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September 27 2008
So much of our life and experience is based on outside influence – marketing, prevailing wisdom and the times.
I’m almost self-conscious to this, wondering if the financial crisis is going to imprint an indelible “Greatest Generation” thriftiness upon me, eschewing credit of any sort.
Yet, I know that the greatest gifts come from inside, my own understanding and principal.
From a wine perspective, case in point of influence based on the times is clearly Pinot Noir and its incredible rise in the last 5 – 7 years, influenced in part by a certain movie. Riesling is right around the bend, as well, this time from a grassroots movement from Sommeliers and wine professionals.
Another movement that we’ve seen in the media over the last two years is being green, eating local, a focus on heirloom vegetables, and the like. Yet, the translation point of this “localization” hasn’t quite manifested itself the wine world.
However, as I spend a weekend at my family’s lake house, enjoying an Indian summer weekend, Notre Dame Football on the television, rustling leaves in the background, quietude on the lake paces from me, wine glass beckoning, I have one wish for the next new thing.
I wish hybrid wines from LOCAL wineries across the country would become in vogue.
The fact is many of these wines are the showcase wines from wineries across the country – wineries that are not in California, Oregon or Washington. And, typically, these are estate wines, the wines a winery hangs its hat on made from their grapes from their vineyard; not the Cab and Chardonnay from grapes bought elsewhere.
I’m talking about Norton, Chambourcin, Chardonel, Seyval Blanc – grapes capable of making excellent wine.
This thought came to mind on two different levels. First, as I made the 2.5 hr. drive up to our cottage last night, sans iPod, I was relegated to winding roads through small towns and local am radio featuring country music stations and high school football games. This is America for most of the country, not the idealized European fantasy. Second, the thought came to mind weeks ago as I toured Creekbend vineyard, the estate vineyard of Oliver Winery in Bloomington, IN.
Viewing the vineyard, and then tasting the Chambourcin and the Traminette, these are good wines—not good wines for what they are, but good wines, period.
And, they are interesting, conversational wines, as well.
Sadly, this shift in mindset takes influence from the highest levels. AppellationAmerica does this, but it will have to come from elsewhere, as well. Popular wine media will have to get on the bandwagon, a notion they haven’t demonstrated much interest in aside from the occasional curiosity piece on New York or Texas wines.
That said, however, indicative of the times, though, is the fact that media is becoming fragmented and we are becoming our own change agents.
My wish is that local wines will grow in mindshare and awareness nationally. When you’re out shopping, California mass market wine in hand, set it down and grab something unknown, nestle it next to the locally grown produce and the heirloom tomato and celebrate the local bounty. If nothing else, forsake the outside influence and start it from within.
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September 24 2008
It’s September—you know what that means—if you’re Rod Stewart singing “Maggie May” then you must be going back to school, for most of us it means football and wine allocation season.
Sure, sure. I’ve made my way onto a couple of lists ... but, I feel like Charlie Brown trying to kick the football for the one list that I would like to get onto. My foil, my Lucy, is Kosta Browne.
Yesterday, I didn’t make my way up the list for Kosta Browne. I feel like the lovable loser of the wine world. Nice enough, but just not quite good enough. Gracious as they are, Kosta Browne sent me a note to let me know that there was no wine for me.
I beg of you Dan Kosta and Michael Browne, give a brother a chance at some of your pinot.
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September 18 2008
beep, beep, beEP, bEEP, BEEP, BEEP. My B.S. detector has officially been tripped and is going crazy making mental racket.
With arched eyebrow and cynicism in my voice I say, “Really?” “No, seriously. Really?
That’s what I think when I read press releases like the one appended below for the movie Bottle Shock. I think this pr flak should get a job writing for The Onion.
Ahem ...
Indie Film Hit ‘BOTTLE SHOCK’ Defies Industry Expectations and Means Good Business for Wine Country
Last update: 5:52 p.m. EDT Sept. 17, 2008
LOS ANGELES, Sept 17, 2008 /PRNewswire via COMTEX/—BOTTLE SHOCK, the independently produced and released movie about the infamous 1976 Paris Tasting where the California wines beat the French, steams into its second month of independent distribution playing in hundreds of theaters across the U.S. and Canada, and racking up over $3.6 million dollars in box office receipts to date. While BOTTLE SHOCK is connecting with enthusiastic audiences fueled by strong word of mouth, the film is also creating a noticeable “BOTTLE SHOCK” effect in terms of increased tourism and wine sales in Napa Valley where the film was shot last summer.
Ed Note: I think “Bat Man” opened on 2400 theatres. Hundreds of theatres and $3.6M dollars seems, well, pretty pathetic for a commercial movie release. Hardly justification for “racking up.” In fact, it’s #143 on the list of 2008 moneymakers, just ahead of “Cruising Bar 2” a French-Canadian sequel to a 1989 movie. 530,230 people have seen “Bottle Shock.”
Just as underdog California wines stunned the world by triumphing at the legendary Paris tasting, BOTTLE SHOCK’S robust ticket sales have surprised most film industry experts. Despite being self-distributed by the filmmakers on a shoestring budget through Los Angeles-based Freestyle Releasing, the film has significantly outperformed virtually every film that was purchased at this year’s Sundance Film Festival. That includes high-profile movies that were snapped up by Hollywood studios and independent distributors such as THE WACKNESS (Sony Pictures Classics), AMERICAN TEEN (Paramount Vantage), FROZEN RIVER (Sony Pictures Classics), TRANSIBERIAN (First Look) and HENRY POOLE IS HERE (Overture).
Ed Note: Yeah, this is probably legit and a little bit of a slap at the distributors who did not pick it up, but robust ticket sales is a bit of a stretch.
“BOTTLE SHOCK has turned into kind of a cultural phenomenon, both tapping into and fueling the current fascination with fine wine and food,” said film marketing veteran Dennis O’Connor, who oversaw the film’s release. “It has an amazing cast, a rousing underdog story, a breathtaking setting and a great soundtrack. Plus, I think Americans secretly love to watch their fellow countrymen beat the French at anything.”
Ed Note: Okay, here’s where the muck gets really, really deep. “Cultural phenomenon?” You mean like “Sideways?” Not so much. 530,230 people have seen the movie. Let me put it to you this way, if 530,230 people seeing this movie is a cultural phenomenon, then blogging has reached it’s cultural nadir in terms of impact.
Director Randall Miller and his wife Jody Savin, who co-wrote and produced BOTTLE SHOCK, believed strongly in the film’s potential, even after it failed to land a favorable distribution deal at Sundance. “We knew it was a fun, upbeat film that audiences really enjoyed,” says Miller. “So we decided to take a chance on self-distributing. The response has been overwhelming.”
Ed Note: Kudos to Miller and Savin for making the movie and then having the fortitude to see their investment through.
BOTTLE SHOCK focuses on the cast of characters at Chateau Montelena which had the winning white wine at the Paris Tasting. Visits to the winery and wine sales are up significantly. While winery representatives would not provide specific data, they did acknowledge the film is good for business. “The movie BOTTLE SHOCK, and all the buzz and news about the film, has certainly increased our brand exposure,” said Greg Ralston, Managing Director of Chateau Montelena. “We’ve seen an increase in visitors this summer who have seen the movie and who want to taste our wines. We’re delighted with the goodwill and consumer interest the movie is bringing to Napa Valley.”
Ed Note: No specific data means anecdotal feedback which means the Tasting Room Manager talked to one couple who saw the movie. I’m not saying, I’m just saying …
Gustavo Brambila, played by talented actor Freddy Rodriguez in the film, was one of the first Mexican Americans to earn a wine degree from U.C. Davis. His first job was serving as assistant winemaker to winemaker Mike Grgich at Chateau Montelena in 1976. When Grgich left to start Grgich Hills, Brambila went with him, working at Grgich Hills until 1999 when he started his own winery GustavoThrace with partner Thrace Bromberger.
Bromberger reports increases in wine sales, increases in tourism to the Wine Country, and significant interest from the Latino community in the many accomplishments Gustavo’s story represents: “GustavoThrace had its best sales month ever in August [2008], up 43% over August 2007, and September is already up 39% over the same period a year ago. We’ve had a huge influx of customers coming to find us after seeing the film, and a tremendous number of new distributors inquiring about picking up our line of wines for distribution around the country. We are seeing visitors in our tasting room from the Bay Area who’ve seen the film and say they haven’t been to Napa in years; as well as visitors from all over the country flying out because the film showed them just how beautiful this area is. And we’ve had many calls of congratulations and requests from Latino organizations about Gustavo doing appearances and pouring wine at special events.”
Ed Note: There’s a phrase for this paragraph, what is it, ah, yes, I think it goes, “If bullshit was music, that fellow would be a brass band.”
Unlike Santa Barbara County wineries which were little known prior to the film SIDEWAYS, wineries in Napa Valley have been major tourist destinations for years. That said, with all of the new wine areas around the world drawing growing numbers of wine-tourists, including strong competition from neighboring Sonoma where nearly 80% of the filming actually took place, Napa has been working on repositioning itself as the world’s original and leading wine country destination. Even though it’s very early in the game, evidence abounds that BOTTLE SHOCK is already helping.
Calistoga Chamber of Commerce and Visitors Bureau Executive Director Rex Albright says, “We’ve seen an unprecedented level of excitement in visitors from all over the country who like the film and want to see Chateau Montelena, Calistoga and other Napa Valley landmarks for themselves. Since the movie opened, we’ve had more people each week asking about the winery; I think people respond to the underdog quality of the real story behind the film.”
Ed Note: You can almost hear the conversation, “Hey Rex, here’s a draft of the press release, I need a quote right here, can you say something like ‘unprecedented?’”
It’s not just tourists who are more interested than ever in Napa. Last summer as BOTTLE SHOCK was set to begin principal photography, Stag’s Leap Wine Cellars (which had the winning red wine at the Paris Tasting) was purchased by a partnership between Italy’s Villa Banfi and Washington State’s Chateau St. Michelle. And this summer, just prior to BOTTLE SHOCK’s theatrical release, an announcement was made that France’s Cos d’Estournel would be purchasing Chateau Montelena, establishing the quip “if you can’t beat ‘em, buy ‘em”.
Ed Note: A quip is something that somebody says over dinner that may or may not register when the bread basket is being passed and a dining companion is looking for a pat of butter. This hardly qualifies as a quip that has been established. Though, a lazy headline writer might pick it up from a lazy journalist working on deadline for the lifestyle section in Saturday’s paper.
BOTTLE SHOCK is directed by Randall Miller and stars Alan Rickman, Bill Pullman, Dennis Farina, Rachael Taylor, Freddy Rodriguez, Chris Pine and Eliza Dushku. BOTTLE SHOCK was filmed entirely on location in Napa and Sonoma. BOTTLE SHOCK was screened at Sundance to five enthusiastic audiences, and also played the Maui Film Festival (Best Ensemble Cast Award and Heineken Red Star Award for Innovation, Originality, and Vision in Filmmaking) and the Seattle International Film Festival (Best Actor Award to Alan Rickman). Los Angeles-based Freestyle Releasing is handling the U.S. theatrical release.
FOR MORE INFORMATION VISIT: HYPERLINK http://www.bottleshockthemovie.com
SOURCE Freestyle Releasing
Ed Note: In general, and again, I say, “Really?” “No, seriously. Really?
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September 16 2008
Still basking in the afterglow from a short trip out to San Diego to visit good friends Ed and Jen, I hunted up an email from Ed from last summer. A California 25 year California State Lifeguard, he’s always got a great story in his back pocket.
Last Friday, Ed, Jen and my wife and I took his RV up to Cardiff-by-the-Sea for some beach side sunset watching and some wine before hitting the Chart House for a great dinner. My tasting notes aren’t all that important, but the 1994 Cakebread Merlot, with notes of black cherry, black raspberry, Dr. Pepper, dust, black olive and sage was made all the more enjoyable by a spirited re-telling of the below story.
This is why I befriend cool people in cool places—his stories beats the pants off my stories and, well, Cardiff beats the pants off suburban Indianapolis, IN, too. But, we have a grrrrreat cost of living.
Ed and the Moray Eel by Ed Vodrazka
*Editors Note* Story takes place in San Diego at a stretch of state owned beach just south of Torrey Pines. And, if I’m not mistaken Black’s Beach is a clothing optional beach where dudes go into standing, statuesque full repose.
Last week someone caught a Moray Eel near Black’s Beach, then dumped it in a small pool in the tide pool area…the thing would have soon died…thus I was summoned to help. With an anxious crowd of 20 gathering, I got into the pool with the 4-foot serpent to “rescue him”.
The image that was in the forefront of my mind was the video I had been sent the previous month. It was of a French diver who was being filmed while he was feeding hot dogs to a similar-looking Moray Eel. All was fine until he ran out of dogs before the Morey was “full”. When the Frenchman opened his hands to show the eel there was nothing left, the Moray simply chomped his jaws squarely around the Frenchman’s thumb. The filmmaker captured the unfolding drama of the man’s underwater screams and the flowing stream of blood rising in the salt water. Then suddenly the film stopped…the next image was the Frenchman in his hotel room some days later, holding up a stubby little joint where his thumb used to be.
Anyways, that image was in my mind when I carefully managed to coax my own Moray successfully into a laundry basket (all I could find on short notice). My hero status soon abated and the cheers quickly died when I realized that the Morey had a substantial fishhook (with line) embedded deep in his mouth (past those shiny white teeth). Clearly, my Buddhist conscience would not allow me to go with my initial plan of quickly flopping him back into the sea while I could turn and address the adoring crowd.
I brought him back to the shade of the jeep while, unfortunately the crowd had now grown to over 50 (did I mention it was Memorial Day?). I cannot remember ever reading the directions for fish hook removal from a live Morey Eel in any of our Lifeguard Manuals…so sort of had to “wing it”. A high-strung woman stood uncomfortably close to me and decided to point out (loudly) a helpful little nugget of insight…stating “his teeth are huge!”
I grabbed a pair of pliers and tried to hold the Morey down on the sand for the extraction…but in a second, I discovered a major problem…No sooner than I tried hold the eel’s head down on the sand; I discovered that how incredibly strong they are. While securing the “business end” of the creature, he immediately wrapped his entire body around my forearm so tightly that we had instantly reversed roles…I felt every muscle in my forearm being squeezed…he had now become the “holder” and I the “holdee”. Once my forearm was adequately secured, he simply levered his slimy head out of my paltry grip…and despite my attempt to hold that eel with all my strength, he effortlessly slithered his head free of my hand. Oddly, in that instant the phrase “slippery as an eel” popped into my mind and I realized that I was clearly in way over my head. In the next nano-second, “securing the thing” now became the last thing I wanted to do…and “releasing” the serpent became a far more desirable goal. However, he would not let go of me. There was his mouth, all agape with those white teeth glaring at me. At this point in the action the high-strung woman who, for some reason had crowded even closer to me, decided (in an apparent attempt to calm me down) to scream “LOOK OUT FOR THE TEETH!!!” at around 700 decibels. As if my awareness could be ANYWHERE ELSE besides on those teeth. I made a fist to protect my fingers to minimize the chances that he might mistake them for a hot dog and shook my arm as if it was on fire. Suffice to say it was not my most graceful moment. While I continued to fling my arm wildly, my mind flashed on my beautiful Collings guitar at home…and I hoped that I would get through this ordeal with the ability to play it again one day with all ten of my digits.
By the grace of Neptune, he released me and fell back onto the sand. The disappointed crowd watched the flop dismount which marked the end of the first round of our encounter. The score: Moray -1, Lifeguard - 0.
Now I love wildlife as much as the next guy, but I’ll admit that at that point I seriously considered kicking the friggin’ eel back into the surf line to let him work out his little “fishhook dilemma” on his own. My compassion surfaced, as I knew that he could not eat with that thing in, and if I did not get it out, he would certainly die. And, more to the point, the crowd had grown even larger and now included several amazed children who stood in awe of me. I could not let them see what a wuss I was…(even though I will admit to you that I am).
With the eel staring up at me defiantly waiting my opening move of round #2, I had a rare moment of intelligent thought. I knew I was not going to try the “slimy slip grab” maneuver again. Instead, I grabbed a hand full of sand and covered him with it. He was still unbelievably strong and still pretty damned slimy, but at least now the luster of his slime had been somewhat abated. In truth, he no longer looked like the deadly “finger killer” that I had perceived him to be. Now, covered with a healthy dusting of beach sand, he looked little more ferocious than a breaded veal cutlet.
We entered back into the scrum for round two…and he still had plenty of slimy strength. The fight was considerable. It was my 160 pounds of middle aged pudge versus his 5 pounds of pure, unbridled muscle ripping, lean, mean, venomous, rip your face off by your lips, torqued and loaded snake-like tension maxed, piss and vinegar.
Well, it was not pretty and it was not smooth but in the end, I stepped away breathing hard, with a generous helping of slime from my fingertips up to my biceps…but he had flopped back onto the sand with the majority of his orophaynx intact. And, more importantly in my right hand was a pair of pliers that held a partially bent, rust stained, #3 fishhook. The crowd, of course went wild.
Seconds later I flopped the eel back in the surf line where he slithered through the inside waves to reunite with his eel-kin. I am sure his version of the story will be a little bit different…but trust me, I have witnesses…I won. Regardless, the eel was free to return to a far more normal life. The one thing we would most certainly agree upon is that we’d both happy to never see each other again.
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September 15 2008
I can recount my extreme eating events on one hand. There was the Double Bypass Burger at the Vortex in Atlanta, Hot Chicken in Nashville and a 2 lb lobster tail this past Saturday.
Now, before you mention that 2 lb lobsters are not that big of a deal, please let me note that this was a 2 lb tail off what had to have been at least a 9 lb Pacific spiny lobster.
Assuredly, lobster tails do not come this big very often and they do not come this big when they are hand caught by a friend. Pacific spiny lobsters do not particularly like to be caught, either—by hand or by trap. They are much fiercer creatures than their East Coast brethren are. To wit, check out the armor on that guy below.
My wife and I visited dear friends in San Diego this past weekend. We go out annually and it is always a chance to recharge the batteries—no cell phone, no laptop, and no blogging.
I get a kick out of my friend, a state lifeguard, who free dives for spiny lobsters every year and he, presumably, gets a kick out of a Midwesterner, who, well, does not free dive for spiny lobsters. Trust me, I get the better end of the deal.
Ed and Jen always roll out the red carpet, but giving me proprietary right to the lobster hand caught last September about 300 feet off the shoreline at Torrey Pines State Park in San Diego was something, particularly when the other lobster tails at the table were of the more normal 8 oz. variety. I felt like C-3PO at the end of Return of the Jedi.
The irony is, this lobster with Ed, and all of my other extreme eating adventures, wine always plays a minor player on the dining stage; perhaps a step backwards for overall gustatory pleasure, but with good reason.
With my gigantic lobster on Saturday night, I willfully and gleefully drank a Rabbit Ridge Vortex – a red blend. No chardonnay here, the wine not a great match to the seafood, but do you think I cared for a second as I powered through this exercise in extreme eating? Not for a second. This wine thing with Ed, something of a wine mentor to me, is almost a game – how much can he and I dork out on wine, yet be completely utterly free of pretense. Hence the red wine with lobster, drunk out of a coffee mug. Overall, it helps me stay grounded and I appreciate that.
With cholesterol racing through my veins, I drank my red wine with pleasure and the notion that never again will I ever eat a lobster tail that big and it will not be because of lack desire, it will be because of price.
Thanks go out to Ed and Jen for a sublime time and wonderful hospitality.
*Updated* Check out the gargantuan portion on the plate. Some 72 hrs. later, I still think my heart is chugging through all of that cholesterol.
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