Check out these DUBS!

Now that I'm not a regularly performing member of JohnStone, I suppose that I don't feel as shy about promoting a new record release. OK, I wasn't shy about doing so before, but all you musicians and artists out there, does it not always seem a wee bit awkward promoting your art? I mean, in an ideal world that's what the publicists, the marketers, and the labels are for, right? However, given the dual realities of the record industry's demise and the ability of social media to work for those who work it hard, why not work it hard, right? I mean, if someone as busy as ?uestlove can tweet throughout the day, any self respecting musician should at least aspire to do the same, right?

As many of you know, Tuesday is the official day for new album releases, whether it is at your local record shop or on iTunes. This Tuesday, I encourage you to check out Dub Confidence, the new release from my former bandmates. These are dub remixes of songs from the Innocent Children album the band released in 2007. If you're not familiar with dub reggae, look for largely instrumental versions of songs where the various components of a song are at turns emphasized, removed, and doused with healthy doses of reverb and delay.

You can check out snippets of the songs on iTunes or CDBaby. If you're so inclined, I'd love for anyone to help in one of the following ways:

A.) Listen to the music
B.) Tell friends about the music
C.) Buy the music
D.) Any combination of A,B, and C
E.) Extra credit! Review the record on Amazon, iTunes, and/or CDBaby.

Alright, that's it for now. But not for the week. For my twitter peeps out there, things may be getting a little more self promotional than usual. Consider yourselves forewarned.

Until the next time, good DUB to you and yours.

The job ain't that bad: More notes on old wines

When I'm not stocking, helping customers, tasting with suppliers, reading email offers, deleting email offers, crafting our very own email offers, or conducting staff tastings, I might be tasting through a line-up of curiosities from vintages past. A sampling of one such recent tasting:

1992 Etienne Sauzet Batard Montrachet

While I would argue that this particular wine does not make the case for long-term cellaring of your big, fancy white Burgundy, I had a tough time finding too much fault with it. It was not maderized or otherwise flawed. The nose was creamy, with ripe grapefruit, a hint of marzipan, maybe some botrytis? The palate also showed a creamy, citric quality, with moderate acidity and most impressively, a wonderful texture. A spicy, bitter honey inflected finish. It would be like an aged Auslese if only there had been more residual sugar, higher acidity and lower alcohol.

1986 Beringer Private Reserve Cabernet Napa Valley

This was showing terrifically. Red fruits, particularly cherries, with some savory and leafy qualities on the nose, opened up to a lovely palate that semed nearly delicate at this point. Unbeknownst to me, this bottling is not all from valley floor fruit, but rather has a significant chunk of Spring and Howell Mountain grapes in it.

1979 Chateau Palmer Margaux

A favorite from this vintage for many people, many think that the '79 Palmer was the best Bordeaux wine of the vintage, a year which was difficult and which favored the wines of Margaux. Aromatically it did not disappoint, showing a real spicy quality - sort of like a house made chipotle ketchup but more subtle and less sweet. Flavors were savory, with the fruit hanging in and the tannins fully resolved. Subtle, to be sure, but still showing plenty of interest and elegance at over 30 years of age.

1971 Chateau Coutet Sauternes

I don't have that much experience with older Sauternes. Drinking them young, though, holds no appeal for me. The wines conjure up an image of dissolving orange blossom honey and marmelade in sauvignon blanc, and blending by immersion. Climens is always the exception. I don't know why, it just is, I do like that wine. Anyway, this aged sauternes was not quite a revelation, but was really damn tasty. My notes read, "No spit wine." Exotic mango and guava flavors were balanced. The wine reminded me of a very good older Auslese for its texture and sense of balance.

Deux Chinon from '02 and an unexpected pairing

I was craving cab franc. Not a usual wine craving for me in the summertime, more likely a Fall, winter and early Spring craving. That is when I'm more inclined to want to drink something substantial and a bit savory, but with the bright flavors and relative textural lightness where you know you are still in the Loire Valley. Seeing as I live in San Francisco, though, and that July as well as August can well offer many cool, autumnal nights, I caught the Chinon bug and decided to crack open a few.

The Chinons

2002 Philippe Alliet Chinon

A basic bottling from this producer, it was honestly clumsy. It was like an aging, out of shape athlete type of Chinon. The muscle had turned to fat, maybe there was a hint of stale cigarettes on its clothes. The wine was front loaded, with a clipped finish and some brett which was increasingly noticeable.

2002 Olga Raffault "Les Picasses" Chinon

I know, comparing a specific terroir such as this to a basic domaine bottling is not fair. Needless to say, this was the far more enjoyable and complex wine of the two. To my tastes, this is nearly perfectly balanced right now between fruit, acid, tannin structure and secondary development. The wine has silky Chinon texture, terrific fruit purity and real presence on the palate. Given that this bottle continued to develop and drink well over a few days, I would not hesitate to age and re-visit this wine several years from now (in fact I will likely do just that as I have a bottle left). However, it sure is drinking well now.

The Pairing

Ever try Chinon with pesto? While pesto with a crisp Italian white is the more often recommended choice, I found that the slightly herbal, leafy quality of the Raffault Les Picasses complemented the pungent, garlicky, herbal pesto, and provided enough acidity to refresh between forkfuls.

The Trivia

Chinon is also the name of a photographic lens manufacturer. They are supposed to be pretty good.

SF Natural Wine Week 8/23-8/28

SF Natural Wine week. Do it.

Many thanks to Wolfgang and co-organizer, Nattie Light (just dubbed him that, but I think it's a good nickname that might stick) for all their work putting this together.

For your convenience, I am copying and pasting the schedule of events from their site below:

Monday 8/23 – Terroir Natural Wine Merchant

Time: 6.30pm for the first seating; the second seating is at 9pm.
What: The boys at Terroir – one of the premier natural wine destinations in the US – are hosting a special dinner 3-course dinner with wine pairings in their shop/bar on Folsom Street.
Cost: $80
For more information, please contact Terroir at 415-558-9946

Tuesday 8/24 – Bi-Rite Market

Time: 7pm – 9pm
What: Bi-Rite’s wine buyer, Trac Le, will feature a selection of 6 – 8 everyday natural wine values, available for $20 and under. In other words, wines you can take home tonight for not a lot of money!
Where: Hosted at Bi-Rite’s 18 Reasons space at 593 Guerrero (at 18th St.)
Cost: $10 for members of 18 Reasons; $15 for non-members
For more information please contact Trac Le at Bi-Rite Market at 415-241-9760

Wednesday 8/25 - Biondivino

Time: 6pm – 8pm
What: Local italophile Queen Bee, Ceri Smith, will feature a selection of Italian natural wines at her intimate shop in lower Russian Hill.
For more information, including cost and specific wines being served, please contact Biondivino at 415-673-2320

Thursday 8/26 – Arlequin Wine Merchant

Time: 6pm-8pm
What: Ian Becker, wine director at Arelquin and Absinthe as well as the co-founder of SF Natural Wine Week, will host a walk around tasting featuring the innovative winemakers leading the way for natural wine in California.
Cost: $20
For more information, please contact Arlequin Wine Merchant at 415-863-1104

Friday 8/27 – San Francisco Wine Trading Company

Time: 5:30pm-7:30pm
What: One of San Francisco’s top independent retailers and bastion of fine wine in the fog-bound western half of the city, the San Francisco Wine Trading Company will present natural wines from Europe and North America. Featured producers include La Grange Tiphaine, Occhipinti, Maestro Sierra, Luis Rodriguez, Stave 28 and County Line.
Cost: $15 (including appetizers)
For more information please contact San Francisco Wine Trading Company at 415-731-6222

Saturday 8/28 – The Jug Shop

What: The lovely Floribeth Schumacher will host a tasting of her favorite natural white wines from Italy — mostly Friuli, but also other Italian wine regions. Of course ‘white’ is relative here; expect a few of these to be orange wines.
Time: Afternoon
Cost: $25
Please contact the Jug Shop directly to confirm the exact time of the tasting.

Long time, no beer post

As the title suggests, it's been a while since I have discussed beer - at least on this site. As we recently received in (and very quickly sold through) our allocation of some lambics and geuze from Cantillon, and as I anticipated the usual run on them by purchasing two of each (one for now, one for the cellar) I thought that it would be an opportune time to write about these fantastic, peerless beers of the sour style. If you are not familiar with sour beer, their home base is in Belgium and Flanders - though they are so popular now that most countries with a serious craft brewing scene produce at least a few examples. Lambics and geuze beers consist of water, hops, barley, wheat, and often times a single variety of fruit. They ferment spontaneously with native yeasts as well as bacteria such as Brettanomyces. After fermentation, they are typically aged for at least a year in used oak barrels and then refermented in the bottle. Lambics are from a single batch. Geuze is a blend of 1,2 and 3 year old lambics blended for their distinctive flavor components.

From my experience, Cantillon makes the tastiest, most balanced and elegant geuze and lambic beers. Below are some quick notes for the Cantillon beers I drank last week.

Cantillon Geuze

Crisp, tangy sour apricot flavors with some subtle Brett characteristics. Refreshing in a tough to pinpoint way, this is sneakily complex as well. I like to serve it in a white wine glass, just as I prefer to drink champagne.

2007 Cantillon Iris

Whereas the Geuze above is a blend of different lambics, this is a single lambic brew. There is no wheat in this one, just barley, water and a 50-50 blend of dry and fresh hops. As a result, the beer has a darker, more amber color. Its aromas and flavors are more burnished, with a bit of sour, but less fizz and deeper, bassier tones than the geuze. In a seriously high quality line-up, this might be my favorite
of the bunch.

Cantillon Kriek

Spicy, tart, complex and deeply satisfying. The essence of fermented cherries as only a lambic can manifest. I find a tough time describing how good this is without employing profane language....

Cantillon Rosé de Gambrinus

This is usually the most challenging of Cantillon fruit lambics. It can be really sour. This batch, however, is mouthwateringly delicious in a way similar to the Kriek above. Rasberry flavors are pure and evocative of the fruit. Elegant and addictive.

Cookin'

Drinking Notes - Geeky Italian edition

I drank a good amount last week (maybe too much?) But this is an important part of acquiring wine knowledge, drinking. An obvious point, perhaps, but plenty of people, even professionals, could stand the occasional reminder. To the aspiring oenophile, I offer you some words of advice: Engage in some regular exercise, eat a sensible diet, drink lots of water, and you should be ok drinking a few glasses of wine on a nightly basis. OK, last week there were a few nights where I had a few more than a few, but sometimes things need to go down that way. It's the natural ebb and flow of the wine drinker's drinking.

Some wines drunk last week with brief notes:

2006 Tenute Dettori Vermention

Wonderful freshness, texture and pungent fennel snap make this 2 day skin macerated, hazy yellow white a must order at La Ciccia.

2004 Tenute Dettori "Dettori" Cannonau di Bade Nigolosu

Co-owner Massimiliano Conti generously opened a bottle and gave us a taste. A friendly gesture to be sure (it's not cheap). 16.5% alcohol old vine cannonau. Not shy. Likely a one off for me.

2001 Emidio Pepe Montepulciano d'Abruzzo

Showing well initially, with deep, structured dark fruits and some Brett. As the wine opened up, it showed an ever increasing proportion of brett, and monster tannins. Fun for an hour, shut down city the rest of the night. NCAA hoop fans, remember the heyday of Dicky V? As he might say, "Shut down city, baby!"

2008 Giuseppe Rinaldi Freisa

As good as a wine can taste at 3am after a day of work, a big dinner, and lots of wine preceding it. Ask Wolfgang for a real tasting note on this piemontese classic.

1979 Il Colle Brunello di Montalcino

Still hanging in there. This wine was, amazingly, made from 7 year young sangiovese vines. '79 is not as well regarded as '78 for old Brunello, but this is hanging in more than fine. Wonderfully perfumed, with elegant savory cherry fruit, some subtle barnyard savory funk, and a bit of a creamy, lactic quality in the particular bottle I drank. I meant to have it with meat, but as we had a later reservation we just got too stuffed to go any further. Weak, I know. The well respected, currently on wine internet hiatus GG on this wine, "It tastes like old fucking wine."

2003 Marques de Murrieta "Capellanía" Rioja

Is there anything that old vine viura cannot do? This is hot vintage, estate grown viura from very calcareous soils on the Murrieta property. The wine is fermented and then aged 18 months in French oak barrels. Think of this as a slightly riper, richer, oakier LdH Viña Gravonia. What it lacks in Gravonia's understated grace and silken texture it more than makes up for with great intensity, freshness and acid driven structure. [Pause for the pimpin' cause: at the shop we sell this wine for $15, order it if you're intrigued].

1999 Lopez de Heredia "Viña Gravonia" Crianza Rioja

Somehow this wine is eminently drinkable, serious enough to analyze while sipping, and great with a variety of foods. A most complete package.

2006 Pedralonga Do Umia

High acid blend of caiño, espadeira and mencía dazzles the Spanish wine haters with beautiful, spicy, floral aromas, 12% alcohol and high acidity, a smidgeon of it volatile.

Old Overholt Rye Whiskey

"Old overalls" as I have heard it called is a classic San Francisco rye whiskey. I do not advise drinking this after Mount Gay and ginger ale drinks and Boont lager.