Of White tunics, sneakers, forgiveness, challah and cookies

For all of my non-Jewish readers, there is only one holiday that I could be referring to in the above title: Yom Kippur. The day of judgement. Of atonement. The Holiest of Holy Days. And so on and so forth.

To quickly decode, the white tunics are what rabbis and cantors wear (instead of the customary black ones), sneakers are favored by some because of the custom not to wear leather, forgiveness is what we ask from other humans and one divine being, and challah and cookies (as well as bagels, lox, quiche or other egg based foods) are often what await after abstaining from any food or drink for 24 hours. Actually, it often ends up being more like 27 hours.

I am currently not a religious man. But I am a creature of habit and an occasional follower of cultural customs. Both habits and cultural customs die hard. So while I did not attend synagogue on Yom Kippur for the first time since living in Sevilla nine years ago, I did fast for the day while working in the wine shop. Unfortunately that meant that I could not sample some new Spanish releases from De Maison, or taste a line-up of whiskies from Dewar Rattray. Somehow, though, I do feel like I made the right call. Jewish guilt? Maybe. All I know is that I kept the 16 year streak alive. Hate all you want, you hating non-practicing Jews. I forgive you.

Happy New Year.

BLT and PdA

Without a doubt, the best matched food and wine pairing of the past few weeks was a delicious BLT from Bar Jules paired with the 2007 Clos Roche Blanche L'arpent Pineau d'Aunis. In typical pinot d'aunis fashion, this wine showed gorgeous wild strawberries with a hint of sichuan peppercorns, terrific acidity and very fine finishing tannins. Combined with the crisp, smoky, meaty BLT sandwich it simply could not be beat. It was a terrific Friday lunch. Thanks for bringing the bottle, Mr. Gerard.

The Stranglers: PEACHES (as performed by The Muppets)

Why has this song not yet been sampled?? Or has it been? Such a hard hitting, funky groove. If I were producing a sample based track right now, this would be the sample.

Oh, and the Muppets just tore it up here. Lots of respect to whomever put this one together!

My man Jo Landron is in effect mode. Domaine Bart too!

Obligatory ATCQ reference there, sorry I couldn't resist. Anyway, it is a very happy week when a new container of French wines, including such reliable, consistently good values as the Muscadets of Jo Landron and the Marsannays of Martin Bart, arrives at our warehouse. I haven't had the '06 Bart wines yet as I would like to wait several weeks for them to settle in and recover from their journey. However, I did recently drink a large portion of a bottle of Jo Landron's '07 Amphibolite, which is simply delicious. It is his one wine that is not aged sur lies for an extended period, and as such is not quite as mineral, compact, and intensely flavored as wines such as his Fief du Breils, Marc Ollivier's Clos de Briords, Guy Bossard's 'orthogneiss', and other more serious bottlings of Muscadet. It is, however, soft, pure, and incredibly tasty. Loads of gentle peach and melon rind flavor, with good length and an enormously high thirst quenching factor. Not one to forget about for a while, though. My last few bottles of '06, while enjoyable, are noticeably darker in color and, while gaining in weight, losing the pure, delicate fruit flavors that make this wine so attractive.

In these trying, uncertain financial times, I plan on drinking lots of Muscadet, even more than usual. It's good for you, invigorating and refreshing stuff. Having all but sworn off my credit cards after clearing my debt earlier in the year, I will pay for all of this Muscadet with cash or a debit card.

One re-evaluation and a Blog functionality update

THE CORRECTION

I recently re-tasted the Dressner Maupertuis gamay 'La Guillaume,' which I had tasted a few weeks ago and did not like. Tasting at a properly cool temperature and right after opening (as minimally sulphured and sans soufre wines really ought to be tasted) provided a much better wine, bright and tangy, earthy but not overly so. And definitely not poopy like my first experience with the wine. If you don't require your gamay to pack much mid-palate intensity or persistence, then give this wine a try. Hopefully, its subtle charm is lurking in a fine wine retailer near you.

THE UPDATE

You can now read up-to-date posts on google reader. Just go to the google page, click on the 'more' link, scroll down to click on 'reader' and add this blog. For all of you bloggers out there, the 'following' tool should also now be up-to-date. Thank you to everyone who pointed out this problem. It should now be fixed; please let me know if this is not the case.

In the process of trouble shooting I think that I may have deleted my current RSS feed list, so if you had been receiving these via email until recently, please go to the upper-right hand side of this page, enter your email and re-subscribe. Thanks.

And I'm out.

A taste of MOB from '83

Here is the second on what will be three Mission of Burma posts (the third will be the concert review of their September 27th show at The Independent in San Francisco). The video below is from the companion DVD to the re-issued Vs. album. For those of you not familiar with their history, Boston's Mission of Burma recorded two records, the Signals, Calls and Marches EP (1981) and Vs. (1982), and then called it quits primarily due to guitarist and vocalist Roger Miller's tinnitus. They have clearly influenced dozens of bands, from contemporaries like Sonic Youth and Husker Du, to Fugazi, REM and Pearl Jam, who released their own record titled Vs as a tribute to Mission of Burma. Mission of Burma re-united in 2002 and have gone on to produce two solid, well received albums of new material. The clip below is the post-punk band showing their mid-tempo, melodic side.

Best $25 spent so far this year? Tickets to Mission of Burma

Last night I went to see Mission of Burma perform their seminal classic Vs. at The Independent, one of the better run, more intimate venues for live music in San Francisco. I hope to publish a full show review this week. Allow me to say though, that the show was phenomenal. Those guys really rocked it. Bass, drums, guitar, a few effects pedals, that's it. Oh yes, and the tape delay loop guy hidden offstage around the soundboard. Good shows entertain, great shows transport and lodge themselves in the memory. This show was great.