Finally

They've been trying to catch that guy for years...

Dope ass pillow cases given to me by my friend Kate.

This lovely pillowcase set, given to me by my friend Kate inspired me to collage together some photos I'd been sitting on.....

Native 9 revisited, or not quite...

After the Pinot Days tasting, I felt I really wanted to open a nice bottle over dinner. I'd made such a big deal about the Pinot Days tasting, and I thought it'd be a good comparison to truly sit with just one bottle and chart it's development. That being said, I think I've realized something, 750ml Bottles are made for just two people. The development of the wine really needs to happen over time, and there needs to be enough juice for that to happen. Maybe Radikon is right, maybe bottles for two should be 1L and for one person, it should be a 500 ml. I think that guy knows what he does... Yet I digress, Ontiveros' Native 9:

I popped a bottle of his '06 Native 9. I wanted to really sit with it over dinner with the girlfriend and see what was what, and chart the results. I'm glad I did. This is a sort of cross training of wine criticism. I just recently bitched about bombing through hundreds of wines, so now I wanted to chart the evolution of just one. As I mentioned, I'm partial to James' Native 9 Pinots, I've only had them on maybe 5 or 6 occasions, but they've always stood out to me, even, when they didn't. Does that make sense? No, of course it doesn't, don't just agree with me, or assume that I know what I'm doing. Especially, because I don't know what I'm doing. I do it first, and THEN I find out. So here's what I did with James' 06 Native 9 Pinot...

First off, it was cold, refridgerator cold, way too cold. BUT, it is what it is. I pulled it out, popped it, let it sit for a few, tasted and sipped it cold, and then went about helping to prep dinner. Pretty basic fare, by the by, Pre-cooked Whole foods Chicken, organic fresh herb salad with some added peppers, celery, tomato, and carrots, with some grated parmesian which was awesome (but No Vinagrette cause it always messes w the vino) some "Barely Buzzed Cheddar" a coffee ground and lavender touched aged cheddar, and a butternut squash soup. Checked in from time to time on the wine as it warmed and opened. And here, ala 750ml blog inspired description, I thought I'd get into it, and really see where this one wine would go...

First impressions:
Brooding and reticent. Seriously. I'm not one to bounce around those bullshit wine terms, but that's what it was. Dark, and unyielding, as if it were a teenager, all clammed up with way too much mascara, and it's your son...

Second Impressions:
It was structured, without being too tannic. Tight, but not held up by it's tannins, just not showing. And then I wrote, not quite forthright, withholding something. AND it was. Kind of like it just wouldn't give up the goods. I'm tempted to do the whole "voluptuous yet chaste" talk, except, that just kinda bores me now, can't we get past the whole chauvenistic crap? It had the stuffing but wasn't displaying. Nice acidity, but seemed almost piled up on itself, as if it couldn't quite get everything in order. I kinda felt that I liked it, but it wasn't my favorite of his wines. At least of the few I've tasted. Nice, but not lovely. Tasty and in order, but not the wow I'd come to expect. Maybe just a lesser vintage. My least favorite of 04, 08, and now 06.

Third impressions: Each new pour was a step back. It'd expand and get more complex in the glass, and then with each new pour from the bottle, it'd go back to that petulant teenager. Almost infuriating, if it didn't serve it purpose to show the progression. Maybe it was true that I was biased and just making excuses because I liked the wine in the past and expected more. Cause it's true, I know it, when I like a producer, I see past what is, and extrapolate what isn't. I found I liked the balance, but I still found it too dark. Just a vertical tough guy, not the complexity or grace I'd found in other vintages. It was still rounding out, maybe it'd be something better in 2+ years...

Fourth Impressions: Now, after 45 minutes to an hour, it seemed to go in a whole new direction, but it wasn't a new direction, and that's the whole point, it began that magical unfolding, like a strange oragami pop up book that twisted and innergalaxied into a whole new prospect. Now, a new question. Can I use the term, Burgundian? I hate that. I hate using Burgundian for non-Burgundy the way I hate it when I see New York Deli or Brooklyn Pizza out here in California, cause you know what? It's just NOT! Never is. In fact, the best guarantee you can have when you see New York Deli, is that it's not a self-respecting joint. But here's the thing though, there WAS something Burgundian about it as it developed, something of rose petals, and cellars, taking time, and proper development. Something about truth and grace. I'll be damned if you couldn't fool a couple of Burgundy lovers into believing it was a five year old Vosne Rominee...

Last looks...
I loved the big tasting, I really did, and all the many wines to experience, but there's something wonderful about taking the time to sit with just one really beautiful bottle and charting it's progression. If it's the right bottle an you can be there to experience it as it opens up, it offers a whole new perspective. And the Native 9 is a great bottle to do it with...

Pinot Days

It seems harder and harder these days to comment on the tastings I go to, especially these HUGE ones. Pinot Days, the latest, took place in an airport hangar out in Santa Monica. The list of participating wineries was enormous. How the hell could I even begin to comment on all these wines, let alone take tasting notes? I was there tasting for five hours!

Alana Estate
Arcadian Winery
Archery Summit
August West
Baxter Winery
Bazaar Boutique
Belle Glos Wines
Belle Pente Vineyard & Winery
Benovia Winery
Big Table Farm
Bjornstad Cellars
Bouchaine Vineyards
Buena Vista Carneros
C.Donatiello Winery
Cargasacchi Vineyard
Carr Vineyards & Winery
Cima Collina
Clos Pepe Vineyards
Clouds Rest Vineyards, LLC
Coho Wines
DeLoach Vineyards
Demetria Estate
Derbes Wines
Derby Wine Estates
domaine chandon
Domaine Serene
Donum Estate/Robert Stemmler
Dutton-Goldfield Winery
Etude Vineyards & Winery
Evening Land Vineyards
Fess Parker Winery
Flying Goat Cellars
Fort Ross Vineyard & Winery
gainey vineyard
Gary Farrell Winery
George Wine Company
Hahn Family Wines
Halleck Vineyard
Handley Cellars
Hirsch Vineyard and Winery
Hitching Post Wines
Ideal 55
Inception Wines
Inman Family Wines
J Vineyards & Winery
Keller Estate
Ken Brown Wines
Kendric Vineyards
Ketcham Estate
La Fenetre
La Rochelle Winery
Lachini Vineyards
Landmark Vineyards
Londer Vineyards
MacMurray Ranch
MacPhail Family Wines
MacRostie Winery
Mahoney Vineyards
McIntyre vineyards
Melville
Merry Edwards Wines
Morgan Winery
Native9 Wine
Olson Ogden Wines
Pali Wine Company
Papapietro Perry Winery
Paraiso Vineyards
Paul Mathew Vineyards
Pfendler Vineyards
Pillow Rd. Vineyard
Pisoni Vineyard & Winery
Prodigal Wines
Riverbench Vineyard & Winery
Robert Talbott Vineyards
San Francisco Wine Association
Sand Hill Wines - Durell Vineyard
Santa Lucia Highlands Wine Artisans
Scherrer Winery
Sequana Vineyards
Shandel's Oppenlander Vineyard
Small Vines Wines
Sojourn Cellars
Spell Estate
Stephen Ross Wine Cellars
Suacci Carciere Wines
Talisman Cellars
Talley Vineyards
Tantara Winery
Test Winery
Testarossa Vineyards
Thorne Wine
Three Sticks
TR Elliott
Veramonte
WesMar Winery
Willamette Valley Vineyards
WINDY OAKS ESTATE
Woodenhead
Zotovich Family Vineyards

At around 100 wineries, with an average of 5 wines a table, we're talking 500 wines. This isn't a complaint, mind you, just an appeal for sanity. How can anyone really taste that many wines, much less have concise, and fair notes? Makes you wonder about scores and official reviews... The best I could really do is offer up a short list, and some over all impressions.

07 pinots out of Santa Barbara are beautiful. we all know that, but what's interesting is the seem to be locking up a bit. Not overly tannic, but perhaps a bit hidden. I think this is a good sign, it means these are wines for the mid to long haul (as long as that really is for Cali Pinot anyway) but these should have some life ahead of them and are not mere flashes in the pan. The 08's in general are not as impressive by a long shot. Everyone seemed to be putting their best smile on, and they were far from a disaster, but many were hit by frost, and I've heard from a few producers that even their 09 crop was affected by the damage from 08. I've been saying it for awhile, and I continue to believe it, if you're a collector and you're actually still buying wines, pick up your 07 Cali Pinots.

So, onto my short list:

My three favorites:
Wesmar, Native 9, Ken Brown.
All solid producers, and I've been fans of their juice for awhile. Wesmar, and the Balletto vineyard in particular, always offers up a beautiful strawberry and bing cherry lightness that's almost irreverent when dealing with a room full of Big Overdone Cali Pinots, and more importantly, it pulls it off. Lovely juice.
James Ontiveros' Native 9 is always a favorite of mine. He was pouring his 08. There's a complexity and depth to James' wine that I just love. Even as I tasted it, I admitted to myself that maybe, and even likely, it wouldn't be the favorite in the room. Didn't offer up all it's beauty all at once, but it still had that something special going for it that keeps me coming back. A tough call because I know my personal bias led me towards it, but I don't care, still made my top three.
Ken Brown... well it's Ken Brown, always awesome, in fact I've never had anything less than greatness from any of his wines, his 08's are solid and his 07, awesome.

Then onto honorable mention:
Arcadian Winery
August West
Belle Glos Wines
Bjornstad Cellars
Cargasacchi Vineyard
Clos Pepe Vineyards
(Wes Hagen at Clos Pepe gets special mention as he also poured his 01 VS Pinot which was Stellar! His wines are some of the longest lasting, most collectable of the evening)
Domaine Serene
La Fenetre
MacPhail Family Wines
Melville
Merry Edwards Wines
Paraiso Vineyards
Pisoni Vineyard & Winery
Prodigal Wines
Riverbench Vineyard & Winery
Suacci Carciere Wines
Talisman Cellars
Zotovich Family Vineyards

And these are just of the wines I tasted, many were missed. What really stood out was the overall quality, not a stinker in the bunch, really and truely not one wine I didn't like. Actually, that's not true, wine exchange was pouring four wines and they had an Argentinian Pinot I didn't care for. Other than that though, an amazing collection of fantastic wines...

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...

Bigsby Palm Pedal

So Justin added this Bigsby Palm pedal to his guitar. It's both a b bender and a g bender. Basicaly, the strings run through that contraption and when he pushes on it with his palm, it tightens the strings and raises the pitch.

SWAT team

So, I was out walking the dog yesterday when I heard a loud pop from the building across the street. The couple in front of me, hands full of groceries, stopped and looked at the building. What was that, the lady asked her guy. I don't know, he said. Kinda sounded like a gun shot, I said. Then bang another, and a few seconds later, another. Let's go, he grabbed his girl, they ran across the street towards the building, out of the fire line I suppose, and down the street. A few blocks down I came across two cops walking quickly up the street, talking on their radios. I told them about the possible gunshots I heard, and from where, and they asked me to come up the block with them. In under three minutes, the entire North East District SWAT team was there and there were officers cordoning off Vermont Avenue. Snipers with M16's, tactical shot guns, and body armor were slowly making their way up the block. Turns out, there was some construction work going on with nail guns that fire .22 caliber charges. Good to know the response time is so good though...

Celebrity Look-a-likes

A pissed off Brandy, and Conan the Barbarian. Coincidence? I think not...

Last Night

My Wednesday Night was more fun than yours.

This is a Norman Rockwell Painting entitled: Time to go home