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July 2 2006

The Art of the Re-Gift

We went out to dinner this past week with my in-laws tocelebrate their 35^th wedding anniversary. My mother-in-law, perhaps one of the kindestwomen you’d hope to meet, brought over a ’01 Black Mountain Pinot Noir to shareas a nightcap after dinner.

My mother-in-law, however, isn’t much of a wine drinker—her tastebegins and ends with sweet wines. So, itwas curious to me that she would bring a Pinot and it was doubly curious to methat she would bring over a private-label wine from Trader Joe’s.

I asked my wife if her mom shopped at TJ’s, because mymother-in-law’s cooking oeuvre, like my own mother, begins and ends with aclassic heartland cuisine influenced by Betty Crocker and certainly not Garam Marsalasauce and the like found at Trader Joe’s. And, it was curious to me because I’ve drunk the
Black Mountain in plentitude—it’s cheap($5.99) and generally drinkable so it would be serendipitous that she picked upa bottle.

But, what was really curious was this bottle was a ’01. Now, I know that Black Mountain is a label brand that usesbulk wine, but to think that my mother-in-law picked up a ’01 recently atTrader Joe’s was odd because surely the bulk market has a lot of ’04 out there. A ’01 must really be the dregs of the tank.

I was harkening back to some investigative journalism thatMark Fisher did at Trader Joe’s and reported on his blog, Uncorked, whereby hefound the same label with seemingly different lots of wine –a no-no in breakingconsumer confidence—to the extent that Trader Joe’s pulled the wine.

And, I had my own bit of interest in this because I had asimilar experience with their Amarone. Ihad the 2002Conte Di Brgonzo Amarone that costs like $12.99 (where normally Amarone runs inthe $60 + range) and it was great. Ipicked up a couple more bottles and I recommended it to a friend in California who bought it and deemedit swill not fit to drink. I opened upanother of my bottles and sure enough that one was garbage, too. A lone bottle remains for me to drink.

So, I made my own visit to Trader Joe’s to check out the Black Mountain and get to the bottom ofthis. Lo and behold, the Black Mountain’s were primarily ‘04’s.

Hmmm … wait a second. That means … well, that means, that bottle of Pinot must have been abottle that I took over to the in-laws like two summers ago for a cookout. Ah, the art of the re-gift. Benign, this situation is, however, becauseit’s a $6 dollar bottle and, really, it will get more use at my house, withmore expediency, then it would have gotten at their house.

I hadn’t been in TJ’s for a while—my wife has assumed thegrocery shopping mantle and my palate is growing on me, making a lot of thewine at TJ’s, while enjoyable, something I’d rather drink in between myexploration into other wines. And,frankly, on a good week, my conscious allows me to drink two bottles of wine—ahealthy glass a night, and I’m using those on different types of wines than theTrader’s Joe’s stuff.

But, I did notice that their wine section, which used to beexploratory in foreign wines, has gone pretty international—a ton of Spanish anda lot of Italian with a healthy bit of French mixed in.

I bought the Torres Coronas ’03 Tempranillo and the ContiNeri Ripasso, a poor man’s Amarone to go with the poor man’s Amarone that Ialready have. And, for curiousity sake Ialso bought a de-alcoholized white wine from Ariel Vineyards.

For my 4^th of July bbq action, I think I’ll drinkboth the Amarone and the Ripasso in a head to head match-up and see what Ithink and in doing so I’ll be saving the Black Mountain Pinot that is back in my possession for another day.   

Posted in, Good Grape Daily: Pomace & Lees. Permalink | Comments (1) | Print |

July 1 2006

Bacchus

Bacchus
by Ralph Waldo Emerson

Bring me wine, but wine which never grew
In the belly of the grape,
Or grew on vine whose taproots reaching through
Under the Andes to the Cape,
Suffered no savor of the world to ‘scape.
Let its grapes the morn salute
From a nocturnal root
Which feels the acrid juice
Of Styx and Erebus,
And turns the woe of night,
By its own craft, to a more rich delight.

We buy ashes for bread,
We buy diluted wine;
Give me of the true,
Whose ample leaves and tendrils curled
Among the silver hills of heaven,
Draw everlasting dew;
Wine of wine,
Blood of the world,
Form of forms and mould of statures,
That I; intoxicated,
And by the draught assimilated,
May float at pleasure through all natures,
The bird-language rightly spell,
And that which roses say so well.

Wine that is shed
Like the torrents of the sun
Up the horizon walls;
Or like the Atlantic streams which run
When the South Sea calls.

Water and bread;
Food which needs no transmuting,
Rainbow-flowering, wisdom-fruiting;
Wine which is already man,
Food which teach and reason can.

Wine which music is;
Music and wine are one;
That I, drinking this,
Shall hear far chaos talk with me,
Kings unborn shall walk with me,
And the poor grass shall plot and plan
What it will do when it is man:
Quickened so, will I unlock
Every crypt of every rock.

I thank the joyful juice
For all I know;
Winds of remembering
Of the ancient being blow,
And seeming-solid walls ot use
Open and flow.

Pour, Bacchus, the remembering wine;
Retrieve the loss of me and mine;
Vine for vine be antidote,
And the grape requite the lot.
Haste to cure the old despair,
Reason in nature’s lotus drenched,
The memory of ages quenched;—
Give them again to shine.
Let wine repair what this undid,
And where the infection slid,
And dazzling memory revive.
Refresh the faded tints,
Recut the aged prints,
And write my old adventures, with the pen
Which, on the first day, drew
Upon the tablets blue
The dancing Pleiads, and the eternal men.

Posted in, Influences. Permalink | Comments (0) | Print |

July 1 2006

Alive

Alive
By: Pearl Jam

Son, she said, have I got a little story for you
What you thought was your daddy was nothin’ but a
While you were sittin’ home alone at age thirteen
Your real daddy was dyin’
Sorry you didn’t see him
But I’m glad we talked
Oh I, oh, I’m still alive
Hey, I, I, oh, I’m still alive
Hey I, oh, I’m still alive

Oh, she walks slowly, across a young man’s room
She said I’m ready for you
I can’t remember anything to this very day
Except the look, the look
Oh, you know where, now I can’t see, I just stare
I, I’m still alive
Hey I, but, I’m still alive
Hey I, boy, I’m still alive
Hey I, I, I, I’m still alive, yeah

Is something wrong, she said
Well of course there is
You’re still alive, she said
Oh, and do I deserve to be
Is that the question
And if so, if so, who answers, who answers
I, oh, I’m still alive
Hey I, oh, I’m still alive
Hey I, but, I’m still alive
Yeah I, ooh, I’m still alive

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July 1 2006

Little Red Corvette

Little Red Corvette
By:  Prince

I guess I shoulda known
By the way u parked your car sideways
That it wouldnt last

See youre the kinda person
That believes in makin out once
Love em and leave em fast

I guess I must be dumb
cuz u had a pocket full of horses
Trojan and some of them used

But it was saturday night
I guess that makes it all right
And u say what have I got 2 lose?
And honey I say

Little red corvette
Baby youre much 2 fast
Little red corvette
U need a love thats gonna last

I guess I shoulda closed my eyes
When u drove me 2 the place
Where your horses run free

cuz I felt a little ill
When I saw all the pictures
Of the jockeys that were there before me

Believe it or not
I started to worry
I wondered if I had enough class

But it was saturday night
I guess that makes it all right
And u say, baby, have u got enough gas?
Oh yeah

Little red corvette
Baby youre much 2 fast, yes u r
Little red corvette
U need 2 find a love thats gonna last

A body like yours (a body like yours)
Oughta be in jail (oughta be in jail)
cuz its on the verge of bein obscene
(cuz its on the verge of bein obscene)

Move over baby (move over baby)
Gimme the keys (gimme the keys)
Im gonna try 2 tame your little red love machine
(Im gonna try 2 tame your little red love machine)

Little red corvette
Baby youre much 2 fast
Little red corvette
U need 2 find a love thats gonna last

Little red corvette
Honey u got 2 slow down (got 2 slow down)
Little red corvette
cuz if u dont u gonna run your
Little red corvette right in the ground

(little red corvette)
Right down 2 the ground (honey u got 2 slow down)
U, u, u got 2 slow down (little red corvette)
Youre movin much 2 fast (2 fast)
U need 2 find a love thats gonna last

Girl, u got an ass like I never seen
And the ride…
I say the ride is so smooth
U must be a limousine

Baby youre much 2 fast
Little red corvette
U need a love, u need a love thats
Thats gonna last
(little red corvette)
U got 2 slow down (u got 2 slow down)
Little red corvette

cuz if u dont, cuz if u dont,
U gonna run your body right into the ground (right into the ground)
Right into the ground (right into the ground)
Right into the ground (right into the ground)

Little red corvette

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July 1 2006

IF

If
By Rudyard Kipling