Summer used to mean a break in the action to get current with the latest book review sensations, all of which seemed to promise the best mind escape possible: a page-flipping, mind cleansing mental vacation. Beach reading meant the most avant garde of suggestions by the New York Times, LA Times or Wall Street Journal, or perhaps, the New Yorker magazine. If you already read The Atlantic, you were ensconced in your own head-trip journey: hard to escape from an escape. That’s like trying to get out of a dream when you’re not even sure you’re in one.
Nowadays, if you could even get into the frame of mind that approximates a vacation, in fact, if you even know what that word means, you are, like a wristwatch in a Shakespeare play, an anachronism.
Question: if we don’t ever actually have a summer, can we actually have a summer vacation? Don’t answer that one just yet. I think there’s a warmup on the way for the Bay Area this week, although with lows of 46, it’s hard to tell. My tomato plants do finally have the resemblance of fruit on them, though, which gives me some level of faith in the eventuality of a real caprese salad.
Meanwhile, there’s this absurd debt crisis standoff and the accompanying intransigent posturing that makes me wonder if the two-party system has finally met its expiration date. Unlike eggs whose shelf-life is oft underestimated, that irrelevant and irritating BS in Washington makes me wonder when the real revolt is going to happen, and I am not talking Tea Party, which is just a nonsensical bunch of hysterics being fueled by ultra-rich with an agenda more hideous than I want to imagine. These are the kinds of people that practically live on vacation, every day.
I fear that more and more of the middle class, an extinct group of tax-paying animals, have no time to even read the Travel pages, or hit Hulu or Kayak for a crack at fantasizing about a reasonable respite. Paying the mortgage is the prime order of business. Why? We need to make sure those bankers get their bonuses. The imbalance in wealth distribution is becoming more odious. There’s something really wrong with America. And I don’t think it has anything to do with wine. That’s one of the bright spots.
Oddly, we’ve overtaken the French in wine consumption: they’re more into cocktails, like we used to be. Beer wholesalers are bemoaning the fact that wine continues to shove the suds out of the way in the cold refrigerators of our heart’s desires.
Meanwhile, let’s take a look at some really interesting wines that can take you on a virtual vacation.
Pinotage is one of those unique taste experiences: not always pleasant if it comes from South Africa, but here in California, some lovely examples show forth, like the 2009 Loma Prieta pinotage from the Amarosa Vineyard in Lodi, which captured Best of Class this year at the State Fair. It’s a riot of wild cherry, sassafrass, raspberry and caramel proves that pinotage is indeed the darker, more dangerous side of pinot noir, one if its genetic parents, along with cinsault. This wine can best be described as “pinot on steroids.”
It’s so much fun to pour at tastings, because it causes people to work muscles in their faces they didn’t know they had. Worth seeking out, you can acquire it from the winery, which is high above the clouds in the Santa Cruz Mountains, with a drop-dead gorgeous view. Or you can buy it from the website. $45.
2010 Clayhouse Adobe White: outa sight, at the right price, and fit for a princess. This Gold medal winning wine at the Central Coast Wine Competition combines the talents of many grapes you already know, including viognier (46%), sauvignon blanc (27%), grenache blanc (16%), chenin blanc (2%) and at least one you’ve never heard of, princess. It’s not listed on the label because it’s not an approved varietal for table wine yet. The fruit comes from the Middleton Family’s Red Cedar Vineyard outside of Paso Robles. This is a feisty, flirty wine that twists off with perfumey notes of orange blossoms and lemon zest, and a fruit bowl of peaches, pears, melons and apple pie with a hint of cinnamon. As complex a white is a rarity at $14. This one deftly handles mango shrimp salad, Asian-spiced pork pot stickers and chicken satay.
On the opposite end of the spectrum, we need some big reds to combat the chill of the fog. winemaker Dave Coventry has been fashioning some cabernets with large derrieres over at Boëté.
The 2005 cabernet sauvignon floods your palate with massively ripe fruit and a surprising amount of tannin, like when you sit on a leather sofa and find it a lot firmer than you expected. The 2006 Reserve cabernet franc is a big fave, with enticing aromas of cedar and rose hips, charming flavors of juicy red raspberries, exceptionally fine tannins and a graceful structure, like an easy chair with a perfectly fitting ottoman.
Go get some. Make Dave smile even more….
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