The Wine Commonsewer

One! Two! Three! Four! United States Marine Corps!

Good Morning Gentle Readers,

234 years ago at Tun Tavern, on the waterfront in the City of Brotherly Love, Uncle Sam's Misguided Children came squalling into this world. If you must go to war these boys is who you want at your back.

Commandant's message here. 

Wonder if they'll be serving any of this at the Marine Corps Ball come Saturday:

My buddy Benito reviews it here.

For the guys out there that still think of wine as a girly drink, get over it. The Norwegian version of 'cheers!' is skål, which means 'skull'. This goes back to the practice of Vikings drinking wine* out of the hollowed-out skulls of their enemies.

As Ever,

TWC

Tear Down This Wall

Good Morning Gentle Readers,

In the 28 years the Berlin Wall stood, about five thousand East German citizens escaped its bleak facade. Several hundred did not make it, including Peter Fechter who was killed on August 17, 1962. He was shot by border guards while scrambling over the wall and fell back into no man's land. He screamed and bled for an hour before dying. Peter was eighteen and his sole crime was an attempt to escape from tyranny.

Then, twenty years ago today the gates opened and the wall came down. What was once an executable offense has become as routine as morning coffee.

After the wall tumbled a friend returned to his childhood home where he'd lived with strangers as a German refugee in East Berlin. His father had been a German soldier and besides the fighting and death there was a three year search after the war to locate his family. Hans told me that the neighborhood looked exactly the same in 1990 as it had in 1946. Bomb cratered, pockmarked roads and crumbling, war torn buildings, still half standing. Never bulldozed. Never rebuilt. Such is the promise of socialism.    

History of the Berlin Wall here.

As Ever,

TWC

Drove 500 Miles Today and Never Even Left LA Carmen Cabernet 181 Merlot

Good Morning Gentle Readers,

Most of the denizens of the Bay Area up north are pretty certain that the Los Angeles city limits begin around the Crystal Palace in Bakersfield and then rolls out to the Mexican border. Keeping that in mind, it seems fair to say that.....

I've gone 500 miles today. And never even left L.A.

Actually, it was Wednesday.

First off it was lunch with Leo, the Old Commie, at Crazy Water in Rancho Mirage, which, for those who live elsewhere is essentially Palm Springs. Panini with spicy yummy stuff and Leo's Caesar with anchovies. Simi Cabernet, which I swear was at the edge. Not past it, but right there. At [coughs] fourteen bucks a glass? More on that in another post.

90 street level degrees on the sidewalk in Palm Springs meant shorts and sandals but TWC needed jeans and a sweater for San Diego on a fall evening. Highway 111 back to the Casa and a quick change of clothes.

Zipped down to San Diego with Milton in that sweet little two-seater Beamer (Z-4?) of his for an evening at Syrah. The Good Book says thou shalt not covet thy neighbor's wife, ass, manservant, or BMW. Workin' on that. Syrah is a wine bar just down the street from Croce's (yes, that guy) and just down the stairs at Fifth and E in the Gaslamp District.

Gary Vaynerchuk of Wine Library TV was in town doing a book signing and a little wine critique. Miltie was angling for an autographed book. TWC was there strictly for the wine and the company. Have to say the 181 Merlot and the Carmen Cabernet were both decent, although far from earth shattering. Big plus: the pours were generous. One can forgive a multitude of sins if the sommelier is generous. TWC ignored the gripes about the white wine because everyone knows that all wines would be red if given half a chance. I mean, WTH? Of course the Pinot Grigio was terrible.

About an hour in, the crowd began to get a little more raucous. Then, as word came of the Yanks 4-2 win this dark-haired chick gave TWC the finger. Guess she wasn't much of a Yankee fan.

The Carmen Cabernet is a Chilean Maipo Valley red. A little dusky, a little bit of Bordeaux styling. Not bad for an under-ten-dollar every day drinking wine. 

The 181, so named for the clone that produced it, is a Kunde Estates Merlot. At fifteen bucks US, it's a little steep in the price/value ratio. 

That's Miltie to the left, Gary in the middle. No, we're not helping him to a cab.....or to a couch.....or to Betty Ford.

Bonus:

As Ever,

TWC

I Ain't Crazy

Good Morning Gentle Readers,

Many long years ago TWC walked into the head on the second deck of Hangar 296 at MCAS El Toro and some Marine had spray painted this on the wall.....

I AIN'T CRAZY

Dam sure somebody's crazy, have you read the headlines lately?

Video here.

As Ever,

TWC

Four Buck Chuck at 7-11? Yosemite Road Wines or Yosemite Road Kill?

Good Morning Gentle Readers,

The demand for wine continues unabated and the newest exploitable demographic are those who dash into the local 7-11 convenience store for a Slim Jim and a cup of coffee or a suitcase of Bud after a long day on the job. 

In its first foray into global merchandising, 7-Eleven, Inc. (SEI) in the U.S. and Seven-Eleven Japan (SEJ) are jointly introducing two proprietary wines -- a Chardonnay and a Cabernet Sauvignon -- today under the Yosemite Road label. These are California wines produced by The Wine Group exclusively for 7-Eleven(R) stores and its parent company, Seven & i Holdings Co., Ltd. of Tokyo.

Experienced, award-winning wine-makers John Willumson and Jim McDonald were tapped for the task. The winning vintners created a Chardonnay, described as fresh and zesty with notes of apricot, peach and honey, and a full-bodied Cabernet Sauvignon with juicy plum overtones. Both are well balanced, offered at an affordable price and can be enjoyed anytime of the year.

7-11 is the largest convenience store chain in the world with more than 36,000 stores and 53 billion in annual revenue. With that kind of economies of scale and marketing experience we might accidentally see a half decent wine at a more than decent price. Let's hope for the latter. Stay tuned. 

Story here and here.

Note: There was a Yosemite Road Vineyards but this ain't it.

Bonus:

Take a good look at the clock through the window, and then the date on the photo.  You can click to enlarge the picture. Only one person on the planet would have ever noticed this in a billion years and he made the immediate connection. Yelping and scrambling, he sprinted to the rental car, popped the trunk, and grabbed the camera. All before the time changed to 7:12.

That's right. It's 7:11 at 7-11 on 7 November (7-11) 2001

As Always,

TWC

Tip of the glass to Raphael Knapp. 

Photo Credit: Will (Mrs TWC's twin sister's hubby. Didya follow that?) taken on the North Kohala coast of the Big Island of Hawaii at the only store within 15 miles.

Dia de los Muertos All Souls Day Day of the Dead

Good Morning Gentle Readers,

TWC is off to the cemetery to dig up some relatives for a picnic. Nice day for it, too. Sunny with warm breezes and views to eternity (pun intended). Prolly shoulda saved that mash up video of corpse bride for today (goin' to a party where no one's left alive). No matter.

 

Jake was pretty proud of his pumpkin carving skills

Halloween is now the second most popular holiday too-do in America. That was fairly apparent as the TWC family made the rounds, starting with Jim & Karla's cemetery and ending up at a homemade haunted house that the proprietors had spent the better part of two weeks getting ready.

The Boy is the one who looks like he escaped from Stephen King's It.

More TWC Halloween photos here.

As Ever,

TWC

California's Wine Culture Was Born on All Saints Day

Good Morning Gentle Readers,

On All Saints Day 1776 Mission San Juan Capistrano was founded for the second and final time by Father Junipero Serra. Of singular importance, Mission San Juan Capistrano represents the dawn of California's wine culture. It wasn't Napa, Lodi, or Cucamonga that witnessed the first cultivation of the vine in Alta California.

Adobe Crushing Vat

Mission Grapes were crushed in the above adobe vat by young Juaneno (Acagchemem) Indian men whose legs and feet were carefully washed beforehand and who wore freshly laundered clothing. Once crushed, the juice flowed into an adobe vat (tank?) in an adjacent room for fermentation.

Anchored off San Juan Capistrano in 1825, Captain John Hall recorded in the ship's log that.....

Good wine can be procured from the Friars, both white wine and red, the latter being of fine flavor.

Mission grapes (Criolla) were of uncertain origin, but recent DNA testing has linked the Mission grape to the Listan Prieta grape of Castile Spain, which is now largely extinct as a result of phylloxera outbreaks of the 19th century.

The Bell Wall was erected after the Great Stone Church collapsed during the earthquake of 1812

The Padres made both red and white wine. Keep in mind that red wine is red because the skins are left to ferment which produces both the red color and many of the flavors associated with red wine. Clearest example of that is Champagne, a white sparkling wine, most often made from red Pinot Noir grapes. You know, Miles fave. The boys in the wool smocks and Huarache Sandals were a versatile bunch and produced dry wines, sweet wines (bleahhhhh!), brandy, and a fortified dessert wine called Angelica.

In the end, although the Mission grapevine is a heavy producer, by the mid-1800's it was supplanted by Zinfandel, a much better wine grape, which some consider native to California (it isn't).

A couple of years ago there was a movement afoot to designate Zin as the official California Historic Grape or something like that. Didn't go over with the Cabernet set in Napa too well. While Zinfandel has a long and storied history, TWC insists that the Mission Grape truly is California's Heritage Grape.

Fountain & Gardens at Mission San Juan Capistrano

Ruins of the Great Stone Church

As Ever,

TWC

Believe I'm Sinkin' Down

Happy All Hallow's E'een Gentle Readers,

TWC went down to the Crossroads in Clarksdale Mississippi (pretty sure that's pronounced Misipi) with the newlyweds* a week or so ago. Highway 61 between Tunica and Clarksdale is the flattest highway in the world. Makes Kansas look like the Rockies. There isn't a hint of a curve or a rise for thirty miles.

Spent a spell at the Blues Museum in the old Yazoo and Mississippi Valley Railroad freight depot where they had carefully reassembled Muddy Waters' sharecropper cabin. Interestingly, Chatalaina's daddy was born into a depression era sharecropper family as well. Those were hardscrabble days in the Delta no matter your skin color.

Tommy Johnson never made any bones about how he learned the blues.....

You want to learn how to make songs yourself, you take your guitar and you go to where the road crosses that way.....just a little ' fore 12 that night.....be playing a piece there by yourself.....A big black man will walk up there and take your guitar and he'll tune it. And then he'll play a piece and hand it back to you. That's the way I learned to play anything I want.

Legendary bluesman Robert Johnson was not as forthright as Tommy but the rumors and innuendo persist. Some of that is traced back to Son House.....

When Robert Johnson got through playing all our mouths was open. He sold his soul to the devil to get to play like that.

Henry Goodman saw the vision and said it was Rosedale, not Clarksdale, where Robert Johnson sold his soul to the Man In Black, and I don't mean Johnny Cash.....

Robert Johnson thinking about Son House preaching to him, Put that guitar down, boy, you drivin’ people nuts. Robert Johnson needing as always a woman and some whiskey. Big trees all around, dark and lonesome road, a crazed, poisoned dog howling and moaning in a ditch alongside the road sending electrified chills up and down his spine, coming up on a crossroads just south of Rosedale. Robert Johnson, feeling bad and lonesome, knows people up the highway in Gunnison. Can get a drink of whiskey and more up there. Man sitting off to the side of the road on a log at the crossroads says, You’re late, Robert Johnson.

Chatalaina told us that day that any crossroads in the Delta would do so long as it was isolated and the moon was right.

Video here. 

As Ever,

The Wine Commonsewer

Photo Credit: Bill Kalles

*No Star has done made sure that Lone Chatalaine ain't lonely no more

He Couldn't Bear It

Thoreau on Fear of the Dark

I have heard of many going astray even in the village streets, when the darkness was so thick you could cut it with a knife, as the saying goes….

Leave Your Body At The Door

Good Morning Gentle Readers,

There's no escape from death's embrace, though you lead it on a merry chase.—The Book of Counted Sorrows

This is a particularly creative mash up of scenes from the Corpse Bride and Nightmare Before Christmas.

Video here.

Wayne had this played at his funeral.

As Always,

TWC

This is Halloween

Video here.

Tip of the glass to J.C.

A Public Service Message From TWC

The Doctor Is In (Five Cents Please)

Good Morning Gentle Readers,

Sometimes TWC hangs out his shingle.

Guy told me today that he passionately hated his medication. It made him violently sick most of the morning, tapered off later in the day I guess. He asked me how anybody could be sick and starving simultaneously. Not being an MD, TWC took that question to be rhetorical in nature. Said his head felt like somebody had the back of it in a vise grip and that it makes him bitchy at his family. Pretty sure he wanted to say more about that but he let it go. Says when nobody is around he screams in rage at things that wouldn't ordinarily bother most people. The dogs hide.

I wanted to go over some paperwork with a sweet old woman this week. She's worried about the specter of assisted living and made some arrangements for an annuity. I talked to her rep at the bank on Friday last about it and must have spooked her. Like an old time melodrama, Ms Snidely Whiplash showed up at the old lady's doorstep on, get this, *Sunday Morning*. Put the arm on her to sign the papers and transfer the money, presumably so the bad old accountant wouldn't put the kabash on the whole deal. I might have, too, because the deal wasn't what the rep told my client it was. Hate people that manipulate old people. Most people blame the institution, but really, it's just the snakes that work there.         

Years ago a Jehovah Witness Latino gardener client broke down in the office. Great huge gasping sobs, the kind where it feels like the wind's been knocked out of you. It was Christmas. Mexican folk and Witnesses and my wacky sister are all old school. It is the *MAN's* job to take care of his family and my guy couldn't bear that his wife took a job so's the bambinos could see proof of Santa that year.

My advice to all?

Drink more red wine.

Five Cents Please.

Bonus:

As Ever,

TWC

“Nothin’ Says Lovin’ Like Something From the Coven.”—Tim Allen