"i'm not drinking any fucking merlot!"

[rone]

Mom and Aunt Martha flew in last week to visit, and Kim and i brought them along on our 10th anniversary trip to the Santa Ynez Valley, which we've been wanting to visit ever since we saw Sideways.  It's absolutely beautiful down here, and so is Santa Barbara, which we visited today.  Today we also had tasty æbleskiver for breakfast (i also had medisterpølse and eggs).

Yesterday in Los Olivos, we went to taste at this one room that collects wine from vineyards that don't have their own tasting room.  It was run by a man whom i dubbed the Pinot Noir Nazi, perhaps like Sideways's Miles but gruffer and without the somehow charming dysfunction.  He declared that cabernet franc was a blending grape and was wasted when vinified on its own, and the same went for merlot, dolcetto, and tempranillo.  I just nodded and said, "I see."  He did pour us an absolutely fabulous pinot noir from Fiddlehead Cellars, and i passed his snob test by correctly pronouncing Meritage and Lompoc.

Comments

[thegodliestlord.livejournal.com]

My mother has that pan.

[damienw]

I guess it's just about possible to make a drinkable straight tempranillo.

[ronebofh.livejournal.com]

We had a marvelous tempranillo recently from Perú.

[pennyhill.livejournal.com]

Today we also had tasty æbleskivers for breakfast (i also had medisterpølse and eggs).

Solvang?

[ronebofh.livejournal.com]

Yup!

[jsbowden.livejournal.com]

I've never seen Sideways, so what's its problem with Merlot? I like Merlot.

[ronebofh.livejournal.com]

It can be a wussy wine on its own when done by a careless vintner. Sideways came out around the time that merlot was trendy and thus there was more wussy merlot on the market than normal.

[jsbowden.livejournal.com]

I've had wussy cabernet-sauvignons, so somehow, I can't see this being a merlot specific thing, but I wasn't aware merlot had ever been trendy either. I like reds, it's a red, and therefore, worthy, and should get up off the floor.

[reverendluke.livejournal.com]

I guess I never realized merlot was that trendy, either. I do, however, blame Sideways for making pinot noir trendy, and thus responsible for all the crappy pinot on the market now.

[marknau.livejournal.com]

Wow, you correctly pronounced Lompoc? I grew up in Lompoc!

[ronebofh.livejournal.com]

I got lucky `cause i heard a local pronounce it first.

The Santa Barbara snob accent

[racerxmachina.livejournal.com]

It's pronounced "Lompuke" or "Lompton".

[ronebofh.livejournal.com]

Hahaha, that's exactly what the Pinot Noir Nazi said.

[sagespot.livejournal.com]

The University I work for was founded by the Danes - and I LOVE the aebleskiver breakfast each year!

[ikkyu2.livejournal.com]

Hey, I didn't know you were down here. Give a brother some warning next time.

I had a decent tempranillo some years ago in NY that was all stainless steel, no oak at all. It was good.

But I did not have any good pinot noir in all of Santa Ynez. The amount of bad pinot in that area is just. fucking. staggering.

[ronebofh.livejournal.com]

Maybe we could meet for coffee tomorrow morning as we drive back?

As for the pinot noir, i'm not surprised at all; make a lot of a particular type of wine in an area and Sturgeon's Law will come to the fore.

[reverendluke.livejournal.com]

Well, I have learned never to expect great things from a cab franc, and this one is no exception...

[haloumi.livejournal.com]

Cabernet Franc's main charm is its unusual, but fascinating, tanning structure, combined with a reasonable array of the cabernet characters, which can be found in its more welcomed child, that can be distinctive to the variety if the wine is made carefully.

The key word is carefully. Over-oaking or picking at the wrong time will give you a green wine with none of the tannin subtleties that make it so attractive. I have had some very pleasant Cabernet Francs from France, although all of the names escape me now, and there are some Australian producers who make it, albeit as more of a novelty wine.

With due offence to your host, the Nazi, anyone who says that Tempranillo doesn't make good wine by itself is not just a fool but is a damn ignorant fool. There are enough examples of New World tempranillos from Australia and South America to provide counter examples, without even factoring in the Spanish. And, for the record, I have made one of them. :)

It is regrettable that the wine industry is full of people who consider that dogma is preferable to thought when it comes to classifying grapes and wines. I have drunk a lot of wine, from many different types of grape, and while some are certainly better than others, it is very rare that I write off an entire variety because I have also been surprised by unexpected brilliance from a reputedly dull grape.

For your consideration, I have had a remarkably pleasant sparkling wine made from quinces (I never thought I'd say that - it's not even a grape!) and I have tasted a quite good lighter white style made from Sultana grapes (which must have been hell to make and required some tricks). Is it gloriously Burgundian? No, of course not. Is it possible for anyone to make such wines? Probably not. But it is possible.

I defer to wolffire regarding Dolcetto - I don't have that much experience in Italian varietals. I shall have to look it up while I'm in Italy.

I'm glad that you got to enjoy some excellent Pinot. Despite the shameful, and dull, Pinot-wanking that went on in the excremental Sideways, it is a magnificent grape when the vines struggle and the winemaker works hard. One of my favourite wines.

[ronebofh.livejournal.com]

Hey, Sideways was a very good movie as an examination of character within a realistic slice of life milieu. I highly doubt that the Pinot Noir wankage was meant to be taken seriously.

We've made some enjoyable wine from plum and peach. As for grape varietals that i find subpar, Barbera seems to be the one i hold in lowest regard. It nearly invariably seems to make dull wine, in my experience.

Italian Wine maven here...

[wolffire.livejournal.com]

Dolcetto is *not* a blending grape. It is used to make varietal wine meant to be drunk in its youth as a table wine in Italy. The Pinot Noir Nazi should stick to French varietals, methinks.

As for Cab Franc, it has a distincive flavor profile to be sure. It's rare for me to come across a varietal version that I love, but it happens. Certain Bourgeuil & Chinon will do the trick nicely. And, there's one I've come to rather like from up here in WA.

[racerxmachina.livejournal.com]

I miss aebleskivers, and I really need to visit family down there (hmm).

If you got who I think you got in Los Olivos, that guy teaches surliness lessons for the ostriches and llamas at the local ranches.

[twillis.livejournal.com]

Huh. I'm still very ignorant about wine, but I'm going to have to figure out a way to send you some of our Perry. Since the Big Guy took over fine-tuning the production, it is no longer Hooch, but something pretty nice. I think you might find it interesting.

[ronebofh.livejournal.com]

BLAH BLAH BLAH that's all you are, lady, promising to send me perry since god knows when and my mailbox is EMPTY AND BEREFT.

[eb-oesch.livejournal.com]

Aebleskiver is already the plural of aebleskive.

Now I'm jonesing for a Danish continental breakfast (rundstykker), the kind made by bakeries that want you to eat their food instead of the kind sold to American hotels that don't. American supermarkets sell danishes too, but I think they're meant to be bought by the secretary to be thrown into the basket for the 9:30 team meeting, burnt-almond-flecked iced sewer lids being staples of the Nausea Diet, so it's pretty much the same thing as with the hotels. We do have donut and bagel shops that make food instead of consumption deterrents, but I still think we got the short end.

[ronebofh.livejournal.com]

Corrected, thanks.

[thegodliestlord.livejournal.com]

https://www.pancakepuff.com/spark/index.php?tag=ppedseag100

[ronebofh.livejournal.com]

Pancake puffs??? https?????

[thegodliestlord.livejournal.com]

Easier than flipping a normal pancake!

Easily the best invention pre-invented.