Blood Of The Vines - Occult Killers

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 devil is in the details of three horror movies and wine tastings. 

1990's The First Power is a modern noir film in which a Los Angeles cop searches for, and finds, the Pentagram Killer. An anonymous tipster helps him reel in the bad guy, but it turns out the executed man was a Satan worshipper. Now they have to contend with a spirit who can inhabit other living people. Just when you thought the problem was solved, up springs one that's even worse. 

No prisoner has been put to death in California for nearly 20 years, so there’s no telling how many future Satan spirits are currently residing on Death Row. I'm guessing a lot, probably. 

The critics had few kind words for the film's sloppy logic, but the people who keep the movie business humming had plenty of dollars to plunk down for admittance to the show. They say the late rapper Eazy-E liked the film, so there's that. Gotta have some entertainment when you get tired of feuding with Dr. Dre. 

Black Sea Gold is a Bulgarian winery where red and white wines are sold under the name Pentagram. If you can navigate their website, then you know more about the Bulgarian language than I do. I think the wines are fairly inexpensive, but the shipping has to be a killer. 

In 1987's Prince of Darkness, a container of liquid is found to be, basically, Satan in a bottle. The Bad Genie. Instead of three wishes, you get three ways to be taken to the dark side. 

The film was written and directed by John Carpenter, and had Donald Pleasance in the lead role as a priest. The liquid devil has been floating in that container for seven million years, kept secret by the Church. When the decision is made to keep it away from the Vatican, it's brought to Los Angeles. Thanks a lot. 

The scribes hated the movie. One writer said it deserved, like Satan, to be shut up in a canister for seven million years. Instead, it now lives on Prime Video. 

Australia's Coward and Black Vineyards makes a Cabernet Sauvignon called The Black Prince. Unlike Satan, it is said to offer a nose of blackberry pie with soft, supple tannins, for $35.

If you speak Italian, you may know 1975's Deep Red as Profondo Rosso. The only Italian I speak is "più vino, per favore," and I can say that only because I just googled "more wine please" in Italian. 

Deep Red (Imma stay in my English language lane) stars David Hemmings as a musician who investigates a string of murders. Don't ask me why a musician is doing a cop's job. I just hope the cop isn't playing a sax on a street corner somewhere.

It's one of those things that strike me about Italian film. Weird happenings don't draw anyone's attention. Arguments about unrelated events seem to pop up out of nowhere and disappear just as quickly. Anytime a car is moving, it's like a chase scene. And even if it's called a giallo film, it's still just a slasher flick to me.

It may be just a slasher flick to me, but it was a regular War and Peace to someone. The original script reportedly ran more than 500 pages. I'll pause here for the audible gasp from every studio reader in Los Angeles. Never fear. Writer/director Dario Argento cut it down to a mere 321 pages. Despite the heft of that screenplay, the movie clocks in at just over two hours running time. That must have made a mess on the cutting room floor.

Cascina Cà Gialla Barolo is a full Nebbiolo, deep red wine from Piedmont. If you're lucky, maybe you'll find a Black Friday deal with the $35 price "slashed" to $30. 

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An Unusual Grape, An Unusual Wine

Here's a wine made from an under-the-radar grape, Cabernet Cortis. The 2024 Pierre & Antonin Petit Sauvage is a Vin de France wine from the Languedoc-Roussillon region in the south of France. It is touted on the label as "résistant et naturel." The Cabernet Cortis grapes grow on vines resistant to disease. The grape was bred in 1982 in Germany for that purpose. The wine is made with no intervention or additions. The winery says it is "wine in its purest form." Alcohol sits at 13% abv and it sells in a lot of places for less than $20.

This wine is dark in the glass, with light barely getting through. The nose is dark as well, and when I sniffed it I got a blast of Cassis. The black currant and black berry aromas are forceful and a bit funky. Earth, tar, and cigars also play into the profile. The palate keeps the darkness rolling. The black fruit and forest floor are as brooding as one could wish. And the tannins …they are alive and well. Big acidity adds to the tingling mouthfeel. I've seen other reviewers say that this wine is not everyone's cup, but those who shy away from it must not enjoy an adventure, because that's what this wine is. 

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Garnacha With An X

The 2024 Casa Mariol Garnatxa Blanca is an organic white Grenache, vegan, in fact. The grapes were harvested early in the season, for freshness. The vineyards are in the Terra Alta D.O. in Catalonia, in Spain's northeastern corner. The bottle carries alcohol at 13.5% abv and sells for $26 at Joan's on Third in Los Angeles, where I bought mine.

This wine is tinted straw yellow in the glass. The aromatic nose features aromas of peach, apricot, and Meyer lemon, most noticeably the lemon. There is a fair amount of lanolin salinity to it as well. The palate is loaded with lemon, and carries a ton of acidity along with some refreshing salinity. The finish is very long and keeps the savory aspect of the wine in mind. Pair it with shellfish

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Blood Of The Vines - Trekkin' To The Stars

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 wine pairings for movies which allow us to seek out new grapes and great acidity; to boldly drink where no one has drunk before.

No doubt you remember William Shatner as Star Trek's Captain Kirk. You may find his venture into wine interesting. Shatner had a wine tasting podcast about ten years ago. His Brown Bag Wine Tasting episodes were one-on-one videos in which he sat down with another celebrity to talk about that person's life and do some blind wine tasting. It lasted two seasons, not even long enough to put some age on a bottle of Riesling. "Dammit, Jim, I'm a rocket scientist, not a wine taster!"

1979's Star Trek: The Motion Picture is the first big screen version of the Star Trek story. All your faves from TV are here, on a mission to save the Earth from some sort of dangerous cloud. I'm glad they got the A-team on it. Everyone was holding their collective breath, waiting to see if the engine in the refurbished Enterprise would turn over. It did, and the director yelled, "Action!"

That's when the trouble started. Someone forgot to write any action scenes for the movie, so the cast doesn't have a whole lot to do. Hard-core Trekkies shelled out their Romulan dollars to see it, though. The movie's first weekend box office was a record setter.

There's a collection of Star Trek themed wines, featuring bottles like Klingon Bloodwine, the Wrath of Khan Cabernet, and the United Federation of Planets Andorian Blue. The website says the vineyards are located on "rolling hillsides near one of the oceans of planet Earth." Drink long and prosper. 

Battle Beyond the Stars is a 1980 space opera. Of course, the term space opera refers to stories told in outer space in the same way horse opera refers to westerns. There are no arias, coloraturas or librettos here, but every movie set has to have a prima donna on it somewhere. 

The movie reworks the story of The Magnificent Seven, which itself reworked The Seven Samurai. So this tale has come from ancient Japan, through the American West, and into outer space. Try doing that with Citizen Kane.

The film provided big breaks for James Cameron, John Sayles and Bill Paxton, although Paxton's contribution was working on the set as a carpenter. Early days, yes.

A futuristic movie deserves a futuristic wine. Future Perfect Wine is located in Los Olivos, and they make wines from some of Santa Barbara County's best vineyards. Their 2024 Dry Riesling hails from Kick-On Ranch Vineyard in the Santa Ynez Valley and sells for $45. Give it a few years and hope for that petrol emotion.

In 1972's Silent Running, Bruce Dern plays a sort of eco-astronaut in charge of several space-domes filled with earthly plant life. Trees and such have been killed off on their home planet, so a Noah's Ark of flora is sent to house what little is left. 

The domes are attached to cargo ships. Naturally, when corporations decide they need to make more money, more money is made. The orders are given to scrap the bio-domes and return to carrying cargo instead. Our econaut bristles at the idea, and tries to save the domes. He reprograms the little robots to help him. This makes me wonder how long it will take these little robots wheeling around the sidewalks of Los Angeles to be reprogrammed as carjackers or stickup robbers. You know it's coming. We can't have nice things. 

The efforts to save Earth's plants are noble, although largely ineffectual in the end. The shot of a robot tending to the domed forest with an old watering can is heart-wrenching. It makes me want to go out and water my own plants. Afterward, a glass of wine.

Michael David Winery's Zero Gravity Cabernet Sauvignon is made from Lodi grapes, using yeast strains developed on the International Space Station. It's amazing what grape juice can do in outer space. Expect to pay $26 for a bottle of this out-of-this-world Cab. 

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Champagne For The Holidays

Pommery & Greno was founded in 1858 by Alexandre Louis Pommery and Narcisse Greno. They were a leading Champagne house then, and still are today, just under a bigger corporate umbrella. The house is now a part of the Vranken-Pommery Monopole Group.

They tell the story of their wine this way: "The Brut Apanage comes from only twelve carefully selected crus, with a noticeably greater presence of the finest Grand Crus from the Pommery vineyard. Chardonnay grapes make up about 45% of the blend, and this cuvée ages six months longer than Brut Royal." Pommery Brut Apanage also comes in a festive holiday box, suitable for gifting. The wine retails for $60.

This wine colors up a pale yellow-green in the glass, with plenty of frothy white bubbles. The nose is full of pears and apples. On the palate, citrus and toast dominate, while the acidity tingles. Aperitif? Sure. Pair it with potato chips? Why not? Cheese plate, salami, birthday cake? Yes, yes, if you must. 

My friendly, neighborhood publicist tells me that Apanage is available in the exclusive gift box at Wegman’s through this link at a special price all holiday season.

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A Bargain That Rocks

I would imagine that you get tired of all the calls to notice one bargain wine or another at Trader Joe's. And not just from me! I do love a good wine at a bargain price, though. So here we go again.

The 2024 Granite Coast Vineyards Rosé is reportedly made by the Scheid Family Vineyards of California's Monterey County. I say "reportedly," because like so many other wines at Trader Joe's, there is very little information available about it. I know nothing about which grape or grapes are used here, except that they are organically grown. The alcohol is fairly light, at 13% abv, and the price is a steal: $6 at Trader Joe's.

This wine is very pale for a rosé. It's almost clear. If you like the pinkness of rosé, that could be off putting, but stay with it. For six bucks, you don't have much to lose. The nose is aromatic, but it's mostly peaches and pears. As light cherry aroma does come forth, along with minerals and a hint of citrus. The palate shows similar fruit, with a heavier accent on the citrus. The acidity is quite brisk. If you get past the lack of color, this is a pretty good rosé wine.

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Blood Of The Vines - Neo Noir

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 wine pairings for three somewhat recent entries into the film noir oeuvre. And all this time, I thought oeuvre was French for eggs. I guess they've been having a good laugh at my expense down at the Noir Diner. 

Is The Last Stop in Yuma County a neo-noir or is it a neo-Western? We're only accepting answers from neo-know-it-alls. The story centers on a traveling knife salesman, and that's trouble any way you slice it. Don't get me wrong, some of my best friends are traveling knife salesmen. I just wouldn't want to be stuck in an Arizona desert diner with them.

If you're looking for a movie with a happy ending, you’re in the wrong article. Yuma County is just what the title states: the last stop. It's one of those films where everybody ends up on the wrong end of something, with only a gentle poke required to put them there. A knife won't help you in a gun fight, and the gun falls way short in an explosion. 

There is good wine coming out of Arizona, although from the upper elevations in the north, rather than the low desert south. Arizona Stronghold has a Tannat wine, which should serve darkly enough for a neo-noir. 

Body Heat is the 1981 film that served as the launching pad for Kathleen Turner's career. Her performance as Matty Walker is the sizzle in Body Heat. I hear that Body Heat was inspired by Double Indemnity. Noir often calls for characters like Walter Neff or Ned Racine, guys who can't resist the siren call of a woman they know to be trouble.

It was a hot summer there in Florida, but one ambulance chaser felt the need to turn up the heat a few degrees. William Hurt played the shyster who stepped right into Turner's tangled web and took the fall. Critics either panned it or praised it, but Body Heat became an icon of the eighties anyway.

Tessier Winery has a $28 Femme Fatale rosé.  Since Turner's character was so good at stepping on people to get what she wanted, the Grenache and Pinot Noir grapes for the wine were foot-trampled as well.

2011's Drive stars Ryan Gosling as a Hollywood Jack-of-all-trades, one of those trades being a getaway driver for bad guys. When Gosling was a teenage Mouseketeer, more people probably pegged him as the future star of La La Land and Barbie, rather than as a moody criminal cohort. So much for typecasting. He plays dark really well. As an added bonus, Albert Brooks finally gets to play a guy who gets nobody's sympathy. 

The graphic violence in Drive put off a lot of people, some critics included. So much for the milquetoast set. There were enough people okay with bloodlust to allow the film to gross more than $80,000,000. Put that in your tailpipe and smoke it. 

Drive Wines started as a hobby, in a garage in Sonoma County. The car was in the garage just for picking up more grapes, not for driving getaways. Their $38 Dry Creek Valley Zinfandel hails from the historic Olson Vineyard. 

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Kingly Merlot At A Princely Price

Cabernet Sauvignon is considered the king of grapes in the U.S., if such a moniker is actually necessary. In Argentina, Malbec is king. The 2024 Tilia Malbec comes not at a royal price point, but with the more princely $9 tag.

Tilia's Malbec grapes are organic, as well as socially sustainable. They say on their website that they seek to "create action around sustainable living" in Argentina and across the globe. They claim to support their community with an array of programs to ensure that all may "thrive as one." I'll wait here for the first "communism" comment to come flaming in.

Fermented in stainless steel, and aged for six months in French oak, the Tilia Malbec is a full varietal wine which carries alcohol at 13% abv and gets that $9 stamp at Trader Joe's.

This wine has a medium-dark color. Its nose is as fruity as you like. Big, ripe, red berries are featured, along with tobacco, spice, and a bit of earthy funk. The tannins are firm and the acidity is fresh. The palate brings in cherry, black cherry, and blackcurrant for a pairing that will be wonderful with meat dishes. I slow-cooked short ribs with mine, while enjoying a glass or two in my easy chair. 

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The Real Chianti Classico

Today's wine is one that was featured in a wine club to which I belong. It is run by a local wine store, and the owner is a trusted wine person. 

The store owner explains that he chose the 2022 Montesecondo Chianti Classico for the club because it was grown and made by Silvio Messana. It "exemplifies everything we love about old-school Chianti, and we know that folks will fall in love with Chianti once they experience a good, traditionally made bottle of it. And that is precisely the experience that this quiet, subtle wine provides."

The wine embodies three native grapes of the Chianti region: Sangiovese, Canaiolo, and Colorino, blended at harvest time. The winemaker says the wine was fermented in concrete tanks, then aged "half in medium-sized barrels, half in cement tanks." The medium-sized barrels of which he speaks are enormous 15,000 liter oaken botti grandi. The cement, he says, gives the wine softness and balance, while the large vat imparts less of the oak to the finished wine. The winemaking technique is low-intervention, alcohol hits a mere 13% abv and it sells for around $35.

This wine has a medium tinted ruby color. The nose is a savory blast. The fruit is dark and muted by the aroma of pipe tobacco, earth, and black olives. The wine's flavor profile has shades of black cherry and plum, again colored by the savory aspect of the palate. I expect to find some trace of wood, but there is none. The wine was fermented in cement, and half of it was aged that way, so the sip is very clean. The tannins are velvety and the acidity is lively. 

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Blood Of The Vines - Sketch Komedy

Pairing‌‌‌ ‌‌‌wine‌‌‌ ‌‌‌with‌‌‌ ‌‌‌movies!‌‌‌ See‌‌‌ ‌‌‌the‌‌‌ ‌‌‌trailers‌‌‌ ‌‌‌and‌‌‌ ‌‌‌hear‌‌‌ ‌‌‌the‌‌‌ ‌‌‌fascinating‌‌‌ ‌‌‌commentary‌‌‌ ‌‌‌for‌‌‌ ‌‌‌these‌‌‌ ‌‌‌‌‌movies‌,‌‌ ‌‌‌and‌‌‌ ‌‌‌many‌‌‌ ‌‌‌more‌,‌‌ ‌‌‌at‌‌‌ ‌‌‌Trailers‌‌‌ ‌‌‌From‌‌‌ ‌‌‌Hell.‌‌‌ Just for laughs, let's get giggly with this week’s movies. Even the wine pairings for each film will seem laughable. 

When I was in college, the student center had a room where a different video was piped in and played continuously each week. I would plop down between classes, when we weren't drinking something horrible at the school newspaper office, and catch fifteen minutes or so of whatever they were showing. By the end of the week I had probably seen the whole feature, in bits and pieces out of sequence. I saw The Groove Tube that way.

The 1974 comedy satirizes television and its place in pop culture, with Chevy Chase and Richard Belzer starring in some of the skits. Much of the comedy takes aim at TV commercials and their memorable taglines. The Groove Tube is billed as hilarious, which is always subjective, but I remember laughing quite a bit during my sophomore year. Sometimes it was because of this film. 

Washington's The Walls Vineyards has a red blend called Stanley Groovy. It's made largely from Portuguese grape varieties and sells for $35. Not funny, really, but I always think Touriga Nacional sounds more like a golf event than a wine grape. 

The Kentucky Fried Movie is the 1977 sketch composite which launched the career of TFH guru John Landis, along with David and Jerry Zucker and Jim Abrahams. The poster for the film shows the Statue of Liberty wearing a sneaker with rocket engines on it. The shoe has a human tongue and legs. This image sets the tone for the series of sketches which are only loosely connected by TV ads for nonsensical products, fake newscasts, and lurid off-color gags. It's very adult, but not really for adults.

Aside from the laugh-a-line slapstick, there are a number of recognizable actors in the cast. The presence of Bill Bixby, Tony Dow, and Henry Gibson give The Kentucky Fried Movie instant boomer appeal, at least until all the boomers die off.

First Vineyard Winery, in Nicholasville, Kentucky, is credited as the first commercial winery in the U.S. Had winemaking not migrated west with the rest of the country, you might find First Vineyard's Chambourcin on the shelf at Ralphs for $32. Oh, sure, like you'd be buying a $32 wine at Ralphs. 

The 1974 film, Pardon My Blooper, presents broadcast "misteaks" compiled by Kermit Schafer in his record albums of years previous. A blooper is a flub or misspeak by an announcer or actor. The term was probably popularized by Schafer all by himself. I had the Pardon My Blooper record in my teens, and was often amused by the entertaining cover art depicting a TV camera holding its lens, as if it had been punched in the face, and a radio microphone plugging its ears. I was easily amused in my teens. I don't think that even then, the film version of Blooper would have held my interest for ten minutes. It is amusing, though, to watch the staged segments in this movie. The bad lighting is the same in all of them, and I think it's even the same actress in about half of them.

Yes, Virginia, the bloopers are phony. Although Blooper is billed in the credits as a documentary, many of the gaffes were recreated in the studio. Oh, the humanity.  

You'll need booze to get through this one. As it happens, one of the more famous bloopers from early YouTube days concerned Georgia's Château Élan winery. You can see it by doing an Internet search for "Grape Lady Epic Fail." The TV reporter was trying to foot-stomp some grapes and took a tumble while doing so. Château Elan has an eclectic vineyard full of interesting grapes. If you're feeling really adventurous, their Muscadine wines are only a little more than ten bucks a bottle.

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A Wonderful Beaujolais Wine

The 2024 Marcel Lapierre Le Beaujolais is from the Beaujolais region, obviously. The winery was founded by Marcel Lapierre in the early 1970s, and functioned under his unwavering hand until his death after the 2010 vintage. Now, his vision of natural wine, old vines, and minimal intervention is overseen by his son Mathieu and daughter Camille. The wine is imported to the U.S. by Kermit Lynch, whose taste is impeccable. 

The Gamay grapes were pressed and aged over nine months in large oaken vats. Some of the wood has been in use for more than a decade. Alcohol reaches 12.5% abv and it sells for around $30.

This wine looks medium-dark ruby in the glass. The nose is electric. A whiff of smoke gives way to black cherry and currant aromas, but the smoke lingers and reappears on each swirl. The palate is elegant and smooth, with red fruit flavors draped in a savory shawl. The tannins are a bit tame, but the acidity is refreshing. Pair it with a mild, soft cheese, or a Nicoise salad. 

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Italian Rosé Made With Montepulciano d'Abruzzo

Another lunch at Eataly, another fine Italian wine to come home with me. Cirelli Cerasuolo d’Abruzzo 2023 may not be everyone's idea of a great rosé, but I liked it.

It is made from organic Montepulciano d’Abruzzo grapes, berries destemmed, vinified in stainless steel, and aged for four months in that steel. Cerasuolo means "cherry-red," which is a pretty fair description of the wine's color, achieved through a very brief maceration period where the juice takes on the color from the red grape skins. Alcohol is quite restrained at 12% abv and the cost is a bit higher than you may like to pay for pink wine, $21 at Eataly in Los Angeles. I think it's worth breaking the $20 barrier.

This wine has a reddish copper color, very much like a rosato. The nose is dominated by an earthy, herbal note, but the red fruit shines through nicely. On the palate, those cherry and strawberry flavors come through strongly. The acidity is decent enough for pairing with something like pork or fish. It is maybe a bit pricey for a typical rosé drinker, but I give it high marks. I'll be pairing it with leftover turkey and ham sandwiches on Black Friday. 

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