Dinner of savory lentils, green salad, bread and cheeses, served with good, honest red wine
This was how we celebrated Bastille Day at the homefront. Puy lentils, sauteed with garlic and chorizo, accompanied by a large salad, a trio of cheeses (which were, come to think of it, mainly Spanish) and bread. Our wine accompaniment, though, was absolutely French, and a wine I have written up a few months ago: Beau Thorey Vin de Table 'Bogus,' a delicious, biodynamically made, low sulphur wine from Pic-St-Loup, consisting of grenache, syrah, carignane, oeillade, alicante, carignane blanc, and perhaps others? According to the bottle it is produced 'a echelle humaine' which you can probably deduce means 'a human scale.' 40-80 year old vines yield great fruit concentration and aromas which are intensely redolent of lavender, other flowers, and mixed berry fruits - especially olallie berries which are sort of like mulberries. A light, nuanced pretty wine on the palate, with gentle acidity and excellent overall balance. 12% alcohol. Perhaps it was not assertive enough for the lentils, which were very full flavored and seasoned with pimenton. Not the best match, but it worked ok.
1997 Kalin Cellars Pinot Noir Cuvee DD Sonoma County
'97 is the current release for proprietor Terry Leighton's sonoma pinot noir. So they are even slower than LdH in releasing their wines. Not that super late releases make the wine good, but you've got to support people who are holding back their wines a decade because that's when they think they'll begin to taste the way they should. Besides the fact that this is delicious, and released ridiculously late, I don't know much about the fruit source, vinification, or other pertinent details of this iconoclastic wine [after a bit of research I can say that the fruit comes from David Demostene's ranch in the Alexander Valley. Wine is fermented in wooden cuvees and aged in 50% new French oak]. Bright, but developed, nose, with red fruit jam and burnt brown sugar nuances on the palate. Racy, mouthwatering Pinot Noir, with the acidity and structure to possibly age another decade. Who knows, maybe longer. I recently drank a bottle of the '79 Kalin Cellars Santa Barbara Pinot Noir and that tasted great. You should try this wine, Robert Parker gave it 91 pts and said that he should review Kalin Cellars' wines more often....
'Foreplay/Long Time'
A classic rock radio staple, Boston truly brings the rock here, with some prog flourishes as well. Specifically I'm a big fan of the breakdown section with hand claps (love those hand claps), and the bass playing, especially the repetitive quarter notes - further proof that sometimes just playing the same note over and over again sounds really good. If songs this good were played on the radio in succession, I might develop tendinitis from banging my steering wheel too often.
Facebook
I had been more aloof, as opposed to resistant to, the whole facebook thing until recently. It's amazing how so many people come out of the woodwork. People I barely knew in high school, cousins galore, fellow wine bloggers...who could be next?
This was how we celebrated Bastille Day at the homefront. Puy lentils, sauteed with garlic and chorizo, accompanied by a large salad, a trio of cheeses (which were, come to think of it, mainly Spanish) and bread. Our wine accompaniment, though, was absolutely French, and a wine I have written up a few months ago: Beau Thorey Vin de Table 'Bogus,' a delicious, biodynamically made, low sulphur wine from Pic-St-Loup, consisting of grenache, syrah, carignane, oeillade, alicante, carignane blanc, and perhaps others? According to the bottle it is produced 'a echelle humaine' which you can probably deduce means 'a human scale.' 40-80 year old vines yield great fruit concentration and aromas which are intensely redolent of lavender, other flowers, and mixed berry fruits - especially olallie berries which are sort of like mulberries. A light, nuanced pretty wine on the palate, with gentle acidity and excellent overall balance. 12% alcohol. Perhaps it was not assertive enough for the lentils, which were very full flavored and seasoned with pimenton. Not the best match, but it worked ok.
1997 Kalin Cellars Pinot Noir Cuvee DD Sonoma County
'97 is the current release for proprietor Terry Leighton's sonoma pinot noir. So they are even slower than LdH in releasing their wines. Not that super late releases make the wine good, but you've got to support people who are holding back their wines a decade because that's when they think they'll begin to taste the way they should. Besides the fact that this is delicious, and released ridiculously late, I don't know much about the fruit source, vinification, or other pertinent details of this iconoclastic wine [after a bit of research I can say that the fruit comes from David Demostene's ranch in the Alexander Valley. Wine is fermented in wooden cuvees and aged in 50% new French oak]. Bright, but developed, nose, with red fruit jam and burnt brown sugar nuances on the palate. Racy, mouthwatering Pinot Noir, with the acidity and structure to possibly age another decade. Who knows, maybe longer. I recently drank a bottle of the '79 Kalin Cellars Santa Barbara Pinot Noir and that tasted great. You should try this wine, Robert Parker gave it 91 pts and said that he should review Kalin Cellars' wines more often....
'Foreplay/Long Time'
A classic rock radio staple, Boston truly brings the rock here, with some prog flourishes as well. Specifically I'm a big fan of the breakdown section with hand claps (love those hand claps), and the bass playing, especially the repetitive quarter notes - further proof that sometimes just playing the same note over and over again sounds really good. If songs this good were played on the radio in succession, I might develop tendinitis from banging my steering wheel too often.
I had been more aloof, as opposed to resistant to, the whole facebook thing until recently. It's amazing how so many people come out of the woodwork. People I barely knew in high school, cousins galore, fellow wine bloggers...who could be next?
