tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-60335024767308007822024-03-05T05:18:53.352-08:00Vajra Straight-UpVajra Stratigoshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08208265564546296044noreply@blogger.comBlogger71125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6033502476730800782.post-26628716008946952582011-07-07T10:16:00.000-07:002011-07-07T10:45:37.291-07:00my own residual heat<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiYRWK7y1BLB_zpI5MTedC4FtXrT3ALneqyqv06YF9lnWZK2EZ7nI7Divfysmp_gVN8Q_LhgdoqsfeH1oE0Da66QCJZxf48zGyRh1JaTP0FJLS0H8jh3ilS5m5lyW8Ftp4JKFX3UiygBsKO/s1600/opc+day3+002.jpg"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 400px; height: 300px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiYRWK7y1BLB_zpI5MTedC4FtXrT3ALneqyqv06YF9lnWZK2EZ7nI7Divfysmp_gVN8Q_LhgdoqsfeH1oE0Da66QCJZxf48zGyRh1JaTP0FJLS0H8jh3ilS5m5lyW8Ftp4JKFX3UiygBsKO/s400/opc+day3+002.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5626667715775857250" /></a><br />A restaurant that makes its own bread is automatically and respectfully elevated in my mind. A laborious task that even as consumers get to know "real bread" and come to expect something other that an 80's dinner roll, few operators can manage the heaving physicalities or the resultant labor costs. Making bread in a restaurant to be used as the "house bread" is something that like the range of appetizers or small plates an establishment has to offer, remains one of the elements that I critique and evaluate when deciding if I do or do not love the place. <br /><br />Years ago, I helped open and develop an Artisan bread concept in Colorado. At the time it was the first of its kind and we did great work! The spirit of working with bread is hard to articulate. Its so alive and with each day that you make bread and work through this process, getting to know the ingredients, the starters and various living leveners, your senses of temperature, impending storms, air pressure, humidity and light are all heightened. You find yourself discovering the beauty of culinary preparations that are based in this glorious bread that you raise to loft and little miniature snacks and happenstance combinations of mis en place laying around when combined with the bread become examples of delightful culinary creations. <br /><br />Yeah, ..im an employee of Fifth Group here in Atlanta and we do make a good bit of bread company wide. While at least in my mind there aren’t a ton of good bread bakeries in this city,.. my love affair and affinity for good, hand shaped freshly baked bread remains an significant undercurrent of foodstuff appreciation. In the morning, if you are lucky enough to find yourself walking down cypress ave between peachtee and west peachtree oh,..say around 10:00, you wont need to try hard or even break your stride to catch a whaft of the nutty, warm ,..toasty,..honey scented aromas of Ecco’s naturally leavened bread that’s carefully and lovingly baked like clockwork each day. <br /><br />I love the expressiveness that emerges from simple combinations of ingredients but at or just near the top of my list is this sinfully epic combination of Valhrona and warm Ecco levain. Something about a chocolate sandwich that melts its chocolate by itself. Not pressed or grilled, but actually taking a just out of the oven loaf, ripping the end off, spreading its crumb,.. pressing a couple disc shaped nuggets of dark chocolate into the center …and closing the Kermit the frog like edges ..and just waiting,..the bread gods take the helm and have rewarded me time and time again with a residual heat treat that may be one of the best breakfast snacks of all time. Don’t try this at home…instead,..call me or email me and we can arrange a time to meet in the alley and do this together.Vajra Stratigoshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08208265564546296044noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6033502476730800782.post-73495878013463575702010-09-21T12:01:00.000-07:002010-09-22T07:44:08.762-07:00cold pockets in a warm climate or warm pockets in a cold climate?<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhlMxlrJl-dnwMx9z8XjfRkoWcT0F97Gw4tCLiay3ibLasZXVew-Pyg-LixEtiAn0MRWoTE5CPxUX0OJjpKlSHjlx_Uyr4QdyaOTTZ3ws6_BxgehRyCOFwTvLbjb66CkiuevdvgTv42njGK/s1600/old+chard+block+Pirque+valley.jpeg"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 400px; height: 300px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhlMxlrJl-dnwMx9z8XjfRkoWcT0F97Gw4tCLiay3ibLasZXVew-Pyg-LixEtiAn0MRWoTE5CPxUX0OJjpKlSHjlx_Uyr4QdyaOTTZ3ws6_BxgehRyCOFwTvLbjb66CkiuevdvgTv42njGK/s400/old+chard+block+Pirque+valley.jpeg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5519547879516024082" /></a><br /><em>What makes Chile the world’s most suitable natural environment for growing wine grapes, how it benefited from its natural barriers and a benevolent Mediterranean climate, and why such a large proportion of Chilean wine reaching us today is crafted utilizing bio-dynamic or low input practices without the producer having to lift a finger.</em><br /><br /><em>In most parts of the world, the organic production of wine can be quite labour intensive and there’s a lot of thought that goes into making a vineyard bio-dynamic or organic, and the final product organic for that matter. For some areas, it’s simply not viable to omit the use of industrial pesticides, such is the nature of the environment. So what makes Chile so different?</em><br /><strong><br />Climate</strong><br />Chile’s climate is highly influenced by the cooling effect of the Pacific Ocean and the Humboldt Current that begins in the icy waters near Antarctica and flows up the western coast of South America. When the effect of the Humboldt’s cold current hits Chile’s northern coastline it produces clouds and fog, but little or no precipitation, which then contributes to making the Atacama Desert the driest on Earth. Important to note is that there is as much climactic diversity west to east as there is from North to South. <br /><br /><strong>Geography</strong><br />The cool sea air is partially blocked by the Coastal Mountains, although it finds its way inland by following the course of the transversal river valleys. During the day, sea breezes carried by the cold Humboldt Current penetrate inland, and each night, cold air descends from the snow covered peaks of the Andes. The coastal mountains of Chile look like the large Sonoma Coast appellation. While traveling through this coastal area, it’s hard to believe that there aren’t more vineyards in such an apparently ideal locale. <br /><br /><strong>Chile’s geographic barriers </strong>- the Atacama Desert to the north, the Andes Mountains to the east, the Patagonian ice fields to the south, and the Pacific Ocean to the west - make it a veritable agricultural island. Together they help maintain healthy conditions and protect vineyards against pests and disease. Not much if any mildew, no glassy winged sharpshooters, no Phylloxera, cool and dry in general… it’s a winemaker’s paradise. <br /><br /><strong>Soil & Terroir</strong> With so much geographic variety, the Chilean landscape also offers a vast mosaic of terroirs and soil types. Soils are healthy, well-drained, and have a variety of origins (alluvial, colluvial, fluvial, etc.) and textures (loam, clay, sand, silt). Despite the relatively dry atmospheric conditions, abundant water for irrigation flows from the ice caps of the Andes Mountains that tower all along Chile’s eastern border.<br /><br /><br /><strong>Altitude </strong>-In recent years, more and more vineyards creep closer and higher to the peaks, where the sun is slow to appear over the eastern peaks and makes up for its late arrival with the intensity that comes with altitude. Currents of wind climb and descend over the course of the day to create a daily pendulum of temperatures that swings broadly between daytime highs and night time lows. This is just what rich red grapes, such as Cabernet Sauvignon, thrive on.<br /><br /><strong>Not long, but wide</strong> -Curiously, it’s not the distance from the equator that plays the dominant role in the diversity of Chile’s grape growing exploits, but rather the proximity to the Pacific Ocean or the Andes Mountains. Again,..Chile has much greater diversity in soils and climates from east to west than from north to south.<br /><br />All of this may seem a bit over rated or simply irrelevant to what most of us know and feel about Chilean wines. We’ve come to understand that the country has for years produced a majority of their wines for export and have despite the totally unique and endless viticultural wonderland clearly focused on quantity and not so much quality. Sadly for the looking back but fortunately, as I have recently discovered that the historical presentation and position Chilean wine has taken will likely be the launching pad/ spring board for what I believe is the next greatest and promising global wine producing region. As recently as 7 years ago, a visible paradigm shift in the mentality of the entire industry has spawned an amazing spirit of rejuvenation. We are today witness to export directors, young second and third generation winemakers taking the helm, driving market share, setting new standards of excellence and producing wonderfully crafted, interesting wines that are a pleasure to enjoy, to collect and to ponder. Get in on the map people! Viva Chile! Raise your cup with me and toast to what I promise one day soon will be regarded as the most exciting and rapidly evolving wine production areas in history.Vajra Stratigoshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08208265564546296044noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6033502476730800782.post-44196259052943213252010-09-10T07:15:00.000-07:002010-09-10T07:29:09.672-07:00cheese and wine opinions<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgBA-HvJYnq1zbi6Ku_h_V88vxGKeM-llCX3oMFw12ASksJix6kayDdPVv7WLBpEQOZODrLtmSTScHP9O0wNc2BT1nnMfhWQquPb9EEXa8H3o8xp8924i9ayy-N73qcyqX-3cy4AdtvrPDo/s1600/overhead+fruit+market.jpeg.jpeg"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 400px; height: 300px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgBA-HvJYnq1zbi6Ku_h_V88vxGKeM-llCX3oMFw12ASksJix6kayDdPVv7WLBpEQOZODrLtmSTScHP9O0wNc2BT1nnMfhWQquPb9EEXa8H3o8xp8924i9ayy-N73qcyqX-3cy4AdtvrPDo/s400/overhead+fruit+market.jpeg.jpeg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5515290892320159122" /></a><br /><br /><strong><em>The other day, Katie Bell, a friend who also happens to be an accomplished food and wine columnist and freelance writer asked me to make some wine pairing recommendations for an article she was working on. I wrote my reply at lightning speed late at night and was in fact a bit tipsy but upon review this morning, while sitting down to make a blog entry, I decided that I should just share the rant with you all. I haven’t had many of the cheeses but I think im familiar enough to take a crack at it...anyway,. here is the letter and reply to her query.</em></strong><br /><br /><br />Katie, <br />As always, I am flattered that you have asked me to participate and make contribution to your story. It’s a genuine pleasure sharing a perspective on a part of life that I truly love. Thanks again for the opportunity. I find it oddly paradoxical that noshing grubb or what I think of as historically casual nibbling foods have become a cerebral exercise in the wine and food world. For me, in the same way that we drank unpasteurized raw cow’s milk, farmed all our own veggies and drank crystal clear well water, growing up amid a house full of traditionalist foodies took really amazing classical cheeses and meats and made them and the eating ritual common. For years, cured meats and cheeses were always just simply there and available. No hype, no big deal,…it was just the way it was. Wines were had a similar application. Water, juice or wine with your hunk of Wabash cannonball? I dunno,…in any case, my point of all this is that, so many years later…like so many things in the gastro world, we have found a way to bring complexity and exactness to a food and or occasion driven by food that really has always been staple, standard and sort of ordinary. I’ll give it my best crack now that ive had some years to pay attention and have since formed an opinion. Thanks again! <br /><em><strong><br />Chapel Hill Creamery's Carolina Moon, a buttery, rich camembert, quite luxurious with a slather of blueberry compote.- </strong></em>for me camembert, especially domestic camembert with fruit always screams late sunny morning October breakfast barefoot on the patio . I immediately want a warm Parisian loaf like the generic kind you might find in any random corner grocer in Paris. Bromated flour, plenty of commercial yeast, yet still warm enough to get over the generic-ness of it all. If I had to pair wine I might move the setting to après dinner and with the blueberry angle,….well,….id say let’s stick with bubbles and go with a bottle of the NV Langlois- chateau, Cremant De Loire Rosé, Saumur, Loire Valley, France . This and other Loire sparkling rosé have both a textural elegance and serious earthiness balanced by great spicy fruits. Cabernet Franc in this form is a favorite bloomy cheese pairing. <br /><br /><br /><em><strong>Sequatchie Cove's exquisite Cumberland Cheese modeled after a French Tome de savoie has a melt-in the-mouth smoothness finished with an earthy punch.- </strong></em>TDS is one of my all time favourites! I haven’t seen a domestic version that quite captures that nutty smoothness and deep grassy flavour but it sounds like this might be the one? When I think TDS, I think of white not red. Assuming that this is not as assertive as the Rhone version, id go with a bottle of the 2007 Marcel Deiss, Beblenheim, Riesling, Alsace, France. Alsatian to the core, this friendly wine is loaded with zesty lemon and great minerality that both serves the grassy spirit of the tomme and contrasts the nuttiness to drive the cheeses mouth feel and round comforting character. <br /><br /><em><strong>Spinning Spider's Stack House is an elegant, soft creamy and luscious young goats milk cheese has an ash coating that imparts a unique minerally flavor.- </strong></em>when I think of ashed goats milk cheeses, I normally think about selles sur cher, or judy Shadd and her Wabash cannonball. I also have been a mega-uber fan of Jeremy and jessicas Lumiere at sweetgrass back when that stuff was around…wow! What happened to that stuff eh? So, while I drink sauvignon as often as anything else with goats milk cheeses, I think the ash sometimes enjoys a white with a bit more oxidative, creamy, almost clotted cream like character with ample levels of minerality to underscore the charred veggies. For this cheese, im going with the Domaine Laurent Chatenay, “Les Maisonnettes”, Montlouis Sur Loire, Chenin Blanc, Sec. Yum! <br /><br /><em><strong>The bodacious Sweetgrass Dairy's Asher Blue Cheese makes a statement. Its robust personality marry's well with walnuts and fresh, sliced Arkansas Black apples.- </strong></em>I have a serious problem with pairing most reds with blue cheese. I find that disharmony comes to an apex when the molds from the cheese clash with the tannins of a firm red. It’s possible that some late harvest Spanish reds have worked late night with a chunk of cabrales but that stuff needs and deserves a good beating. For something domestic and a bit more tame, as far as the world of blues is concerned, I’m almost always looking for smooth, silky, rich and decidedly sweet. One of my very favourite stickies these days is a little wine from Ken Forrester in Stellenbosch SA. He makes this lovely sauternes rendition called Ken Forrester “T” Stellenbosch from Chenin Blanc. Lush, melons, pineapple and zingy, bright acidity to balance the heft of residual sugar begs for a nip of smelly salt and spoiled cream. <br /><br /><br /><em><strong>Andouille</strong></em>- like marinara, this stuff can be so many different things. I keep links of the old chef K Paul version in my freezer so ill use that one for this pairing. I also think it’s fair to note that for me drinking wine with Andioullie would be an abnormality. Typically when I find myself eating Creole or Cajun foods, im not in a wine mode. This is not to say it’s never happened but just for the record..im just sayin….In any case,..for this,.. I would pair a thick, oily rich white with this spicy sausage. Immediately, the glorious and often overlooked Rhone blends come to mind. Rousanne , Marsanne, Grenache blanc and viognier all lumped together act more like a pack of wolves in sheeps clothing than they do wine varietals. I’d go with a new Rhone selection from Betts & Scholl,..the 2006 Hermitage Blanc, France <br /><br /><em><strong>Rabbit Brandy Boudin-</strong></em> I remember eating boudin off a foil wrapped stick purchased from a roadside vendor just over the bridge from Lake Ponchatrain. It was the Wednesday after fat Tuesday, I was 16 years old, driving a Puegeot stationwagon and we had spent the last 200 interstate miles shooting roman candles out of the car window as we drove through the night. The boudin was laced with rice and as such, felt more like encased pilaf than it did sausage. I have loved this stuff ever since. With the added gaminess of bunny and the sweet brandy, im going with the Jorge Ordonez value anomaly du jour,..the 2008 Paso a Paso, “old Vine” Verdelho, La Mancha, Spain. This wine has exotic richness, oodles of plump glyceral fruits, and a good citrus oil backbeat that would provide some reprieve from the certain intensity of the meat and brandy combo while holding its own in terms of intensity and richness. <br /><br /><em><strong>Petit Sec and Figatelli---salami style pork 'snacks' cobbled together with pork liver, red wine, garlic and fresh herbs, they are air-dried.- </strong></em>this kind of thing just begs for tradition to me. Like I mentioned above, I think a lot of different wines, accoutrement, breads and cheeses work well with this sort of food stuff but in the end, if I must choose, id go with something Italian. Let’s use the wine from the often misunderstood, regionally confused, biodynamic producers, Avignonesi. They plant their vineyards on concentric circles and I think I love this family. This wine and all of their other wines for me are more like elixirs than wine. For this,…lets go with the 2007Avignonesi, Vino Nobile di Montepulciano, Tuscany, Italy. Exceedingly “old world” in its bowels, the wine is fruity, laden with hippie smoke shop like aromas, and normally has a nip of my favorite barrel infection Brettanomyces, affectionately known throughout the wine world as “brett”. This controversial wild yeast, imparts a gamey quality that just adores cured pork product and also drives a hint of sweetness to the very front of the palate which keeps you coming back for more as the salts and fat from the sausage makes its mark. For me, Sangiovese and salami are timeless and rightfully so.Vajra Stratigoshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08208265564546296044noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6033502476730800782.post-80359116701722444592010-09-04T12:09:00.001-07:002010-09-04T12:13:54.754-07:00My Cadillac and my pinky ring,..they restoreth me in thee.<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiIf23QZZFLAwVYIJzXW8L_jux3zn8-sLeiDGp5NwKI9UCXBh69rjnN3acwmWzdjwuF2qI9XDcazoOSwZ2Y8ZSubiB2c5M4g7Usp5iQ28khBtaVXN0KgkwjeN5_g4Zai3jFwhhcFdXHSEkF/s1600/23.jpg"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 356px; height: 328px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiIf23QZZFLAwVYIJzXW8L_jux3zn8-sLeiDGp5NwKI9UCXBh69rjnN3acwmWzdjwuF2qI9XDcazoOSwZ2Y8ZSubiB2c5M4g7Usp5iQ28khBtaVXN0KgkwjeN5_g4Zai3jFwhhcFdXHSEkF/s400/23.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5513137666956910898" /></a><br /><br />One of the great pleasures of wine enjoyment is the methodical ritual of wine cellaring or conscious maturation. This getting to know a wine can be a long relationship or something equivalent to a spontaneous one night stand. Thinking about the wine like one might a person, the bottle, depending on how many bottles of that specific wine you own, could be more like a day spent aimlessly strolling the streets of an urban metropolis , like a weekend retreat with a new lover or if you are lucky, like a lifelong relationship that continues to unfold. The bottle itself is all about memory and all at once about a building upon experiences that ultimately create an overall conclusive impression. In the end, whether it be a one time deal or something that carries on and evolves, that single bottle is just a sampling of the much bigger picture. Sadly, in most instances, wine is unlike a fifty year marriage, and we as consumers never actually get the chance to have it “all”. So, speaking to memory and building of relationships, it is, regardless of how many bottles you actually own of any particular wine, always quite interesting to me to watch the evolution and see what happens from day to day or week, month to month or year to year. <br />Earlier this week, I shared my 5th bottle of Marcel Deiss, Mambourg, Alsace Grand Cru with a good friend. Like an annual secret rendezvous with an old high school sweetheart in a distant and land, this wine has sprouted a few gray hairs but is sexier than ever. <br /><br />Marcel Deiss is one of my all time favorite Alsatian producers. Many of his vineyards are planted with a mixture of Riesling, Pinot Gris, Gewurztraminer and more. This is not that unusual in Alsace – many Grand Cru sites include a number of different varieties. What is unusual, however, is to treat than as a field blend, with all grapes going into the final wine. Blends are not new to Alsace, of course; there are many Edelzwicker blends available, of which some are delicious. But these are usually sourced from AC rather than Grand Cru vineyards, and often feature Pinot Blanc, Pinot Gris and Gewurztraminer, not the region’s most noble grape, Riesling. But here Deiss has another controversy; many of these wines are named for the vineyard, rather than by the grape varieties, which would be standard practice in this region of France. Labeling Alsace Grand Cru without varietal information - as has been the practice chez Deiss - was, until 2005, operating outside the INAO regulations. A change in the law, however, means that such labeling is now permitted, thereby bringing Deiss into the fold. <br /><br /><br /> 2002 Marcel Deiss, Mambourg, Alsace: 08-31-2010<br />The wine is always warm, exceedingly rich and tropical. The riper than ripe yet somehow magically fresh, open nose shows lots of tropical fruit notes minerality, lanolin, honeycomb. The palate is ripe and open knit now- more so than 1 year ago showing more minerality, lanolin and honeycomb bound by surreal unctuousness. Quite sweet though balanced with lovely fruitiness and astounding textural appeal. The explosive palate finishes smoky with richness and power: lots of mineral extract, high relative acidity - finishes off-dry. <br /><br /><br /><br />Our father <br />Which art on Wall Street<br />Honored be thy buck<br />Thy kingdom came<br />This be thy year<br />From sea to shining sea<br />Thou givest me false pride<br />Funked down by the riverside<br />From every head and ass, may dollars flow<br />Give us this pay<br />Our daily bread<br />Forgive us our goofs<br />As we rob from each other<br />He maketh me to sell dope to small children<br />For thou art evil<br />And we adore thee<br />Thy destruction and thy power<br />They comfort me<br /><strong>My Cadillac and my pinky ring<br />They restoreth me in thee</strong><br />Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of poverty<br />I must feel their envy<br />For I am loaded, high and all those other goodies<br />That go along with the good god big buck<br />To your horse<br />A ? grows there<br />Ahead in time, the unexpected soul-searching beam of the strobe<br />But now, the stairway looms<br />And as I rise<br />The cries of kittens, gray, make way<br />For there, now near<br />Here now, gone, alone<br />I feel my wrist, it flicks the switch<br />No lights reveal the room or me <br />She sees, then panics, grabs a light<br />I scream, silent comforts that are not heard<br />I panic, for I have not said a word<br />Hysteria hold the room in sway<br />I run, I back away, to hide<br />From what?<br />From fear?<br />The truth, the light?<br />Is truth the light?Vajra Stratigoshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08208265564546296044noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6033502476730800782.post-60236137928364394032010-06-19T10:54:00.000-07:002010-06-26T17:14:28.474-07:00Brazilian waxes, 7.50 cent beer and a chastity belt<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhKDl6EZ6wuwvpQkydvTuyQteqDdTwQMlmR-2UWtfSDFncsVel-UFHwKuOji1uPKbJE5PMYKlAYrWayZbmV3Xl1ND17OXcpEpdV-_4fsnJzilQR3L0olZEh1w0j538XEQ89pqWcLe2avdl-/s1600/u-french0173.jpg"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 110px; height: 179px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhKDl6EZ6wuwvpQkydvTuyQteqDdTwQMlmR-2UWtfSDFncsVel-UFHwKuOji1uPKbJE5PMYKlAYrWayZbmV3Xl1ND17OXcpEpdV-_4fsnJzilQR3L0olZEh1w0j538XEQ89pqWcLe2avdl-/s400/u-french0173.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5484550113725435074" /></a><br /><br />Today I feel like my dorm mates must have years ago when for whatever reason their bodies were more sensitive to diet and particularly salt than mine. I don’t need a blood pressure meter today that’s for sure. I can feel my wedding band taught around my third finger, even my eyes feel a little pressurized as if they were bulging from their sockets a bit. Maybe this is a good thing that just now at 37 years old ive gained or developed sensitivity to this sort of thing im calling “next day bodily duress”, or on the other hand, because I know ive partook in my share of various and sundry systemic abuse, perhaps its an indicator of just how out of touch ive been for all these years?...hmmm,…any way, .. a night at the 755 club at turner field with my middle son of 8 years instigated several rounds of heavily processed chicken wings, beer, mini cheese burgers and plenty of sickeningly oily, salty, french fry like fried potato sticks. For all of this immediate caligulian joy, today I feel like a spent piece of something very disposable. <br /><br />On our way to our soopa doopa rock star seats right behind home plate, we toured the upper rotunda at the stadium. I suppose Its one of those opportunities to witness a genuine social demographic crossection …kind of like going to a “B” rated amusement park like Six flags or even Kings Island, its at sporting events and especially in the exclusive clubs within arenas and stadiums that you can actually get a sense of who the people are that live in your city and your neighborhoods. My son, even before I, took notice and went on to mention the number of extremely overweight , tattooed people all of whom were engaged in some form of concerted consumption and then in the leather recliner to the right and left, a picture perfect generic well-to-do suburban country club family decked out in the latest nautica and Ralph Lauren garb daintily licking cotton candy ice cream cones and chatting about their most recent shopping excursion to Miami’s Bal harbor. Its really a sight. <br /><br /><br />One thought on beer in a Southern stadium environment. Temperature versus blindly taking it easy. sure bud light and similar beers are refreshing but just ask yourself what it is that really makes them this way. Seriously, id put money down if you could tell me that when a Bud is warm its still as refreshing and revitalizing at it is when its 34 degrees. So in this way, as most of us would agree that there are many other options with much more character that still when guzzled at sub 40 degree temperatures bring measureable refreshment. So why then do so many of us choose insipid dry lackluster beers for summertime gulping? I say its more about the chill than the actual profile of the beer. Just try it,..go buy a sixer of something medium bodied instead of your usual domestic light, chill it down to 35 degrees and take it to the neck! Which would you prefer, a 81’ rusty Nova with good AC or a Maserati wth the convertible top down? <br /><br /><br />After taking our seats, it must have been the bottom of the third inning when a group of attractive sparingly clothed girls strolled into our section and took seats in the row in front of us. All of 18 years old, they were all wearing excessive amounts of perfume, and looked as if they had just bought new Atlanta braves ¾ length baseball jerseys just for the game. With pink blackberries in hand they slowly settled in and after about 10 minutes calmed down enough to manage the expectation of an 8th row sports fan. <br />My son and I went on about our business, watching, munching on cracker jacks, drinking beer and strawberry smoothies and enjoying what was a picture perfect summer baseball event. As is the case with most arena seating, the rows are stacked atop eachother. So, leaning forward in my seat game me a unique vantage point to the row of girls. They were chatting about, not watching the game for more Than a minute at a time but rather spent the majority of the game texting and instant messaging friends that weren’t at the game. I looked down at one point read the outgoing text . There appeared to be a boy at the other end f the thread. She had sent over a dozen messages when my curiosity came over me …I couldnt help looking and the text she wrote said .. <strong>Girl</strong>,..“yeah, were at the game…and you’re right,…its really *%^$^$# hot here”. <strong>Boy</strong>,.. “what are you drinking?...we still have beers over here” <strong>Girl</strong>,..“ the beer selection is bad” <strong>Boy</strong>,..” What do you mean?..its your fault for drinking 10$ beers..ha ha” <strong>Girl</strong>, ..”Were not drinking them,..the ID was rejected” <strong>Boy</strong>, ..”bummer” ,…<strong>Girl</strong>, “ they aren’t 10$ anyway…they are 7.50$” <strong>Boy</strong>, …”what did you do yesterday?” <strong>Girl</strong>,..”do you really want to know?” <strong>Boy</strong>, “yes!!” <strong>Girl</strong>,.. “ well, I went and got another Brazilian Wax then went to Victoria’s Secret and bought some Lingerie” <strong>Boy</strong>,.. “ Nice! …god I cant wait for you to be my wife!” <strong>Girl</strong>, “ only a couple more years till im 25!” <strong>Boy</strong>, “ do you want to come by here tomorrow night and help me finish this keg of Sweetater?” <strong>Girl</strong>, “ mmmm,I like that beer,..its better than 7.50$ bud light!” , …<strong>Boy</strong>, “ yeah for sure” ..<strong>Girl</strong>,.. “ id love to come by and you know my parents are out of town this weekend right? ..<strong>Boy</strong>, "yeah,..dont remind me. <strong>Girl</strong>,…"we can do other things but we just have to just wait…yeah ill skip mass on Sunday and stay over at your place…ok?” <strong>Boy</strong>, “ now your talking,!”Vajra Stratigoshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08208265564546296044noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6033502476730800782.post-56391553962170181182010-06-05T10:50:00.000-07:002010-06-05T11:07:51.489-07:00make me sweat purple<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj4szVzg7FG1LPGsoYpk-P5F4NIJ4D7Fu8UGMpUpl7DjiVJIdzdefuJ6B8J7GVMKMwD19tCmZ8V8I8KnTMG3mR8ZLZ2b0TCAjBcYYf9VhAUEL7W1u9BMY_KJIFFPYrbfkczeZVHdGsqyQl9/s1600/Diana+%233+.jpg"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 300px; height: 400px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj4szVzg7FG1LPGsoYpk-P5F4NIJ4D7Fu8UGMpUpl7DjiVJIdzdefuJ6B8J7GVMKMwD19tCmZ8V8I8KnTMG3mR8ZLZ2b0TCAjBcYYf9VhAUEL7W1u9BMY_KJIFFPYrbfkczeZVHdGsqyQl9/s400/Diana+%233+.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5479352537145892482" /></a><br />Another iconic evening spent last night at Chastain amphitheatre. triple blind couples date, perfect low humidity air, barn swallows diving above wildly, candlelit tables, foodie inspired European street foods and yeah, you guessed it, despite the 85+ degree air, there were two bottles of monster domestic red that just had to be had. <strong>Lets talk – </strong><br /><br /><strong>2001 Peter Michael, Les Pavots, California Meritage </strong><br />This wine emits darkness, ( is that possible) rich purple-red in the glass showing youth and a good long stint in a cold cellar without agitation.. It lifts out with aromas of black cherry, anise, and dark loamy earth. On the tongue it is bright and lifted with berry flavors, and then a lush and round blanket of super ripe black cherry, blueberry, tobacco and smoke peak through in the mid-palate with thick velvety tannins that are very Bordeaux, finishing long and smooth with a hint of vanilla and sweet oak. Very good show from a very good vintage. <br /><br /><strong>1997 Silverado , Limited Reserve, Cabernet Sauvignon, California </strong><br />This wine's moderately concentrated, properly ripened cassis-like fruit is constant and controlled, and its complement of oak enriches the mix without threatening to dominate. It is a fairly deep, a bit spicy, neatly tailored wine that takes few chances but succeeds nicely in the style that it claims. And, while we find its price more ambitious than its achievement warrants, it is nonetheless a well-made Cabernet. didn’t find this wine too exciting, especially along side the PM mentioned above. A good wine ? – yes, but I felt as though I needed to put some Drakkar on with a blue pinstripe suit and take a seat at a table in a Midwestern steakhouse. Needless to say, neither this or the PM are the style of wines I seek out or actually ever really drink for pleasure. Nevertheless, the wine shows the classic side of Napa Cabernet .Vajra Stratigoshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08208265564546296044noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6033502476730800782.post-28046427033237052872010-05-24T14:16:00.001-07:002010-05-24T14:20:11.001-07:00Syrah spells GOOD!<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhw1n_ugj8QyTwrMaa8KT7hll3oB6NPnGnDuEYXx5G4DGCF9zsQ1hNVYvU2kYJG4Ojjipu-OTDCya9eEKxggGYWObVOhW9MkPF8a48YUbQbNDqVFcKb7dQCi_xDONTyGx6J4py4-Ln05kc-/s1600/Vina+Perez+cruz.jpeg"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 300px; height: 400px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhw1n_ugj8QyTwrMaa8KT7hll3oB6NPnGnDuEYXx5G4DGCF9zsQ1hNVYvU2kYJG4Ojjipu-OTDCya9eEKxggGYWObVOhW9MkPF8a48YUbQbNDqVFcKb7dQCi_xDONTyGx6J4py4-Ln05kc-/s400/Vina+Perez+cruz.jpeg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5474948846007267698" /></a><br />I think by now its safe to exclaim that Washington State produces some of the finest wines in North America. Last night while meandering through a list of random house chores I scampered down stairs to ye ole wine cooler to fetch a bottle of something shiny and delicious. A recent addition to the mix, Gregg Harrington’s Gramercy Cellars, Walla Walla Syrah made it back up the stairs and into the decanter. What a thrill. <br /><br />If you are like me and have grown tired of all the overblown, super manipulated flesh- blanket style Syrah that have dominated the marketplace, Id recommend you working your way through the Syrah pack of Washington state. Not to say that every one out there is an iconic singular expression but more often than not, for whatever reason, this varietal shows its slender lanky side with a measure of finesse and elegance when born of Washington soils. This “lift” and brightened framing so to speak is for me a component that seems to be necessary to really unveil all that exotic floral and spice components that Syrah really does have. <br /><br />So often, Syrah from Paso or any number of California AVA’s ends up buried in layers of overly toasted oak, syrupy elixir like jammyness or worse yet, tarry, black medicinal fruit that just manhandles the womanly core. It goes without saying,…this is an ill-fated but all to common story. So, whether from this perception or as a raw back lashing effect (what ive been affectionately referring to as the Australian slingshot) . Syrah has had a really bad rap for the past many years. I want you all to rediscover this grape and do it right so,...here is a start. <br /><br /><br /><strong>Gramercy Cellars, Syrah, Walla Walla, Washington 9/10 </strong><br />Closed at first, though I store my reds a bit colder than most. Beautiful texture with intense fruit presence on the attack that bounded and expanded throughout the mid-palate and finish.( especially as it warmed) Notable freshness with vibrant acidity that arrives early in the palate ultimately giving way to the wines spicy core that remind me of what the juice inside a suede canteen might smell and or taste like if it were stuffed with over ripe huckleberries and then slung over the shoulder of a dream-like Athenian goddess as she rode bareback through meadows of clover and spring iris. Firm and sincere, the frame was relentless and while its length and symmetry were admirable, this was too a sniffer paradise ( again, especially after 2 hours). Reminded me of that rare Crozes Hermitage nose you sometimes get Think: Gilles Robin where after a good whip in the glass, you approach the glass high off the rim and this wafting focused purity of tiny weenie purple fruits sing for just a split second then retreat back to the heavens. go find some of this! Props to Greg and his crew! www.gramercycellars.comVajra Stratigoshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08208265564546296044noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6033502476730800782.post-1303509492737043132010-05-23T10:48:00.000-07:002010-05-23T11:27:01.489-07:00how do we manage it all?<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjEEAmse5hh0SR2xt461RfH6HMl6Fpq9zELHdXr5lPYombWYtcXg9DxueEzGg8NEWPRFE5ylab5xEEroW1CIU1oD67UqksUjr5nHhVoZvpUgLsAjtNXhWDY55hlTHWDPzYRwLdaT2F9G_l6/s1600/destruction+in+the+maule+-+may+2010.jpeg"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 400px; height: 300px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjEEAmse5hh0SR2xt461RfH6HMl6Fpq9zELHdXr5lPYombWYtcXg9DxueEzGg8NEWPRFE5ylab5xEEroW1CIU1oD67UqksUjr5nHhVoZvpUgLsAjtNXhWDY55hlTHWDPzYRwLdaT2F9G_l6/s400/destruction+in+the+maule+-+may+2010.jpeg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5474532134846021410" /></a><br />An architect of sorts was under pressure to complete a set of drawings on time to meet a deadline. He was forced to devote four successive Sundays to the completion of this work. He had to isolate himself from the rest of his family which includes his wife and three children. His wife managed well for the first three weeks but on this fourth Sunday was in a fretful and irritable mood. He remained closeted in his room for the entire day. He was vaguely aware of his wife's feelings and from time to time would hear her lose her temper at the children. He fell asleep for a short time and had the following dream:<br /> <br />"I was calling the weather bureau to ask if the hurricane was expected to hit the city that afternoon. As I was asking the question I began to feel embarrassed and guilty. I awoke as I was trying to terminate the call."<br /> <br />He awoke with the dream in mind. He had a growing feeling of uneasiness with regard to the burden he was placing upon his wife, but felt that it was necessary and unavoidable. He associated the metaphor of the hurricane to the recurrent blasts of his wife's temper, particularly in view of the fact that if another hurricane were in reality to occur its name would have begun with the same initial as that of his wife's name. The incidental event precipitating the dream was the occasional sounds of his wife's quarrels with the children which reached his ears while he was intensely preoccupied with the work he was doing. The contradiction which was deepened and brought closer to full awareness was one arising from the discrepancy between the actual nature of his activity on the one hand - the arbitrary and absolute way in which he cut himself off from his family when under pressure - and the way in which this activity was reflected in consciousness - that this was simply a necessary but transitory interlude in his family life which the others owed it to him to countenance. <br /><br />Owed or gifted? Managed or disabled? Where is the line and where is the beam? The more we try to do the right thing, the more we execute ourselves with criticism. This is when the flowers and the blue sky begin to have real meaning. Simplicity, escape, and purity. He will take some of that at some point.Vajra Stratigoshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08208265564546296044noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6033502476730800782.post-68811554154657772692010-05-17T20:33:00.000-07:002010-05-17T20:56:23.361-07:00from the bathtub at birth to the bathtub at death<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjvKBq7WwkyePLuB_qvFmEmNBtm4RIik5_ogdXXo95y7q0u954LpOoH5D00gCIZbuWaQezSkzSxlb5CftLZukQ3lzb39RGZqmuzow0tW7brE2W5AK9qgHF6twc2G8IGGE8fMNmqXHCA2L7e/s1600/IMG00084-20100511-1031.jpg"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 400px; height: 300px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjvKBq7WwkyePLuB_qvFmEmNBtm4RIik5_ogdXXo95y7q0u954LpOoH5D00gCIZbuWaQezSkzSxlb5CftLZukQ3lzb39RGZqmuzow0tW7brE2W5AK9qgHF6twc2G8IGGE8fMNmqXHCA2L7e/s400/IMG00084-20100511-1031.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5472448917923468914" /></a><br /><br />John F. Kennedy said," There are risks and costs to a program of action. But they are far less than the long-range risks and costs of comfortable inaction." No modern cultural figure could have said this with more ultimate clairvoyance than JFK indeed! With each day we battle the legacy of complacency and routine, do what is necessary to remain in connection with dreams and the finished vision of possibility. I have a close friend that even with nearly twice my years has honored and held tight to this sort of mantra. Interestingly enough, "out of the box" open-mindedness is what keeps us young not just physical activity...its more,..its the joint value of thinking about whatever it is, creating the finished, complete image, and looking back upon completion as a cycle. Oddly, most of the people I know in my life that harness the beauty of "now" to move ahead are not my immediate professional peers. For this regrettable reality, I will do my part to make a change and to be a member -if only amongst a small group of people dedicated to believing in the endless opportunities of an open mind and heart. I keep saying and keep hearing myself say just how amazing it is that with each passing measured week of life, every other day really does feel more like another Wednesday. I can only imagine how this time space acceleration must manifest to a man 30 years my senior. I like the flurry of a frenetic scale but i long for the space between the notes. From the bathtub at birth to the bathtub at death. Shake your money maker!!Vajra Stratigoshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08208265564546296044noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6033502476730800782.post-16750362008266137622009-12-02T18:18:00.000-08:002009-12-02T22:08:20.187-08:00dirty gifts, dirty pleasures and a grip of Heineken<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgObe9j8zFebS_neQNXdfULo0XP1RIqxgsNHf5A0zjX0a_KWKilXRLOKevfxaLEDXqHO5g_HxDJjyl6lJG_QguKXYAV_S_KDRd41FizxTN-px5dQtjw6T42naSCTvZthw6jHuA_jNHCSBg7/s1600-h/thumbnail.jpg"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 115px; height: 160px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgObe9j8zFebS_neQNXdfULo0XP1RIqxgsNHf5A0zjX0a_KWKilXRLOKevfxaLEDXqHO5g_HxDJjyl6lJG_QguKXYAV_S_KDRd41FizxTN-px5dQtjw6T42naSCTvZthw6jHuA_jNHCSBg7/s400/thumbnail.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5410829090102632434" /></a><br />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. <br /><br />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. <br /><br />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.<br /><br /> 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??<br /><br />Heineken lager <br />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. <br /><br />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 .Vajra Stratigoshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08208265564546296044noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6033502476730800782.post-74104026454395333092009-11-03T19:34:00.001-08:002009-11-03T19:38:09.580-08:00why the culinary smackdown?<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh6E33GY5iKlp3VUPTduOPNmRcVoQy4vMiTP4mhxoxNGSM3WUQHzrYYC0mNe7m3JqG0QnkGpEtBAQBbafkRvjWiITiTISkjfwDjA0sZBh7fa2ijw-M4WKVRQO1s_LdKqTDlT7fwmEEL2Nsj/s1600-h/untitled.bmp"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 300px; height: 400px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh6E33GY5iKlp3VUPTduOPNmRcVoQy4vMiTP4mhxoxNGSM3WUQHzrYYC0mNe7m3JqG0QnkGpEtBAQBbafkRvjWiITiTISkjfwDjA0sZBh7fa2ijw-M4WKVRQO1s_LdKqTDlT7fwmEEL2Nsj/s400/untitled.bmp" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5400087567625070034" /></a><br /><br />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. <br /><br />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. <br /><br />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…<br /><br />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. <br /><br />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.Vajra Stratigoshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08208265564546296044noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6033502476730800782.post-58086869985994030552009-10-31T11:53:00.000-07:002009-10-31T11:59:31.198-07:00making it come alive<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgi1PBJbFGxE8O8iFhIBTBPa3cK4ZIW8MtXV1HRSGkfkbft99jPvoJGcAvC44fHAmpsDglLuny6Q2GQ3G3r8Sbip1konOVY8OGO0DiFKSb7KRNbbO_To_4mGNKsVheEjCqSvhB2Bfa-bfYY/s1600-h/mountain+fruit"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 400px; height: 300px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgi1PBJbFGxE8O8iFhIBTBPa3cK4ZIW8MtXV1HRSGkfkbft99jPvoJGcAvC44fHAmpsDglLuny6Q2GQ3G3r8Sbip1konOVY8OGO0DiFKSb7KRNbbO_To_4mGNKsVheEjCqSvhB2Bfa-bfYY/s400/mountain+fruit" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5398840671056982178" /></a><br /><br />If you’re passionate about wine, you’re bound to be passionate about food. Right? <br /><br />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.<br /><br />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! <br />Remember, follow your own tastes and don’t be afraid to experiment.<br /><br />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. <br />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! <br /><br />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. <br /><br />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!”Vajra Stratigoshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08208265564546296044noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6033502476730800782.post-84672258455914541862009-10-29T20:51:00.000-07:002009-10-29T20:57:42.814-07:00the hermano of overfished<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhaJ72gg4kctAHgJKA_ibk3R-QMv6DC8MKkdkbOQISxeI5YLMt6DPPXJS19ay-3eJiAZbaXN2l8uMv9q7vUR3C0XcFvz74O97thBlNbn13hityGZNXZmXd_k8QkDs3JNn69xqc9dq1j3cmc/s1600-h/opc+day3+002.jpg"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 400px; height: 300px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhaJ72gg4kctAHgJKA_ibk3R-QMv6DC8MKkdkbOQISxeI5YLMt6DPPXJS19ay-3eJiAZbaXN2l8uMv9q7vUR3C0XcFvz74O97thBlNbn13hityGZNXZmXd_k8QkDs3JNn69xqc9dq1j3cmc/s400/opc+day3+002.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5398236703560258690" /></a><br /><br />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. <br /><br />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. <br /><br />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.Vajra Stratigoshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08208265564546296044noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6033502476730800782.post-56883601176653473222009-10-27T15:07:00.000-07:002009-10-27T15:37:18.938-07:00did you say hydroponic wine ?<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi28Rx3lhYuYRNN7h8Y9UpzSIyu0g2uRNqYS9Otzft6oL_NlLa-WTlI_-Su-rDpWsN3BiJ83_Q78Acz27gQVlxCHE3T80e7frCVfmCogmj5X87zdYpFbKoU_Nmmswooj-bDLZBJb4vJhrTs/s1600-h/chile+036.jpg"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 300px; height: 400px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi28Rx3lhYuYRNN7h8Y9UpzSIyu0g2uRNqYS9Otzft6oL_NlLa-WTlI_-Su-rDpWsN3BiJ83_Q78Acz27gQVlxCHE3T80e7frCVfmCogmj5X87zdYpFbKoU_Nmmswooj-bDLZBJb4vJhrTs/s400/chile+036.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5397411979567927778" /></a><br />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. <br /><br />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? <br /><br />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. <br /><br />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 …<br /><br />So, the next time you go to the merchant to buy a bottle of wine, ask the salesperson,<br />… “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.Vajra Stratigoshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08208265564546296044noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6033502476730800782.post-33634552477974056292009-10-23T23:06:00.000-07:002009-10-23T23:15:06.650-07:00foundation,motivation and innovation<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhyhm8zBmgZAX8jeSM0U519HDazkDBHKAZSMIGoZNO2CSlhRzd2NZeZ5lmjXIJOd6j1k48OSy49g1V2B-rwzG0LqwfZ45OD2rDp7mwrfH2iCIVobyDUQ9NSkp1eg2keLzZlDNvDQC0g0O1g/s1600-h/chile+006.jpg"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 400px; height: 300px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhyhm8zBmgZAX8jeSM0U519HDazkDBHKAZSMIGoZNO2CSlhRzd2NZeZ5lmjXIJOd6j1k48OSy49g1V2B-rwzG0LqwfZ45OD2rDp7mwrfH2iCIVobyDUQ9NSkp1eg2keLzZlDNvDQC0g0O1g/s400/chile+006.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5396046021870329938" /></a><br />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. <br /><br />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. <br /><br />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. <br /><br />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. <br /><br />Age worthy and a few (New Breed) wines of note: <br />Santa Rita,Sauvignon Blanc, “Floresta” Leyda, Chile 2008 <br />Ocio, Pinot Noir, Bio Bio Valley, Chile 2007 <br />Matetic, Syrah, “Corralillo” San Antonio, Chile 2007 <br />Loma Larga, “Rapsodia” Proprietary Blend, Casablanca Valley, Chile 2007 <br />J.bouchon, “Mingre” Proprietary Blend, Maule Valley, Chile 2007 <br />D. Martino, “Las Cruces”, Cachapol,Chile 2008 <br />Valdeviso, Malbec, Lontue Valley, Chile 2007Vajra Stratigoshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08208265564546296044noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6033502476730800782.post-32154227262235181062009-10-21T21:45:00.000-07:002009-10-22T21:38:22.539-07:00dont punch me in the eye again man ...please.<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjQ-lszmYil2S9PVHPz1aQHbLzfKa0qi1rRrHbzJtoj4T2tYN3jw4qshM-8Kwtc63eD6YsK9bAb8Cqsfb5rcrw8x6F45bcJX2-Vw4i2WF3imXJno6u_nahDYbNgTl1XyPLUNdCeNjwkJVvd/s1600-h/chile+010.jpg"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 300px; height: 400px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjQ-lszmYil2S9PVHPz1aQHbLzfKa0qi1rRrHbzJtoj4T2tYN3jw4qshM-8Kwtc63eD6YsK9bAb8Cqsfb5rcrw8x6F45bcJX2-Vw4i2WF3imXJno6u_nahDYbNgTl1XyPLUNdCeNjwkJVvd/s400/chile+010.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5395282458241566002" /></a><br />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. <br /><br />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. <br /><br />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. <br /><br />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….<br /><br />Some highly recommended Carmenere listed below: <br /><br />Concha Y Toro – “Terrunyo” <br />Montes – “Purple Angel” <br />Ventisquero- “Grey” <br />La Rosa – “ La Capitana” <br />La Rosa – “ Don Reca”Vajra Stratigoshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08208265564546296044noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6033502476730800782.post-85449506277307070932009-10-20T06:36:00.000-07:002009-10-20T06:58:32.424-07:00eight hours, two ambien and a full row juss para mi<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiDEcbib_YAObn_xgC3n2kd42UYiK9rgjEJk2pm0Nn4IGu05pnmN3Of4qpTt44pYZ3op-ujQSg2oRWRfwUAUGCLJJxTOdAYAUX-JUHZHo18keq4ROy49W92_DeLDa2dla-vkvNtffWsQsU2/s1600-h/PICT2773%5B1%5D"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 400px; height: 300px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiDEcbib_YAObn_xgC3n2kd42UYiK9rgjEJk2pm0Nn4IGu05pnmN3Of4qpTt44pYZ3op-ujQSg2oRWRfwUAUGCLJJxTOdAYAUX-JUHZHo18keq4ROy49W92_DeLDa2dla-vkvNtffWsQsU2/s400/PICT2773%5B1%5D" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5394676120890836530" /></a><br /><br />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. <br /><br />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? <br /><br />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 ~Vajra Stratigoshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08208265564546296044noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6033502476730800782.post-60550470694178768102009-09-08T20:40:00.000-07:002009-09-08T20:44:31.705-07:00what about low yields?<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiuWJas_xjerKqXw7aYAdmDNdO0UrFTq-fZZ8NZ3VgMN7azFS2vFCeE9-JAf9_NLyqL2yuyVeS669gey08_GDzKWCyI9dWWckNeH50tEQeMqjmuQAMhbPdHt1fjER99Y7eyFj0nVUQqiLE3/s1600-h/gould+label+4+042.JPG"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 400px; height: 300px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiuWJas_xjerKqXw7aYAdmDNdO0UrFTq-fZZ8NZ3VgMN7azFS2vFCeE9-JAf9_NLyqL2yuyVeS669gey08_GDzKWCyI9dWWckNeH50tEQeMqjmuQAMhbPdHt1fjER99Y7eyFj0nVUQqiLE3/s400/gould+label+4+042.JPG" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5379308436911638706" /></a><br /><br />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. <br />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. <br />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. <br />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. <br />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?Vajra Stratigoshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08208265564546296044noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6033502476730800782.post-61078124279400138512009-09-08T20:08:00.000-07:002009-09-08T20:13:46.011-07:00Be a Wolf!<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiyxFYzpJXGVBgciNJ2ZQ7zkSbfK6f2zg-ZNlDSplf4a9JyJ0kg9JA2PMnlZkt3mXUHRA-DU_qnF67t6z8r3AE-qp1oU7gePUPq7bNtt-L83vFqBcEkYRQPlb9FeCmcvWG51N4qTnid31lZ/s1600-h/PICT0122.JPG"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 400px; height: 300px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiyxFYzpJXGVBgciNJ2ZQ7zkSbfK6f2zg-ZNlDSplf4a9JyJ0kg9JA2PMnlZkt3mXUHRA-DU_qnF67t6z8r3AE-qp1oU7gePUPq7bNtt-L83vFqBcEkYRQPlb9FeCmcvWG51N4qTnid31lZ/s400/PICT0122.JPG" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5379300382905898850" /></a><br />If Colombard is the guy in the cheap suit, <br />Sauvignon Blanc is the prizefighter, who is over after the third round, <br />Chardonnay is the snob in the cravat, <br />Sémillon the man in the Velcro shoes, <br />Viognier the guy with the good-looking sister, <br />Chenin Blanc the fella you never care to remember, <br />then Riesling is most definitely the wolf in sheep's clothing.<br />Drink Riesling and do yourself a favor.Vajra Stratigoshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08208265564546296044noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6033502476730800782.post-35471569267728420532009-09-05T13:57:00.000-07:002009-09-08T08:32:13.797-07:00the truth in my wine<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi1dY2yQcyJWFVIEzyupvHUOp22UUik4vUPkQOWzrWnLLoy0ofCF4oSA0KR454AhJZkTfi2YMWA64n3iuMB4FkqOn7Qu7SfNMvA5mbJ0mXnubTlt2uh_TimcgLaWb3KLuxmgXHKWoy2uPfr/s1600-h/P-0A.jpg"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 400px; height: 269px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi1dY2yQcyJWFVIEzyupvHUOp22UUik4vUPkQOWzrWnLLoy0ofCF4oSA0KR454AhJZkTfi2YMWA64n3iuMB4FkqOn7Qu7SfNMvA5mbJ0mXnubTlt2uh_TimcgLaWb3KLuxmgXHKWoy2uPfr/s400/P-0A.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5378091186517823906" /></a><br />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. <br />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. <br />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. <br />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. <br />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.Vajra Stratigoshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08208265564546296044noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6033502476730800782.post-27823973041306361042009-08-30T14:40:00.001-07:002009-08-30T17:55:24.656-07:00Motivational characteristics of the Qi thirsty man..<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiI8v141yMklxCj5FzMbfheAUN0u3zabj5w1ovcZujgzM6jo63cY_xziBZuCKec203ODJLx9W7Wn-1LgPoF4pBS8u8L0ZeRN6K9YcBH7PGm68YImrRJKaMp-jeCxjfVc742w8EE1NGK8nE6/s1600-h/180px-Qi_3_forms.jpg"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 180px; height: 75px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiI8v141yMklxCj5FzMbfheAUN0u3zabj5w1ovcZujgzM6jo63cY_xziBZuCKec203ODJLx9W7Wn-1LgPoF4pBS8u8L0ZeRN6K9YcBH7PGm68YImrRJKaMp-jeCxjfVc742w8EE1NGK8nE6/s400/180px-Qi_3_forms.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5375875123724458114" /></a><br /><br />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. <br /><br />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. <br /><br />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..Vajra Stratigoshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08208265564546296044noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6033502476730800782.post-13108192402742180712009-08-17T13:39:00.000-07:002009-08-17T18:32:04.475-07:00take time to make time and make time to be there ...<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj6VQcxfPPYPAGkdTZjoCjhw1M1pVknuN6P3cnnovfvH9lWm0udrzC4Z-2xHE7I-nxBOMH6rq8Tu3T8g2VCjw8O_D63VOOMy9iJxh2oXhxBoj-ATEebfaTQDDlNxQF46-PgZFiejHHmR8Eo/s1600-h/wine-heritage-260x106.jpg"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 260px; height: 106px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj6VQcxfPPYPAGkdTZjoCjhw1M1pVknuN6P3cnnovfvH9lWm0udrzC4Z-2xHE7I-nxBOMH6rq8Tu3T8g2VCjw8O_D63VOOMy9iJxh2oXhxBoj-ATEebfaTQDDlNxQF46-PgZFiejHHmR8Eo/s400/wine-heritage-260x106.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5371043397168965042" /></a><br />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. <br /><br />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, <em><strong>just 9 </strong></em>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. <br /><br />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? <br /><br />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 <a href="http://www.winesofchile.org ">http://www.winesofchile.org </a>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.Vajra Stratigoshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08208265564546296044noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6033502476730800782.post-69120490166991242632009-08-11T08:36:00.000-07:002009-08-11T09:20:33.953-07:00lands of sinking sand<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjRrbPDL3xQgKQeJUTNJq6PwSu8Jq41sJBmTTa4uKQKca6ejDZShU7G_o3tlcoKqIZLEpe8XGCsYoWms6p1bGEMpjIk8j5eUjkvojfEhl1D9L8Q07tlGHS1nX02EE8JgyRh07_X0bk_8AQ3/s1600-h/pool+fools+066.jpg"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 400px; height: 268px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjRrbPDL3xQgKQeJUTNJq6PwSu8Jq41sJBmTTa4uKQKca6ejDZShU7G_o3tlcoKqIZLEpe8XGCsYoWms6p1bGEMpjIk8j5eUjkvojfEhl1D9L8Q07tlGHS1nX02EE8JgyRh07_X0bk_8AQ3/s400/pool+fools+066.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5368741586623094946" /></a><br /><br />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. <br /><br /><strong>This week’s standout flotation devices. </strong><br /><br /><strong>Bodegas Borsao, “Monte Oton”, Garnacha, Campo de Borja, Spain </strong><br />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…<br />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. <br /><strong>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.</strong> <br /><br /><br /><strong>Paso a Paso, Verdejo, La Mancha, Spain </strong><br />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. !!!Vajra Stratigoshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08208265564546296044noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6033502476730800782.post-34358009066351786442009-06-18T15:57:00.000-07:002009-06-18T16:04:25.576-07:00Homeopathic Coyote<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEicrn6nE2mMVs0ZikmIt67jC1lbhePU2W_S7LkElr79AQPdtfrPxIMSuA_i6lL1kvcY5rV5mTC4EKDBLW9CoQp5PE1zMCeHDq0otphYGxnlAxcqcSRVAEgRouVCfaqFZJrmvj3pw9A9v06A/s1600-h/06RegionalSiteandMicroClimate.jpg"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 400px; height: 225px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEicrn6nE2mMVs0ZikmIt67jC1lbhePU2W_S7LkElr79AQPdtfrPxIMSuA_i6lL1kvcY5rV5mTC4EKDBLW9CoQp5PE1zMCeHDq0otphYGxnlAxcqcSRVAEgRouVCfaqFZJrmvj3pw9A9v06A/s400/06RegionalSiteandMicroClimate.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5348807333439169042" /></a><br />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. <br />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. <br /><br />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 ASAPVajra Stratigoshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08208265564546296044noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6033502476730800782.post-75888866296748349422009-05-15T07:31:00.001-07:002009-05-15T10:05:25.244-07:00<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhJXT3Z_KcuFnFtOUs4yB8ftjnkDaetPSelUlDc0JoWoxNYEJK9_zRyCVqphd2ZDLgYxqBpnyJvrE_D38oagruUl6LvNB0hEZMnMvgHujqOLCPx_1XFc_eHUUdT8wAOnNsNyoq5lEAqcNRI/s1600-h/notredame_ter2_a.jpg"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 320px; height: 240px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhJXT3Z_KcuFnFtOUs4yB8ftjnkDaetPSelUlDc0JoWoxNYEJK9_zRyCVqphd2ZDLgYxqBpnyJvrE_D38oagruUl6LvNB0hEZMnMvgHujqOLCPx_1XFc_eHUUdT8wAOnNsNyoq5lEAqcNRI/s320/notredame_ter2_a.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5336058590625582050" /></a><br />It’s been a while right ….whew!... needless to say even for me it feels like an eternity since I’ve made a post and for that im very sorry and a bit embarrassed. So,…here we go ….<br /><br />Over the course of the past year or so, I’ve been looking to discover all that I could about the biodynamic principles and how might those ideas and overall concept be intermingled with wine as a finished product. We know that biodynamics propose a direct correlation between the earth, sun and moon and how exactly the natural elements on our earth responds to gravitational forces, atmospheric and barometric pressures. Biodynamics as its relevant to agriculture and viticulture suggests that the vines and the bloodlines or fluids in the vines, the ground waters and subterranean water table are predisposed and effected by these forces. So, in very simple terms a farmer following these and other cyclic processes dictated by the biodynamic calendar looks to each day to determine whether that day is one of four options. A “root” day, a “leaf” day, a “fruit” day or a “flower” day. Which each assignment correlative to the lunar and solar cycles ive begun to understand more clearly some of the what’s and why’s about how this calendar applies to the farming aspect but at the same time I’ve begun to wonder about how this calendar then might impact liquids,…say ,…finished liquids like wine. Right? So here you have a wine, made up of phenolic compounds, esters and volatile aromatics that are essentially held in by the liquid itself. We swirl our glasses to aerate and artificially fill the wine with oxygen. That O2 does what it can to become part of the air again and in this instance, dragging some of the aromas out with it. Right? Say you tasted a wine one day,….its a favorite and you know its profile. You pop the cork, you sniff the wine and you proclaim its lackluster bouquet. You’re surprised and can’t figure out why just two days before that same bottle was so expressive. You call it a bad bottle or worse yet ,,,,label it as bottle variation and eventually let it go… Right? So,…say that the first bottle was opened on a “flower” day and the second on a “root” day. The “flower” and “fruit” days representing days that support the rapid effortless escape of the aromatic and flavor compounds of the wine and the “root” or “leaf” day that hosted your second bottle represents atmospheric chaos and actually dampens the wines natural ability to release its aromatic flair. So, while deliberating this somewhat indefinable topic, I ran into a colleague that had much to say about this and reaffirmed that a few folks around the globe were really beginning to take this biodynamic calendar into the bedroom- so to speak, and consider how it might be applied to organaleptic evaluation of wine.<br /><br />This is just an emerging idea. Here is a response from a California winemaker that’s been exploring biodynamic viticulture and has over the years developed a position on how this ideology may in fact be an intrinsic part of our wine enjoyment as consumers. Check what he had to say…..chew it up and then let me know what cha think <br /><br /><em>“Barometric pressure is connected to weather systems, as it changes from Low pressure to High pressure, the volatility of various components change (becoming more volatile at low pressure, less so at higher pressure). One effect that we have to compensate for because of this is testing alcohol levels, at lower pressure water (and alcohol) boil at a lower temperature, so it can significantly skew results if not compensated for. From a wine appreciation perspective, analogous, but less well understood processes occur with the aromatics, volatile acids and other components of a wine, as well as the receptors (nose and taste buds) in a human body; causing many wines to taste different depending upon the weather, with low pressure systems being associated with the wines tasting “dumb”. Why this happened isn’t well understood, but may have to do with our body taking more time to adjust to barometric changes than a wine does so our senses end up not being as sensitive to the aromatics.<br /><br />Lunar cycles are a very complex system of interaction between, moon, sun and earth. As simple as I can put it, a vector of force (in this case what we call gravity) is being pulled by each of two bodies (with the moon’s force being significantly greater than the sun’s). On any given day the vector of force being pulled by an individual body changes, due to the rotation of the earth, so that it essentially negates any individual work (force over time) done on the earth. Due to the change in position between the sun and the moon; in relation to the earth though, there is predictable variability in the nature of those forces, as depending upon the time of the month, the sun and moon will pull from the same vector or from opposite vectors. During a New moon the sun and moon are pulling from the same vector, and so you have the greatest amount of force pulling away from the earth (or depending on the time of day and your location towards the earth). During a Full moon the sun and moon are pulling along opposite vectors, causing less pull in a given direction, but more work (again force over time) over a given day. When the moon is in transition between those points, there is less work over all being done on the earth. The best way to understand this is to look at a tidal chart for a given area, the flood tide minus the ebb tide shows the relative amount of work being done, with the greatest tidal differences occurring during new moons and full moons. What does this mean to wine and vines? Well during the times of more “work” i.e. full moon and new moon, there’s more disruption occurring within an otherwise isolated system (a sealed barrel of wine), therefore the best racking for clarity will occur during the intermediate points, for racking with solids you’d look to do so when you had the greatest flood tide (usually a new moon). For vines the new moon and full moon both have a stronger vector force (pull) than intermediate phases, so more sap will flow in a given direction at a particular point in time… For a glass a wine the theory would hold then that during a full moon or new moon, with the greater force being exerted, you’d have greater disruption of volatiles (aromatics and alcohol) and therefore a wine that’s not in harmony with its own constituent parts.”</em>Vajra Stratigoshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08208265564546296044noreply@blogger.com0