Posts belonging to Category Carneros

“The system won’t let us do that sir” said the creamy voice on the phone. “We can ship your one remaining bottle for $10.” Wine crime is a real world phenomenon what with the fraudulent labeling scandal and auction house travesties. Unfortunately we are compelled to report a lesser but no less aggravating kind of wine crime. In fact, it really isn’t a crime as much as it is a matter of cheap software meets a scrambling warehouse crew. It is, nevertheless, a deal breaker. We are taking about a case of winenapping. Bottles already paid for that held hostage in a Pacific Northwest warehouse until a ransom can be paid for their release! (more…)

It was just so perfect. Everything aligned like things had been planned. Summer evening temps were in the low 80s. A tasting crew of 10 was ready to guzzle, I mean sip. The lineup included pre-tasting palate warmups with a Provencal Rosé, a California Pinot Grigio and two Gascogne white wines. The blind tasting of premium Pinot Noirs immediately preceded the meal. The wines were all outstanding sending the tasters back to the table buzzing. Summer dinners like this one make LA live-able. Here is the down low. (more…)

Spent a week in the Atlanta area playing golf, toasting old friends and getting to know new kin. Spent just enough time to pick up some new phrases, a new daughter-in-law and a family or two in the bargain. My son’s new wife is so pretty she could make a hound dog smile. I posted her picture so you can see if I’m lying I’m dying. Might even write a song about her. Also got to taste some fine wines and had a helluva good time. Started thinking it would be fun to apply some new phraseology to the business of the moment – tasting wines. So let’s start getting in step with a part of the country I will definitely visit again…a place where sushi is still called bait. (more…)

“This is Shotgun Tom Kelly” said the vintage KRTH 101 announcer as he loaded the Rascals “Lonely Too Long” into the queue. Shotgun followed that with Marvin Gaye and Tammi Terrel and tBoW was smiling wide as he climbed his favorite bike trail – Dirt Mulholland.

Listening to radio programming from the 60s/70s cuts two ways like all nostalgia reminding us how old we are and how certain music can make us young again. Shotgun has that radio voice – full throat, between bass and treble, a “hip” knowing and cheery tone. What’s it got to do with wine?

If you do not have an aerator you should get one because it shares many qualities with the radio and 60s or 70s rock music and DJ styles. The aerator takes years off wines that are too young to be properly enjoyed [ed. or does it add several years?]. While we can enjoy wine when it is young, many wines do improve with age. The aerator makes that happen right away. BOOM! We tasted several wines recently that illustrate the benefit. Actually, we went crazy with the aerator! (more…)

We started “tasting wine” in 1978. We frequented a wine shop in West LA up the street from the Wine House which had recently opened. The shop was located in a bungalow that was once somebody’s home on Cotner. It was the outlet store for The Wine Merchant owned by Dennis Overstreet and located in Beverly Hills. His BH store had all the celebrity clients. The outlet spot was for the lumpen proletariat of LA’s budding wine scene. In 1978 the collector’s find was any Napa Cabernet from 1974. The first wave of Napa Cabernet producers was emerging that included Diamond Creek, Caymus and Ridge. Heitz Cellar was an old guard hot ticket along with BV Georges De Latour. The real sharpies were hunting down old vintages of Inglenook. The good thing about the Cotner store was the Saturday tastings which were loosely formed, spontaneous events. Once a sufficient threshold of aspiring snobs was present somebody bought a bottle and opened it right there in the store. The store clerks were not like the info-matics you find today in upscale wine versions of Target like Total Wine or BevMo [ed. he prefers Total Yawn]. The store clerks at the Cotner store were geeks, folks like the ones buying wine except they had to work somewhere and living in LA was still pretty cheap in the late 1970s so a wine shop was good as any other minimum wage shithole. And you could drink interesting wines when the air got thick with opinions and burning curiosity. (more…)