Posts belonging to Category Napa



Once Upon A Time In La Jolla…


He may not be your cup ‘o tea. Maybe the violence and r-u-d-e language offends you. The brutality of Reservoir Dogs. He worked in a video shop for years. It boiled his brain. He gave Travolta and Sam Jackson careers. Guess I should say he “helped” give them careers. Not that tBoW will see JT at a Scienctology Center or SJ on the golf course.

Tarantino…extends the legacies of DePalma, Cronenberg, Scorcese, Coppola. Throw in Leone, Kurosawa (the Kill Bills), and Peckinpah (Reservoir Dogs). tBoW knows there are others. He watches Noir Alley. He knows. However, these are the ones who make movies he considers “must watch” whenever one of these films is encountered while aimlessly trolling thru the cable channels. Why not use a flix vendor? Too much F&B. Besides tBoW can watch this multitude of films from the select few directors who know how to make a great movie…over and over and over.

Tarantino’s new film Once Upon A Time In Hollywood will be in a move house July 26. Very strong chance tBoW will drag Mrs. tBoW along to see it in Cinemascope. She may decline. In fact, I predict she will decline. More corn for me.

We had a memorable 36 hours in La Jolla recently. Instead of Tarantino we had Brother Zev and Sister Katharine [soon-to-bees if ya get muh drift] directing the food consumables like masters. I learned the secret to cooking fish and meat and veggies. Make a bag of blended sauce and immerse food in the bag for hours. Also important to buy great stuff people like to consume over a fire pit or stove top. This includes funnel and esp king ‘shrooms. Hello Farmers Market.

While the meals were aww-sum the wines were outtasight [ed. “gonna hear that throwback often in Hollywood”? ya think?]!! Let’s get through this. Mr. and Mrs. tBoW brought a four pack of completely unrelated wines except that each was a W-I-N-N-E-R in its own genre. Does Tarantino have a genre? He may be a genre.


Y’Quem defines a genre: dessert wines from Bordeaux and everywhere else. The 1983 Y’Quem was one of the greatest from the tBoW cellar. It is the greatest of all Bordeaux dessert wines…throw in Hungarian multi putanyos.

Zev’s Stack O’ Spices

wine diamonds

Try this sometime. Drive two and half hours to a destination to stay with in-laws you really like. Open the wine of the year – a wine anyone who knows anything about wine knows this is the Tarantino masterpiece – anyway open that bottle within 10 minutes of arrival. That is how you get the party started. Did not slug it down. Coulda. Took a couple hours to finish it off. Had to break to recover from the “immensity” of being in the presence of the greatest [ed. I swear I would not be in awe of Tarantino if we were in the same space at the same time. Shit. I been in the same club with Nick Cage; twice in 30 years!].

That foto of the Y’Quem back shows the tartrate crystals the wine threw. Even this residue was delicate and perfectly balanced.

Here is what the cognos had to say: graham crackers, maple, charred honey. Medium light weight. You thought it might be thick and dense? Niuh. Leaner than the fat Rieussec with more weight than a slender Suidiraut.

Cognos on scene included Katharine and Zev, Broki and Marma. Don’t worry. We made sure there was enough to feed the many [ed. is that Biggie brah??].

Zev is a master chef. He L-O-V-E-S to prepare food. Apparently, Katharine only dates chefs. [ed. she owes me – as in all of US – a blog post]. Check out his travel stack o’ spices he brought from Brooklyn.

The plan was to pull the cork on the other wines before Zev and Katharine were ready to serve. Thinking the Big Cab might be tight we pulled that one next. Turns out Big Ed really is fond of Big Cabs from Napa. Once we pulled the cork Ed was short a hand. He could have used three. “I love a big napa cab.” Gotta say this one was pretty good. Ten years in the cellar. Of course tBoW didn’t buy it. Some of the spillover from wine blogging in Napa.

reliable dependable

After ten years in zee cooler the wine was tasty and mellowed. Still had power and flavor. Showing like Pacquiao at 40. Enough to win and put on a really good show. The wine never made it to the meal.

When the meal was ready to be served we turned to the most reliable wine we know; Uvaggio Radix. Of course, any of Jim Moore’s wines are beyond friendly. Uvaggio wines are always; like a pal you can always hang with or turn 18 holes with.

OK. Let’s get to the fun stuff. Which wines express the nature of which Tarantino films. The choices are Reservoir Dogs, Pulp Fiction, Kill Bill (1 or 2) and From Dusk til Dawn (he wrote and starred; tell me anyway stoopid).

1983 Y’Quem and Pulp Fiction. Will never get better than this. Fortunately we habba one more in da cellar so maybe Big Q has one in his, too. A spectacle with twists at every turn. Immensely entertaining. Unforgettable.

2009 Merus and Kill Bill 1. Surprising. Very nice. Tasting better than expected…of a genre (BigNapaCab) perfectly nailed. Can go back to it. For such a stylized copycat movie it just keeps getting better each time we sample.

2012 Uvaggio Radix and From Dusk Til Dawn. What’s not to like? So esay to watch. Sure we know every scene like we know Jim Moore will deliver easy to drink stylish wine with every label. tBoW can watch D2D anytime just to see Salma Hayak at her sexiest and Juliette Lewis at her unpredictably waif-iest.

Who else thinks of this shit? Hitchcock? Peckinpah?Tarantino.

 

Presidential edicts, fires in wine country…no wonder we turn to goff

October 10, 2017 – Solano County/Napa County, CA, USA – The Atlas Fire burns east of Woodley Canyon Rd near vineyards late Tuesday evening in Napa County, CA…Long exposure image. ..The Atlas Fire burns in Napa and Solano Counties Monday evening October 10th, 2017. The fire was 3% contained and had burned 25,000 acres. Multiple structures were destroyed as crews battled strong winds and tinder dry vegetation after multiple fires burned in the area. (Credit Image: © Stuart Palley via ZUMA Wire)

We will get to Napa/Sonoma in a few. This was quite a week for disasters.

At the risk of irritating tBoW readers I must say the Big Cheeto is a moron. What? Already been written? What about he’s a f***ing moron? That too already done? We need a drink from a glass jar. Here are some nostalgic millennial thoughts from The Glass Jar

Goff requires focus and determination in very different ways than do other sports. One must analyze the course and put thoughts into their swing for a successful day on the course. These swings should not be interrupted by excessive use of one’s phone. Millennials have demonstrated their need to not only go to new locations but also show their internet audiences their newly discovered party, restaurant, sporting event, etc. This need to show the world every step taken, sight seen and thought thunk will never work on the golf course. Golf requires the mentality of just you and the ball and nothing else in the world. Worrying how many likes your photo gets will never help your backswing.

A round of golf requires a degree of class that seems distant from the millennial generation. The game asks players to show up on time. Oftentimes strangers are asked to play together. Many millennials fail to reach out to the older generations. The atmosphere of small talk with elders is uncomfortably different from daily social networks. Heaven forbid they pay good money to hit a golf ball with an old man who remembers the days of Dwight Eisenhower.

As golf courses present new challenges in staying afloat financially, millennials will likely face a tidal wave of millennial norms colliding against a game of tradition. Without a doubt, the sport will survive yet this upcoming generation will put forth obstacles the game has never seen.

Views from the Glass Jar relax me; give me perspective; reassure me it’s going to be OK. Even though the wine news was bleak this past week. Sonoma and Napa wine towns suffered tremendous devastation. We thought about Regusci Winery. The news pinpointed one of the fires was above the Silverado Trail near many of our favorite Napa wineries. We have written about Regusci in the recent past. We especially like their Rose and special Chardonnay. tBoW is on the mailist.

An email from Regusci Winery captured the terror. The Atlas Peak flames crept right up to their vineyards. The Regusci family worked all day and night to dig fire breaks and put out windborne embers. They saved the historic buildings on their property however they will be recovering for some time. Everyone who lives in one of the most popular wine destinations in the USA (and globally) knows people who lost everything or close to it. One of many lists of damaged wineries can be found here.

We realize this year has been a boon for natural disasters. The Napa/Sonoma fires are the disaster closest to this blog. Visit next Spring. Support the valleys and their hard working winemakers and staff.

For our readers long in the tooth…Spirit sings about a burning Topanga Canyon [click to see].

Champs of Sports ::: Champs of Wine

Dom Moulin Aux Moines

Domaine Moulin Aux Moines

Baseball fever is here. 100 point scales for ratings wines are dumb. Can these claims be related? YES. Baseball is dreary for 162 games then suddenly it is wonderful to watch. Most wines are bad. Until you hit on one that you know will be good but it is, in fact, remarkable. Why slog through the long hot summer when you can tune in to exciting play on the diamond come October? Why slog through plonk upon plonk from TJs or Costco – and they are the best of the worst – when every bottle of wine can be like watching at least a divisional playoff game?

BUT… does the best of every region offer the same quality and excitement? We have answers.

Forget wine’s 100 point scale for “scoring” wines. It is more useful and far more interesting – not to mention more defensible methodologically – to rank regions/varietals.

RIP RnR Animal

RIP RnR Animal

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Cabernet/Pinot/NFL Showdown: Hello September!

Saddle Peak Sorbet served on ice block

Saddle Peak Sorbet served on ice block

Which MINDSET will dominate? Big bold Napa Cabernet, New and Old World Pinot Noir or the NFL season debut? If I hear one more network announcer ask an athlete about his mindset I will slash my wrists with a rusty cork puller from Safeway. While we LOVE college football it seems the nation loves the National Football Greed. If Dotoré did not buy into a season long pool we would have zero reason to track any of it. (more…)

Wine Hunter Deja Vu: New Eyes on the Old Town

fieldmousecityWEBThe Field Mouse came to town, as the story goes, and found a new world. In our LA world our Field Mouse returned to LA for an extended visit and, being the natch’l born wine hunter that he is, went cruising for wine shops. When you are a tBoW wine snob this is how you spend your unscheduled time: hunting for that remote unsuspecting wine shop that will house an unusual label or a rare wine find; where at least we will encounter a knowledgeable owner who knows what he has on his floor and why it is there. In the case of the King [ed. alt Field Mouse name] the hunt these days is for Roussanne. He ain’t picky. Domestic or international will suffice. The best part of the hunt is knowing he stalks the rare and unusual wine. (more…)