Midsummer's Eve

by the siren's brook
one heaven short of seven
cricket strength ebbs
--

Ersatz Aventura, Part Deux

Does anybody draft the big trailer rigs for protection from Smokey & saving some gas on fairly long Interstate hauls anymore? I managed to fall in behind one big refrigerator truck not long after I hit 64 West out of Richmond-- (Virginia, not California!)
For the hour or so until I took 81 South I followed, tailgating somewhat obnoxiously for some stretches, easing back for breathing space now & then, holding to a steady 75-80 miles an hour through periods of gusting showers alternating with breaks in the clouds. Nice adrenalin, minus breakfast-- by the time I'd reviewed email & wasted some time in fruitless efforts at crafting this followup to the short write-up below, called Budget Rent-a-Car about a pick-up, & made it out to the Holiday Inn lobby, it was a few minutes past eleven, the kitchen had just closed & there was nothing for it except maybe percolating some coffee back in my room before I checked out. Never mind...
I think I need to regrow some backbone-- apart from this arguable slight lapse in hospitality on the part of America's Innkeeper, after declining some insurance package from one of Cheap Tickets' partners online, I let myself get talked into Budget's own offer rather than being firm in insisting my card would provide more than adequate coverage. This casual yielding to 'practicality' actually doubled the total estimated cost of my rental.
It's noon already & I'm running late again. The drive to Maverick Farms is a great deal more scenic-- meaning, of course, that it meanders along turning, climbing, winding roads-- & I would like to stop at one of two wineries in Floyd as I start out-- Chateau Morrisette are pioneers in the region-- let's see (--as in taste) what they're doing...!

David's Newest Silly & Expensive Faux-Adventure

I thought 10 bucks to yellow-cab-crawl across New York town from the Carlton Arms to Penn Station was nuts until I ended up spending 24 smackers to get from Amtrak's Richmond stop to a Holiday Inn with an available room for the night...
Because I needed to be within five miles of the Budget Rent-a-car lot to be elegible for a pick-up tomorrow, & further deliriously fantasized I could, in any case, lug my three bags on foot as a vigorous morning constitutional if I was close enough.
I guess I was thinking Paso Robles in California. I don't know what I was thinking.
Maybe arriving in Staunton (Danville? Charlottesville?) sometime near midnight would have been better. Maybe I didn't choose any of the alternatives because Orbitz, Expedia, Hotwire & Cheap Tickets all seemed to have such a hard time locating rental vehicle deals in any of the smaller towns-- I forget.
Maybe I can start off way earlier than the post-midday pick-up I've arranged, so that I'm finished with highways in time for a nice, fairly long run around David Sower's neck of the Blue Ridge woods in Floyd, Virginia-- a four to six hour drive Southwest of Richmond...
(continuará...)

New York, New York...

Met up with Terry Hughes, who's been so encouraging & generous to me as I embark on this particular form (genre?) of writing...
here's a link to his write-up of our dinner meeting at a great place on a very, very different Avenue B from ummm--
25?? 15? years ago when I last strolled around & had a bite & after-dinner drink at what may have been the earlier tenant at the storefront Alberto runs Barbone in...
He tells it much better than I could--
Salute!

Nervous about flying to NYC after so long--

...am I drinking for all the wrong Rieslings??

Deeper, Once More Into the White, Camaradas!

The anger & frustration I want to release in writing about the living cultural contradictions I inhabit add to & harden the very blockage in front of itself...
TAKE TWO:

I don't know enough about wine-- will I ever?
But the wines that seem most appropiate to the near-year-long humid heat of Puerto Rico & our somewhat extreme cuisine elements (--such as raw seafood ceviches & cool, marinated root vegetable salad 'escabeches' on the one hand, long-stewed or roasted meats & rice-based 'asopaos'
on the other; deep-fried dishes & fast food somewhere in between...)
-- are the ones which oxidize or otherwise deteriorate and age prematurely in the inadequately, stingily climatized warehouses of the big distributors on the island...
I just drank a bottle of Guigal's 1998 Condrieu over the last three days. As I finished it up today, my sense-memory & metaphor 'fichier' finally meshed & I thought there was an interesting, complex but (clashing) umm-- unfocused? disjointed? --nose & palate of bitter orange, orange blossoms & something like muskmelon or cantaloupe adding rich but slightly sour, & to this half-trained palate, somewhat oxidized notes.
It's funny & interesting-- & somewhat heartening-- that the wine cohered in a more definite, characterful manner after a few days open in the refrigerator. To try to set off or bring out characteristics & sensory associations, I've been mostly pairing it with variants on fairly Italianate cannellini with escarole stews-- tonight more bitter chicory than the last of the escarole, some squash & wine-soaked shiitake & wood ears for balance & chicken sausage with basil & pignoli for substance-- ah, & a few rice-flour rotini added in for fill at the last minute.
I soaked the mushrooms in some of Jean-Luc Colombo's 2001 'La Belle de Mai' St. Péray-- 100% Rousanne, I believe. This baby
is falling apart somewhat differently...
(to be continued, again, bien entendu!)

...Mostly about Marsanne, in the end...

I've been meaning to write about white wines...but my rant engine seems to angrily gear up only to sputter & stall on any & all related issues-- the above video was a trigger to finally get me off my butt, but that particular rant (Mr. Brecher mentions at one point that 'even people who like Merlot' can enjoy the Argentinian Malbecs being showcased...) may have to wait for a later posting, at this rate...
To begin with, I have a nasty habit--'Deformación Profesional', as the very PostMod Spanish pun puts it-- of unavoidable critical solipsism: I am always searching for, questioning, testing & seeking to deconstruct & maybe reassemble the (un)spoken, assumed conventions & rules of whatever medium I am engaged in. Makes the pursuit & effective manifestation of creativity rather a chore...
To begin again, at (one of) the triggering incidents:
I brought a bottle of Marilyn Remark's 2004 Marsanne, purchased on a rather unfortunately timed visit to the winery (The owner-winemaker couple was away at a wedding) to Puerto Rico & enjoyed it so much with my faux, millet-based 'Cous-Cous' (...made as a stew, Merguez sausage & veggies all mixed in-- Algerian style, no raisins or nuts, harissa spices except caraway seed blended in with carrots, squash, some green olives & chick peas...) I wanted to codify the recipe for a chance to earn a case of the stuff when I found out the winery had a food pairing contest online.
Needless to say, I never quite got around to it.
As per my usual life-on-the-wing modus operandi, I have no tasting notes to refer to-- but I have the lingering, clear & intense sense-memory of a most superbly balanced expression of the grape: soft wildflower & stone fruit, mostly apricot in the nose, but a palate closer to subtle, slightly tart, contained white peach.
I want more, please.
However, one of the powerful pleasant pluses of the wine was an ABV level topping at 13.5%, and what I read of the '05 (& just released '06) bottling tells me this has bumped up to 14.5%. Not unmanageable, but...how come? Was '04 the proverbial cool, slow ripening year that made for nice phenolic ripeness while keeping sugar levels relatively low?
Reading further down on Dr. Przebinda's posting, linked to above, I find that'05 had just such a '...long and generally cool growing season without heat spikes. This long season resulted in extended hang times in even temperatures which gave the fruit good extraction but lower sugar levels.'
Can anybody bring some information on the 2004 growing season & harvest-- particularly in the Central Coast & that idiosyncratically laid out Arroyo Seco AVA where the Loma Pacific Vineyard is located-- to bear on my bewilderment?
(à suivre...)

Cross on Mendo Lake & Vine

Sounding radio fills the car
beating overheated air
hard against the windows
that keep out gusting wind blows
& knock against a rushing view--

row upon row of wine grapes hangs
unpicked & frozen dry
on twisted dormant vines:
another modern mystery folksong
unspools its tangled yarn--

stage is set in heartfelt mumbles
while Jesus hangs in shadow-wings
nailed between his myth & history

I might stop and look and listen
with better quiet care
as the winding tale seeps out
into clean & clear cold air

but I lean into the gas & I press on
--I floor pedal to the metal & drive on--

There's a motion at th edge of sight
that catches my attention--
maybe pulse of hardy wildlife
failing flight to tumble in surrender
down the scrub-harsh hill?

But it's too late in the season
& all that's left behind us
is the broken track we seek to own
in a trail of dust & twilight

--a blank blue heaven gives the lie
to our best-intentioned fables:
row upon row of wine grapes hangs
unpicked & frozen dry
on twisted, dormant vines

zenambutal

(I suffer from a horizontal mind--
too indulgent of my prone-active imagination:)

Grown wide awake as I lie down
I only nod out when I rise--
erect barely to stumble on
towards my unseen horizon

I only worry on my back
I only wander on my feet
I breathe easy on my knees
and sink back on my butt
to grit my teeth & weep

I only wander on my back
I only sink back on my feet
I worry hard on my butt
and breathe deep on my knees
to grit my teeth & weep