Swinging on the old world

Weeeeee! It's fun to swing upside down, as A., a fellow swinger-upside downer shows here.

I lost my tasting notes but the last wine class was about THE OLD WORLD. And wine\food pairing. Hmmm.

So here is what I now know, France, there was a reason people thought Wine = France. Because they make good wine. Here's another thing I know, often after a broad overview class if you want to learn more you are told to pick one small thing and learn more in depth about that. A large overview class of art history - want to learn more - check out the cubists or Spanish artists. A large overview of wine - select a varietal or country to learn more. You know, pick a vertical. Well here's a vertical I'm never going to find more about German and Austrian wine. Dear lord. I was all willing to give up my prejudices against Riesling and such, but our instructor had a sweet tooth on him and so we were served sweet, sweet Rieslings and other items that we were told were artisanal and filled with terroir, but I couldn't help feeling I was drinking soda pop - soda pop with a nice acidity but soda pop nonetheless. And I thought "Give me a nice fruit forward oaked cabernet please!"

Even though I did learn that oak was not food friendly, and now I notice that it isn't if I drink oaked wine with dinner. However a nice bit of oak in a wine that you're sitting out on the patio watching the sunset NOT eating is not a bad thing. And a little oak in a tannic red is not a bad thing as well.

However a nice sparkling burgundy is cheaper than champagne but just a nummy, and that's a good thing to learn.

Well wine is over and I'm just back to two classes. Photography and circus acrobatics.

Weee - it's fun to swing upside down!

The Brave New World is Full of Oak

I just have to say that I've always been glad about living in California because I can buy local and still drink world class wine. Unfortunately, I now know that not all California wine is world class, particularly in my "Night Train House Swill" price range. Oh the mis-use of Oak! There is no excuse for cutting down French and American oak trees to put grape juice in it. No no no, as Amy Winehouse would say.

Class Three was a whirlwind tour of the New World wines. Our professor has a bit of a sweet tooth so this class was remarkable for NOT having disgusting sweet wine in it , say what you like about old world terroir but I like a dry wine and there's dirt in New Zealand as well.

Enough! We started with a golden 75% pinot noir method champenoise wine from Meriwether, Cuvee Wm Clark Brut in Oregon, where they disgorge the wine to order. YUM! It smelled of apples and toast and was DELICIOUS. Why spend the dinero on champers from Champagne when you can get this lucky ducky. And it is local to my friend T., so it's good for the world.

Next up was a flight of American Whites, the Eroica Chateua St. Michelle - a reisling made in partnership with a german wine maker and a Viognier the Surh Luchtel Fortunati. Well the Eroica is a riesling but not an offensively sweet riesling. It smelt crisp and a little of apple and raisin pie; it had an appealing acidity that made it crisp on hte tongue. The Viognier was icky.

Next we had a flight of American Reds, a 2004 Daedalus Labyrinth Pinot Noir and a 2004 Nalle Dry Creek Valley Zinfandel. The Daedalus Pinot looked like rubies in your glass, smelt earthy and had peppery cherries on the tongue. Lovely. The Nalle Zin was a darker ruby - almost crimson a bit of green herb amid the cherry in the nose and was GORGEOUS.

Then we were off to the Aussie-New Zealand, South Africa-America part of the globe.

Starting with Antipodes we had a Cloudy Bay Sauv Blanc - all grapefruit and cat piss and a Hewitson, Old Garden Mourvedre. This was a crimson wine with spice and leathery tannins and was lovely.

In the next flight we had a Warwick Sauv Blanc (South Africa) that was a bit sweet and spicy with nice acids for balance and would be lovely with food. Finally we had a Luigi Bosca Mallbec reserve from South America that was dark ruby with a tannin bite at the end. It was very interesting.

All in all the bubbly was a total find, I'd walk a mile for some of the reds and I wouldn't cross a finger for the whites.

Sacred Monsters

So the beloved C and I went to the U.S. premiere of Sacred Monsters a performance by Akram Khan and Sylvie Guillem at Royce Hall. Well I just had to see the best ballerina of my generation.

So here was an example of how two traditional forms, ballet and kathak can be fused using the meta language of modern dance. And what a fabulous example it is. My word - so wonderful. Sylvie Guillem is very tall and you could see a movement start somewhere around her hip and snake up each elegant vertebra until it moved along and ended at a finger tip. And other times her movements were so spare and cohesive that you didn't realize how tall she was. It was like she could assemble and disassemble each movement depending on her whim. When Khan and Guillem danced together they were wonderful, elegant, wry and humorous. All in all, a wonderful night.