Wine around the world

The Summer Here-Winter There Astral Wine Tour is about to begin again as tonight I fly down to Mendoza (the state in Argentina that is an epicenter of New World Wine)  to revisit old favorite wineries and make new discoveries. For me it’s just what the doctors ordered — good thing the docs like good wine!

The lineup includes Luigi Bosca, Weinert, Lagarde, all old friends, and then Carmelo Patti, an adventure I’m looking forward to.

Sr. Patti is a legend in New World wines, maybe the archetype of free spirited artists whose “palate” is wine. He doesn’t advertise nor grow his own grapes, but instead sources them from vineyards he monitors and works his art to make the best wine, although he has been quoted as saying he’s still learning.

What kind of wine? What his cult following asks him to make.

Think about that business model — no advertising, no marketing, no vineyard, no safety net. He just makes the wine his “followers” ask him to make. And he’s been successful at it for 36 years.

See why Patti made the list?

There are other wineries on the list in Mendoza, some down in the Uco Valley, and then it’s across the Andes to Chile. But that’s another post.

Last night’s tapas tour. Nice work if you can get it…

Sevilla Tapas Tours

The Life of Brian has been chosen by you to be shown at the next Flicks!

Where: D-light Studios, 46 North Great Clarence Street, Dublin 1.

When: 7pm Sunday 9th May

€6.50 covers special treats on the night

Feel free to bring your own alcohol.

You can buy tickets online by following the link here

See you there!

I’d like to introduce you to my vineyards. Since this is where it all begins there will be more posts telling you about what goes on during the different seasons. The bodega and its vineyards are in the western part of the Axarquía to the north-east of Málaga, and about an hour’s drive from Marbella, where old-vine Muscat of Alexandria grapes are grown on the north-facing mountainous slopes of Almáchar (an Arabic name meaning meadows).

The landscape has a rugged beauty, the fields and vineyards climbing the rocky slopes above the little river, with spectacular views from the tops of the ridges. The slopes where the vineyards are situated are too steep for tractors, and at harvest time, in the late summer, mules must be used to transport the grapes to the bodega. The climate is dry and sunny, but mellowed by the influence of the Mediterranean Sea. Because of the poor, rocky soil and sparse rainfall the vines are cultivated using the vaso system of pruning and the traditional dry-farming techniques of the Málaga region.

The Muscat of Alexandria is a large aromatic grape that originated in North Africa, but which has been cultivated in this part of Spain for many hundreds of years. It produces wines that have a high sugar content, with aromas of honey, orange blossoms and fresh grapes. Many of the local grapes are dried to make raisins (there is even a raisin museum in Almáchar), but we dry the grapes for wine in a special drying house. After pressing, the grapes are fermented in stainless steel and then oak.

I love spending time at the vineyard, and there is nothing quite like tasting wines in the place where they were born.

This was my second weekend running of spending a few hours tripping the craft fair fantastic in downtown Los Angeles, an area that was about as lively as a dead fish during the entire time I was growing up.

“Unique LA” is a show that is not dissimilar to the “Renegade Craft Fair,” which was held for the first time here last July in what passes for a skyscraper (13 stories) in Los Angeles. This is the second year of the show, and it occupied the same floor in the same L.A. Garment District building as the summer fair. But there seemed to be a greater number of vendors and attendees.

This time, I wasn’t the oldest woman in the room (I brought my mother with me), but the dominant population was still youthful and brutally hip. Some of the items being sold at the fair were wearable, and others you could throw on a wall and call it art. There also were purveyors of the edible. Most impressive among the consumable products were tiny, alcohol-laden cupcakes, some with astounding ingredients and names; the “Bettie Page,” for example, a chocolate confection “with marshmallow fluff filling, bourbon buttercream & potato chip garnish.”

There were a fair amount of booths devoted to clever children’s clothing, which I am way past needing these days. One of these booths held my favorite item of the day, although by the time I saw it, I was dead on my feet and too tired to ask if I could take a photo. The seller offered a large selection of blue and pink baby pacifiers. Each of them had something printed on its exterior, which any adult gazing upon a baby sucking placidly upon the pacifier could read. The one I liked best was blue, and was designed for a noisy little boy. It read, “VOLUME CONTROL.”

STUFF I LIKED

Homako (unsual fabric jewelry):
http://www.etsy.com/shop/homako

The Burlesque Bakery (cupcakes with attitude)
http://www.theburlesquebakery.com/

Sweet Evie (jewelry and accessories):
http://www.sweetevie.com/Sweet_Evie/About_.html

Combustion Glassworks (dichoric glass):
http://combustionglassworks.com

Lichen (reversible magnetic felt bracelets, rearrangeable magnetic jewelry):
http://lichen-studio.com

Roscata (polymer clay food miniatures)
http://roscata.com/blog/

Sol del Sur (vintage fabric earrings):
http://soldelsur.bigcartel.com/

PEOPLE HELPING PEOPLE

Project Kurase (gift items from Ghana)
http://www.projectokurase.org/

Raven + Lilly (Indian, African, local art products benefiting impoverished women)
http://ravenandlilly.com/

“Now They’re Jumping Out the Window”

I’m attached to the base of a toilet,
whose lifeless chill
feels strangely like a warm bath
against my sweat-submerged forehead.

My stomach feels like a market crash,
after the grilled cheese bites
and the shots of cheap vodka
got too greedy and panicked,
traded insults and shot each other.

Now they’re jumping out the window

but at least I can tell myself
that the sun-bright camera flashes
and the thirst like a mouthful of sand
will be gone in the morning,

and that I don’t have to stare
into the eyes of my younger self,

someone who wrote
poems about drunks,
emptied shot glasses

as if he was drinking water
on dry, early evenings,

someone who hadn’t yet forgotten
what it was like to quake, convulse
and then be still
at the edge of vomit-crushed bowl.

–

“Lovedrunk”

Stumbling, stomach surging,
mouth derelict,
he thinks of her

not as she was tonight
but as she always will be.
An image that invites
sensation

but does not direct it:
the idea of her
that warbles drunkenly
in the moonlight,
holds his hand

pushes him forward
like liquid out of a glass.

Alcohol is considered by many to be the bringer of a good time, and I honestly cannot sit here and say that I’ve never hopped on the party boat (and yes there is literally a boat at a nearby park that has been home to many a good time) willingly. Yet every now and then you get a reminder of that time you partied too hard. You look back and think, Gee, maybe I should have stopped at 12 shots, I really didn’t need the extra 7 (and a half, from when you finally surrendered). However, here I sit, being the fan of Jack Daniels and Peppermint Schnapps that I am. By no means do I go out on a regular basis drinking like I did a couple years ago as a high school student. Back then I was young, crazy, and I thought I had all the answers; so naturally, I needed to prove my badass-ness by being a crazy drunk 17 year old.

Either way, just last night I was sitting at the computer, kicking the shit via AIM with my friend when I spot the flash of a new IM, from someone I haven’t talked too since before I graduated high school.

Now I do my best not to waste energy on having and holding onto regrets, but there are certain times in my life that I have a tendency not to dwell on as ‘times of my life’. When you wake up in the back of someone’s work van in one of those folding beach chairs scratching your head and surrounded by dozens of empty Keystone Light cans, well you know that’s a night you’re going to want to leave behind.

Regardless of the above, I receive this IM, mind you it’s about one in the morning, and this guy says, “Hi”. So, what do I do? Instead of dodging disaster by pretending to not be at the computer, I say, “Hey.” Great going Hannah, seriously. After a bit of small talk, man of the past begins a, “Do you remember the time when…?”

Whenever I hear that phrase I have an automatic reaction to curl into the fetal position for further protection. Generally, no, I don’t remember that time, and if I do, I wish I didn’t.

When it comes down to it, I really don’t want to see an instant messenger window flashing at one in the morning from someone I have not spoken to in over 2 years being reminded of something I did in one of my less pleasant states of inebriation. Seriously dude? Then he just had to throw in the, “Well, if you ever need anything…”

Is this a fucking joke? Can I transfer the likelihood of these situations to someone else, please? I think I have had my fill.

Cold Storage Wine Clearance Sale.

Visit the Cold Storage Wine Clearance Sale and enjoy discounts up to 50%.

Click here for more details.

…talking about Ciroc!

Diddy was live (not sure when) from his bubble bath talking about the success of Ciroc Vodka. The music, fashion, and movie mogul apologized to the competition for Ciroc being the best vodka on the market. I’m not sure if they’re the best because I have tasted every single vodka but they sure are one of my favorites!

Watch the video after the break! Read the rest of this entry »