On ageability....

Though it is a hotbed of drama (and some would say fascism), the ebob board is nonetheless capable of some really fascinating posts, such as this one here. Loire/Alsace/Champagne/Burgundy/German/Austrian critic David Schildnecht has a way with the written word, especially as it pertains to the grape and all things wine (no surprise that someone who covers the coolest - climatically and stylistically - regions so well would have something interesting to say about how wine ages. I'll let you read it and check it out for yourselves.

As for what I think will age, I'm still working on it, and as DS says, so much of this sort of forecasting depends on experience, not only with multiple vintages of general regions but of specific producers. I'm only 28, dude. And I did not grow up with a serious wine cellar in the household. So there's lots of learning ahead. Fortunately this year has been a real education for me personally with regards to tasting fully mature, and maturing, wines of high quality. I've been lucky enough this year to have tasted mature wines such as'89 Luneau Papin Muscadet L d'Or, '76 Varoilles Charmes-Chambertin, '79 Karthauserhof Eitelsbacher Auslese, '81 Cronin PN (central coast CA PN that still tasted fresh, spicy and unbelievably good), '70 Latour, '89 Chasse-Spleen, '27 Domaine Bory Muscat de Rivesaltes and others. And I have also tasted excellent young wines that I think will age gracefully for years: '96 Salon, '96 Fleury, '99 Lopez Bosconia Reserva, '04 Langoa Barton, '02 Santa Cruz Mountain Vineyards PN, '04 de Montille Volnay 'Taillepieds,' '96 Pontet Canet, '04 Conn Valley Cab, '05 Schmitt-Wagner Longuicher Herrenberg Spatlese, and many, many others. So what do I look for? In vague, highly subjective, layman's terms, I look for wines that are already very interesting, highly drinkable and balanced, but seem like they have more to show. So I look for what I view as balance, and then combine it slightly with theory and book smarts, and then go from there. And, I'm guessing, prepare myself to be humbled when I re-visit a wine in 5 years, one that I knew would be a 15yr+ wine, and find it to be over the hill. Most of the fun is in the drinking and experimentation, not in the satisfaction of being right. Though it's always gratifying to be right....

Wouldn't it be interesting to cellar a few 95 pt Spanish, Aussie and Napa wines which are predicted by some to age well for 10+ years and track their progress? If many wine consumers actually were to do this, I would suspect that lots of subscriptions to certain wine publications would be canceled....

De La Soul - Breakadawn

This is just nice and mellow. Though it's not my favorite De la jam, I really dig the Smokey Robinson 'Quiet Storm' sample and overall vibe. Makes me relax after an occasionally frustrating Friday. Happy weekend.

PALO CORTADO - Good stuff if you can get it.

The past few evenings I have been enjoying a nip of Barbadillo 'Obispo Gascon' Palo Cortado. For those of you who may not know, Palo Cortado is somewhere between an Amontillado and Oloroso; i.e., it retains the livelier acidity, saltiness and citric tones of Amontillado while simultaneously suggesting the deeper, darker flavors of Oloroso. And of course there is a walnut nuttiness that lasts for days and extra days as my Guyanese drummer friend might say.

Palo Cortado is basically a sherry aged under flor (white growth caused by yeast indigenous to Andalucia). As you may know a natural, thick tuft of flor growth in a barrel of sherry is destined to remain fino sherry, whereas amontillado sherries are finos with lesser flor growth and additional fortification. An amontillado which loses its flor becomes a Palo Cortado and is fortified even more, as an oloroso would be (to 21-22%). Olorosos are sherries which have never developed a protective layering of flor.

As only 1-2% of all sherries produced are palo cortado, they're fairly rare and not inexpensive. The Barbadillo retails for $35 where I work. For the quality of the wine, palo cortados, like all high quality sherries, are some of the best deals in all of the classic wine regions. Relative to the exorbitant prices of Bdx, burgundy, top-notch Baroli and other Italians, and very likely Champagne in the near future, sherry, along with German riesling, Rioja (traditional), and the Loire valley, are where many of the deals are right now for wines to buy and age for a while.

A Country for Psychos with Creepy Haircuts

WOW....

That's a cool shop Wednesday (vol.I-Cole Hardware)

This may or may not become part I in a series of Wednesday posts leading up to Christmas, posts which will highlight stores I love to visit, or maybe memorialize shops which were loved in their time and have since closed. I'd also like it to be a forum for my 2 or so readers to chime in about places they love to shop. There is something about the neighborhood shopping experience that, whether it's a wine shop, a corner market, a clothing or record boutique, provides a local and satisfying way to support our consumerist urges in a way that also supports others. So let's embrace the creative entrepreneurial spirit, celebrate responsible capitalism and get things started.

When I was a little half-pint, I always enjoyed trips to the Pikesville hardware store. I had no idea what most of the items were that they were selling, nor was I especially curious about what they were. I just loved that there was a store with so many bizarre gadgets and random stuff, all crammed together in a tight space, with a shifting array of rust, metal and topsoil aromas permanently circulating the air. It was the polar opposite of growing up in my parents' home, where everything was incredibly tidy and generally lacking any strong smells. Ours was a home where projects usually involved cleaning or cooking, rather than any sort of home repair projects or fabrications. So the disorderly collection of foreign stuff with which to do foreign home projects always held some sort of distant appeal for me.

My neighborhood hardware store is now a local bay area chain named Cole Hardware. It has all the goodies that I remember from Pikesville Hardware, though in a more organized and logical layout. I went in for a 10mm socket attachment with which I replaced my 43 year old brake pads on my bike. Since this is a San Francisco hardware store - and a savvy one at that - they have a decent selection of kitchen gadgets, environmentally friendly cleaners, and a whole lot of food as you're waiting in line to check out. Not just your usual selection of candy, there is also green & black's chocolate, cliff bars, vege. beef jerky, ice cream, whatever you need. More shops should take a cue from Cole's: stock cool, unexpected stuff in addition to your usual mix of products. People appreciate that shit. At least I do....

My lone Loire Valley Disappointment in the past several months

The 2005 La Grange Tiphaine l'equilibriste Montlouis had all the makings of a great wine: it is produced from old vine Loire Valley Chenin Blanc, by a talented winemaker (Didier Delecheneau), in a very solid vintage in Montlouis. Unfortunately I found this dessert wine to be out of balance. Way sweet, not enough acidity to balance it out, and even hot. At 12% alcohol for a Chenin Blanc dessert wine, the heat - now that I take the alc into account - does not surprise me. The flavors were of cooked apples in a lot of allspice, cinnamon and sugar. There was a spiciness that immediately made me think of botrytis, as well as a pungent brand of Montlouis, funky horseradish type of minerality which I find in Chidaine's Montlouis wines. It is one of the rare types of minerality that sometimes KO's me and is just too much. Riesling from Rangen in Alsace has had a similar effect, as has a red wine from the Mt Etna region in Sicily. Maybe it's the volcanic soil in those two wines? Anyway, I had l'equilibriste with apple pie at dessert, hoping that the sweetness of the pie would balance out the wine as is often the case with dessert and dessert wine pairings, but not even a delicious home baked apple pie could save this poor Chenin Blanc. Oh well. I still quite enjoy La Grange Tiphaine's Bel Air Sec, Les Cassieres, Rose and Cot. And I still need to try his Becarre Cab Franc.

Tryptophan makes you sleepy ( a brief photo essay)

These three pics may be all I can dig up, but we'll see...Enjoy.