BLOOD OF THE VINES: THE MAGNIFICENT SEVEN

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"The Magnificent Seven" is based on the great Japanese film, "The Seven Samurai."  The setting is completely different, of course, and the Magnificent Seven don't speak Japanese.  There's more stucco than paper in the construction business.  Oh, and the western samurai use guns instead of swords.  That's fair, because the bad guys in "The Magnificent Seven" use guns, too.  Gun-versus-sword fights don't usually last too long.  See "Raiders of the Lost Ark" for why.

The action's not the only exciting thing about "The Magnificent Seven."  Elmer Bernstein's score never fails to thrill, and it may cause you to search around for a Marlboro red to fire up.  The soundtrack's main theme was used in Marlboro TV commercials back in the '60s.  Yes, Virginia, smokes used to be advertised on television.  That distinctive opening riff was also the inspiration for the horn intro to Arthur Conley's "Sweet Soul Music" in 1967.  Take that to your next trivia contest.

It's interesting that just as the story of "The Seven Samurai" was borrowed for "The Magnificent Seven," the mercenaries-protecting-the-weak theme was used again in the '80s science fiction film, "Battle Beyond the Stars."

The film was shot in Cuernavaca, Mexico - south of Mexico City.  Most of the grape growing in Mexico occurs well north of there, but we'll make a Baja recommendation later.  

Yul Brynner sold some of his wine collection in the early '90s - 1,800 bottles for over $124,000.  There was some Chateau Haut-Brion 1959 in that collection, but the price has gone up considerably since then.  We'll save that choice for something really special - like when we hit the lottery.  Brynner was married on the set of the movie!  I wonder if any of that wine was leftover from the wedding fiesta?

The villagers who hired the seven gunslingers couldn't afford to pay much, so in honor of them let's get our wine for "The Magnificent Seven" from the supermarket.  How about a Zinfandel for each of the hired guns?  Michael David Winery's 7 Deadly Zins combines Zinfandel from seven different Lodi vineyards for a wine any hired gun would love after a hard day of wipin' out the bad guys.  If you're a "white hat" kind of cowboy, try their 7 Heavenly Chards.  Both wines sell for under $15.

Or, you can grab some of these from your holster:

J Lohr Seven Oaks Paso Robles Cabernet Sauvignon - Six grape varieties here, with Cab leading the way.

Seven - A Spanish blend of seven grapes, with Tempranillo dominant.

Seven Of Hearts - An Oregon producer offering a line of wine ranging from affordable to pricy.

Seven Daughters - A blend of seven grapes grown in California, it comes in red and white.  From the Terlato family.

Grenache Valle de Guadalupe, Baja, Mexico - From Carlsbad, California, Witch Creek Winery also serves up several other wines sourced from Baja.

"Mexican Wine" by Fountains of Wayne - You can watch it before the movie, like a cartoon.

Samurai Wine Caddy - A tip of the hat to the source material for this movie, this guy will guard that bottle so well you might not ever open it.

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STAGS LEAP HANDS OF TIME 2008

It's late night in Las Vegas - well, Summerlin - and I stroll into the TBones steakhouse in the Red Rock Casino and Hotel and take a seat at the bar.  The waitress says it's last call.  Last call in Vegas?  I didn't know there was such a thing.  I'll have the Stags' Leap.

Stags' Leap Winery in Napa Valley is famous not only for great wines, but also for winning the Cabernet Sauvignon prize at the famous Judgement of Paris tasting.  You wouldn't know it by watching Bottle Shock though - that movie dealt only with Chateau Montelena's big success in that event with their Chardonnay.

Despite the slight from Hollywood, Stags' Leap manages to carry on pretty well.  Their Hands of Time red blend is 51% Cabernet Sauvignon, 46% Merlot and 3% Syrah.  It sells for around $30, and it cost $16 by the glass at TBones.

There are plenty of bottles offered at TBones, but the by-the-glass selection is rather skimpy at the steakhouse.  However - as Spencer Tracy said - "what's there is cherce."  There are five Sommelier selections on the list which range from $15 to $45 per glass.

Hands Of Time is inky black in the glass and the nose is just beautiful, showing blackberries all lush and ripe.  Anise, vanilla and a light clove aroma also make it an interesting sniff.  The palate is all about dark fruit, with graphite and smoke lightly appearing.  The finish is lengthy with a hint of stewed prunes.

I'm glad I didn't miss last call.


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SALISBURY VINEYARDS PINOT NATURALE 2009

Artisan Cheese Gallery is a great little place for some fantastic cheese, but they have a great selection of wines, too.  The restaurant/cheese shop/wine store is in Studio City in Southern California's San Fernando Valley.  At lunch there, I had the opportunity to sample an unusual wine, at least for me.

The Salisbury Vineyards Pinot Naturale is a San Luis Obispo Pinot Noir from the ocean influenced Avila Valley, but it's made with minimal skin contact, so the wine is actually white with a very pale pink hue.  The nose is almost as unusual as its appearance, but a lovely strawberry aroma dominates.

There is a very nice acidity and a strong blast of minerality on the palate.  The minerals may have been the element on the nose which I found unusual, but in a good way.  Strawberry flavors put a sweet edge on the dry wine, and the minerality puts me in mind of wet rocks.  If blindfolded, I may well have guessed this was made from white wine grapes.


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PELLEGRINI SAUVIGNON BLANC 2010

Tender Greens is not a fancy restaurant, but the several locations around Los Angeles offer good food - much of it organic - at some pretty fair prices.  Their local, line-caught albacore tuna for about $10 is hard to beat.  Their concept is simple enough: sit-down food for on-the-go people made from ingredients that are more or less locally sourced, natural or organic and  reasonably healthy.  I wonder about how healthy the buttery mashed potatoes are, but not about how good they taste.

The wine offerings at Tender Greens are a little off-the-beaten-path, and that's a good thing.  Their wines - the list is on a chalkboard - are not the usual big-producer fare often found in casual dining.  Smaller, family-owned wineries appear to be the norm.

Pellegrini Family Vineyards is located in Sonoma County - the Russian River Valley - and they have three estate vineyards.  The grapes for their 2010 Sauvignon Blanc, however, come from Lake County - the Leveroni Vineyard.  It retails for $15 per bottle, and cost $8 by the glass at Tender Greens.

The wine is almost clear and offers some light grassy notes underneath melon aromas on the nose.  It's a bright and refreshing wine, full of lively acidity and flavors of grapefruit and lemon peel.  It paired well with the potato leek soup.


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ROMA WINE - AMERICA'S LARGEST SELLING WINE

Old time radio dramas are a favorite way for Denise and me to while away the time behind the wheel, and in Los Angeles, we get plenty of that.  We love listening to "Johnny Dollar," which has to be the only dramatic presentation - besides "Double Indemnity" - to present insurance work as an action plot.  I love injecting my own commentary into the slow spots.  "Listen Dollar, give me half a chance and I'll give you no quarter.  Not on my dime.  Penny for your thoughts."

"Suspense" is a particular favorite of ours, and I often hear the announcer say the show is sponsored by "Roma Wines - America's largest selling wine!"  I had never heard of Roma Wine, and was curious about the company's history.  Here's what I was able to dig up.  Most of the information here comes from an article on a website called Old And Sold.  The article - first published in 1955, but I don't know where - covers a number of now defunct California wineries in detail, and Roma is one of them.

The tiny Roma winery was already in existence in 1915 when brothers John Battista and Lorenzo Cella bought the winery, then located in Lodi.  In 1933 the company bought the Santa Lucia Winery, and the entire operation was moved to Fresno.  By the late 1930s Roma had become the world's largest wine producer.

In 1942, the Cella family bowed out and sold to Schenley Industries (the first corporate wine takeover?) and that company broadened Roma's scope even further.

In 1955, the Roma winery in Fresno had a storage capacity of 16,700,000 gallons of wine, with another 7,800,000 gallons of storage at their Kingsburg facility.  Together, the two wineries could store about as much wine as the state of Washington produced in 2009.

Quoting from the article: "With minor exceptions all Roma dessert wines are produced from grapes grown in the San Joaquin Valley within a radius of sixty miles of the Fresno winery. White grapes represent about 70 per cent of the total volume crushed and include chiefly Muscat of Alexandria, Feher Szagos, Palomino, Malaga, and Thompson Seedless, the last two varieties being used principally for the production of brandy and grape concentrates. The most important dark grapes used are Zinfandel, Petite Sirah, Mission, Grenache, Carignane, and Salvador."

By the mid-1950s, Roma had begun bottling their wines in their "new, dripless bottles."  

For what looks to be a fairly complete listing of Roma's wines, I'll quote again from the article:

Table wines:

Red: Burgundy, Claret, and Zinfandel; Red Chianti and Vino di Roma (vino rosso type); White: Sauterne, Chablis, and Rhine Wine; White Chianti; 

Rosé: Vin Rose.

Sparkling wines(bulk process) : Champagne, Pink Champagne, Sparkling Burgundy, and Moscato Spumante;

Aperitif and Dessert wines: Pale Dry Sherry, Cocktail Sherry, Sherry, and Cream Sherry; Port, Ruby Port, and Tawny Port; Muscatel, Tokay, and White Port; Dry and Sweet Vermouth.

Light Sweet wines: Red and White.

Berry and Fruit wines: Blackberry (of the Boysenberry variety), Currant, Loganberry, and Cherry. A Concord grape wine (from out-of-state grapes) is also produced.

A specialty is the Creme de Roma, a liqueurlike wine consisting of sherry with flavoring added and containing 18 per cent alcohol by volume.

Inexpensive Italian-type table wines are marketed under Roma's Pride of the Vineyard label and include Vino d'Uva (red grape wine), Vino Bianco (white grape wine), Barberone, and Chianti.

It's interesting to note not only what grapes were being grown in California in the mid-'50s, but the references to Chianti (red and white), Burgundy, Sauterne and Chablis.

Details after 1955 are a bit sketchy, but it appears the Roma brand was still active as late as 1971, when Schenley Industries sold the winery and vineyards to Guild Wineries and Distilleries.  The sale seemed to have generated some legal issues, but I could not follow the thread any further than that.  If you know more about Roma Wine, I'd love to hear about it.

If you'd like to dig a little deeper, here's an oral history of the John B. Cella Family in the California wine industry.

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BLOOD OF THE VINES: SLAP SHOT

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Hockey fans, Paul Newman fans, Strother Martin fans and people who just happen to like swearing a lot should all have "Slap Shot" in their collections.  

The Charlestown Chiefs minor league hockey franchise is in trouble, and coach Paul Newman gets the idea that violence will attract crowds and save the financial day.  Even in 1977 this notion made many people think, "What, like hockey's not already violent?"

Newman and his band of hockey pucks - no, that's not a typo - take on-ice violence to the extreme.  The also take cursing to new heights.  The movie's profanity - TFH guru Josh Olson calls it "awe-inspiring" - was landmark in the '70s, and probably still sits near the top of any list ranking movies for the use of four-letter words.  I read somewhere that the TV edit would have so much dialogue cut out that the running time would be shaved to about 17 minutes.  I like to pepper my own conversation with colorful language, but my efforts pale in comparison to "Slap Shot."

Merely slipping in a "#@$%!" now and then will not get you anywhere close to the kind of blue language used in "Slap Shot."  You need to dress it up a little.  As Emeril Lagasse would say, Kick it up a notch."  Or as Gordon Ramsay might say, "Kick it up a #@$%! notch, donkey!"  Abso - #@$%! - lutely.

It didn't take too long for me to find an appropriate #@$%! wine to pair with a #@$%! movie about #@$%! hockey.  Diamond Estates gives us the 20 Bees Hat Trick Red and Hat Trick White, both of which sell for about $13 and both are said to pair well with hockey food.  The red goes with meat, the white with Chinese take-out and nachos.  Mmmm.  There ya go - dinner and a movie.  That's enter - #@$%! - tainment.

Now, go buy some and drink it while watching "Slap Shot" or the #@$%! Hansen Brothers will come over and hit you in the #@$%! head with a bottle.

More #@$%! hockey wine:

The NHL Alumni Signature Wine Series, produced by Ironstone Vineyards, would be a perfect pairing with "Slap Shot."  "Would be" because they are no longer offered for sale.  I hope you hockey fans got yours while they were around.

Newman's Own Wine - Chardonnay, Cab, Merlot and Pinot Noir, all of which benefit Newman's Own Foundation.

Gordon Ramsay's Selection - Here's a guy who knows a bit about swearing, if not hockey.  Bordeaux producer Chateau Bauduc puts Ramsays name on these offerings, a white and a #@$%! rosé.

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BEER AT THE SPORTSBOOK: FIRE ROCK PALE ALE

Saturday, college football, hanging at the sportsbook in the Red Rock Casino in Summerlin, Nevada.  That's a great day in my book.  I watched some football, took a break to see how Denise was doing on the slots,  watched some more football, took a break to play a little blackjack, watched some more football... I don't know why every day can't be like that.  Oh yeah, I can't afford it.  I remember now.

Michigan State didn't cover the point spread and I couldn't win with 20s.  At least Mrs. Lucky made up for the error of my ways.  And the beer was good.

Fire Rock Pale Ale comes from Hawaii's Kona Brewing Company, located on the western side of the Big Island.  They've been brewing since 1995, and I say they are doing a fine job of it.

The copper color is immediately appealing, as are the floral aromas.  There is some lemon on the nose as well.  It's a little lighter in the mouth than most craft ales, but it's nice and creamy with a hoppy taste that's not overdone - as if it's possible to overdo the hops.  A slightly bitter taste lingers on the finish with a nutty background flavor.  I had mine at the sportsbook bar while chewing my fingernails over the Spartans, but I would imagine it goes great with other types of food, too.


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UVAGGIO VERMENTINO

Il Fornaio in Beverly Hills is a spot I hit every now and then for lunch.  They serve good Italian food and have a wine list that's not too shabby either.  It's brief, but there always seems to be something interesting on it that catches my eye.

I generally opt for an Italian wine at Italian restaurants, but this time I went with a California wine, although it's made with an Italian grape.  There are a smattering of wineries in California that deal with Italian grape varieties, and Uvaggio is one of them.

Uvaggio, the word, is Italian for the French termencepagement.  It is used to describe the varietal makeup of a vineyard.  Uvaggio, the winery, is a two-man show based in Lodi, California.  The Cal-Italia duo grow Italian grape varieties there.

I went with their 2009 Vermentino.  It's $8 by the glass.  The wine is made from Lodi fruit, 67% from Bella Vigna Vineyard and 33% from Gayla's Vineyard.  Produced for the most part in a tank, about 10% of the wine was aged in neutral oak.  It has a low, low 11.1% abv number - perfect for lunch.

Straw is the resonant hue in the glass, and the nose features a strong minerality with aromas of pear and a faint tropical reference.  On the palate, a big splash of savory fruit makes an impression, but it seems to lack acidity.  The taste is great, though.

I paired it with a margherita pizza and a spinach salad with bacon.  The acidity simply couldn't match up with either the pizza or the bacon, but it did nicely with the spinach alone, and with a crust of bread and olive oil.  A little more acidity would have made this nice sipper a perfect match with food.

Uvaggio plays with several other Italian grapes, and I'm interested enough to want to try their Moscato, Barbera, Sangiovese and Nebbiolo.


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WINE CONFUSION AMONG THE BRITISH

Half the people in the United Kingdom believe water is added to grapes in order to make wine.  That's one of the shockers in a bit of research detailed in an article in the Off Licence News website.

The report goes on to state that two thirds of the UK don't know that Chablis is made from Chardonnay grapes and over half think the fruit used as descriptors of the flavor on wine labels is actually in the wine.

The research further shows that 71% of the people polled wish they knew more about wine.   At least they seem to know where they stand.

Wine is not an easy subject to master - in fact, one could spend a lifetime trying and never reach that mountaintop.  That's no reason not to do a little homework and make yourself more knowledgeable about wine.  Just because you don't know everything, it doesn't mean you have to know nothing.

It doesn't take too much effort to get an understanding of wine which will at least let you navigate the wine aisle where you shop with more confidence.  Read a few wine magazines or blogs.  Do an internet search when things arise that you don't understand.  It's usually very simply explained.  And don't hesitate to ask for help from a wine retailer, especially in a store that specializes in wine.  These folks are more than happy to help answer questions you may have about wine and wine terminology.  Sure, they'd like to sell you something - but they'd also like you to come back as a return customer.  Sending you home with a wine you don't want does not serve their best interest.

Feel free to click around right here, and on the Now And Zin website, to explore wine.  You might end up able to tell your Chablis from your Chardonnay.


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TASTING OF SPANISH WINE FROM LA MANCHA

The wines of La Mancha, Spain came to Los Angeles on October 18, 2011, for a tasting event at The Mark For Events, a hall-for-hire on Pico Boulevard.  One thing I liked right away about the Spanish reps who were pouring their wares: they pour like they want to get rid of the stuff.  No skimpy one-ounce pours were to be found in the hall; they splashed it into the glass as if they wanted me to stay a while.

I did want to stay, but the organizers said when it was over, "You don't have to go home, but you can't stay here."  Well, it was a nice little afternoon vacation from the work day in L.A.

La Mancha is the largest wine region in Spain - in fact, it's the largest wine region in Europe.  Their calling card is crafted from the two main indigenous grapes of La Mancha, Airen and Tempranillo.  Growing conditions have proven favorable, too, for such varieties as Sauvignon Blanc, Chardonnay, Merlot and Cabernet Sauvignon.

La Mancha's weather is described as "nine months of winter and three months of hell."  Frosty cold winters turn into triple-digit summers and there's not a lot of rain anytime.  In order to allow all the grapes to share the meager amount of water that there is, vines are separated by about eight feet in all directions.

I was surprised by some of the wines at this event, namely the whites.  I'm a big fan of Spanish white wines, so it was a letdown to taste so many at this event which were decidedly lacking in acidity.  The reds were the big winners here, full of the dark and earthy fruit flavors I expected to find.  There were some nice whites, they just weren't an across-the-board sensation.

Relatively few of the wines I tasted were aged in oak barrels, and those that were often spent their time in American oak.  It's always a treat to taste, for instance, a Cabernet Sauvignon which has a minimal mark of oak upon it.  The fruit is really given a chance to shine on its own.

What follows is a brief list of the highlights from each table I visited.

Bodegas La Remediadora
The La Villa Real 2010 Tempranillo/Syrah blend has a nose as bright as sunshine and great cherry flavor in a really light and easy-drinking framework.  The La Villa Real Roble 2010 is the same blend with three months of oak added.  It's a little darker and more complex.

Bodegas Casa Antonete
Their Negora Verdejo 2010 is one of the whites I really enjoyed, with a tart grapefruit palate and good acidity.  The Casa Antonete Rosado 2010 boasts a funky nose, ripe strawberry flavors and great acidity.  The Casa Antonete Reserva 2004 - aged 13 months in American oak and 24 months in the bottle - is loaded with coffee notes and is silky smooth.  The Casa Antonete Tinto Tempranillo 2010 is a young wine with no oak, showing an earthy nose and a vibrant acidity.

Bodeagas López Mercier
The Abadia Mercier Tempranillo has cherries in abundance with a note of black tea.  There's a great streak of minerality and wonderful acidity.

Allozo Centro Españolas
The Allozo Tempranillo 2010 has a funky cherry nose and vibrant red fruit carried along by great acidity.

Virgen de las Viñas

Their Tomillar Sauvignon Blanc 2010 is old-world, not at all grassy.  It does have a great lemon-lime palate and very nice acidity.  Even better is the Tomillar Chardonnay, unoaked and showing a great citrus angle.  It's one of the more refreshing Chardonnays I've had.

Santa Catalina
This winery produces the Los Galanes Verdejo 2010, with a nutty nose, lemon and grapefruit on the palate and very nice acidity.  The Los Galanes Tempranillo Joven 2010 is dark and earthy.  There's a brilliant level of acid in this young wine.

Casa Gualda
Their 2010 Tempranillo shows black cherry, great minerals and a healthy streak of acidity.


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BLOOD OF THE VINES: HALLOWEEN

The holiday season doesn't really get going until we can hear the turkeys running for their lives.  For those of us who live to pair wine with things, however, there's always a holiday just around the corner.  Groundhog Day, Bastille Day, National Cheese Day - they are all perfectly good reasons to crank out - er, craft - an article on which wines will best complement the occasion.  The annual, end-of-summer "drink that rosé before last call" columns are particular favorites of mine.  Even Texas Independence Day -

oh, hell, let's not go there again.

Next on the list of official holidays is Halloween, a holiday which gets a lot of attention in Tinseltown.  It may well be the worst traffic day all year in Los Angeles, especially in the late afternoon and early evening when the ghosts, goblins and Lady Gagas hit the streets to grab some goodies.  A recent poll shows Halloween to be America's third favorite holiday, behind Christmas and Thanksgiving.

Trick-or-treating may be for kids, but adults give it their best shots, too, with countless parties held for the purpose of answering the door and distributing hundreds of dollars worth of packaged tooth decay.  I am assuming you're not one of those types who
turns off the porch light and sits in the dark pretending you're not home.

Anyhow, Halloween is a bad night to sit in the dark.  Just ask all those people who get bumped off in John Carpenter's "Halloween."  They may be trick-or-treating outside, but on the screen it's not child's play.

Guru Adam Rifkin calls "Halloween" a cinematic game changer.  After this one, just being scary wasn't enough anymore.  If Jack-O-Lanterns didn't send a shiver up your spine before this film, they surely did afterward.

The camera's focus on the Jack-O-Lantern's eye in the opening sequence sets the tone for the rest of the movie.  We're given a "killer's eye view" of the goings on that occur on that fateful October 31st.  The killer - social misfit Michael Myers - is evil enough for all the damned souls loosed upon the world for this one night each year.

Carpenter's touch with the evil he depicts is tasteful enough - the scares don't stop, but it's not really a gorefest.  That stuff really happens in the most dangerous place of all - your imagination.

Here's a smattering of tasteful - and tasty - wines and wine things that may just make your Halloween party frightfully fun:

Vampire Vineyards - This outfit has vampire-themed wines - and vodka - perfect for any occasion, but especially this one.  Their tasting room in Beverly Hills even has a whole week of exclusive private parties leading up to Halloween night.  Trailers From
Hell is hosting one of those monster mashes.

Halloween Wines from Kentucky - Elk Creek Vineyards makes great wine, including these scary specials.

Hangman Red Wine - From Bitter Creek Winery in Jerome, Arizona, a Syrah/Petite Sirah/Zinfandel blend.

Witch Creek Winery - If your broomstick can fly to San Diego, pick up some of this in Carlsbad on your way.

Graveyard Vineyards - Their Tombstone Red and Tombstone White are from Paso Robles.

Poizin Red Blends - It comes packed in a coffin.

Twisted Oak River Of Skulls Mourvedre - Calavaras County juice that's scary good.

Pumpkin Wine - Wisconsin's Three Lakes Winery sells this year-round.

Halloween "Ghost Party" Wine Glass

Scary wine labels - Preprinted for your Halloween convenience.

How to make your own Halloween wine labels - Craft people just loooove them some Halloween.

Jack O'Lantern Golf Resort - Oh, the screams from the first tee!  A course sure to give you the yips.  Don't get too far into the rough.  Michael Myers may be in the foursome ahead of you.


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SELBACH RIESLING DRY 2006

The Selbach Riesling is a quality wine from the Mosel region, with grapes taken from the vineyards on the steep banks of the Mosel River.  It's described as a Kabinett wine in German wine terms, produced in dry style.  The alcohol content is 11.5% abv, so it's fairly easy to drink.  The wine came to the United States courtesy of Terry Theise, an importer and writer whose book, "Reading Between the Wines," has gotten a lot of fantastic press.  The bottle was listed at $14 when I picked it up earlier this year at a sale price of $9.

This '06 Riesling has enough age that the petrol smell for which Riesling is known is starting to come through.  There's a fairly nice scent of "gasoline on the water," which will be familiar to you if you've ever gone swimming near an outboard motor.  In fact, the scent is strong enough that it is clouding the fruit expression.

There's an herbal flavor profile and white fruit flavors that try very hard to compete with the minerality from the slate soil.  The minerality wins the battle.  The acidity isn't razor sharp, but there is enough zing there to provide a nice, refreshing Riesling experience.


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ROW ELEVEN VINAS 3 PINOT NOIR 2009

Another movie, another wine at The Wine Bar.  The bar next to the AMC theater in the Westside Pavilion in Los Angeles makes it desirable to show up a bit early for the film.

In the image, that blur of light in the upper left corner is the display which shows how long until the next movies start.  That's a good idea, because the wine list at The Wine Bar is not what you'd expect at a mall.

This time, waiting for "Senna," the documentary about the Brazilian Formula 1 driver Ayrton Senna, I had the Row Eleven Pinot Noir, Vinas 3.  I had sampled this wine at a tasting event a couple of years ago, and was impressed then.  I'm still impressed.

Row Eleven makes three Pinots, one from the Russian River Valley, one from Santa Maria and the Vinas 3, which is a blend from vineyards in Sonoma, Santa Barbara and Monterey Counties.

The '08 Vinas 3 blends not only different vineyards, but different Pinot Noir clones - Pommard, Dijon and Martini, for the wine geeks among us.  I had the '09 this time, and I am making the assumption that it is blended in the same configuration.

It's $11 by the glass and turns in a 13.9% abv number, which is fairly old world for California Pinot.  The nose shows cranberry and smoke, with a very lovely expression of earth.  Smooth, full and rich in the mouth, flavors of red fruit are abetted by mocha and a nice minerality.  The tannins are nice and round, so there are no jagged edges on the palate.  It may not be indicative of any one terroir, but it's a great way to pass twenty minutes or so until the movie starts.



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STARS OF CABERNET IN BEVERLY HILLS

The big daddy of the wine world is Cabernet Sauvignon.  The intense - and often expensive - red wine which helped catapult California wine to worldwide prominence.  If you had a dollar for every Napa Valley winery producing world-class Cab, you might be able to buy one bottle of the good stuff.

Stars Of Cabernet is a tasting event which will showcase great Cabernet Sauvigon in the elegant setting of Beverly Hills' Peninsula Hotel.  The third annual event is set for Wednesday November 16, 2011 from 7:00 to 9:30 p.m.  Tickets are valued at $250 per person, and advance ducats are reduced to $175, with further price reductions for members of Learn About Wine's Vintage Club.

Learn About Wine was founded in 1995 by wine educator Ian Blackburn, who has made it his business to offer palate-expanding classes and wine tasting events in Southern California.  His events are typically dressy affairs held in elegant surroundings and offering a huge array of top-quality wines for sampling.  He puts a lot into each of his events, so it's likely you'll get a lot out of them.

This year's Stars Of Cabernet will offer an expanded food selection - and it was pretty good to start with.  Only 100 tickets are available, so you won't find yourself fighting a crowd at every table.  Great Cab producers like Grigich Hills, Heitz, Jaffe, Kathryn Kennedy and ZD Wines - plus many others - will be there, and this year marks the first appearance for David Arthur Vineyards and Justin Vineyards.  You'll find a full listing of wineries on the Learn About Wine website.

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LATE NIGHT PINOT NOIR AT MIRABELLE

A few vacation days afforded my wife and I the opportunity to depart from our early-to-rise schedule and enjoy life the way the night people do.  Oh, the freedom!  Stopping in at a restaurant - way after 11:00 p.m., mind you - for a glass of wine and a late snack.  We both had lived this way before, in previous lives, and we agreed we could get used to it again if we had to.

I opted for a popular New Zealand brand, Oyster Bay Pinot Noir.  This 2009 Marlborough effort was $10 by the glass at Mirabelle on Sunset Boulevard in Los Angeles.  Oyster Bay is probably best known for their Sauvignon Blanc, a staple on nearly every restaurant wine list.  It's a very distinctive wine, and their Pinot Noir turned out to have its own unmistakable identity as well.

A remarkably meaty nose whet my appetite immediately.  Minerals on the palate play into a rich meatiness there, too.

Extremely dark aromas and flavors are the rule for this Pinot.  It's smooth and mellow, but after the initial impressions it seems a little one dimensional.  It does pair nicely with Mirabelle's flatiron skewers, but a little more tannic structure would be appreciated with the beef.


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WINE COUNTRY VERMONT: EDEN VERMONT ICE CIDER

Traditional wine grapes don't grow too well in the very cold climate of Vermont.  The Vermont Grape and Wine Council reports only 14 wineries, some of which import juice from California.  The VGWC notes, though, that great wine is being made from cold-hardy varieties like Frontenac, Riesling, Cayuga and Lacrescent.

The weather that throws a curve to grape growers happens to be pretty good for beekeepers and apple farmers, though.  Mead (made from honey) and cider ( from apples) are a big part of the Vermont wine scene.  Ice wine is also a local favorite, as is ice cider.

Eden Ice Cider Company operates from a former dairy farm in the Northeast Kingdom village of West Charleston, Vermont.  "Northeast Kingdom" refers to a three-county area in the northeastern corner of Vermont.  Vermonters refer to it simply as "The Kingdom."

Eleanor and Albert Léger established Eden in 2007.  Since then, they have planted over 1,000 apple trees and produced three vintages of their ice cider.  The cider is produced from 100% Vermont-grown apples - some are estate fruit, some are purchased from other vermont orchards.

Ice cider is not made exactly like ice wine, but the processes are similar.  Ice wine is made by harvesting frozen grapes and bringing them in for fementation.  For ice cider, the apples are pressed in early winter but the juice is left outdoors to freeze for four to six weeks.  The frozen juice is then brought indoors, melted and fermented.  This brings out the sweetest juice.  The Légers are proud of their natural approach to cider making.  "We don't add coloring, sugar or any other flavoring.  We blend (apple) varieties to achieve complexity of flavor with sufficient natural acidity and structure to balance the residual sugar."

It takes more than eight pounds of apples to make a bottle of cider.  The result, according to Erin Zimmer of Serious Eats Blog, is like "drinking the juice of ten apples in one gulp."

The Légers provided me with several of their Eden Vermont Ice Ciders to sample:

Eden Cidre de Glace du Vermont Calville Blend 2010Eleven different apple varieties go into this blend: Empire, Macintosh, Roxbury Russett, Calville Blanc, Cox's Orange Pippin, Hudson's Gem, Ashmead's Kernel, Esopus Spitzenberg, Black Oxford, Belle de Boskoop and Reinettes.  Whew!  This cider has a 10% abv number and 15% residual sugar.

The color is a beautiful golden hue, deep and rich looking, a little darker than apple juice.  The aromas the ice cider offers are of baked apples, pure and simple.  It's a lovely nose.  The taste is sweet and much more concentrated than apples or even apple juice.  After all, you're drinking ten apples at once.  The acidity level is fantastic - you'd never get this in apple juice. Sometimes I dont get it in wine!  It's a slightly viscous drink with a full mouthfeel and a bit of zippiness on the finish.  It's great on it's own, but is more than ready to pair with cheese or even meats.

Eden Cidre de Glace du Vermont Northern Spy 2009This one is a single-variety ice cider made from 100% Northern Spy apples and aged in French oak for a year.  The color is extremely rich looking, darker than the unoaked cider.  It looks quite like bourbon in the glass and it smells like a holiday apple pie, with that baked apple aroma drenched in cinnamon and nutmeg.  Much oak nuance graces the palate, too.  It's viscous, like the unoaked, but a bit more tart on the finish.  I find it quite complex with maybe a bit more of a "grownup" taste.  They advise you pair it with cheddar or creamy blue cheese.

Eden Orleans Aperitif Cider

Orleans is a dry wine made in collaboration with Caleb Barber and Deirdre Heekin, owners and - respectively - the head chef and maître liquoriste of Osteria Pane e Salute in Woodstock, Vermont.  It is infused with Vermont-grown herbs.  The alcohol content is a bit higher than the other two I tasted, 15.5%, and there is only 1% residual sugar.  The comparison to Vermouth comes quickly, and Eden has a booklet of suggested mixed drinks utilizing Orleans.  It's also been mentioned as a great mix with Prosecco and lime, or all by itself on the rocks.

I tasted it chilled, straight up.  Orleans is slightly lighter in color than the Northern Spy.  The aroma profile shows herbs on apples - sage, thyme and oregano leap forward.  The apple flavors have the herbs coloring the taste, too - as if Vermouth were made from apples.  The finish is tart and zingy.  And the herbal quality stays around long after the sip.

My introduction to Vermont cider was indeed an enjoyable one.  All three of these ciders would be welcome any time of the year, but the Northern Spy seems particularly suited to the holiday season.  Its aromas and flavors mirror those found in holiday foods, especially desserts.  The Orleans Aperitif Cider could easily be a mainstay on your bar for mixing, although it's great all by itself.


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PASO ROBLES: THE GARAGISTE FESTIVAL

Two things close to my heart will be celebrated in Paso Robles on November 12, 2011 - small wine producers and the Central Coast of California.  The Garagiste Festival is all about the wines of artisan producers in the broad expanse of the Central Coast AVA.  The event is to be held at Windfall Farms.

Garagiste, in case you are wondering, is a French term (gar-uh-zhee-stuh) which originated in Bordeaux.  It described mavericky small-lot winemakers who didn't care much for following the rules.  These passionate vintners often whipped up their wine in the garage, or whatever space they had available to them.

What was once just a pejorative is now a movement.  Not that California winemakers operate under the burden of the sort of rules found in France, but these folks are considered renegades simply for daring to make their wine their way.

Nearly four dozen wineries which produce less than 1200 cases per year will be there to pour wines that you may not get a chance to taste very often.  Most of these small producers don't have tasting rooms, and their distribution is often spotty, if not non-existent.

Cutting-edge winemakers like Jacob Toft, Mark Cargasacchi and Sashi Moorman will be there, and some of the Central Coast's most respected vineyards - Alta Colina, Booker, Caliza, Denner, Larner and Le Bon Climat, to name a few - will be represented.

This is the inaugural event in what should quickly become one of California's favorite wine festivals.  Get in the ground floor of this event and support the artisan winemakers of the Central Coast.

The consumer tasting will run from 2:00 to 5:00 p.m. on Saturday, November 12th, 2011.  Tickets to the consumer tasting are $55, $65 at the door if available.  A VIP pass which also gets you into a couple of seminars and an after-party costs $100.  A portion of the proceeds will benefit young winemakers in the Wine And Viticulture Program at Cal Poly San Luis Obispo.


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BLOOD OF THE VINES: JOHNNY GUITAR

Wine Goes To The Movies With
NowAndZin.com and TrailersFromHell.com

The western, "Johnny Guitar" is sometimes referred to as a "revisionist western" for its many departures from standard western themes.  Francois Truffaut called it a "phony western," although he was one of its big admirers.  Maybe "phony" means something else in French.

The Arizona setting looks authentic enough, although a lot of soundstage scenes were used.  Joan Crawford wouldn't allow any closeups of her to be shot for this movie unless it was in the studio, where the lighting could be better controlled.  Apparently, the sunlight made her look like she'd been whipped with a wire hanger.

Sterling Hayden said that during shooting he was battling Joan Crawford on the set during the day, and his second wife at night.  That might explain his lack of smiles in the movie.  There's no word on which battle he preferred, but at least he could leave Joan Crawford in the studio.

Hayden couldn't sing or play a note of guitar - they altered that axe he lugs around so it wouldn't make any noise - but Peggy Lee does an atmospheric turn on the Johnny Guitar theme.  She also shows what a singer is supposed to do during a slow, lengthy interlude with no words.

"Johnny Guitar" is noted for its hidden subtext concerning the McCarthy witchhunts.  Someone should have alerted Joe McCarthy to the fact that Crawford was on the set.  "Hey Joe, found your witch!"

Purple Cowboy Wines makes wine from grapes grown in the revisionist cowboy town of Paso Robles, California.  Their Tenacious Red, Night Rider Merlot and Trail Boss Cabernet might just be too good for the saloon, but perfect for the movie.  Look for it in a revisionist cowboy wine bar - or grocery store - near you.

You could also ride into the sunset with:
Saddleback Napa Valley Cabernet Sauvignon - For 35 silver dollars, you can tell the bartender to "leave the bottle."

Saddlerock Wines - Straight outta the old west revisionist wine region of Malibu, you can saddle up for a Syrah, Zinfandel, Chardonnay or - gasp - a rosé.

A Cowboy Wine Bar - Well, it's in Arizona.  This may be where the Dancin' Kid is hiding out.

Cowboy Horse Wine Bottle Holder - This accessory has to be a revisionist cowboy horse.


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