Blood Of The Vines - Happy Halloween

Pairing‌‌‌ ‌‌‌wine‌‌‌ ‌‌‌with‌‌‌ ‌‌‌movies!‌‌‌  ‌‌‌See‌‌‌ ‌‌‌the‌‌‌ ‌‌‌trailers‌‌‌ ‌‌‌and‌‌‌ ‌‌‌hear‌‌‌ ‌‌‌the‌‌‌ ‌‌‌fascinating‌‌‌ ‌‌‌commentary‌‌‌ ‌‌‌for‌‌‌ ‌‌‌these‌‌‌ ‌‌‌‌‌movies‌,‌‌ ‌‌‌and‌‌‌ ‌‌‌many‌‌‌ ‌‌‌more‌,‌‌ ‌‌‌at‌‌‌ ‌‌‌Trailers‌‌‌ ‌‌‌From‌‌‌ ‌‌‌Hell.‌‌‌  This week, the scares come fast and furious as we pair wine with three movies suitable for the spookiest night of the year.

Night Gallery was the 1969 pilot for the television program, hosted and partly written by Rod Serling. You may remember him - who am I kidding… of course you remember him - from The Twilight Zone, the 1960's series which was also hosted by Serling, sometimes with a lit cigarette firmly stuck between his fingers as he spoke. In Night Gallery, times had changed enough that he went without the ciggie.

The pilot - and the ensuing episodes - consisted of three segments, each of which was represented by an oil painting in the gallery. Serling delivered his introductions while standing before the paintings, like a macabre docent. One of the segments in this hour-and-a-half pilot film was the directorial debut of one Steven Spielberg. He went on to gain a bit of fame on his own.

While Serling's intros were delivered in much the same style as his oft-imitated Twilight Zone cadence, they seemed a bit threadbare in comparison. The tone of the show also had changed, from TZ's sci-fi slant to a more supernatural approach, either of which is okay for Halloween.

Let's find some really artsy wine labels for Night Gallery. Château Mouton Rothschild has commissioned genuine, real live, authentic painters to adorn some of their labels since 1945. Big names like Picasso, Dali and Hockney have splashed a little paint for the Rothschilds over the years. Unfortunately, you won't be able to pick up a bottle at Gil Turner's on the way home. They are sold at auction each year, for anywhere from four to 20 thousand dollars a case. I understand if you take a pass on this pairing suggestion - I know you have to budget for that expensive trick-or-treat candy.

1982's The Entity was directed by Sidney Furie and starred Barbara Hershey. The story - of a woman who is assaulted repeatedly by an invisible entity - was based on actual events. Sort of an Exorcist with clippings. There was a ton of backlash at the time, with women's groups railing against the depiction of the violence. Since then, it has attracted a cult following and is now seen as an allegory of the way women are victimized. It's not a pleasant movie to view, and it's hard to write something snarkily funny about it, so pardon this paragraph's lack of laughs. There simply aren't any there.

Thank goodness there is a wine called "Entity." I don’t think I could stand trying to come up with a sentence of lighthearted nonsense about this movie. Entity is an Australian Shiraz - that's what they call Syrah down under - from John Duval Wines. For $40, you get all the brawn that Barossa has to offer.

Now, if you'll please allow a little shameless brownnosing. Nightmare Cinema comes from 2018 and is a horror anthology featuring segments directed by, among others, TFH's very own chief guru Joe Dante. There are also works included by Alejandro Brugués, TFH associate guru Mick Garris, Ryūhei Kitamura, and David Slade.

Mickey Rourke plays the projectionist at a movie theater that shows films depicting the worst fears of the audience. Yeah, I know, you thought that was All The President's Men. Well, strap yourself in and get set for segments on slasher killers, sex demons and an alternate reality experienced while waiting for a doctor's appointment. Hey, wait, that's actually happened to me - and I don't think my insurance covered it.

Washington state winery The Walls has a Tempranillo they call a Wonderful Nightmare, Hemingway's description of the running of the bulls in Pamplona. I'll leave that sort of thing to other fools - a Nightmare Cinema sounds plenty dangerous for me. 

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Blood Of The Vines - Halloween Haunts

Pairing‌‌‌ ‌‌‌wine‌‌‌ ‌‌‌with‌‌‌ ‌‌‌movies!‌‌‌  ‌‌‌See‌‌‌ ‌‌‌the‌‌‌ ‌‌‌trailers‌‌‌ ‌‌‌and‌‌‌ ‌‌‌hear‌‌‌ ‌‌‌the‌‌‌ ‌‌‌fascinating‌‌‌ ‌‌‌commentary‌‌‌ ‌‌‌for‌‌‌ ‌‌‌these‌‌‌ ‌‌‌‌‌movies‌,‌‌ ‌‌‌and‌‌‌ ‌‌‌many‌‌‌ ‌‌‌more‌,‌‌ ‌‌‌at‌‌‌ ‌‌‌Trailers‌‌‌ ‌‌‌From‌‌‌ ‌‌‌Hell.‌‌‌  This week, the hellishness finds new heights - er, depths - as we prepare for the end of the month with a trio of Halloween Haunts.

Scary movies are a staple in my home - the wife loves 'em. Me? I can take them or leave them alone, mostly leave them alone. My idea of a good frightfest is All the President's Men. But here we are, staring at a huge bowl that needs to be filled with expensive fun sized candy. We're going to need to watch something after the cute little kids are tucked into bed and those older tweens - way too old for this kind of stuff - start coming around. Oh, and we're going to need some alcohol, too. For us, not the kiddies.

Wishmaster is a 1997 slasher film, the sort that crawls out from its temperature-controlled hiding place each October. Much death and cruelty is dealt out in the film's running time, and by various means - not just slashing. Robert Englund brings some slasher cred to the movie.

A djinn is released from his confines, and we all know where that sort of thing leads. Wishes will be granted. However, this evil genie has a separate agenda which does not involve serving the person who uncorked him. This genie really brings to life the warning that one should be careful about what one wishes for. 

I would wish for a nice, dry, Provençal rosé to go with this movie, preferably one which has the word "genie" on its label. Here we have just what we wished for. Coup de Genie makes this pinkie from Grenache, Cinsault and Syrah grapes grown in the sunny south of France. At least when you uncork it, you know it won't uncork you.

1981's Dead and Buried deals with reanimated corpses - that's right, there is a town full of zombies. Every Halloween-y movie should have a coroner/mortician in the cast. Especially one who has interesting hobbies. If you are already a coroner or a mortician, and you want another occupation to slash onto, wouldn't it be better to have one that balances things out a bit? Coroner/barista? Mortician/landscaper? I mean, coroner/mortician just sounds a lot creepier than it needs to be. But, that's Halloween for you.

Anyhoo, these homemade zombies do a good job of passing for regular folks - dead ringers, you might say. The cute little tourist town is a dead ringer for Mendocino, by the way, which is where some scenes were filmed. That’s a cue for popping a cork if I ever heard one.

I don't know how good Zombie Zinfandel tastes, but it's ten bucks worth of fun for that one night a year when it is actually appropriate. It is claimed by Sonoma County's Chateau Diana, so they must be at least a little bit proud of it. 

House of Dark Shadows appeared in 1970, towards the end of the run for the television show that was so not-scary that it had to be shown in the afternoon, right after Merv Griffin and right before the Three Stooges. I suppose there were those who considered it scary at the time - children, slow learners, people with head injuries - but those are the same groups who might have mistaken the regular daily soap operas for legitimate entertainment. I'm sure Jonathan Frid was a great guy to have a beer with, but Barnabas Collins wasn't scaring anybody. My wife and I saw House of Dark Shadows at the New Bev. She elbowed me when my snoring got too loud.

In this feature-length TV show, Barnabas wants a relationship with a mortal woman, so he tries to be cured of his vampiric tendencies. Maybe he should have sought the help of an industrious coroner/mortician with an interesting hobby. Any time one is stabbed in the back so hard that it comes out one's chest, and one turns into a bat and flies away, one would have to consider it to be a pretty good day.

For Barnabus Collins, let’s pour St. Barnabus Commandaria - a dessert wine from Cyprus. It's nice and sweet - it will pair well with the Halloween candy you'll be sneaking from your kids' trick-or-treat bags after they've gone to sleep.

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An Everyday Red Wine From Abruzzo

Nestore Bosco has been making wines in Italy's Abruzzo region since 1897, and there is something to be said for being able to sustain a business for that long. The Bosco 2018 Montepulciano d'Abruzzo is a full varietal wine which carries an alcohol level of 13.5% abv and retails for around $15. It was brought to the U.S. by Connecticut importer Votto Vines.

This dark-colored wine smells of dark fruit - blackberries, plums, currants - and tastes much the same. There is quite a bit of sweetness to the palate, and the tannins are very firm. Oak spice comes across as flavors of cinnamon, clove, tobacco and anise. The finish is savory and somewhat lengthy. 

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White Wine From Northern Italy - It's Just Right

The Venezia Giulia IGT region is in the far northeastern corner of Italy, sharing borders with Austria and Slovenia. Northern Italy is known for its white wines, and the Venezia Giulia IGT is no exception. The soil in the region is a mix of clay and stones and is pretty much the perfect dirt in which to grow white wine grapes.

The Bastianich Winery was founded in 1997 by the Bastianich family. They are the folks who have brought so many fine Italian restaurants to so many corners of the world, and who are the driving force behind Eataly in Los Angeles, which is where I had this wine with lunch, I brought a bottle home as well.

The 2018 Vespa Bianco is a blend of Chardonnay and Sauvignon Blanc grapes, grown in the hills of Premariacco and Cividale. The wine is fermented half in stainless steel tanks and half in oak casks. Aging in the bottle lasts a year before release. A good portion of the lees - the spent yeast cells - are left in the wine, which enhances and lends weight to the mouthfeel. Alcohol hits 14% abv and Vespa Bianco sells for around $27.

This beautiful wine carries a golden hue in the glass and has a nose which features salinity as well as fruit. The aromas range from pears to guava to beeswax to lanolin. On the palate, there is bountiful salinity and minerality to meet the tropical fruit flavors. Acidity is fresh and zingy, too, so food pairing is simple. 

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Blood Of The Vines - Angela Lansbury R.I.P.

Pairing‌‌‌ ‌‌‌wine‌‌‌ ‌‌‌with‌‌‌ ‌‌‌movies!‌‌‌  ‌‌‌See‌‌‌ ‌‌‌the‌‌‌ ‌‌‌trailers‌‌‌ ‌‌‌and‌‌‌ ‌‌‌hear‌‌‌ ‌‌‌the‌‌‌ ‌‌‌fascinating‌‌‌ ‌‌‌commentary‌‌‌ ‌‌‌for‌‌‌ ‌‌‌these‌‌‌ ‌‌‌‌‌movies‌,‌‌ ‌‌‌and‌‌‌ ‌‌‌many‌‌‌ ‌‌‌more‌,‌‌ ‌‌‌at‌‌‌ ‌‌‌Trailers‌‌‌ ‌‌‌From‌‌‌ ‌‌‌Hell.‌‌‌  This week we salute the recently departed Angela Lansbury.

Something for Everyone is from 1970 and features Lansbury in what is billed as a black comedy, but the critics of the day would dare you to find the humor. Lansbury is a German matron who is a bit down on her luck, while Michael York co-stars as a castle-hungry young man who will stop at nothing to get his four walls and a moat. 

It's a bedroom farce with a plethora of untimely "accidents" engineered by York's character to further his desire for the Bavarian palace. 

Lansbury - always a pleasure to watch - got a Golden Globe nomination, but alas, no hardware to tote back to her castle. She did amass quite a collection of awards in her time, including a handful each of Golden Globes and Tonys, all well deserved.

For this film, get a wine made from the Silvaner grape, a fave near Bavaria. Most Silvaners from this area are labeled as "dry," but their wine laws leave a lot of leeway for that designation. Make sure it's one that comes in the unique bocksbeutel, the stubby, round wine bottle of the Franconia region. It won't taste different, but you'll feel more authentic for it.

All Fall Down hit the big screens in 1962, with Lansbury playing the sort of mother only a rotten son could love. She shares the billing with Eva Marie Saint, Warren Beatty and Karl Malden, with John Frankenheimer directing.  The movie ties together a bad mama, a drunk daddy, a femme fatale and fraternal rivalry with a big bow of tragedy and pathos. I'll have a double, bartender.

If you've never seen the grape-stomping lady fall down, it's a staple on YouTube. However you feel about foot-stomped wine - I Love Lucy notwithstanding - you have to love a Napa winery that invites people to try out the ancient art. By the way, Grgich Hills Winery uses the foot-stomped grapes as compost, not for winemaking. Treat yourself and try the Cab.

Also from 1962,  The Manchurian Candidate sported quite the cast - with Lansbury - a domineering mom again - abetted by Frank Sinatra, Laurence Harvey and Janet Leigh, and Frankenheimer once more at the helm, how could you go wrong?  The movie hinges on a Korean war veteran who was brainwashed by the commies.  You could tell he was brainwashed - he was the only person who didn't cheat at solitaire.  C'mon, admit it.  That’s why you don't like online solitaire - because it's too hard to cheat!  They're always watching.

We can easily pair a Chinese baijiu with The Manchurian Candidate, a white liquor distilled from sorghum or some type of grain.  However, people say that drinking it makes one look like the guy on the Jagermeister label.  A South Korean soju might be a better play.  Soju is made from rice, wheat, barley, sweet potatoes or whatever other starchy stuff you can find near the distillery.   

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Brawny Petite Packs A Wallop

Just off Highway 46, on Paso Robles’ east side, sits Vina Robles Winery. Their tasting room is there, too, as is their bistro, serving a seasonal menu which features locally grown food prepared on-site. Founder Hans Nef felt his Swiss heritage blended well with the opportunities that America offered him. The winery website tells us that Mr. Nef died in 2019 due to an accident while swimming off the Cape Verde islands. The winery is now in the hands of Nef's two daughters. 

Winemaker Kevin Willenborg takes the grapes from their six SIP certified sustainable estate vineyards and creates wines that promise to honor the past while looking into the future. He has a minimal intervention policy of staying out of the way and letting the grapes do their thing.

Besides sustainability, Vina Robles partners with One Tree Planted, an organization which tries to improve the world one tree at a time. A portion of the Vina Robles wine, The Arborist, goes to that charitable outfit. The wine was named The Arborist after an actual arborist saved the life of a 300-year-old oak tree that sits in one of their vineyards.

The Vina Robles 2019 Petite Sirah Paso Robles is all estate fruit, which was vinified and aged for 20 months in oak barrels. Alcohol hits 14.5% abv and it retails for $27.

The wine is inky purple and has a beautiful nose full of blackberries and oak spice - vanilla, clove, cinnamon, nutmeg - and even a whiff of smoke. The palate shows the big, brawny black fruit along with the spice rack and a tannic structure that is plenty firm enough for a steak but not too toothy for sipping. 

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A Wine Dedicated To A Tree Doctor

Just off Highway 46, on Paso Robles’ east side, sits Vina Robles Winery. Their tasting room is there, too, as is their bistro, serving a seasonal menu which features locally grown food prepared on-site. Founder Hans Nef felt his Swiss heritage blended well with the opportunities that America offered him. The winery website tells us that Mr. Nef died in 2019 due to an accident while swimming off the Cape Verde islands. The winery is now in the hands of Nef's two daughters. 

Winemaker Kevin Willenborg takes the grapes from their six SIP certified sustainable estate vineyards and creates wines that promise to honor the past while looking into the future. He has a minimal intervention policy of staying out of the way and letting the grapes do their thing.

Besides sustainability, Vina Robles partners with One Tree Planted, an organization which tries to improve the world one tree at a time. A portion of the Vina Robles wine, The Arborist, goes to that charitable outfit. The wine was named The Arborist after an actual arborist saved the life of a 300-year-old oak tree that sits in one of their vineyards.

The 2020 Arborist Estate Red Blend is a blend of 40% Syrah grapes, 34% Petite Sirah, 20% Grenache and 6% Tannat. The wine was aged for 18 months in both small and large-format French, Hungarian and American oak barrels. Alcohol reaches 14.5% abv and sells for $20.

The nose on this dark wine shows lots of dark fruit - blackberry, plum, currant - and plenty of complexity thanks to notes of clove, tar and roasted meat drippings. The palate is rich and dark, and the tannins will not be ignored. You can pair this wine with a steak, no problem. 

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Blood Of The Vines - The Peerless Otto

Pairing‌‌‌ ‌‌‌wine‌‌‌ ‌‌‌with‌‌‌ ‌‌‌movies!‌‌‌  ‌‌‌See‌‌‌ ‌‌‌the‌‌‌ ‌‌‌trailers‌‌‌ ‌‌‌and‌‌‌ ‌‌‌hear‌‌‌ ‌‌‌the‌‌‌ ‌‌‌fascinating‌‌‌ ‌‌‌commentary‌‌‌ ‌‌‌for‌‌‌ ‌‌‌these‌‌‌ ‌‌‌‌‌movies‌,‌‌ ‌‌‌and‌‌‌ ‌‌‌many‌‌‌ ‌‌‌more‌,‌‌ ‌‌‌at‌‌‌ ‌‌‌Trailers‌‌‌ ‌‌‌From‌‌‌ ‌‌‌Hell.‌‌‌  This week, we examine a few flicks from the peerless Otto Preminger, with a wine pairing for each.

I should apologize for the title of the column this week. The Peerless Otto seems to be a bit of wordplay on the "Peerless auto," a British car company that went belly up after only a few years of production. The great director, who is the subject of our snark, was successful for quite a bit longer. 

Otto Preminger was one of a handful of celebrities who achieved the rarified air of being included in my impersonation repertoire as a kid. It wasn't very good, but it delighted the friends of my parents in southeast Texas, who sometimes commented that Jimmy and Mary's son "didn't have hardly no ayukcent at awul!"

The 1971 comedy-drama Such Good Friends is one of those movies we look back on as a touchstone for a decade. At least I do. It had that wonderful feel of being either funny about serious stuff or serious about funny stuff - it was hard to tell which. A lot of folks had trouble with that and panned the movie at the time of its release because of it. Some of them still feel that way and refuse to watch it when it comes on late-night TV. 

A woman finds that her husband - who is in a coma - was screwing all her so-called friends for years. See what I mean? Laugh or cry? With friends like that, who needs enemies? The sarcasm of the film's title is impossible to miss, unless you, too, are comatose.

George Wine Company has a label called Sonoma Coma, so let's not get cute by trying to do better than that. It's a Pinot Noir from the Russian River Valley which appears to sell for about $60. I don't know what it tastes like, so make sure you really want that label in your home before you plunk down for a case.

Anatomy of a Murder is a 1959 courtroom drama, and it's considered one of the best of its kind. The cast includes Jimmy Stewart, Lee Remick, Ben Gazzara, Arthur O'Connell, Eve Arden and George C. Scott. Oh, and Duke Ellington appears briefly - taking a break, no doubt, from his work in creating the score for the film. 

The story was "ripped from the headlines," as it was based on a real-life murder trial in Michigan's Upper Peninsula, where the movie was shot. A local lawyer beats a murder charge against his client with a twist on the insanity plea, but there are plenty more twists as the trial unfolds. The film got a bad mark from the Catholic League of Decency - or whatever they call themselves - for its frank handling of the subject of rape. Preminger did not shy away from the tough topics.

There was a murder case a while back in New Jersey in which a woman killed her wife with a wine chiller - an aluminum cylinder used to quickly cool a bottle of wine. I know, at first I, too had an image of someone crashing a wine refrigerator down on someone else's head. Now that scene lives rent-free in my head, like a bad song that popped up on SiriusXM and just won't go away.

Where was I? Oh, the wine pairing. We need a killer wine for Anatomy. Come and gitcha red hots, right here. Killer Merlot comes from Mendocino by way of Brutocao Vineyards. If it needs it, I'll be chilling mine in the fridge, thank you. 

Now, let's take a walk down a dark street - far enough down that you find the place Where the Sidewalk Ends.  This 1950 noir has nothing to do with Shel Silverstein's later poetry collection under the same title.  No, this story is not suitable for the youngsters in the crowd.  You won't find "Sarah Cynthia Sylvia Stout" lurking in these frames.  Preminger directed Dana Andrews and Gene Tierney in this violent cops-n-criminals yarn.  

Andrews is a cop who hates criminals so much he actually scares the other cops.  That takes some doing.  He is the sort of cop that other cops call "badge heavy." Wouldn't it be something if he ended up being the one wearing the handcuffs?  The story starts with a gangster's gambling game and runs through murder, misdirection and mayhem.  It's hard to tell the good guys from the bad without a scorecard.  Hey, it's film noir - put your money on "bad."

Footpath Winery uses organic grapes from the Temecula Valley to create some pretty nice Cab Franc, Barbera and Malbec.  Try one of those for your sidewalk-less viewing party.

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Paso Robles And The Delightful Cab

Just off Highway 46, on Paso Robles' east side, sits Vina Robles Winery. Their tasting room is there, too, as is their bistro, serving a seasonal menu which features locally grown food prepared on-site. Founder Hans Nef felt his Swiss heritage blended well with the opportunities that America offered him. The winery website tells us that Mr. Nef died in 2019 due to an accident while swimming off the Cape Verde islands. The winery is now in the hands of Nef's two daughters. 

Winemaker Kevin Willenborg takes the grapes from their six SIP-certified sustainable estate vineyards and creates wines that promise to honor the past while looking into the future. He has a minimal intervention policy of staying out of the way and letting the grapes do their thing.

Besides sustainability, Vina Robles partners with One Tree Planted, an organization which tries to improve the world one tree at a time. A portion of the Vina Robles wine, The Arborist, goes to that charitable outfit. The wine was named The Arborist after an actual arborist saved the life of a 300-year-old oak tree that sits in one of their vineyards.

The Vina Robles Cabernet Sauvignon 2019 features Cabernet Sauvignon grapes taken from two of their estate vineyards. As they explain it on their website, Huerhuero Vineyard is in the hilly terrain between the El Pomar and Geneseo Districts. It gets the cool Pacific breezes that blow through the Templeton Gap in the afternoon. Creston Valley Vineyard has high terrain, a southern exposure and shallow, limestone-laced soils. The wine was aged for 20 months in oak barrels, with a bit of Petit Verdot added at the eight-month mark. The Cab has alcohol at 14.5% abv and retails for $32.

The wine is dark in color and features a complex nose of currant, plum, black cherry and oak spice - all layered with the chalky minerality that is a hallmark of Paso Robles Cabs. That limestone minerality comes through especially strong on the palate. The dark red fruit plays a big role, the sweet oak is just right and the tannins are medium-firm.

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A Fresh Piedmont Red Wine

If you love the opportunity to try a grape that's new to you, this wine might be right up your alley. The Ray Albarossa by Colle Manora is 100% Albarossa grapes, grown in Italy's Piemonte D.O.C.. Albarossa is a cross between the Barbera and Nebbiolo di Dronero grapes. 

The wine underwent malolactic fermentation and was aged for a year in steel and a year in the bottle. There was no exposure to oak at all. Alcohol hits 14% and the wine sells for about $12 - and it's quite a bargain.

This medium-dark wine has a very fresh nose, dark and full of blackberry fruit aromas. The palate puts me in mind of some of the darker Cru Beaujolais wines. It also makes me think of unoaked Cabernet Sauvignon from Argentina. This Albarossa grape wine was aged a year in steel and a year in the bottle, so it is fresh and youthful - a very fun wine. 

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Blood Of The Vines - Jive Junction

Pairing‌‌‌ ‌‌‌wine‌‌‌ ‌‌‌with‌‌‌ ‌‌‌movies!‌‌‌ ‌‌‌See‌‌‌ ‌‌‌the‌‌‌ ‌‌‌trailers‌‌‌ ‌‌‌and‌‌‌ ‌‌‌hear‌‌‌ ‌‌‌the‌‌‌ ‌‌‌fascinating‌‌‌ ‌‌‌commentary‌‌‌ ‌‌‌for‌‌‌ ‌‌‌these‌‌‌ ‌‌‌‌‌movies‌,‌‌ ‌‌‌and‌‌‌ ‌‌‌many‌‌‌ ‌‌‌more‌,‌‌ ‌‌‌at‌‌‌ ‌‌‌Trailers‌‌‌ ‌‌‌From‌‌‌ ‌‌‌Hell.‌‌‌ This week, we have three films which feature the swingin’ sounds of the big bands, and a wine pairing for each.

The music we are dealing with this time is more than soundtrack fodder or score. The music is the focal point. We're going back decades to relive the sounds that were "a hit before your mother was born." Maybe even before your grandmother.

In 1942's Orchestra Wives, Glenn Miller plays the leader of a big band. It wasn't a stretch for him, since that's what he was in real life. The story centers on the jealousy that arises in one of the musicians' wives due to his previous relationship with the cute little singer in the orchestra. It's a malaise that soon infects the whole band, as one wife after another falls victim to the green-eyed monster. It seems that the band members' wives all travel with the tour, something which would change in the rock era so that guitar players would be free to have a honey in every city along the way. I'm told that bass players and drummers had to work a little harder.

The songs include the great "(I've Got a Gal in) Kalamazoo," which, with its "a, b, c, d, e, f, g, h" walk-up to the title line would have made a nice Sesame Street segment. Miller's "Moonlight Serenade" sneaks in over the credits. It was a huge hit on the radio back then and it's a shame they didn't market soundtrack albums the way they do now. Of course, the 12-inch vinyl record didn't become a thing until well after this movie was made. Look for Jackie Gleason, Harry Morgan and even Dale Evans in uncredited performances where Gleason, especially, steals the scene. 

Miller broke up the band in 1942 so he could volunteer to join the U.S. Army Air Force. A plane that was carrying him from London to Paris in 1944 disappeared over the English Channel and he was never heard from again. It was a national catastrophe for such a beloved entertainer to be killed - especially in a time of war. Speculation on why the plane vanished has run the gamut, from pilot error to frozen fuel lines to friendly fire to assassination. 

Legh Knowles was a trumpeter with the Glenn Miller Orchestra back in the day, and he went on to become chairman of Napa Valley's Beaulieu Vineyards. Their Georges de Latour Cabernet Sauvignon tops out at $150, but we will opt for "Maestro," their $35 Sauvignon Blanc, in honor of the great Glenn Miller.

Rhapsody in Blue is the 1945 biopic about the life of composer George Gershwin. It's a fictionalized account - Gershwin's actual life must not have been exciting enough for Hollywood. Critics have slammed the movie for that, and - oddly - for having too much music in it. Nearly complete versions of "Rhapsody in Blue" and "An American in Paris" are featured in the film, along with "Summertime" from "Porgy and Bess," so it is a treasure trove for Gershwin fans.

Like Miller, Gershwin also died young. It was a brain tumor that got him when he was just 38 years old. If you want even more of Gershwin's music in a movie, try Woody Allen's 1979 film, Manhattan. It is brimming full of Gershwin originals, if you haven't yet canceled Allen and his works from your life.

Opolo Vineyards has the perfect wine for Rhapsody. In fact, it is named "Rhapsody," a Paso Robles Bordeaux blend described as plush and lush, a lot like Gershwin's music.

Footlight Parade, from pre-Code 1933, features the sort of racy jokes and scanty costumes that disappeared for decades after the Hays Code "cleaned up" moving pictures for America's tender sensibilities. James Cagney pressed hard for the lead role, and got it. The former vaudeville hoofer plays a guy who makes short live musicals - prologues - which were shown in big movie houses before the film. It was Cagney's first chance to dance on the big screen, an opportunity that dwindled as he took on his more well-known gangster persona.

Joan Blondell co-stars as Cagney's secretary and love interest. The action concerns the creation and presentation of three spectacular show-openers over a span of just three days. Some of the dialogue is risqué, but seems quaint by today's standards.

Cagney once owned a summer estate on Martha's Vineyard - way before it became a haven for immigrants looking for work. Right across Buzzard's Bay is Westport Rivers Vineyard and Winery. They make a wide range of tasty wines, including Chardonnay, Pinot Gris and Pinot Noir, which are worthy of a Cagney pairing.

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Have You Tried A Marawi Wine?

I love to get the opportunity to try grapes that are new to me. The Marawi grape is one that I had not even heard of before my introduction to it. The ancient white grape variety is indigenous to the area of the Middle East which roughly covers Israel, Palestine and Jordan. Marawi is also known by another name, Hamdani. It was likely a wine much like this which was used in sacred services in the Jewish Temple of Jerusalem a couple of millennia ago.

The Segal Winery has been around since the 1950s, when the Segal family gave up their distillery and moved into wine. Today it focuses on its Israeli heritage and produces a range of wines that are well respected in the region.

The 2019 Segal Native Marawi was made by winemaker Ido Lewinsohn, a Master of Wine. Alcohol is low, at only 11% abv, and the retail price is $25. The wine is labeled as kosher for Passover and non mevushal. 

I'm guessing that this wine was given some sort of oak treatment, as the color is quite golden and the nose shows some oaky notes. There is also a strong sense of mango and other tropical fruits on the nose, along with an almond nuttiness. The smell puts me in mind of a cross between an old-style California Chardonnay and a Roussanne. The palate shows a lot of savory salinity, a somewhat subdued acidity and a rather full, oily mouthfeel. It's a fairly complex wine, and a delicious one, too. 

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Kosher Cab From Oxnard, Via Paso

If you are looking for a good kosher wine, a reliable place to start the search is always Herzog Wine Cellars of Oxnard. Oxnard may not spring to mind immediately when you start riffing through your mental Rolodex of California wine regions. The Ventura County town is home to Herzog Wine Cellars, under the umbrella of the Royal Wine Corporation. The winery's story is one of immigrant grit and determination. 

The Herzog website says the company goes back to "Philip Herzog, who made wine in Slovakia for the Austro-Hungarian court more than a century ago. Philip's wines were so appreciated by Emperor Franz-Josef, that the emperor made Philip a baron."

Philip's grandson Eugene had to move his family around quite a bit during World War II to hide from the Nazis, only to be run out of Czechoslovakia by the communists. He brought his family to New York in 1948 and started working for a kosher winery that paid him in company stock. Within ten years all the other stockholders had given up on it, leaving Eugene as the last man standing. He and his sons then formed Royal Wines as a tribute to Philip. 

Expansion to Southern California happened in 1985, but it was a couple of decades before they would build their present state of the art facility. Head winemaker Joe Hurliman leads the kosher facility and produces wines in the tradition of the Jewish people. 

The Herzog Variations Be-leaf Cabernet Sauvignon 2020 was made from Paso Robles organically grown grapes. It's a kosher wine, as are all the Herzog selections, and it has no added sulfites. Alcohol sits at 13.5% abv and the retail sticker reads $25.

The wine is a deep, dark red color with an herbal note on the nose to go along with the cheerful red fruit. I always like the chalkiness of Paso Cabs, but in this selection that effect is somewhat muted, shoved aside by that herbal note, which takes center stage on the palate. The effect of oak aging is plain, but not overdone. The freshness of the wine speaks to its youthful character and the tannins are firm. The chalky note makes itself more noticeable on the finish. 

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