Posts belonging to Category Carneros

It must be the end of the first quarter in the new decade. Expectations for change are high. The White House has found its cojones and set a new tone for in-your-face confrontation. Whatever, it seems like it is time to clear the deck on several items of marginal interest for which discriminating palates have grown exceedingly tired and for whom or which time has run out. Hold on to your Pinot balloon bowl. We’re going head hunting. (more…)

It can get pretty strange around this town. And the place where LA is most bizarre is a Lakers game. Blend Us Weekly with In Style with Enquirer and read the super rag in a celebrity cemetery. tBoW attended the only Lakers game he will attend this season. Kloe Kardashian sat 10 feet from Frank Robinson. That’s right. The only MVP in both leagues and arguably the greatest pound for pound baseball player of all time; a Henri Jayer Cros Parantoux of an athlete. 10 feet from a Dubouef Nouveau Beaujolais. Guess who got the most attention. Not that Frank did not have visitors and folks begging for a photo. At the end of game (more ordinary like a Central Valley Merlot) the bored courtside photographers, who had been shooting the action non-stop, all turned at once and took their paparazzi shots of Lamar Odom’s newly betrothed. One fan close to tBoW’s age sitting nearby asked for Frank to stop and pose for his cell phone cam. Frank obliged. After all, the man won the Triple Crown the year he was traded to the Orioles and once hit back to back grand slams. (more…)

Dotoré reached deep into his double double cooler (wider and deeper) and came up with some real beauties for celebrating the holidays. Your humble blog-host reports on the premium treats along with a couple other not-so-shabby year-ending tastes. (more…)

When the world seems upside down it makes perfect sense to turn to wines we know and love. We feature a few of these “comfy wines” in this post.
Hot off the press. LA Times covers everything you have been reading for weeks about falling prices on trophy wines, the inevitable rise of New World wines under $10, and the reluctant cancellations of wine club memberships, on tBoW. Click here to read what we already know. (more…)

Scarface loses the election and gazes on our new world of economic chaos and the unavoidable destruction of a false history. tBoW apologizes for his morose mood. While I am happy with our presidential choice and hope his long coattail brings with it sweeping changes in our economy and political culture, I know the road ahead will be very rough.
Well. Let’s talk about wines. (more…)

Sober thinking: The following entry was written several weeks ago as is my practice. I am writing this preamble following the most incredibly miserable week in the stock market in my lifetime. If ever there was a time for wines under $20 it is now. Like every business the wine industry will surely take a beating. We hope our favorite wine makers, importers and retailers will survive the shakeout that is sure to come. And that goes for our readers as well.
Next to corked wines and a busted cellar cooler in August, wines aging past their prime is one of the worst wine scenarios imaginable. Ergo Dotoré must purge his cellar of aging wines. tBoW has a few that also have to go. So we pulled corks over Labor Day and found several reportable selections. (more…)

Christmas has passed…finally. I have a strongly ambivalent relationship with the year-end holiday. I hate the hype, ruthless and relentless marketing. Wreaths on car grills always make me sneer. But Ray Charles singing about kids…I tear right up. That’s right. Big wet eyes. And my kids are adults! I also greatly appreciate my wife and our friends this time of year. That is why we throw a Christmas Day party and invite everyone we know and love. (more…)

The tBoW tasting team returned to Carneros for the post-Thanksgiving-day wine sojourn. It’s a family tradition, y’know. This year it was me, the missus and Aunt Betsy with the naughty clogs. The regional choice was Livermore or Carneros. Much as I would like to visit another California wine region…with McKenzie-Mueller (M-M) beckoning the choice was easier than a Trojan win over the Bruins. (more…)

Sea glass is ocean borne detritus. Pieces of broken bottles wash onto beaches after years (decades?) tumbling around on the ocean floor. Low tide is the time to look. Pieces wash up everywhere. Many LA beaches are fine targets. We have so much trash and so many boaters. Some artists and craftspeople make sea glass jewelry. Seaside towns usually have a sea glass jeweler. When I visit Paso I like to stay in Cambria for this reason. The idea of sea glass is probably cooler than the stuff itself. Something found that was not even lost but tossed or kicked away can be romantic. Something without any value, even a pollutant, that can be valued if convention is set aside, can at least inspire curiosity.
Here are three wines that share some of these qualities. A couple are waiting to be found. At least one has been lost to what is conventional. I would be surprised (even disappointed) if any was rated above 90 points. (more…)

With a double bar/t mitzvah in Palo Alto (Papa Ricolini vogues Tevya at reception) we saw the opportunity to extend a few days and hit Napa as long as we were so near. A trip to Napa is always mixed for me…at least at the outset. Visiting with good friends is a plus. But given the pure wine-country choice I would prefer to visit almost anywhere else like Paso Robles or even better Walla Walla.
Napa is silly. Take the tasting rooms…please. [apologetic link to Henny Youngman insult machine] In Napa they have tasting galleries. U20 wines? Not in Napa no way no how. It costs at least $20 just to taste wines in the galleries. The Del Dotto Gallery demands $40 and they keep the glass. And they are hardly the exception. If you plan on tasting at Del Dotto, Stags Leap and Opus in the same day bring a couple hundies…for the privilege of sipping and spitting in a bucket. The way I get around the over-the-top silliness of Napa is to make sure I visit Carneros first. Which means a visit with McKenzie-Mueller. (more…)