Remastering Greatness: Zeppelin and Summer Wines
Jimmy Page spent two years remastering nine Led Zeppelin studio albums. The first three albums are newly released. Please someone send me a copy. Jimmy Page is 70 years old. What if winemakers could remaster their original wines? Would they review their old notes, revisit formative blends and do their best to replicate weather conditions? The weather piece sounds difficult. Not so much when we are talking about Southwest France or California where weather patterns are practically identical vintage upon vintage. It must easier to improve on Zeppelin than on great wines.
One of the all time great rock guitarists looks back and thinks things over. What we think about is the fantastic range of music which Zeppelin recorded. This is what tBoW thought about when considering wines recently tasted.
Damilano Chinato $60 (Liquid Wine): Sweeter than the Vergano Chinato tasted recently. It is the quinine base that throws off many tasters. Too strange for some. This is sweeter than we prefer. Give us the dry, the ginseng, cloves. We shall continue looking. We’re thinking Zep’s Four Sticks which mixes many ideas, meters and has Robert Plant singing at his whiniest. Tough for even the most hearty Zepophiles to swallow. 16.5%
2010 Tondini Taroni Cannonau Di Sardena $16 (Eno Fine Wine): The new wave of Sardinian and Southern Italy wines in general. Old style was heavy red wines that helpful for washing graffiti of the wall. The new style is lighter, barely middle weight, red to be sure with exotic fruit such as cinnammon, mildly spicy. Grenache is Cannonau in Sardinia. Nice change up. Eno Fine Wine has more wines like this one which will be reporting on. This summer it’s Southern Italy! Zeppelin recorded D’yer Mak’er as a lightly rollicking song with minimal lyrics. It begins “ohohohohohoh…you don’t have to go ohohohohoh.” Straightforward nursery rhyme rock with pretensions of being forlorn. Goes down easy. Pull the next cork please. 14.5%
NV Bodegas Palacio Mil Flores Rioja Tempranillo Rosé $15 (Whole Wallet): We love Spanish Rose wines. They are a teeny bit heftier in alcohol which is offset by the ripe red Spanish fruit, often Tempranillo. Spanish “panks” are not pink at all. They are ruby red and beautiful. Like that 2009 Bach Vina Extremisima Rosado on the rooftop in Sevilla? Chill them down and suck them up. This wine is dry but definitely not Provencal dry. Zep’s Bron Y’Aur Stomp is a mid tempo rock ‘n roll acoustic hoe down complete with clapping that shows the versatility still unfamiliar to many music fans. Like Spanish Rosé wines. 13.5%
Most serious wine taster snobs are also big Zeppelin fans. We wanted close this post with Boogie With Stu but could not find a live performance. Bonham’s clackety drumming sets up John Paul Jones’ boogie woogie barrel house piano which in turn sets up Jimmy Page’s mandolin that keeps it all rocking. This vintage Canteen footage from WWII really caught us by surprise. Bet you watch to the end. Rock rock rock…. hey ay hey ay hey ay….