Blood Of The Vines - Capracorn

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 a trio of films directed by the late, great Frank Capra. There is also a trio of wines for pairing.

Mr. Deeds Goes to Town is a 1936 romantic comedy starring Gary Cooper as a country bumpkin from Vermont and Jean Arthur as a wise cracking New York City reporter. You couldn't be a reporter back then unless you could crack wise while getting the scoop. Capra scooped up the Oscar for Best Director.

Cooper's character, Longfellow Deeds, inherits $20 million from his uncle. Back in the Depression, $20 million was a lot of money. His uncle's lawyer brings Deeds to the Big Apple and tries to keep him away from reporters. Wise cracking Arthur worms her way into Deeds' heart by pretending to be a poor person looking for work. He falls for the story, then finds out about the ruse and packs his bag to go back home. It would be a short, sad movie if it ended there, but it doesn't. 

Once the situation is sorted out, Deeds gets the gal, wise cracks and all. One might assume that she softens a bit, what with the $20 million boyfriend. It's Happily Ever After, just like Capra intended.

You might think that seeking out a wine from Vermont is a fool's errand, but let me set you straight. Eden Ciders has ice ciders available for $30, although they come in small bottles. They do have grape wines, made from cold-hardy varietals, but if you try the cider, you'll be a big apple convert.

Capra directed 1939's Mr. Smith Goes to Washington, which starred Jimmy Stewart as senatorial neophyte Jefferson Smith. He wants to take a piece of land and do good with it, while an elder statesman wants to make money with it. Let the clashing begin.

Nobody could do an impassioned speech like Stewart. His verbal takedown of the bad pol in the chamber is a classic. You haven't seen such sweating on the Senate floor since Brett Kavanaugh's confirmation hearings. 

The movie was criticized at the time by politicians. You had to see that coming. They said the film cast Washington in a bad light. Reading that sentence in today's political climate is cause for guffaws. What kind of light do you have that will make Washington look good? A magic lamp? If you turn it on and a genie pops out, ask it for some principled Republicans and a nice bottle of Bordeaux. 

Master of Wine Tim Atkin writes that when politicizing wine, the big, bold reds are usually favored by conservatives, while more restrained efforts capture the hearts of liberals. I don’t know about that, but from France, where they never accepted the idea of Freedom Fries, comes Château Haut-Bages Liberal. It's a Cab/Merlot blend that sells for around $50, depending on the vintage. Liberal, by the way, is the name of a previous owner of the estate a couple hundred years ago. Just goes to show, if you get your name on a French wine, it stays there. 

Pairing wine with certain movies requires a leap of faith. How would you really feel having fava beans and Chianti while watching Silence Of The Lambs? Arsenic And Old Lace presents a similar difficulty.

Capra's film rendition of Arsenic And Old Lace stars Cary Grant as a newlywed who discovers his two sweet, old aunts are inviting old men to their home and offering them elderberry wine dosed with poison.

They do this as a sort of public service. They figure the old guys have nothing to live for, so they give them a little push toward everlasting peace. So, two sweet, little old ladies are revealed to be murderers. Sweet, little, old murderers, but murderers nonetheless. It's a dark comedy with plenty of laughs.

While noodling around on the internet - we call that "research" - I found an interesting wine factoid about Cary Grant. Supposedly, Grant once beat Winston Churchill in a wine tasting contest! The score was evened later when Churchill beat Grant at cigar tasting. Is it true? Who knows? It was on the internet. 

You can "pick your poison" for Arsenic And Old Lace, but how could you resist pairing it with elderberry wine? Manischewitz offers an elderberry wine that's easy to find and keeps the cost of date night down - it's less than $5 a bottle. It's a very sweet wine, just like those little old ladies. By the way, if you offer Manischewitz on a first date, there probably won't be a second.

The trouble is, it's not really elderberry wine. It's made from Concord grapes with some flavoring added. Not so bad, considering what's being added to the wine in the movie.

You can make your own elderberry wine, or have someone you really trust make it for you. Just don't use the recipe given in the movie, which calls for "one teaspoon full of arsenic, half a teaspoon full of strychnine, and then just a pinch of cyanide."

Whatever wine you choose for Arsenic And Old Lace, we recommend opening the bottle and pouring in plain view of all present. We want the only "funny stuff" to be that which is in the movie.

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Bargain Soave Classico Changes Name, Still Can't Hide

Bargain Soave Changes NameI recently grabbed a bottle of the 2024 Casaponte Soave Classico off the shelf at Trader Joe's. I thought something was familiar about the label, and when I looked into it I found that I had seen it before with a different name on it. 

I had already had the 2022 vintage of the wine, with the name Villa Molino Soave Classico on it. The notes are the same this time around, which is alright with me. It's a decent wine and it doesn't hurt the wallet too badly. 

Soave Classico is quite a different wine from Soave. The Classico region of the Soave DOC has a higher altitude and a volcanic aspect to the soil, which is imparted into the Garganega (90%) and Trebbiano (10%) grapes. The wine is much better than the label, which features a picnic basket and a cute little dog who is packing the wine in his saddlebags. Alcohol hits only 12% abv and the bottle can be had for less than $10 at Trader Joe's.

This wine has a golden yellow color in the glass. The nose is highly aromatic, with citrus minerals, apricot and a lanolin note competing for attention. The palate is brisk and full, showing Meyer lemon, guava and a hint of pineapple, all laced with a streak of salinity. The acidity is fresh, but not ripping. The long finish has a sense of apricot outlasting all the other flavors. It's a great wine for sipping, but it paired quite nicely with a way-too-creamy pasta primavera. 

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A Bargain Wine For Summer

The 2022 Rosa dell'Olmo Langhe Nebbiolo is imported by Latitude Wines, a company I've had good luck with in the past. It is available only at Trader Joe's, and it falls squarely into the Bargain Wines To Look For category. Aging took place in stainless steel tanks, and alcohol sits at 13.5% abv and it sells at TJ's for $9. A steal.

This wine looks like a rosato, lightly tinted for a red wine. The nose offers bright cherry and lilac scents. On the palate, juicy and vibrant red fruit are a delight, while the acidity is refreshing and the tannins are medium-firm. It finishes medium, with plenty of fruity reminders of the sip. With summer on the way, keep this one in mind if you need a light red to chill for the patio. 

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Blood Of The Vines - Noirish

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 go to the dark side for a platter of film noir. Some wine pairings will help wash down the bitter little pills.

In my younger days, oh so long ago, I would occasionally have people over to my humble home to enjoy a fine beverage and some music. There would inevitably come a time when I was ready for them to leave. When that time came, I would grab my VHS copy (oh so long ago) of Fritz Lang's Metropolis and say, "Have you seen this? It's great!" Rarely would my guests feel that way about Metropolis, and I would be left alone, as I wished. By the way, the fine beverage back then was usually a PBR or MGD. Now I know better. I have wine. And friends who like Metropolis.

While the City Sleeps was directed by Mr. Lang in 1956, and nobody had better get up and leave in the middle. Lang had a wealth of talent to direct in this one. Dana Andrews, Rhonda Fleming, George Sanders, Howard Duff, Vincent Price, John Drew Barrymore, and Ida Lupino are among the luminaries who staffed this dark little number. 

More than a crime drama, While the City Sleeps lifts the societal carpet and looks at the dirt beneath it. A media family is the focal point, only it's Kyne, not Kane this time. The parts played by them and their media outlets are central to the story as a serial killer runs free. 

The movie is set in New York City, but shot in Los Angeles. That gives some screen time to the old Red Car trolleys, standing in for NYC subway cars. It's always nice to see public transit get a lead role. 

Noir Wines makes sparkling Pinot Noir rosé, sold in cans, four for $48. The grapes come from the Sta. Rita Hills in Santa Barbara County and are harvested at night, while the city sleeps. 

Border Incident is a film noir from 1949, in the golden age of the genre. Ricardo Montalbán and George Murphy star, along with Howard Da Silva, in a tale of two undercover agents trying to stop the smuggling of migrant workers from Mexico into California. It was done on a shoestring budget, and it shows in the lighting. So many shadows! Oh, I'm being told that cinematographer John Alton shot it that way on purpose. So that's where the noir comes in.

Montalbán, from Mexico by the way, said this was one of the few movies he made in which he was allowed to portray a Mexican. The narration that opens and closes the picture gets a bit jingoistic, but if you can get past that, the rewards are there with a story that is before its time, a visual presence that is stunning and acting that surpasses what might have been expected from MGM's tight purse strings.

Mexico's L.A. Cetto Winery offers a wide range of wines from the Valle de Guadalupe, just across the border. They make a nice Nebbiolo that sells for around $20 and is readily available in the U.S. 

Who doesn't like to take in a day at the track and get sloshed while tearing up tickets? Well, I've never done it. When I lose my shirt gambling on sports, I prefer to do my drinking afterward. I drown my bad luck with free house wine in the casino while staring at a video poker machine, a waste of time that's almost as boring as keno.

I suppose seeing your money disappear in person has a certain allure. But in The Killing, the Stanley Kubrick classic starring Sterling Hayden, everybody's money disappears when a clown-masked robber rips off the gate.  Okay, so now the whole grandstand is sorry they put Aunt Martha's farm on the horse that couldn't get around the first turn.

The late California wine legend Jess Jackson was also a mover and shaker in the thoroughbred horse industry. So, for The Killing, let’s go with his hallmark, Kendall-Jackson Vintner's Reserve Chardonnay. They make a zillion cases a year and it's always lauded as a reliably good wine from vintage to vintage. Twelve dollars out of the gate at the supermarket can get you a wine that will feel right at home down the stretch.

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