Bike Repair and Co-op Champagne

I have just begun cleaning up and restoring an early 60's Bianchi Gran Sport (similar to the one above) with some help from the good folks at the Bike Kitchen. I know next to nothing about bikes, but look forward to learning a bit via the restoration process. This one is a classic! Emerald green frame, all original Campagnolo components, original Bianchi leather seat (looks like a Brooks), and other assorted things that bike geeks who have seen this have pointed out: chrome on headset, Bianchi badge on front, dual wing nut tire releases. So if the bike doesn't ride well and I need to sell it, I at least have some components that collectors will more than willingly take off my hands.

Step one is rust removal - there is some serious accumulated rust on the wheels, pedals and other spots. This bici (velo for the franco-frenchies) has not seen any road in over 40 years! As scrubbing off rust with a brillo pad is tough work, my friend Josh, who helps to run the Bike Kitchen and also buys wine for Bi-Rite market, offered me a blind taste of something with bubbles in a tiny dixie cup. I guessed big house champagne with a good bit of PN in it. It was fine - definitely champagne and of ok quality but not at all exciting. And I was right - 1997 Palmes d'or from Feuillate. Apparently, vintage co-op champagne tastes like non-vintage NM bubbly from an ok house. Regardless, it felt good to take an occasional break from the brillo pad and sip some champanskoyo.

Step 2 is an overhaul of the bike, which I am told could mean a lot of things depending on what we find. What I am excited about is that, after replacing the tires, I should be able to ride the bike as is. And then slowly tackling the overhaul.

Yep - moving to SF is gradually turning me into a bike geek.

Old school Funk - TOP 10 songs in the rotation at work

Muzak is better than no music, but it seems that we have a need for some more varied programming on the ever popular old school funk channel at work. Here is a sampling of some of the songs I hear every week, sometimes a few times in the same day:

"Bustin' Loose" - the classic Chuck Brown funk song (pre go-go Chuck)
"Strawberry Letter 23" - the Brothers Johnson version, which was, if I recall correctly, used a few years back in a Special K cereal commerical. Too bad we don't have the Shuggie Otis original, which is far superior.
"Lips like Candy" - Man this song is annoying. I hope I don't hear it for a while.
"You Dropped a Bomb on Me"- Frankie Beverly and Maze at their early electro best.
"Superstition" - A little Stevie will never get old, even if it's as heavily in the rotation as this track.
"The Big Payback" - James Brown, godfather of soul. This jam has obviously been sampled quite a bit as well.
"Love Roller Coaster" - Ohio Players. Just slightly less often played would be "Skin Tight"
"The Revolution will not be Televised" - Gil Scott Heron. I often want to go through the shop preaching that the revolution will not be Parkerized, will not be Parkerized, will not be parkerized.
"Hollywood Swingin'" - Kool & The Gang. James Brown's favorite funk band. This used to be very heavily in the mix, not quite as much recently, but holding steady with 1 play every week
"Genius of Love" - Tom Tom Club dancefloor filler, 100% pure, unadulterated fun, natural fun!

And once again, Les Cretes

As much as I liked their Torrette, I was looking forward to trying their Chardonnay. My expectation was that it would not lack for acidity, be very mineral and maybe even be built for some mid-term (5-7 years) cellaring. Sadly, it does not appear to be so.

The 2006 Les Cretes Chardonnay, from Val d'Aoste, is perfectly sound, decently made, fruity, boring Chardonnay. I give it credit for not being a Planeta international oak bomb chard, but the flavors in this wine are nonetheless rounded, pear and apple flavors - very similar to many Chards I've had from the Languedoc. I tried a second bottle which had been opened earlier, and it did come across as being a bit more mineral, with perhaps a little more acidity and nerve. Still, not quite what I expected.

Oh well. There is always Chablis and Chardonnay from the Jura....

My exploration into the '70s continues

This time the wine is a 1974 Louis Martini Cabernet Sauvignon. It was one of the big four Cab producers in those days (Beaulieu, Charles Krug and Inglenook are the other three). The first thing I noticed with this bottle was the mid-shoulder fill, which might have otherwise deterred me from purchasing it had the cost not been as low as it was. The second observation was that there was no foil capsule; instead, covering the cork there was a plastic closure with a place for you to tear it off, sort of like a plastic bottle of juice. Interesting...apparently low to mid-end wines used this type of closure back then.

So I poured a taste of this 33 year old Cab into my glass and noticed that the color looked surprisingly healthy, a mature, opaque brick color, with no noticeable browning at the edges. On the nose, there was lots of iron and beef blood at first. The palate showed very mature, but simple red fruit flavors, without a ton of complexity or length. As the wine opened up after 20 or so minutes, aromas became more complex, showing roasted coffee, green peppercorn, and some darker fruits. Similarly, the palate showed a greater depth of flavor, with dark fruits beginning to emerge and more complexity, greater weight and more concentration. By 40 minutes the wine was fading to what it was at first, and I imagine that had I drunk more another 20 minutes later the wine would have been going, going, gone.

Nevertheless, the '74 Louis Martini was no deadbeat cab, it proved to have just a little life in it yet.

Drink old wine. It's fun, and always an education.

Black Moon-Who Got The Propz

I'll tell you who got da propz. Why naturally, it's 5 F-T, Evil Dee and Buckshot! OK, the lyrics are so-so, flow is aiight, but this will always be a classic. Enjoy the video, and happy weekend.

OLD WORLD OLD SCHOOL GOES POP: BOYZ

Not only am I jumpstarting the weekend with an early youtube video, but it's a recent release! A rarity on this site. So much energy in this video, and the song is ridiculous - no, in fact it is RIDONCULOUS. The video reminds me of early De la Soul, with all the neon and pastels, images and messages scrawled onto the screen, and sense of movement. A bit more frenetic in this video, though. Filmed on site in Kingston JA.

My first wine from Val d'aoste

Les Cretes Torrette 2005. Located in the Italian portion of the alps, north (and west) of the Piemonte, east of France and south of Switzerland, the val d'aoste does not produce a lot of wine - it is the smallest region of wine production in Italy - and I can't recall ever seeing a Val d'Aoste wine, at least in a retail shop. Val d'Aosta lies to the east of France. As it borders the French alps, I wouldn't be surprised if the region's wines are reminiscent of Swiss wines and some of the wines of the Jura. This particular red val d'aosta wine, made from petit rouge, mayolet, tintorier, and coralin, is light in color, though not quite so light as a Poulsard. It had some very snappy mixed berry fruit, with an intense licorice note, about as intense a licorice as I've tasted in wine - it was literally like biting into a piece of black licorice. Distinctive, though it is not revealing a whole lot right now. With its moderately high acidity and apparent tightness, it might be interesting to lay a few bottles down for 3-5 years and see what happens. Cool stuff if you can find it.

Alpine wine - that's what's up.