A Big White Wine With Some History

Timorasso is an ancient grape variety indigenous to Piemonte. Derthona is the ancient Roman name for the area of Tortona. The word is used in order to brand Timorasso wines to underscore their territory of origin, the Colli Tortonesi DOC.

The 2024 La Spinetta Colli Tortonesi Timorasso Derthona is a full-bodied, white wine representation of the Timorasso grape. The wine was steel fermented, rested on the lees for seven months, and had another four months aging in the bottle. Alcohol sits at 12.5% abv and it sells in the neighborhood of $30.

This wine has a yellow-gold color in the glass with nice clarity. The nose is incredible. Minerality is the star, but there is a streak of salinity that comes across with a soapy, lanolin note. The fruit is largely apricot and Meyer lemon. On the palate, there is an explosion of stone fruit and minerality. The acidity is brisk and the finish is long and savory. This is a big white wine, one with personality to spare. 

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Blood Of The Vines - Coming Of Age

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 try to grow up a little. Hopefully we'll grow to legal drinking age, because, you know, wine pairings.

Flirting made its way out of Australia in 1991. If you've forgotten that year, think of "More Than Words" by Extreme, but don't hold it against the movie. Flirting is actually a pretty good film. It was the sequel to The Year My Voice Broke which was also a pretty good film. In fact, both of them won the Best Film Award from the Australian Film Institute. Good work, writer-director John Duigan. 

The film is set in 1965. If you've forgotten 1965, think of The Beatles or The Supremes. Nobody else made records in that year. A young schoolboy goes ass over teakettle for an African girl. Their budding romance pits them against the racist society of the mid-'60s. If you've forgotten the racism of the mid-'60s, what the hell? MAGA much?

Besides being an all-around good film, it also features early appearances from Nicole Kidman and Naomi Watts. If you've forgotten… oh the hell with it. If you’ve forgotten them, you're probably not reading this article.

Martha Stoumen's Post Flirtation Red brings Zinfandel and Carignan together for a fruity party. Mendocino and Contra Costa county grapes are here for $29. 

I Start Counting is from 1970. It is described as a coming-of-age thriller in which a teen suspects her brother of being a serial killer. That's the sort of thing that grows one up in a hurry. I'm sure we've all suspected a family member or two of being serial killers. No? For me it was a distant cousin, and the more distant, the better.

I wouldn't say Counting has a happy ending, unless structural demolition is your thing. At least the ending is merciful.

They say years of age and glasses of wine should never be counted. That should go double for an old guy who is an actual Hungarian Count. For I Start Counting, let’s pair Count Karolyi Grüner Veltliner. Now there is a snobby grape. And a good one. Hear me now, thank me later. Count on Grüner Veltliner. 

1980's Foxes was Adrian Lyne's first time in the director’s chair. Jodie Foster, Scott Baio, Sally Kellerman, and Randy Quaid star in a film about four teenagers from the Valley in the dying days of the disco era. That can only mean one thing. Synth-funk is next. 

One of the gals is a sexpot, one is an overweight virgin, one is into drugs, and one tries to take care of them all. She is mostly successful.

Fox Wine Company has a tasting room in Santa Barbara's Funk Zone, so that takes care of the street cred. Their Sauvignon Blanc comes from a vineyard located, happily enough, on Foxen Canyon Road. Old vines, barrel fermentation, what's not to like? $27 

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Discover New (To You) Grapes In Corsican Wine

If you keep track of the grapes you've tried, you should look into wines from Corsica. You're just about guaranteed to find a grape you have yet to try. You'll probably find a few you've never even heard of before.

Clos Venturi is Corsican, and their 2021 Le Clos Rouge is made from 50% Nielluccio, 40% Sciaccarellu, and 10% Carcaghjolu grapes. See? I told you.

Jean-Marc Venturi and his son Emmanuel make the wine on this French island, which is closer to Italy than France. The Mediterranean isle has been under French rule since the 18th century.

The grapes grow in sandstone soil on vines which are 30 years old. The estate in central Corsica is organic and biodynamic. The wine was fermented in oak casks and aged in oak for a year, more or less. Alcohol sits at 13.5% abv and the wine retails for around $40.

This wine is a medium-dark red with good clarity. The nose brings a boatload of cherry, black cherry, and plum aromas, with herbal notes and a faint trace of barnyard. The palate is all about the red fruit. Tannins are healthy, acidity is fresh. 

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Blood Of The Vines - The Dark Side Of Hollywood

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 lift a big rock and look beneath it to find the squiggly life forms who make the movies we love.

The Bad and the Beautiful sounds like the title of a soap opera, and it is, in a way. The 1952 film recounts the reasons why several Hollywood talents don’t want to work with a certain producer. It all has to do with past dealings in which they believe this producer ruined their lives. Never mind that the director, actress, and screenwriter in question are at the top of their respective careers. Also never mind that their success was due in large part to the producer they all now hate. That's Hollywood for ya. What have you done to me lately?

Vincente Minnelli directs Lana Turner, Kirk Douglas, Walter Pidgeon and Dick Powell in the film, which won five Oscars on six nominations. Gloria Grahame won Best Supporting Actress as the writer's wife, but no statues went to the lead actors, director or producer. Go figure. At least Douglas was nominated.

We see flashbacks which describe how the producer offended the beautiful trio. They are all gathered together in another producer's office as he tries to get them on board for a new project the bad guy has in mind. They are ready to walk out when they hear the idea and decide that maybe they could work with him again after all. To borrow the closing line from another movie, "They all lived happily ever after, until the next picture."

Wines that are technically "bad" can be considered "beautiful" depending on one's taste. High alcohol, unbalanced components, or volatile acidity can make a bad wine seem beautiful, since beauty is in the mouth of the beholder. Apothic is a brand which is deemed bad, due to its off-dry sweetness and its heavily oaked flavor. It's also deemed beautiful, due to its off-dry sweetness and its heavily oaked flavor. Like they say, drink what you like. It's about $12 at the supermarket. 

Minnelli revisited similar territory a decade later for 1962's Two Weeks in Another Town. The 1962 potboiler stars Douglas with Edward G. Robinson, Cyd Charisse, and Claire Trevor. The film is shot through with references to The Bad and the Beautiful, including a scene in which Douglas watches himself in the previous movie. How meta.

The film revolves around the production of a big Hollywood romance movie shot in Rome. A washed up actor is delighted to be offered a role in it, but that opportunity is snatched away from him after he arrives in Italy. They let him dub some lines of the other actors, but when the director has a heart attack, the director's chair becomes available to him. He finishes the film and is taking a bow for his achievement when the bedridden director accuses him of stealing his film. This sort of Hollywood ending sometimes has the name Alan Smithee in the credits.

Melodramatic Wines are a natural choice for this pairing. The California Red Wine sells for about $12, maybe less depending on who's directing. The website says it's a wine that never shies away from the spotlight and always steals the show. That's fine, as long as it doesn't steal my movie!

Fairy tales can come true, they can happen to you, if you keep a flamethrower in your pool house.  Quentin Tarantino's 2019 instant classic, Once Upon a Time in Hollywood, takes late '60s Tinseltown and spins a happy ending for one of the saddest stories of the era.

Plenty of Hollywood's streets are featured in the film, with a soundtrack provided by Boss Radio KHJ, pouring forth from car radio speakers.  El Cielo Drive serves as a constant point of reference throughout the movie, and as the natural setting for its climax.

There are plenty of cocktail options included in Once Upon a Time..., if you'd like to drink along at home.  A Bloody Mary at Musso and Frank, margaritas at El Coyote and Casa Vega and homemade whiskey sours are all fine pairings for your screening.

A wine from the Hollywood Hills would be a natural for this film.  Hollywood Classic Vineyard is a tiny plot of Bordeaux grape varieties growing within cork-popping distance of the Hollywood sign.  The wines are not plentiful, and they are rather hard to access anyway, lending some all-important Hollywood mystique to the juice.  Speaking of mystique, the owner has gotten plenty of blowback from nearby residents alleging that his development plans make him a bad neighbor. 

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Blood Of The Vines - Monsters And Wives

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 pair wines with three films featuring monsters, and the spouses who love them.  

The Bride! puts an exclamation point on the title, possibly to indicate how much fun the critics have had coming up with fresh ways to pan the film. It has been called "a grunge version of The Munsters" and "an intellectual joyride without the joy," in addition to other snide and snarky remarks.  However, it has its fans. TFH Chief Guru, Joe Dante, is one, and he feels The Bride! will probably end up as a cult movie.

The bride in question is that of Frankenstein's monster, who we're calling "Frank" this time around. Christian Bale is Frank, while Jessie Buckley plays a dual role, although one of those roles goes by three different names. She's alive, she's dead, she's reanimated, she's dead again. Talk about mood swings. 

In Maggie Gyllenhaal's reimagining of the Frankenstein story, Frank just wants a mate, and he goes to a doctor in 1930s Chicago who reanimates dead people. That's quite a specialty to put on your shingle. What a couple they make. They walk, they talk, they dance, they go to the movies. Ah, yeah, they kill people, too. 

South Africa's Radford Dale Winery has a Pinotage called Frankenstein. The name was given due to the bad reputation the Pinotage grape has for being harsh and medicinal. They say if the grape is treated meanly it will show its angry side, much like The Monster. In defense of Pinotage, the winery says the grape, "is not a monster; it is a soul with a heart and one which will repay kindness with abundant generosity of its own." Keep your pitchforks in the barn.

I Married a Monster from Outer Space, from 1958, pretty much spills the tea in the title. A newlywed bride discovers that her husband is actually, well, a monster from outer space. The happy couple is shown toasting their marriage, presumably with a nice sparkling wine. Obviously, some things are beyond a Champagne fix.  

In Monster, they borrowed a page or two from Invasion of the Body Snatchers. The bride in question wasn't the only woman in town whose husband suffered an alien takeover. Body snatching was a big thing in the 1950s. It's a shame they missed snatching Joe McCarthy. 

If you have been wondering when we would pair a movie with a wine from Beaujolais that is not red, although I don't know why you would wonder that, here it is. Alien, from Domaine Saint-Cyr is 100% Aligoté, which is more than we can say about the husband in Monster. It comes highly recommended, as it should at $50 a bottle.

1951's Bride of the Gorilla works the same turf as The Bride and the Beast, but with a different plow. 

Raymond Burr plays a guy who has a curse thrown onto him by, well, it doesn't matter. It's a curse. It turns him into a gorilla-like beast, which the wife does not dig. The husband/beast in this film takes a nightly spin on the karmic wheel. If you've ever seen it happen, you know how it ends. 

Gorilla comes from Jason Oliva Wine in South Africa's Stellenbosch region. It is a Bordeaux-style blend which is heavy on the Cabernet Franc. The price is listed at just under $100 a bottle. 

 

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A Wine Between The Rock And The Hard Place

The Birichino Winery is in Santa Cruz, presumably the place that gave us the grapes in the 2023 Birichino Scylla. The California red wine is made from 71% Carignane grapes, 17% Mourvèdre, and 12% Grenache. 

The name comes from mythology. On the label, the wine is said to be an "ode to the Siren songs of sailor-swallowing sea serpents." The person who wrote that must have loved English class in high school. Mythology and alliteration in the same sentence. The label also notes that the wine is "all Scylla, no fylla."

The grapes were taken from old vines, wildly fermented, aged in neutral barrels and bottled unfiltered. Alcohol sits comfortably at 13% abv and the wine costs around $25. 

This wine is medium-dark in the glass. The nose is full of cherry, plum, blackberry, and an herbal note. On the palate, earthy tones shroud the fruit, while a healthy set of tannins excite the tongue. The finish is medium length and the savory notes linger the longest. Pair this wine with beef, lamb, roasted chicken, or even your favorite smash burger. 

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Blood Of The Vines - Valerie Perrine Week

Pairing wine with movies!  See the trailers and hear the fascinating commentary for these movies and many more at Trailers From Hell. Please join us in lifting a glass to remember the wonderful actress, Valerie Perrine. She passed away in March after battling Parkinson's disease for eleven years. 

Perrine's date with death was delayed when she canceled her date with hair stylist Jay Sebring at the last minute. The date was August 9, 1969. It was an invitation to a gathering at Sharon Tate's home, the last gathering Tate would ever host. 

The gal from Galveston got her start in entertainment as a Las Vegas showgirl at the Stardust. She later said her introduction into the legitimate theater happened when an agent saw her at a dinner party and thought she'd be right for the role of Montana Wildhack in 1972's Slaughterhouse Five. Now she's gone. So it goes.

Slaughterhouse Five wins the slashcapades, being described as a comedy/drama/military/scifi. The author of the source material, Kurt Vonnegut, said director George Roy Hill made a "flawless translation" of his novel. 

Australia's Heathcote Winery must have drawn the short straw for the naming rights of their Slaughterhouse Paddock Shiraz. It's a single-vineyard (Slaughterhouse Paddock Vineyard) wine which has the boldness that only American oak can bring. It's a $60 wine.

Perrine was nominated for a Best Actress Oscar for Lenny, from 1974. She played opposite Dustin Hoffman as Honey Bruce, the "Shiksa goddess" wife of troubled comedian Lenny Bruce. The part was intended for Lynda Day George, but she apparently didn't like the nudity in the script. Thankfully, that didn't bother Perrine. She was reportedly the first actress to bare her breasts on American network TV.

There is a Dom Perignon named Lenny, but that's for Lenny Kravitz, a rockstar of a different era. In Oregon's Willamette Valley, you can get a Pinot Noir from the Lenné Estate, which may be as close as we can get to Lenny, unless you know of a Riunite laced with morphine. I don't. 

In 1977, Mr. Billion brought Terence Hill to American movie-goers for the first time. It was also the last screen appearance of William Redfield. Hill was a huge star in Europe at the time and this was his stateside intro. 

Perrine was also featured, along with Jackie Gleason, Slim Pickens, and Chill Wills. How did Slim Pickens and Chill Wills end up in the same movie? Didn't SAG have some kind of rule against such an occurrence? Character Actor Overload? I guess not, because this was the second time for that particular Character Actor Lightning to strike. Trivia buffs know, the first was in Pat Garrett and Billy the Kid.

The story smacks a bit of It's a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World. Guy inherits a ton of money but has to meet a deadline in order to claim it. Gleason and Perrine stand in his way. Let the comedic action begin. 

Mr. Billion flopped like Gleason doing the cannonball. Director Jonathan Kaplan considered it his career low point. Can we enjoy it today, despite all the negativity? Sure we can. Along with some bubbly.

A Champagne from the François Billion winery almost seems like low-hanging fruit for this pairing. Chardonnay, Pinot Noir, and Pinot Meunier grapes are the fruit in question for Le Mesnil-sur-Oger Brut. You may have to pay $200 for it, but at least you don't have to beat the clock.

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White Wine From Italy's Langhe Region

The 2022 Marchesi di Barolo Bric Amel Langhe Bianco comes from the northwestern part of Italy, the Langhe region. White wines from Italy's northern areas are generally loaded with minerality and as crisp as a new dollar bill. 

This wine was grown in hilltop vineyards, in limestone-rich soils which are great for growing white wine grapes. The Bric Amel is made from Arneis, Chardonnay, and Sauvignon grapes. The juice was fermented and aged in steel tanks. Alcohol hits 13.5% abv and the price tag was $25 when I bought it at the Beverly Hills Cheese Shop.

This wine has a vibrant yellow-gold color in the glass. Its nose offers lots of lime and lemon, along with stone fruit, mango, and wet-sidewalk minerality. The palate is fruity, yet with a ton of minerals. On the tongue, the acidity is quite fresh and zippy. Pair it with a creamy shrimp dish. 

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