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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.

Vino Bambino

Just look at all these North Korean girl Sailors, they look like they've seen Madam Mao's "Red Detachment of Women" a little too often. Maybe Kim Jong-Il's current paramour and personal secretary, Kim Ok can come up with a model opera along the lines of Girls Goose Step on the Mizzen or HMS Kim Sailor Squad of Women.

Anyway their lock step motion would be a little amiss if they had access to the lovely and crisp NV 1+1=3 Cava that I tasted in my latest wine class. At 12.99 it's a great sparkler made in the methode champenoise way from Spain. Crisp, clean nice bubbles.

We also tasted a Gruner Veitliner (dear me, my spell check is going crazy, I don't know how the wine press stands it) a 2005 Nigle that was pale pale straw color, barely any color at all and with a spicy nose and nice acidity. It screamed out to be a food wine so I nibbled a little cheese, which had been sitting out for a gazillion years.

Speaking of faux pas, one of the students in the class brought an ice cold coke cola in with her and proceeded to sip from it, through out the class. Um, I may be a philistine but even I know that that is just bad form and even worse on the palate.

Our teacher's mantra is teroir teroir good - oak is bad. We had a landmark overlook chardonnay that was, as advertised by it's aroma, oaky and totally not worth the 23.00 you can get it for. Paired with that was a 2004 Hexamer Sobernheimer Marback Auslese, -7C. Which was a blonde ice wine with a bit of honey and minerals that was intensely sweet. But if you wanted to drink this with a bit of desert there you go. And of course, those sailor girls above would be tickled to drink it.

The 2006 Mas de Gorugonnier Rose looked like rose petals and had a tart cranberry and hibiscus flavor. After getting over the shock of it - I found it pleasant but didn't like it as well as the beloved C. did.

That followed with a 2005 Francesco Boschish Grignolino (From Italy) that was bitter and thin and that I did not like, but which the teacher thought was a far better example than the 2005 Ben Glaetzer Godolphin cabernet/shiraz blend from a famous Aussie wine maker that was inky inky opaque crimson in color with oak and berries in the nose. The taste has berries, grapes, pepper and oak (oak bad why drink wood?) with a tingly tannin finish. I rather liked it, even if it was a teeth stainer.

We finished the evening with NV Sandeman Royal Corregidor sherry that was dark topaz and smelled of leather and alcohol. It tasted like an old tweed study as well, with Morocco leather bound books and figs and sugar and tannin.

Still learning after all these years

So I'm taking a class at UCLA (analog photography) and the teacher gave us all a handout at the end of the class. I got home and looked at it and it was the Wikipedia entry for Henri Cartier-Bresson. And I thought, um, I coulda done that. But if it's cheating if students cut and paste from the Wiki isn't it LAZY if the teacher just uses Wiki handouts?

Anyway off to a more fun, the beloved C and I are taking a wine appreciation class and it started this week. Here are some wines:

NV Mirabelle - eh, a crisp sparkler from CA but nothing really yummy.

1998 Montecillo Rioja Gran Reserva - this Rioja was lovely, tingly nicotine.

2005 Cortio 111 Rioja - this baby was young and yummy. It was also 7.99 and for that price it is a good value. It had enough tanin to give it a bit of a bite but not too oppressive and very pleasant mouth feel.

2005 Schoffit Gewurtraminer Cuvee Caroline - Yuck. Sweet. Had that typical Gewurtz nose, but thick and viscous on the tongue.

2005 Rombauer Chardonnay - oaky and buttery with malolactic fermentation, this is the kind of wine that gives chardonnay a bad name -yuck.

2004 Meo Camuzet Bourgogne - This smelled like good soil. There was a but of nicotine and dirt and fruit in the nose and on the tongue. I tasted it and thought "WOW" I really have never had any good Bugundies before and this one was something.

2005 Witness Tree Pinot Noir - this pinot from Willamette valley in Oregon was more fruit forward than the Burgundy above but it was wonderful as well, though it got a bit out of the dirt, reminding me of the Merce Cunningham saying about leaving Martha Graham's company - "I wanted to get off my knees!" Well this one wanted to get out of the dirt and it had flavors of cherry and blackberry and nicotine.

2005 Dr. Loosed Wehlener Sonnenuhr Spatlese - this riesling was very, very sweet. It's apparently a wonderful wine, but so totally not to my taste, I thought it was ICKY.

Well isn't this a beautiful example of felting?
L. asked me to take a class with her at
Machine Projects called Felt&Circuits. So I did. On the appointed day I drove in an atavistic haze to Echo Park. It made me feel 20 years younger! In my nostalgic ennui I found a building that reminded me of my days in New York City. So I walked into the old store front, that was completely raw space and walked down stairs that weren't quite made and hadn't really any hand rails and were totally not to code into a basement where there were little card tables set up with lots of power strips in the aisle in the middle. There were vats of water boiling on hot plates. We were there to make FELT! And circuits, so we had to bring our lap tops and plug them into the power strips.

To make felt you stress raw wool by heating it up and agitating it. So the teacher was filling large plastic watering cans with boiling water and dragging them up along the aisle (where the power strips were) and we were pouring water onto our pieces of wool with vinegar and soap and agitating the hell out of them. All the while I was praying that my laptop would survive the oncoming electrocution. If one of us survived I wanted it to be my pc. That's how much of a geek I am. The week after we dyed our felt in boiling vats of water filled with plants and in little mason jars that we set to fermenting with nuts and berries and sunlight and pee. Yes, piss is a good natural dye setter. While we were boiling nuts and berries we were laying out our circuits on our laptops. Electricity, boiling water - these young artists today! My word, I just remember taking lots of drugs as part of that whole art thing, but I guess extreme sports now affects everything and so it isn't art unless possible scalding and electrocution is involved.

I liked the soldering, drilling and assembly of the circuit and chips though. But I haven't completed my project. My felt leaves me anxious and depressed. It doesn't speak to me. The high achievers in the class were making cute little animals with their felt and sticking their circuits in them. But I am not really a cute little stuffed animal teddy bear kinda gal. So one morning I woke up and said "Fuck this anthropomorphic shit! I'm making a cube!"

But I really don't like sewing and haven't gotten around to making my cube yet.