad liked sprouts.

Anyhow, so as the theory goes, if vine roots attached to the vines that produce the best fruit for the best wines in the world are said to have their tentacle like subterranean feelers on a constant quest for nutrients and water, than its fair to say that when we begin to grow grapes like they Cylum guy did his Alfalfa sprouts we mustn’t be surprised when the wines are no good. Right?

Grape vines don’t mind being hydroponically fed , in fact, like all other plants and animals for that matter, the thought that everything you need for ultimate happiness and prosperity is within arms reach at any time…like an “on demand” convenience is probably pretty appealing. Alright, so here is the problem, if conventional agriculture has its way, we destroy soils through a myriad of chemical applications, and a regime that eventually renders the soils and the vineyard helpless and entirely reliant upon anti-fungals, herbicides, pesticides and of course fertilizers that replace all that was once there.

Through this methodology, the soils behave much like the bubbling laboratory tray like beds the guy was using to grow alfalfa way back when. The nutrients are sprayed or added to irrigation and the roots, like someone you know, just sit back, watch another episode on Tivo and keep that bag of king sized lays barbeque chips within reach. In this instance you get fat, and become a disconnected, sleepwalking tort slob and the vines, well, the vines just begin the robotic cycle of production. Walking to the kitchen to eat instead of sitting on the couch, or better yet, going outside with a gun, shooting a small animal, cooking it and eating it will make you look younger, keep you spry , improve your sex life, add glow to your smile and so on and so on …

So, the next time you go to the merchant to buy a bottle of wine, ask the salesperson,
… “were the grapes used to make this wine farmed organically? “ if the answer is no, well then, id suggest you go and get your gun.

foundation,motivation and innovation

For years, like Australia in many ways,. Chilean wines have been another timely stepping stone that’s assisted the masses in their appreciation for wine en general & helped to grow awareness and connoisseurship. In this moment, few are aware of what im firsthand witness to, which is, this new and exciting wave of wines from this country that have yet to be fully acknowledged and recognized. The wines are certainly of quality and for the first time uniqueness, individuality, and most importantly, taste of place have taken the front burner as this new generation of grandsons and daughters take the helm and make the decisions not only about the physicality of the agricultural and vinification processes but moreover, these young men and women represent a sliver of what is emerging as a new worldwide renaissance in winemaking and farming where what matters are the people in the process and the attentiveness of their midwifery. Manipulation as it relates to wine is working its way out of Chile and is finally being replaced by the new world order of experimentation and adaptation to the rhythms of the earth, the season, the heat, the wind and the rain. Sharing of ideas and best practices are beginning to bridge and unite the valleys and interior meso-regions and alongside this evolution of philosophical and ideological framework, the finished wines are more about stability, complexity and finesse.

A good example and reference point to this thinking is clearly illustrated in the cellars of the collectors nationwide. If today you were to raid the cellars of 20 thousand wine aficionados across North America, I will bet you that you could count the single bottles of Chilean wines laying vertical on your hands and toes. Relative to the legends, the Bordeaux, the Burgundy, the Alsace and the the Napa’s that would comprise the majority, in my guttural estimation you would be hard pressed to find Chilean wines being honored in this way. The question arises as to why yet while I don’t claim to have the ultimate insight, considering my experience both in tasting over the years and in conversation with other connoisseurs and devotees Chilean wines, as ive said before have been mass appeal wines and with only a few exceptions, have been fashioned to yield wines geared toward early consumption. Wines that are generally speaking front loaded with opulent and overt fruit aromas and flavors, often lacking finesse but engineered to rest on the laurels of richness, and the to target the timeless sensory appeal of mouth coating, almost syrupy, cranny filling, and swaths of sweet fruit. For the novice and for the sleepwalking wine consumer this approach has raised Chile from tree top night marauder to a visible bleep on the radar but since its arrival and modern presence in the north American wine scene, little has been done or has changed to impact or alter the impression these wines made in their early years. That is of course until now.

As an uphill battle is seen as an opportunity for few which paradoxiclly in turn eventually and ultimately benefit the masses of the unknowing and non believers, im telling you that now is the time to begin considering Chile as a viable force in the worldwide wine scene. Carignan and other never seen before alternative varietals are born with a new face that bridges the southern hemispheres rightous values and virtues of luscious ripe fruit power and elegance along with up an coming coastal areas just north of glacial ice fields that experience lunar-like diurnal temperature variances illustrate just two examples among many that represent this new breed of wines, and most importantly a new mentality of what is and what can be created from this vitis wonderland.

If you are interested you are good. If you are not and you are a lover of the grape, you might want to reconsider my angle. Despite what has been your experience, which may require some undoing on your own part, believe me when I say that there are brilliant, world class, distinctive wines being born of Chilean soils and souls that are not only prepared to deliver spontaneous pleasure but also will, if allowed and given the opportunity, provide you and your loved ones with a new musical scale of flavor packed notes to explore and a un paralled value that brings pure pleasure into focus. Now is the time to break moulds, now is the time to be open minded and be a part of the revolution. This time around…it will not be televised…there are no cables, no antennae, and no mysteries. Its pure, its true and its there for the taking.

Age worthy and a few (New Breed) wines of note:
Santa Rita,Sauvignon Blanc, “Floresta” Leyda, Chile 2008
Ocio, Pinot Noir, Bio Bio Valley, Chile 2007
Matetic, Syrah, “Corralillo” San Antonio, Chile 2007
Loma Larga, “Rapsodia” Proprietary Blend, Casablanca Valley, Chile 2007
J.bouchon, “Mingre” Proprietary Blend, Maule Valley, Chile 2007
D. Martino, “Las Cruces”, Cachapol,Chile 2008
Valdeviso, Malbec, Lontue Valley, Chile 2007

dont punch me in the eye again man ...please.

driving through the central valley of Chile today at a steady clip ...i cannot ever recall driving for hours , falling asleep for 40 minutes and waking to an almost identical backdrop of mountains encircling 360degrees. honestly, I thought the atlas and the rockies were intense..the Andes...yeah ,..the Andes...no joke people. Bigness in a really big way. A few things to consider.

the very recent science driven discovery in the summer of 1994 once and for all proclaimed the true genetic difference between the lost bordelaise varietal ( Carmenere) and the well known Merlot, since then, the wine world and the whole of Chile and its agricultural legions/ viticultural peeps have been working to better understand the varietal and its nature. From the perspective and ultimate response to (carmenere) as a single varietal wine in its bottled form the Chileans have come full circle. from both a qualatitaive and evlutionary standpoint, Carmenere for the longest time(again,..thought to be Merlot in most vineyards and bottled and sold as such ) was ravishingly green and showed both aromatic and palate characteristics not unlike its sister Bordeaux brethren but in a way that was just a bit more intense and recognizably green and vegetal.all it really took was a few wine critics to utter the word "green" yet some show, suddeny the just were in the minds of the masses. Ultimately so much that the masses torched it with faint praise and ultimately, not long after, dubbed it an inferior varietal like, say,…Pinotage. So, for the immediate years after the discovery and realization that the vineyards were actually planted to all Carmenere, or a mix of Carmenere and Merlot, the Chileans did what they could to find ways to diminish this “greeness” and stewed veggie like profile. In the end, regardless of efforts to circumvent the will of the grape, the critics and consumers found the wines made from Carmenere noteably offensive or minimally odd and polarized to the extent that the wines applicability as an everyday table wine was undermined and its reputation was a tad bit tarnished.

During this time of trials and tribulation with this so called "lost varietal" ( Carmenere), the wine growers here in Chile tried everything from relocating and replanting vineyards in different regions, to/in different soils, and a myriad of other efforts to find some way to make use of this grape vine that was so heavily cultivated. Initially, or I should say the first round of recognizable adjustment that was made to the whole of Carmenere country wide was one that could be characterized as over ripe, reductive, sun dried or just overly extracted with gobs of dark monochromatic brooding fruit.

Now, looking back over just a few short years, (and I should say today’s comparative tasting of top flight Carmenere made this more than clear) the disposition of the varietal and the generalized understanding about how to best manage it viticulturally and during vinification has come full circle. Whilst Carmenere remains a gob stopping, densely packed, fine grained, suave, fruit driven varietal, it is only in recent vintages,..say, the last 5 years or so that this varietal has been caressed and understood enough to produce wines that have real mid term maturation potential, secondary flavors, world class balance and flavor complexity. With great value at the top of the lsit of attributes, Carmenere is seriously, (and im not just saying this because im typing this in my hotel room in Chile) a new force to reckon with. so if you gots a few dollaz,..Get down on your knees people, do a couple rounds of down dog and take a breath cuzz there’s a new kid in town and the black eye has healed. Don’t be afraid,…he forgave you a long time ago. Now its your turn….

Some highly recommended Carmenere listed below:

Concha Y Toro – “Terrunyo”
Montes – “Purple Angel”
Ventisquero- “Grey”
La Rosa – “ La Capitana”
La Rosa – “ Don Reca”

eight hours, two ambien and a full row juss para mi

I’m sure glad I didn’t pay for a business class upgrade that’s for sure. Late last night at the Hartsfield gate I inquired as to the fullness of the plane..to my surprise, it had really filled up since I had last checked just one day prior. I was dreading the idea of some smelly tort slob eating kippered snacks sitting next to me so once aboard I did what I could to pull the ole jedi mind trick on one of the unknowing Chilean flight attendants. She behaved just like a storm trooper and basically said that she had blocked out a few rows to store her headphones etc..and that I could have my pick. NICE!! So a couple grainy sips on the rocks, two little delicious ambiens and a stack of pillows, made for a nearly dream like flight. No disruptions, no issues and hey,…as much as I thought I might,…I didn’t even pee my pants.

Smooth transition through what appeared to be an extremely defensive and vigilant immigration and customs program . Many folks were crying and tossing wildly about as there Diamond brand smoked almonds and pecan brittle they had purchased at some roadside stand outside Gatlinburg TN were scoffed away and chucked into the enormous bio-hazard like red barrel already brimming with various and sundry items dubbed as no pinche bueno para Chile. Any how, on board the Mercedes tour van, a 30 min trip from the airport to the brand new “W” hotel was quite a scene. If you think it’s a damn warzone in south Atlanta, you ought ta try south Santiago. As we drove along, a large viaduct or canal paralleled the road for most of the ride. Flanked by classic barrios made of scrap wood and jagged torn and rusty pieces of galvanized steel, these makeshift dwellings at times, went on for many many blocks deep and wide. The canal had dump sites about every 50 or so feet that looked as if they were the standard dumping zone for everything and anything. Some burned, some clothes, and lots and lots of trash. Hmmmmm, fresh water from the Andes eh?

In any case , I have nothing to bitch about from where im sitting right now …im 25 minutes away from my first seminar sitting in front of a floor to ceiling window in my 10th floor room, listening to vintage Rastafarian music overlooking the much different, ripened , groomed and muy metropolitan downtown area. Stunning backdrop of the Andes with only a few foothills makes for a dramatic and totally awe inspiring view. More later ~

what about low yields?

The relationship between wine quality and grape yield is the stuff of which wine legend is made. It is derived from the fact that all the great wines of the world are made from low or lowish yielding vines. It is simply impossible to make concentrated rich Napa Cabernet or those equally intense and beautifully structured Grand Cru Burgundy if the vines are cropped too heavily. However, it is not true that simply having low yields will ensure wine quality. What is of equal importance is the circumstances under which those low yields were obtained. It’s true that the notions of “low yields” are congruent with the best wines and that most of the best wines ive ever tasted ironically come from vineyards that have very specific canopy management regimes and dormant season planning of activities and objectives.
Let's put things in perspective first. Yields can range from 3 to over 40 tons per hectare. (1ha=2.47 acres) What is an appropriate yield depends on a number of factors, but the most important are the style of wine that the winemaker wants to make and the grape variety itself. If a winemaker wants to make a medium bodied wine with moderate levels of concentration for early consumption, then it makes no commercial sense to crop at the lower end of the scale. The reason why consumers have such a great choice of good (but not great) wines at below $15 is because most wine producers crop their vineyards at the middle or 'middle plus' end of the yield spectrum. Some grape varieties are also very yield sensitive, producing very ordinary wines even when only slightly overcropped. Examples include Pinot Noir, and the classic Italian varieties Sangiovese and Nebbiolo.
But why do higher cropping vines produce wines of less concentration and character? The answer lies not in the fruit itself, but in the leaves of the vine. As the grape ripens, it draws its reserves from the leaves. The leaves collect sunlight, and use its energy to produce carbohydrates. These are translocated into the grape during ripening, and result in an accumulation of sugars, flavor compounds and tannins. The less fruit the vine has per unit amount of leaf area, the more flavor, color and tannin it will gather during it ripening. An analogy is to think of the vine canopy as a solar panel, and each grape as a small light bulb that is connected to the panel. If you have two vines with the same amount of leaf area (i.e. same area of solar panel), but one vine has three times the number of grape berries (i.e. light bulbs), you would expect that the light coming from each of these light bulbs would be much dimmer.
Let’s emphasize the word “functioning” because some leaves may actually produce very few carbohydrates. Leaves that are shaded by other leaves (as occurs in dense canopies) or leaves that are diseased are not effective in producing the stuff that drives character in grapes. Viticulturists have two options as to how to maximize the amount of effective leaf area per unit weight of grapes. The first is to decrease the weight of grapes. This can be achieved by adjusting how hard the vines are pruned in the previous year, or by simply cutting off the bunches when they have just formed. 'Bunch thinning', is a radical approach as much of the vignerons potential yield simply ends up on the vineyard deck. However it is almost a “must do” approach when making good wines from yield sensitive varieties such as Pinot Noir. Other approaches involve manipulating the position of the vines' shoots to allow better interception of sunlight by the leaves. This is done by trellising the canopy in such a way that it is split it into various layers, or more commonly by lifting the shoots up off the natural drooping position, into an erect upright position using wires attached to the vine trellis. This almost Viagra-like approach is called 'vertical shoot positioning', (VSP) and is perhaps the most common method used to improve light interception by leaves. The underlying philosophy here is not having less fruit per leaf area, but more leaf area per amount of fruit. The commercial implications are obvious. If you do things right, you can have higher yields with no reduction in quality. However, this only works to a point as there is only so much that can be done to improve leaf efficiency by a vine.
So next time you hear that a difficult vintage will produce great wine because of lower yields, think again. If the conditions that caused the lower yield also caused a loss of working capacity on part of the leaves, which is very common, then it probably bologna. But then again, every vintage is better than the last right?

Be a Wolf!

If Colombard is the guy in the cheap suit,
Sauvignon Blanc is the prizefighter, who is over after the third round,
Chardonnay is the snob in the cravat,
Sémillon the man in the Velcro shoes,
Viognier the guy with the good-looking sister,
Chenin Blanc the fella you never care to remember,
then Riesling is most definitely the wolf in sheep's clothing.
Drink Riesling and do yourself a favor.

the truth in my wine

I clearly remember a night, years ago, when a tall, gangly, French expatriate approached me after his meal in the restaurant where I was employed as an assistant sommelier. In a snide tone, he conveyed his annoyance with the bottle he had just consumed, insisting that he and his girlfriend had enjoyed the very same bottle just days before in a café in Paris and it had been sublime. He was insistent that the bottle was identical and went on to explain that we as Americans needed to stop doing whatever we were doing to the wines we imported from abroad.
What the Frenchman observed at the Parisian café was a bottle of wine with a label – what he failed to take into account were his feelings for the café, for his girlfriend, the flatware, the china, the squeaking murmur of the traffic or the smell of the wet streets; though looking back, it was all of these factors, and likely hundreds more that contributed to his perspective of the wine.
Although it may be impossible to recreate a guests’ previous taste experience, over time I’ve learned the value in gathering as much information as possible about each guest prior to beginning the process of navigating the list and selecting a wine. As stewards, sommeliers, and servers, we should take full advantage of all the elements we control between the walls of our own restaurants. For example, we should consider the weather, the guest, their disposition, their clothing, even their hairstyles and ask some social questions before beginning to discuss the preferences of origin and or varietal.
Ultimately, all the sommelier really needs to be is the navigator. Our job is to insure that each component of our interaction with a guest is geared toward illuminating the path to sensory enjoyment and contentment.
Someone once wrote “wine is a means to achieve an inward transformation,” and as students of wine we know that since ancient times wine has been allotted a sacred introspective function. Wine harnesses memory, it tells stories and it aids in the creation of new ones. To me, the truth in wine, despite all that we over-think and deliberate during evaluation and academic exercise is more about opening ourselves and acknowledging where it is that we physically exist, who we are, and the bounty of life in our immediate environment. It encourages our recognition and appreciation of food, recognition and appreciation of the earth – in fact, of the world.

Motivational characteristics of the Qi thirsty man..

Amongst the Chinese, Qi is considered to be the "lifebreath" that animates living beings. As we all fall apart, oxidize, perpetually and magically build our arsenal of fee radicals and dysfunctional bodily utillity, those of us that are inclined or willing to be aware then voluntarily educate ourselves about what can be done to slow this inevitable process of deterioration either fight the hard battle or give it up. I suppose im somewhere in the middle, I don’t work out all the time, I eat what I want until the day comes that im not confident in my kelly green speedo yet, when given the opportunity, I revel in the concept and physical pleasures found in whole foods and gastronomic creations that spawned from clear thinking, organic ingredients and thoughtful creative streams.

These days, the awareness of freshness has of course risen beyond the generic meaning of the word and now, unlike 15 years ago has relevance to seafood as it does micro greens, or fruit. Say… “when was this fish in the water ?...) now with top seafood purveyors, in the hospitality biz, you can actually see a caught stamp on the side of the package…its not a red lobster commercial with slow motion montage after montage with glistening droplets of butter atop a grilled shrimp skewer and a slow and low voiceover that touts some connectivity to a guy that looks like the guy from the Gordons fish stick campaign …it’s a new breed of freshness with levels or freshness that’s often connected to an origin or the hunter, farmer, or gatherer him/herself. WholeFoods, Farmers markets, community gardens all across the country are booming and im thrilled.

So, consider the idea of all things edible in their raw(est) and truly freshest form. This is when the edible isn’t cooked, manipulated in any way. Think Japan or the rural north coast of Crete and you’ll get the picture. Foods that are both at the highest level of that “freshness” scale and that are not tweaked by an overly zealous chef or cook are just really special. There is something totally intangible about the experience and subsequent feeling I get from eating raw fish, oysters, and just picked vegetables and fruits. Like an internal hummmmmm that just makes sense. No need to quench with water, no bloating, no weird GI trac processing issues etc… So what is that “hummmmmm”? If you ask me,..id say it’s that life force the easterners call “qi” and here is what ive discovered. The longer that edible is from its last breath or from its branch or vine or soil, the more this qi dispels. I’m not saying that the old freshness scale doesn’t have value im saying that the new scale should, like that box of fish, be considered fresh as if it were measured like a stopwatch measures a stride at a 100m Olympic sprint. Does this make sense? Ok so ,…you might argue that a raspberry picked at 4 am then brought to youre local farmers market by 7 and in your mouth by 9 couldn’t possible taste any better than one picked and eaten within minutes at the farm but Im asking you to think in terms of minutes not hours. Sure they both taste great but if you jump on this wagon,..one clearly has more qi than the other. Can you taste it?...yeah, sometimes but not always. Is it all about taste? Mostly but not always. Sometimes its about that “hummmmm” which in my experience can only be had when your knee deep in a 39 degree Alaskan river gnashing into the side of a king salmon while it frantically flips to and fro, at the local oyster bar sucking down a dozen Totten inlet , at your favourite sushi den, or like me on my hands and knees in the tall grass along side a 100 foot row or red raspberries in southern Indiana carefully using my brow and head to push my way through the briar enough to get a clearing so my tongue and lips can pull the fruit from its bud base. This is my recent fresh discovery and remains one of the most prominent motivational characteristics of this Qi thirsty man..

take time to make time and make time to be there ...

Just when you might be feeling a little under appreciated and under recognized for all that you do and for all the conscious efforts you make, like a rented pack mule on a dusty trail over a high desert plateau,..its on the eighth day when you told yourself you wouldn’t make it past the fourth that you discover that the faithful burro really wants to be lead, and really wants to be a help and beyond the obvious ,..secretly appreciates the weight of your duffel.

For 5 consecutive years, the Chilean government has sponsored a tour hosted by the Wines of Chile which is an organization committed to promoting the quality and image of Chilean wine throughout the world. It has offices in Santiago, London, and New York, as well as representatives in Canada, Ireland, and Denmark, and also works closely with ProChile to develop and offer promotional and educational programs in Asia, Latin America and Europe. Wines of Chile’s 76 member wineries belong to Vinos de Chile and represent 85% of Chile’s bottled wine exports. This year, just 9 sommeliers from North America were chosen to attend a 10 day tour of viticultural areas and associated wineries. The tour will span wine regions from north to south and culminate with a marketing symposium designed to provide an arena to harvest feedback and input from the attendees on both U.S market perception and areas of opportunity for exporters, wineries and marketeers.

When the opportunity was presented, I was and remain flattered. I am the only representative from the entire southeastern US of A ! WOW! Check the head right?

Anyhow, South America hosts several wine regions that ive always wanted to explore. So,…stay tuned for more info, this trip is a ways off but for those of you inclined and interested, the WOC website http://www.winesofchile.org is an excellent resource for all your Chilean wine curio. For those of you with blackberry’s or alike, go ahead and plug the calendar right now!....You’ll be able to get down with your personal wine ambassador to Chile starting October 19th; ill be updating this blog regularly with bits and pieces of what is what and images to make it all make sense.

lands of sinking sand

Downpresson like a bail of hay or a load of bricks? You know,.. I hear every week from friends that tell me about their trips around the country. In the past three months more so, but in generally speaking,… the updates are hauntingly similar. Apart from the large metropolitan areas that successfully mask the core nature of this economic wallow, life esta dias appears to be the beginning of what I might call the lands of the sinking sand. I say, straighten up...stand firm friends, gaze across the horizon, ..find a rock and respect it like a buoy. Now, above the frey, refreshed and refurbished ..you are effortlessly floating..take a second to look around before you bend over and willingly submit to the idea that forced sacrifices in personal pleasures are a way of life. Allow the break ,…and look to the light. If this is on a platter, it’s a food that id like to get to know better. It’s like the "tastes of value" people... and im here to throw you the rope.

This week’s standout flotation devices.

Bodegas Borsao, “Monte Oton”, Garnacha, Campo de Borja, Spain
Spry, very forward and richly aromatic. Like a wooden crate full of a mix of almost too ripe black bush fruits on its way to a pyrex and some dough. Purity, pleasing and balanced with naught a splinter nor faulter..this lil gem harks back to the days of my Spanish revelation caravan circa 1995. Another round cometh! New labels, distinctive blend of New World plushness and Spainsh terroir , and damn straight delicious…
Spain is still hitting hard in a way like that creature in the Incredibles cartoon- In this case, it, (Spain) has learned exactly what we want. Despite that im feeling bit like a lab rat. I recommend this stuff highly.
Poured BTG at a few locations in and around Metro Atlanta…Places like Ecco and South City Kitchen, both located in Midtown to name a couple…Swing by, have a sip before you order/buy your first case at the local wine merchant.


Paso a Paso, Verdejo, La Mancha, Spain
As its penetrated this market a bit over the last 4 years or so, …sometimes from Australia , but more often from the Spanish D.O of Rueda, this Verdejo varietal is taking a deliberate and seemingly effective stab at yet another appendage of the long lived Sauvignon Blanc category. In this instance, a slightly different wine than is typical, and an unexpected region to boot. Richer with more concentration overall but also a bit slipperier and mouth coating….hmmm….the vintage?, the warmer more arid continental climate of La Mancha?,…old vines?...im not 100% sure but I can tell you that wherever this little dollop of proper fatness is coming from it’s a welcomed in my casa. .. All the bright high toned character you’ve come to know and love but with this added swath of yellow stone fruits, and silky slightly creamy (not butyric) mouthful the wine and varietal before us is both more diverse as a food partner and in its own complexity. A “bridge wine” in my book is one that helps folks that are snagged helplessly on a spire of chardonnay to free themselves with minimal pain and suffering. Good for us in the hospitality industry and maybe even more important for you and your guests. Can you say “ ok..ill be buying a case of this” ? Really. !!!

Homeopathic Coyote

When I think about house pets and domestic animals in general I think about how I felt as a child growing up around cats, and dogs …I think about how mean I was to cats and how after witnessing the frustration and anger that crappy, seemingly un-trainable cats and kittens brought upon my parents and then eventually to my entire household, It makes sense to me that as a young adult I really had no affinity, affection or appreciation for the little furry critters. Over the years, regardless of my disdain and overall antipathy with them, I somehow managed to acquire them as packages or baggage-like amendments to live-in girlfriends and roommates and over the years, if I really relly think about it and try to isolate the good memories of cats or scenarios where cats brought some version of joy into my life there are more than I expected but certainly not enough to flip the coin.
Since I’ve been married and have had children, my remote appreciation and acceptance has grown – largely due to the fact that my children love them but also because in early 1998, I allowed my lovely wife to convince me that we needed one. Sure, I was hesitant but also willing to give it a try. To make a very long prelude a bit shorter, this newest cat (Tia) was like a pivotal benchmark in my life on many levels. I consciously chose to let go of the irritability and hateful attitude toward cats in general and took on a wholly new perspective as this cat became closer and closer to me and my wife. She (Tia) behaved more like a Hollywood dog than any cat if id ever known. I spoke to her in what I like to believe was a good mix between what you might expect to hear if Elmo was speaking Arabic to small orphan children and how my the entire hygienist staff of the my kids pediatric dentist office speak when preaching the importance of brushing your gums.

In any case this cat was amazing. She never had a litter box – which had been a major factor in the “no cats allowed” position I took for years. She would squawk at the door until one of us got up and let her outside to do her thing. Even when we lived in Colorado, in the dead of the winter, she would dutifully, pounce across the drifts of snow out into the dark night to find her little zone. Never in the house which meant the obvious and also that meant that every walk-able surface of my house wasn’t covered with invisible fecal bacteria etc..etc… So after, witnessing the births of my 3 kids, almost 11 years later , four different states, and an amazing track record of just being the best damn cat around, …she disappeared one day. We had just moved into a new home 3 weeks earlier and after the typical “keep the cats indoors for a few days to adjust” régime, we let them out into the new yard to explore and do what they love to do. Everything was cool for about 2 weeks then one night she just didn’t come home. As her disappearance set in and the posters we didn’t take down were fluttering in the wind from the telephone poles around our neighborhood, for the first time in my life I felt really distraught and saddened about a pet. A neighbor was chatting with my wife weeks later and the topic of her disappearance arose. She exclaimed that the neighborhood was riddled with Coyote and that no one in the hood ever left their cats out all night anymore and that if you did, you would basically be inviting the Coyotes to an easy low cost buffet. It goes without saying that I was as disturbed with this news as my wife and have since been thinking of what a royal meal with coyote as the center of plate protein might look like. Who eats coyote anyway? Eating canine has a certain nauseating twitch to it but nevertheless im sure that at some point, the little shysters have taken some lead and wound up on a kebab right? So, if my theory stands tall and true, here is the plan. I take a seat in the corner of my backyard, dressed in military camo (which I don’t own), with laser guided rifle ( which I don’t own), some vintage night vision goggles, ( I may have these) and I sit and wait,….just sit and wait till one emerges from the woods and begins sniffing around for the t-bone bait. With an unobstructed sightline and a clean shot, ill come out blastin like Yosemite sam take the beast down, field dress it a la minute, and butcher it into roastables, grindables and such. From this wild coyote, ill prepare a lovely braise, rich with wine, and herbs. The idea is to prepare some ravioli, and using the braised Coyote as filling, ill make enough to invite 40 or 50 friends from the neighborhood to a Decatur meets Italy dinner party. Unknowingly, a good percentage of folks that live within 2000 feet of my house will ingest my very special coyote creation and by doing so - much like how homeopathy works, the collective spreading out of the coyote will ward them ( the Coyotes not my guests) off and magically send them to another hood where they are not part of the active food web. While this may sound obscene to most, I assure you that as a “primi” course, the raviolis will be flanked by fabulous courses, great wines and the best ingredients I can commandeer. All this for my long lost little “tia” you say?...”Well, yes”…I Reply. “Yes” RSVP ASAP