Trip to Northern Cali

Took a trip up North with my friends Chani and Nika. First stop was Big Sur where we camped out, did some hiking, and hit the beach.



And oh Yeah, Nika tried on some hats.

Neckface in LA

The grafitti artist, Neckface, had his inaugural show on Santa Monica Blvd here in LA today. Of course, out came all the prerequisite hipsters, with the neck tattoos and "Ironic" t-shirts. Really, it's a bit annoying at this point, it's like when the punk movement went soft,: c'mon guys, your "Utah is for lovers" t-shirt isn't hip, edgy, or new at this point, how is shopping at Urban Outfitters, post-anything? They did have a chain-linked fence skate ramp inside, which if not particularly inventive, was kind of fun. I'm getting old, I suppose. The hell with this, I'm off to the Drawing Room.

St. Emillion Poolside with Troy

A lazy day in LA is the norm. Troy and I sat, hanging by the pool with an '05 St.Emillion. Not to be one to subscribe too much to the hype, I've really got to say these '05's have proved to be magnificent. Yeah, yeah, they're still young and monsterously tannic, but the fruit on these babies are just monumental. Even the mid level crus are showing just lovely. As an added bonus while the sun started to go down, Troy blinded me on a red. I'm pretty impressed with myself on this one. I nailed it as a Spanish Tempranillo. Granted, I guessed Rioja instead of Ribera del Duero, and I had trouble with the vintage, (the oak profile was very young but the fruit was showing age) Classic mistake, shoulda gone with the fruit profile instead of the oak, but all in all, excellent detective work on my part. Hooray for me.

Xandria and Katie looking super good

Kris Curran of Curran Wines and Seasmoke, and Bruno d'Alfonso of Di Bruno and Badge

Just down the Hanger from Joe Davis, are Bruno D'Alfonso and Kris Curran. Here we are lining up for Barrel samples.
It was great. Bruno started us off with some Di Bruno Pinot Grigio that was really yummy and floral. I believe he said it was Sanford and Benedict fruit. Then we moved into some of Kris's wines, including an Awesome Guwurtz, full of minerality and fruit. Bone dry but a kind of "Creamsicle and Cardamom" as she said. Really tasty stuff. Then her Grenache Blanc, and a rose from Grenache (Or Garnacha Gris which hasn't yet been approved by California as a varietal yet), her syrah, and then the barrel samples started. I couldn't keep up!


Kris and Bruno.


Mike, Bruno, Kris, and some Doggies. Kris and Bruno had four big German Shepards roaming the grounds.

Joe Davis at Arcadian Winery

Joe (formerly of Morgan) took us through some of his Chards, Pinots and Syrahs. Joe's wines at Arcadian, are not your typical California "fruit bomb" pinots. In all fairness, none of what we tasted on this trip was, Mike has a great handle on Cali Pinot and took us to some great artisanal spots like Arcadian.
Joe has a real command of pinot, employing an old-world approach, he doesn't destem the grapes, does pigage (Foot stomping) 3-5 times a day, a cold soak, and presses with 1% residual sugar to complete the fermentation in the barrel in order to further integrate the oak signature into the juice.



Joe's Sleepy Hollow Chards were rich, elegant, complex, and absolutely on the money. His Pinots, a delight, and his 04 Stolpman Syrah was stellar.

Tasting Event up at Clos Pepe

Mike Farwell was kind enough to drag me along for a couple Santa Barbara Pinot tastings. Our first stop was Clos Pepe where we got taste through a bunch of Wes Hagen's awesome wines. Wes Poured three recent vintages at his table, and on the other side, was a line up of 99-04 Library selections.


Here's Wes, after kindly pouring us through the 07,06,05, and (OH SO LOVELY) 07 Vigneron Select. There was only a little of the 07 VS to go around, and after Wes checked to make sure there was no one who didn't try it the first time, I fessed up that I had, but wondered if my honesty couldn't score me another splash. Hooray, It worked. SUCKER!
The 07 VS was just jumping. I'm usually the one to complain about young Cali Pinot, but this one shut me up. The straight 07 was really promising, the 06 still a little tight, but will be rewarded, and the 05 was really tasty with my rabbit and pesto pizza from the wood burning pizza oven.


The Library Selection of Clos Pepe and an added bonus of a Loring Clos Pepe vineyard.


The French Table. Part of the deal is to bring in a French Bottle to share with the rest of the crew. Mike brought an 03 Bouchard Pere et Fils Le Corton Grand Cru (spectacular), other favorites included a 92 Vacqueryas, an 05 Gigondas, a 96 Serafin Gevrey-Chambertin (maybe my wine of the table), and a 1986 Gruaud Larose.

Ghetto Gloss Event

It's a great concept really. You take a public golf course up in Griffith Park, get a buffet going and a DJ spinning. Tell everybody to dress up in their finest country club gear, et Voila! G+T's on the verandah. Why the hell didn't somebody think of this earlier?

Cop getting booze

Here he is loading up his saddle bags with a bunch of bottles of wine. It's not a real cop though, he's just a movie extra.

Aussie Tasting

This was a great tasting. We started off with the 2005 Two Hands Lily's Garden, and the Bella's Garden (which was the #5 wine of the year) The Bella's was the hands down rockstar of that flight, having a fuller, rounder mid-palate, and better integration. The Lilly's came off as slightly angular by comparison, but still a delicious wine.

Then we moved on to a vertical of Amon-Ra. We did the 2002-2006! 2002 and 2005 were my favorites with the 2006 having a strong showing, but just too young. All told, the 2002 was my wine of the night. Beautiful complexity, and depth of character, with wonderful, pure concentration. The 05 had truly jumping Raspberry notes and power, and the 06 is only begining to show it's character.
Observation of the night:

"The problem with verticals, is each wine is a year older than the next." -Mike-

Almost sounds like a Yogism, but it's totally true, these wines are not on equal ground. Each one is at a different stage of development. So what though, I say, the idea is to see which wine I like best on this evening, not to forever declare a winner of the vintages.

Batman and Fabio

No pictures or video this time, cause I'm getting to be a lazy blogger now that I'm semi-settled here in LA; BUT, we went to see the latest Batman flick, which I have absolutely no problem saying I thought was awesome, and on the way, saw a Lambourghini (did I spell that right? not gonna spell check it for obvious reasons) and guess who was driving it? I shit you not, Fabio! That's right, we saw Fabio driving his whip down Sunset Blvd. Almost was cooler than the movie, except it wasn't really close, even his camp value couldn't overcome what was a very good movie. This is speaking volumes people!

Feist at the Hollywood Bowl

Trish comes through Again! This time we got hooked up with tickets and saw Feist at the Hollywood Bowl. One of the great things about the bowl, is you can bring your own picnic, and even beer and wine. Katie packed me up a dinner of ribs and corn and pineapple and Pabst Blue Ribbon. Trish brought fresh fruit, lemon sorbet, and a white Rhone Blend. Hoo-boy!

Walking back home

Making our way back down Highland Ave from the Bowl. It was amazing, it looked just like this. And oh yeah, singing puppet dogs too.

Low Rent and Kitch. Did you really think you'd escape the hipsters?

So I'm clearly behind the times here, but seeing as I'm not from LA anyway, I don't feel so bad in just coming to realize the burgeoning art scene in Chinatown. It's kinda neat actually. Interspersed between all of these "traditional" chinese restaurants and antique and medicine shops, you'll see the occasional gallery. The locals don't quite seem to know what to make of it. Like this guy...


He stood politely at the door for awhile, until I went over to him, Tecate in hand, to ask if he'd like to come in. He held up a placard listing all of his fortune telling abilities. He didn't work for beer, so I took a pass.



Yet another gallery opening, smack in the middle of a small back alley, full of Chinatown (and now hipster) goodness.


Perhaps the new location for my wine bar? Why Stem Wine Bar, when it can be Black Dragon Wu-Shu Kung Fu Society? The servers can be dressed as Ninjas!

80's Ricky Schroeder, the Patron Saint of LA's Chinatown

Of all the mysteries surrounding the artistic gentrification of LA's Chinatown, it was this one I found the most befuddling. Why are there so many images of 80's Ricky Schroeder? Was it his unforgettable performances in the sitcom Silver Spoons? We may never know. All I know is now I can't get that one fateful episode out of my head- the one where he was finally befriended by the cool kids, and found himself in a moral dilemma when forced between the two uncomfortable options: dining and ditching from the local pizza place, or losing his newfound friendship with the cool kids. Oh Ricky, don't you know being cool comes from within? If they don't accept you for your moral largess, then they're not really your friends anyway.