Lucent Dossier

Super Tall Paul holding it down in the listening circle. It's almost a pointless post without some audio of Paul's crazy tracks and eukalele playing, but listen carefully enough- and you can almost hear it!

1899 Montrose and more

An absolutely stellar tasting with Ian Blackburn of Learn About Wine. We tasted: '86 Cheval Blanc, '83 Latour, '95 Margaux, '05 Calon Segur, '03 Calon Segur, '03 Montrose, '00 Calon Segur, '96 Montose, '94 Montrose, '90 Montrose, '89 Montrose, '82 Montrose, '70 Montrose, '59 Montrose, 1899 Montrose, and capped it all off with '95 Yquem.

So, for starters, '86 Cheval Blanc: The ethereal wine Miles (of the movie Sideways) held onto, and then finally drank out of a styrofoam cup with a burger- (N.B. His was a '61) It was what I'd expect of a right banker, but with the depth, balance and length of a Chevy. There's something about Cheval that marries the grace and light perfume of merlot with the stuffing of cab franc, and creates beauty.

'83 Latour- Is it blasphemy to say I didn't love it? Maybe just not showing that night. Too old to be in one of those famous lockedup Latour in between times, it just wasn't showing me the love.

'95 Margaux- I popped this bottle myself and didn't notice anything off, but later, in the glass, I got some TCA on the nose. It was a strange example, because it wasn't hideous, and even, still drinkable. Usually, for me, when a wine is corked, it's gone. I'm just not interested in drinking corked wines. This one though, it was only lightly funked. At the end of the evening, Ian and a few others tried out an experiment, we poured the wine into a pyrex bowl with some bunched up cling wrap, then tossed the plastic wrap, poured the wine back into a glass, et Voila, drinks just fine! The TCA notes were completly vanished, I couldn't detect it at all, and never would've called it corked in a tasting. The fruit however had been affected by the tca and wasn't showing, BUT, it transformed a corked wine into a drinkable one. Still, a neat trick.

Don't worry, I won't make drag you through all the tasting notes, just some highlights:

'05 Calon Segur- Yum. Buy it. what a great medium priced alternative. Great big fruit, lovely balance, this'll be a winner for the short term and the long haul. Most 05's are shutting down these days, ad going to sleep, but this Calon was rockin'

'03 Montrose- I was really looking to this one with excitement. I had tasted the '03 Montrose alongside the first growths and some other super second '03 Bordeauxs at a big tasting in NYC. I placed the Montrose #1. To me it was the wotn and the champ of champs. This night though, (3 years later) it's early sweet fruit had tamed and the structure won out. It's important to point out, that it was still a blockbuster, a giant of monumental proportions and will undoubtedly continue to be a legend. If anything, it was most interesting to me as a peek into the time capsule, a way to check in on it, and see how it's evolving. I'll have to check back in in a few years and see how she's doing.

'96 Montrose in some ways, my favorite of the evening. I'd remarked that more than any other, this wine was showing it's best potential. There were other wines that could be considered potentially better, and still others that may have shown better that night, but this particular night, the '96 was showing beautifully, it's fruit, structure, balance and purity were all there. It was at it's peak.

'90 Montrose- A Parker 100 pointer. I can see why- but I preferred the '89

'82 Montrose- right where it wanted to be. Beauty as an '82. it's amazing how wonderfully these '82's are still showing. The vintage that solidified Parker's rep, these are just beautiful. This 82 was no exception.

'70 Montrose- Had to look at the label twice. 1970. Really? As youthful as the '82, if not seemingly more so. The only other 70 I could compare it to, is a 70 Latour, and this Montrose killed it! This is why we collect Bordeaux...

1899 Montrose- Wasn't even sure what to expect. The oldest bottle of Red I'd had previously was a '62 Lafite. What can you expect from a 110 year old bottle anyway? The color changed in the glass as it was poured. as the oxygen hit it, the light red juice turned slightly brown in front of our eyes. Almost tea-like in character, nutty, light, velvet, it was almost more of a texture than a taste. In some ways, I wish we'd tasted the 1899 first, but it was lovely to have at the end. But not quite- cause then we had:

95 Y'quem- Boy is this stuff magical... This wasn't even a great Yquem for me. I didn't find it as usually complex and otherworldly as some of the others I've had, but even still, it's just amazing. Crazy weird tropical fruits, lilting finish. Some neat stuff.

Sunset over LA from the Griffith Observatory

Tiki Dan

Seriously in need of better ways to spend my time? Undoubtedly. However, this is still important, I have unlocked the mystery of the totem that has haunted me for years, much the way the Easter Island Heads have provoked the curiosity of the masses for years- Across the street from me, someone, chainsawed this face into a palm tree. It has been revealed that the artist is none other than Tiki Dan, a now deceased genius who was in serious trouble with the LAPD for his flagrant disregard for law in his quest for beauty. Apparently there are many, however disappearing, evidences of his time on this planet all over LA power poles and palm trees.

Almost jumped

So okay, yeah, the image belies more than actually happened, but maybe not more than COULD have happened, thanks to none other than yours truly, savior of the evening. Basically, it went down like this, the Saints murdered the Pats, and we saw it all go down at our local watering hole in Los Feliz, Ye Olde Rustic, one hell of a spot, might I add. Anyhoo, we walked out and after meeting up with another friend buying smokes, I noticed there was a guy following closely, playing music out of an ipod speaker, following just a bit too closely. Perhaps native New Yorker, perhaps just me, I dropped back a bit to chat up this guy who seemed just a bit too close. Somewhere in me, I felt the guy was impinging, didn't quite know why yet, but enough to make me engage him in conversation, ala, you're awful close to us, I see ya, what's yer deal chief? So he and I spoke a bit, dropped back from my two friends, when I noticed his head nods and looks seemed to be to his buddy who was on the far side of the street. As we approached the corner and his friend sped up to make the light and cross over, I called back my buddies and said, "Hey come back here". They did, I told them to come with me quickly across the street, which they did, and they went into another wine bar. The guys had met up, come back across the street, down the block towards and past us, and then into a parking lot to reconvene. That's when I knew I was right. My buddies were in the bar still, but I made a point, to nod and say what's up as the guys backtracked a third time to walk past and away- The old, I see ya pal, maybe next time, glance.
So far LA's been a breeze, not so much as a worry. That one though, I know in my soul, was a two man set up. Bad guys 0, us, well I guess we don't really get points, but we didn't get mugged, so I call it a win...