Late Night at La Tour

I need to get used to this. I have just finished all the dishes, the wiping down of surfaces, the restocking, the cash counting. Granted, we ran a bit late tonight, but with a closing time of 11pm, I estimate that I will be here for at least 45 minutes after last call. So that puts me at an estimated lights out time of around 11:45. I'm usually well home by that time, watching a movie and relaxing with my Baby and the Kittens. Getting used to this will definintely be a process.

I am watching the last cook close out at Paradise across the street. He is watching something at the bar, no doubt eating his late-night dinner and having a drink. Decompressing. I don't eat after 9pm, so I am starving. I need to remember to bring dinner to work. However, despite the late night, I am grateful. We are blessed to be in this position, to own our own place, masters of our own destiny, going for broke, making dreams, our dreams happen, each hour, each night, each day of the week.

It recalls the original vision for the place: I went from wanting a university career as a tenured professor of Politcal History, to simply wanting to become a humble shop keeper, purveying the best possible wines I can get my hands on. And I could not possibly dream for a better life. I love seeing the wonder, the surprise, the gratitude in people's eyes. I love making people happy. Not drunk (often that happens), but happy. There is a path to happiness, to conviviality, contained in the right bottle of wine. Therein lies my life's goal: to purvey happiness, profundity, wonder.

I hope that I can keep at it, as long as this world gives me the strength.

.commer Cab vs the Pirate Cab

I don't do this very often anymore. Taste wines made in California that is. Nor do I often taste two wines side by side, allowing them to develop in the glass, tracking their progress, in a deliberate effort to judge them. I taste a lot of wine and I remember every wine I have ever tasted. But I usually taste wines for the pleasure of it, only incidentally noting things like color, concentration, extract, tannin, acid, etc.

But yesterday was different. I tasted side by side two wines made in California, one from Coombsville in the Napa Valley, the other from the Santa Ynez Valley. Both wines were 100% Cabernet Sauvignon. Both wines are very recent additions to the commercial wine market, one being completely unavailable to the general public, and the other so prohibitively expesive as to render it unavailable to most average wine drinkers. So I guess the deliberation was justified in this case.

The wines:

2007 Meteor "Perseid" Cabernet Sauvignon, Napa Valley (owned by the former CEO of AOL, hence .commer Cab)

2007 Santa Ynez Valley Cabernet Sauvignon, made by Rob Dafoe (as yet unlabeled). Rob is a Pirate (which explains the other portion of the title of this post).

The bottles were opened almost simultaneously, within a half hour of one another. The wines were tasted before and after decanting. The wines were near identical in color, with Rob's wine showing a bit darker and more opaque (I'd venture to guess that this is because Rob's wine was unfiltered). The Meteor was exuberant on the nose, all bright red fruit, subtle and well integrated oak, ripe, firm tannin with good acidity. As was Rob's wine, except without quite as much polish. Some pleasant green notes, a bit of baked fruit and a broader overall mouthfeel were the main differences. The Meteor reminded me of many Oakville Cabs that I have tasted, and it certainly had a femininity about it, much like the wines of Etude, Dalla Valle and Screaming Eagle. This is a very high quality wine, extremely polished and typical of high-quality Napa Cab. It was remarkable for its restraint and elegance, something I am not always used to seeing in a California Cab this young.

Rob's wine, while of the same overall quality as the Meteor wine, had a different personality entirely. A bit rough around the edges if not surly, it reminded me of many super-seconds I have tasted over the years. Mainly I am thinking of Leoville Las Cases, but I was also reminded of the somewhat brutish 86 Mouton-Rothschild. This wine felt alive with personality and pluck. This was a very distinctive wine, bristling with character and complexity, something very rare indeed, considering that this is a wine from Santa Ynez, and a Santa Ynez Cab to boot! This was the winner in my opinion. It delivered an authenticity that the Meteor wine lacked.

The Meteor wine, curiously, began to completely fall apart about two hours into the tasting. The fruit was gradually overtaken by a bitter, metallic component, and the acid became disjointed, making for a total loss of pleasure. Rob's wine continued to gain weight in the glass, developing notes of black tea, leather and bitter chocolate.

And today it is as it was...still plucky and full of life. Both wines were a real treat and very, very good. But Rob's wine reminded me why I am in the industry in the first place: because truly great, compelling wines are frequently unexpected, around the next corner, from people and places one can never anticipate. I have been known to completely berate Santa Ynez Valley Cabernet Sauvignon, and anyone who knows me at all will tell you how thoroughly underwhelming I find Santa Ynez Valley wines generally. It is really nice to be disabused every now and again, to break the bones in one's head.

Vinyl and Wine

So I went to our favorite new record store in town, Warbler (only two blocks away on De La Guerra Street), and picked up a few records to try out on the new (old) record player that I brought down to the shop this morning. Doesn't sound like much now (I'm running it through an old mixer I had lying around...and lacking a receiver, I am running it through the headphone jack and into my little mp3 station)! But we shall remedy the situation very soon! I envision discounts for anyone who goes and buys a record from Warbler and then comes down and throws it on the record player while enjoying a glass or two!

What did I buy from our friends at Warbler Records and Goods?

"Breakfast at Tiffany's" Soundtrack by Henry Mancini (Big picture of Audrey on the cover smoking her cigarette). .50 cents!!

"Johnny the Fox" by Thin Lizzy (shhh, its a present for Nikki) Price undisclosed (but believe me, GREAT deals to be had!!)

The New Year

The rain comes down sideways, in waves. The storm is off the coast, moving south at a slow clip. Little droplets fall in a uniform pattern upon my window in my dining room. And I am reading about Italy. I always think of Italy when it rains, and Italian Merlot in particular.

My familiarity with this beautiful Bordeaux varietal is a complicated affair. On the one hand, I constantly struggle in my own mind with my personal taste for the grape. On the other hand, Merlot is somewhat of a soapbox for me, as it is so roundly derided in California among "sophisticated" wine drinkers. The classic example which makes my blood boil is contained in the movie Sideways, where the main protagonist (Paul Giamatti's morose, tortured, depressed character) simultaneously worships Cheval Blanc (a wine primarily comprised of Cabernet Franc and Merlot)while holding an unabashed disdain for Merlot. So I am in a constant state of feeling compelled to defend Merlot against it's ignorant maligners, while second-guessing my stalwart support every time I am confronted with another inferior example of the varietal.

Because there are so many bad examples of Merlot. Merlot is considered inferior to the two Cabernet's in California, and is considered of lesser significance to top tier traditial Left-Bank Bordeaux. It is likewise, except for a few examples (I am thinking of Masseto in particular) also considered to play second fiddle to the great Maremma wines of Central Italy. However, this is not to say that Merlot based wines are not in the running for some of the greatest wines produced in the world, or that, without Merlot, the great First Growths would not be irremediably diminished. Merlot as a varietal possesses incredible potential to produce stunning wines, and not just from top-tier producers.

Italian Merlot is of such great interest to me because it is so uniquely expressive of place. There is a finesse and freshness (acid profile) to Italian produced Bordeaux varietals (very hot vintages excepted) generally that sets them apart from any other regional expression, and I think this is most apparent with Merlot. My Eureka moment with Italian Merlot came a few years ago when a Los Angeles based importer tasted me on a beautiful 2005 vintage Italian Merlot From Fruili, produced by Ronco Severo. I am going to do my best to carry this wine at La Tour. Another Eureka wine for me was the 1990 Vignalta Reserve, a gorgeous little Bordeaux Blend heralding From Colli Euganei, a high-altitude growing region sharing the same latitude as Bordeaux in Northwestern Italy (just under Fruili). I will also carry the Vignalta wines at La Tour. Vignalta also produces a gorgeous blend of Merlot and Cabernet Franc called "Gemola", always one of my favorite wines to drink, and a fabulous value given the wines consistent quality.

Well, the rain has stopped...and so have my random ruminations on Italian Merlot. Come and taste it at the shop!