Archive for May, 2007

2003 Cabernet Sauvignon Tasting Note

23 May ’07, the 2003 Cabernet Sauvignon seems to have turned a corner and may be entering it’s maturity. Color is a little rusty at the edge, flavor is smooth and it has precipitated a fine pile of tartaric crystals. Drink a bottle today!

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Free Vinyard!

Yes! it says free vinyard! Sounds too good to be true? Well friend, your right to be suspicious but this here is the real thing! Decide for yourself based on these easy-to-understand facts. 1) My mother is ready to live somewhere that is not next door to her other daughter in law. 2) Suddenly the pacific northwest looks pretty good. 3) Prefers country and views. Conclusion: With a little “help” making the right decision my dear, sweet, kind mother might end up owning land near Portland that will support viticulture. I know it sounds crazy but thats how great things usually begin. So here’s the plan: I feed her info and pix about great places she could live that, coincidentally, might suit other purposes as well. What I need: information about where grapes are succeeding within two hours or less of our burg. Example: I know that syrah is working out near White Salmon. I’ll go there and check out the area, then send a glowing report to esteemed mother. Washington side preferred for tax purposes and dry country won’t do for reasons of taste. I doubt this would be bigger than hobby size, an acre or two perhaps. But think of the fun trading in the easy purchace of grapes for year round back-breaking labor! WOW! Send me your ideas now!

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Breaking: it’s taps for us

Sadly, Les Garagistes is dead.

News that the group had purchased the pine condo came in a somewhat roundabout way, via the latest issue of Decanter:

Critics, winemakers and merchants alike are sounding the death knell for garagiste wines.

Les Garagistes, perhaps out of town on a tour of the undiscovered country, did not return repeated calls for comment. But the group did send this message from its suite at the Horizontal Hilton:

We are not going to dignify that with a response, we were never there, and it was broken when we found it. But if we are in fact basting the formaldehyde turkey, we must caution Wall Street that this could significantly impact our second quarter wine consumption.

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Sex and the single wine

Last weekend as we were bottling, our friend François stopped by to check out our operation and lend a hand. In addition to being a real live Burgundian and an incredibly nice guy, he’s also a home winemaker (“with 10 foot ceilings in his basement,” someone mentioned with envy and awe).

At one point, watching me paste labels on bottles, he tiptoed toward a question:

“It’s interesting that you call it ‘Le Peugeot.'”

“Yeah,” I answered. “We thought we should name all our wines after things you find in a French garage. Being, you know, Garagistes…”

This, of course, to someone who’d actually been in a Gallic garage.

“…Heh heh?” I ventured. My voice trailed off…

“Oh, yes,” he answered cheerfully, reaching as far as he could for the conversational baton. “But also that you named it ‘Le Peugeot’ instead of ‘La Peugeot.'”

“Uhhh…” I felt myself drifting out of the shallow end of the French language pool where I’d clearly mistaken wading for swimming.

“Because, as you know” — really assuming I did, the kind fellow — “‘la voiture’ [car] is ‘la,’ is feminine, so it would normally be ‘La Peugeot’ because you named it after a car…”

He paused, a little embarrassed as he realized that this was indeed news to me. Suddenly, pasty legs, khaki shorts, a stupid T-shirt and a cheap video camera festooned me. I talked louder to compensate.

“But it said on the internet…”

So our wine appears to have some gender identity issues. But what does this French guy know? Is our wine a chick or a dude? Discuss…
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