"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.

[pennyhill.livejournal.com]

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

Solvang?

[jsbowden.livejournal.com]

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

[marknau.livejournal.com]

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

[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.

[reverendluke.livejournal.com]

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

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.

[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.

[thegodliestlord.livejournal.com]

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