Posts belonging to Category Barolo

Burgundy Gran Cru

Harmony and beauty. Pinot Noir is to vinifera what monks are to the institutional church [ed. Holy Bordeaux?]. Alone, isolated, ascetic, monastic. No wonder Pinot Noir can become something divine as wine. My basic expectations from Pinot Noir wine include delicate balance even if “delicate” runs the gamut from Natalie Portman to Dita von Teese; tender fruit like a butterfly lighting on a flower in Spring (choices here include strawberry, cherry, beets and stinky-poo forest floor); and on infrequent occasions mystery and magic like the “subject” experiences in the 1950s LSD video tripping for the first time. (more…)

It is the best week of the best season – the first week in August in the summertime – so sez Dotor√©. Ev kerse, this is also his birthday. An excellent reason to crack some special wines. He requests Baroli. After all, we are sitting on some oldsters and we really should check on their longevity. We did. You get to sit in. (more…)

Before we get started with the new year let us reflect on the wine trends of 2009. [ed. New Year view from Malibu coast Jan 2 2010]
Mega trend #1: the rise of terroir in the USA. All of a sudden pockets of winemakers have discovered the meaning of wine that reflects a region instead of a style. First on this list are the small lot Willamette Valley producers of Pinot Noir and other vinifera. If you want to see and taste the best of these wineries and the general movement to smaller and better you should consider attending the 2010 Portland Indie Wine Fest (sometime in May). (more…)

November is LA’s finest month. What people really care about in this town is the weather. And November is perfectly balanced. The sky is clear and brilliant every day. It rarely rains. The air is fresh, even crisp. Temps range between mid 70s to mid 80s when the sun is out dropping to the high 40s low 50s at night. So when the Yankees finally put the Phillies away it’s like a big so what. Wasn’t today just beautiful? Didja ride your bike-go surfing-hiking-play goff? Or just walk around the Venice boardwalk or Abbot Kinney or Santee Alley or East LA? (more…)

The power of the subconscious has revealed itself to me. tBoW thought he was writing about three very nice wines and it turns out, in retrospect, he was writing about his three favorite and most reliable wines and wine regions in this current economic collapse. They represent the best in the cellar, the best U20 [ed. criminittly! it's a U10!] of what can be found with a bit of labor, and the best wine-for-wine region year in and year out. To summarize…value, perfection and the steal of 2009…so far. (more…)