So, I was readin’ the ol’ WSJ the other day, and I came across an article about my man Stephen Tanzer.
As any reader of this blog will likely know, I’ve been a Tanzer man a long, long time; since even before my days at Ridge (hard to believe there WAS such a time!).
I certainly admire him professionally, and I also tend to align with him palate-wise. So I was very pleased to see him getting adulated in the pages of the venerable Wall Street Journal, and I credit Jay McInerney for highlighting this most worthy subject.
Finesse over power. It’s an interesting way to look at things, and I was intrigued. Truth be told though, the article, to my way of reading, seemed to spend an arguably regrettable amount of time wading in the waters of the Parker paradigm; the universe in which all things seems to exist only in relationship to Robert Parker; it’s galaxial, with Parker as the sun, and everyone else being measured by their relative proximity.
So, here’s another way of looking at things: In the world of wine, you might say there are Boggle people, and there are Scrabble people.
Boggle is defined by the timer. Scrabble is not.
That said, Boggle relies on lots of words, and so does Scrabble.
That said, success at Boggle requires agility with language. Same for Scrabble.
But, Boggle is all about drama, excitement, and adrenalin. Scrabble is not.
That said, both games require sensory acuity; the ability to ascertain possibility and potential resident in raw and unfocused material.
But, in Boggle there is no continuity, no connectivity, no long-term threads, links, or relationships. Scrabble is all about connections, inter-relationships, overlaps, and mutual beneficialities.
That said, both reward practice, and earned expertise.
But, Boggle is all about dramatic impact in the moment. Scrabble rewards subtle effect over the long-term.
That said, they are both point games.
The point being, there are things that unite us, and things that differentiate us.
Lovers of one or both of the games can all agree; we love words and language, just as all of us in the world of wine love wine.
But in the end, there are Boggle people, and there are Scrabble people.
Me? I’m a Scrabble people.
You?
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Full disclosure, Stephen Tanzer does review our wines, and has in fact done so rather favorably before. The same can be said for Robert Parker, and the Wine Advocate as well.
For some recent reviews from Mr. Tanzer, please click here:
Greetings all! Behold the skinny on that of which I wish to ensuingly speak:
What: Ridge Vineyards Wine Bloggers Tasting
When: Sunday, September 23rd, 1pm
Where: Ridge Vineyards/Monte Bello
That’s right, the next edition of the Ridge Vineyards Wine Bloggers Tasting is scheduled for Sunday, September 23rd, at 1pm, at our Monte Bello Estate, and we’re finalizing the guest list as we speak!
Confirmations are due to be sent out tomorrow, so if you’re still interested, now is the time to let us know!
If you wish to attend, please query via one of the following channels:
–Comment on this post
(or any other post of your choosing!)
–Twitter at us!
(Use #RidgeVineyards & #WineBloggersTasting)
This series has been quite a remarkable phenomenon for us. We launched it back in March 2010, and have covered a great deal of thematic ground since. We’ve hosted a dizzying array of talented writers and tasters, and hosted in a wide variety of locations. We’ve gone toe-to-toe with Robert Parker, and waxed wine & jazz. We’ve tasted in barrel rooms and on crush pads, gone on video, and typed on vintage manual typewriters. We’ve tasted blind and double-blind, Rhones and Bordeauxs. We’ve snuck-peeked new releases, and drawn deep on the library. In short, we’ve had an amazing time.
If you happened to have attended #WBC12, you might have seen me in the company of the esteemed Ed Thralls and Sasha Kadey, co-hosting a panel entitled “The Winery View of Bloggers.” And if you were in the audience, I am hopeful that you took away, if nothing else, the realization that we at Ridge Vineyards (along with Ed and Sasha!) are devout believers when it comes to our wine blogger colleagues, and the wine blogging community.
I personally feel this tasting series to be one of our most signficant expressions of our solidarity and support, and ideally, I believe it to be a contributive mechanism as well; we’re not just supporters, we’re writers too!
As any of you who’ve attended in the past know, there is always a theme. Some examples from past editions:
– Monte Bello vertical, paralleling a Robert Parker tasting
–Winery-only Rhone-varietal wines
–Lytton Springs vertical, 1987-2009
–Acrostic Anagrams
–VerticalModelMembershipManifesto
–11-vintage Monte Bello library tasting; blind tasted
–Small-production, winery-only library wines from Lytton Estate
–Historic Vineyard Series & Vintage Manual Typewriters
–The Gospels of Paul: Wine & Jazz, Paul Draper & Paul Chambers
As to theme for this upcoming edition? A secret!
Unless the theme itself necessitates advance disclosure, the theme is not be revealed until the tasting commences.
One important thing to note; the guest list is not in fact strictly constrained to “wine bloggers” per se.
If you’re a music/food/art/philosophy/lifestyle/culture/media/literature blogger who also writes about wine, please consider yourself eligible as well!
And with that, I’ll conclude this post by extending the invitation one more time; if you’re interested in attending the September 2012 Edition of our Wine Bloggers Tasting Series, please query at your earliest convenience, as we’re hoping to send out confirmations tomorrow.
This is going to be a GREAT weekend; a weekend of celebrations, introductions, and reunions:
Celebrating 50 years of Ridge Vineyards!
Introducing the New Fall Releases!
Welcoming back Pizza Politana & Real Time!
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That’s right, 50 harvests for Ridge Vineyards. Can you believe it?
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That’s right, new Fall Releases! Can you believe it? Dig this!
2009 Monte Bello (just received 98 points in the new issue of Robert Parker’s Wine Advocate!)
2010 Ponzo Zinfandel
2010 Pagani Ranch Zinfandel
2010 Lytton Springs Zinfandel (93+ points in the new Advocate!)
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That’s right, the return of Pizza Politana and Real Time! Can you believe it?
You may remember Pizza Politana from a certain Fall Release Event last year (click here for more!) that happened to to be one of the greatest food & wine events in the history of food & wine. And you may remember Real Time from a certain April 2011 First Assemblage event (click here and here for more!) that happened to be one of the greatest wine, food, & music events in the history of wine, food & music.
Lofty claims, I know, but I’m telling you, these wines, these pizzas, this jazz; it’s gonna be digalatedly diggable decadence of the most delightfullated degree!
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First off, the wines. As but one sample, dig this review from Antonio Galloni in the new issue of Robert Parker’s Wine Advocate:
2009 Ridge Vineyards Monte Bello, 98 points
The 2009 Monte Bello ,72% Cabernet Sauvignon, 22% Merlot and 6% Petit Verdot is simply magnificent. Layers of dark red fruit, flowers, spices and graphite are all woven together in this utterly impeccable wine. The 2009 is an especially huge, intense Monte Bello, yet a sexy, silky core of fruit lies within its imposing frame. Everything comes together in this glorious, radiant wine. Last year the 2009 had some pretty stiff competition from the 2010, but today it is simply firing on all cylinders. Eric Baugher describes 2009 as a year with cold weather early on, followed by heat in early June and July. The fruit was brought in on October 12, just before an intense downpour swept through the region. There is a purity and silkiness supported by structure in the 2009 that is impossible not to admire. Simply put, this is another utterly magnificent, towering masterpiece from Ridge.
If you know me at all, you know I’m a tad opinionated when it comes to music, and particularly, to jazz. Suffice to say, I dig Real Time.
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And that, folks, is this weekend’s event. For more, and to purchase tickets (Saturday is already sold out, but there are a few spots still open for Sunday!), please click here.
Meaning, with next weekend’s release of the highly anticipated 2009 vintage (please see the end of this post for the 95+ point Robert Parker review!) this very special and limited library release is returning to the nether world of The Cellar.
The Cellar. A world of froth and shadow, where nothing is as it seems, and everyone has a story below the surface. A world that dances slowly to the sound of water dripping down darkened slabs of limestone, where echoes last forever and a heartbeat is a hollow heel clicking on a cobble. A world of wood and steel, bound together by the inevitable migrations of blood-red passion. A world where change is the only constant, where transformation is the only truth, where time is measured not by the clocks, but by the senses.
These are The Cellars to which all good wines must invariably descend.
Monte Bello Incognito.
We don’t know where or when, but we will see you again. Until then, farewell old friend. Farewell.
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95+ Points – Robert Parker’s Wine Advocate: “The 2009 Monte Bello bursts from the glass with an exciting array of radiant fruit. It is a striking wine endowed with superb purity, dazzling finesse and breathtaking textural elegance. Despite the expressiveness of the fruit, there appears to be more than enough underlying structure for the wine to develop beautifully for decades. In 2009 the blend is 72% Cabernet Sauvignon, 22% Merlot and 6% Petit Verdot, harvested between September 23 and October 12. Draper says the 2009 is the greatest wine he’s ever made, but I won’t be surprised if he has to amend that statement for the 2010?. In 2009 the season got off to a slow start, but recovered over a summer characterized by warm days and nights. The harvest was on schedule. Anticipated maturity: 2019-2029.” – Antonio Galloni (Aug 2011)
If you follow economics in any fashion at all, and certainly if you’ve been following the European Debt Crisis, then you’ll likely be familiar with the term “Austerity.”
And so there I was, driving my “normal” commute from Santa Cruz to Monte Bello, listening to NPR like the good lil’ NorCal-dwelling lad that I am, and along comes yet another story about the imposition of/necessity of/potential of/ramifications of “austerity” measures, and I got to thinking, where else did I just see that word?
Of course! Austere!
It’s the 9th word in Robert Parker’s Wine Glossary! Which is, mind you, a document of no small repute in my industry. (If you’re interested, you can find it here).
And so I got to thinking, what does austere mean economically, vs. what does it mean oenophilically?
From the website Investopedia.com:
Definition of ‘Austerity’
A state of reduced spending and increased frugality in the financial sector. Austerity measures generally refer to the measures taken by governments to reduce expenditures in an attempt to shrink their growing budget deficits.
Investopedia explains ‘Austerity’
Austerity measures are generally unpopular because they tend to lower the quantity and quality of services and benefits provided by the government. Beginning in 2009, several nations were forced to embark on unprecedented austerity measures. These measures were necessitated by budget deficits that soared to record levels because of actions these countries took to stimulate their economies following the massive credit crisis and global recession of 2008.
And from eRobertParker.com:
austere: Wines that are austere are generally not terribly pleasant wines to drink. An austere wine is a hard, rather dry wine that lacks richness and generosity.
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So, see any parallels?
To me, it looks like this; imagine the scenario as one in which there is an entity that provides something, and an entity which receives something. In the case of economics, this is the government, and its people. In the case of wine, this is the producer of wine, and the consumer/drinker of wine. In each case, “austere” essentially becomes a description of that which is on offer. And this descriptor is a comparative descriptor; it states that the entity on offer is “lower” in quality than it could be (or perhaps than it was expected/desired to be). In describing said entity’s offering as “austere,” one is essentially noting a lack of “generosity” or “richness”; something that is “reduced.” (Which, by the way, offers another interesting parallel, as “reduced” is a wine term as well! See below for more on this …)
Of course, my favorite parallel between the two definitions is this:
“…generally unpopular…” and “…not terribly pleasant …”
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So, how about some other shared terms betwixt the worlds of economics and wine?
Here’s a test: Can you guess which of the following terms are in Robert Parker’s Glossary only, which terms are in The Economist’s “Economics A-Z” only, and which terms are in both?
The following summary of our recent and very special Wine Bloggers Tasting is broken up into two parts: in Part I, I run down a description of how the tasting was constructed, and in Part II, I reveal my notes and pairings, and how they matched up with our guests.
A short film was running on a loop as our bloggers arrived (publishing controls prevent my running the video here, but you can see it in the background during the blogger videos at the end of this post); over a soundtrack featuring the Miles Davis composition “So What,” from the album “Kind of Blue,” (a track famous for its immortal bass line, created and performed by the great Paul Chambers, one of our two Pauls for the day) and a compendium of images of Paul Draper (Ridge Vineyards winemaker) and Paul Chambers (bassist on an astonishing array of canonical Jazz albums) the following paired quotes ran:
“Everyone is influenced by everybody, but you bring it down home the way you feel it.”
-Thelonious Monk
”We’ve always made wines that we loved to drink.”
-Paul Draper
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“When you have great vineyards that produce high quality grapes of distinctive individual character, this is not only an environmentally and socially responsible approach, it’s also the best way to consistently make fine wine.”
-Paul Draper
It’s all about creation and surprise. It just needs to be appreciated and watered like flowers. You have to water flowers. These peaks will come again.
-Sonny Rollins
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“Overall, I think the main thing a musician would like to do is give a picture to the listener of the many wonderful things that he knows of and senses in the universe.”
-John Coltrane
“My aim is to take these pieces of ground, and allow them to express themselves.What I demand of a great wine is that it reflects nature,not the hand of the winemaker; it has to have that connection to the earth.”
-Paul Draper
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“I had finally realized that you didn’t need a degree in oenology to make great wine.”
-Paul Draper
“If they act too hip, you know they can’t play shit.”
-Miles Davis
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Our guests were seated. The theme was then revealed.
As past readers of this blog may recall, the “theme” of the tasting is rarely, if ever, announced ahead of time. In a previous post I had made clear the tasting would be a celebration of jazz and wine, in honor of the event coming on both the 3rd anniversary of this blog going live, and the anniversary of Paul Chamber’s birth, but I hadn’t explained what we were actually going to do, or taste. I did let slip one hint; I had intimated filming would be involved, due to my intention of sharing details about this event during my panel talk at this year’s Wine Bloggers Conference.
Anyhow, the theme.
Classics: The Gospels of Pauls
Meaning what?
Meaning that we would blind-taste four ”classic” Ridge wines, while listing to four “classic” Paul Chambers performances. Attendees would then “pair” the songs to the wines, based on their tasting and listening notes. Then, attendees were to go on camera, and explain their choices. After all attendees had their turns, I would then reveal my “pairings” and justifications, and we would then cross-check all the results to see how we’d all matched up.
My goals in constructing the tasting in this fashion were two-fold:
1) I wanted to take advantage of the calendrical confluence (this blog’s 3rd anniversary & Paul Chambers’ birthday) as an opportunity to discuss the procedural and philosophical parallels between the production of great jazz and great wine, and ideally then take this out to the larger realm of how all great art is produced; emerging, as I believe it does, from that peculiar and wonderful intersection where mojo meets craft, knowledge meets instinct, juju meets technology, passion meets knowledge.
-and-
2) I wanted this event to be a living enactment of the greater possibilities inherent in the winery-wine blogger relationship; per my goals for the panel talk at the conference (“The Winery View of Bloggers”), I wanted to be able to show how this unique relationship allows for something more than the conventional producer-reviewer paradigm to rule the aesthetic day.
As to the selection of wines and performances, this was of course a tad tricky, because my biases are fairly obvious.
So, for the wines, I elected to rely instead on “external” assessments of just what exactly constitutes a “classic” Ridge wine.
Here is what I chose, with a very brief explanation of why after each:
2001 Monte Bello – recent 99 point rating from Robert Parker
2000 Monte Bello- winner of the “Young Cabernet” competition at the Judgment of Paris 30-year re-enactment
1999 Lytton Springs- Winemaker Eric Baugher’s choice for a “classic” zinfandel
1997 Geyserville - Winemaker Paul Draper’s choice for a “classic” zinfandel
And as to the songs, I selected four indisputably canonical recordings from four indisputably canonical artists, as follows:
So What- Miles Davis (from “Kind of Blue,” probably the greatest jazz album ever recorded)
Bemsha Swing- Thelonious Monk (from Monk’s “Brilliant Corners” album, rightly regarded as one of the most important and influential recordings of the modern jazz era)
Paul’s Pal- Sonny Rollins (from “Tenor Madness”; inarguably one of the greatest saxophone-centric jazz albums ever recorded, and an early milestone in the career of this recent Kennedy Center honoree; incidentally, the song is named for Paul Chambers)
Mr. P.C. – John Coltrane (from “Giant Steps”; one of a few significant albums that firmly established John Coltrane as one of the greatest jazz players ever to stalk the earth; this song is also named for Paul Chambers)
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As noted above, I asked each guest to go on camera to explain their pairings. And while I won’t unveil the full video versions until the conference in August, I invite you to please enjoy the following compendium of short clips in the meantime (for best playback results, please select the “YouTube” link in the lower right corner of the video screen, to watch the clips directly on YouTube):
This concludes Part I of our post. Stay tuned for Part II!
–Appendix I–
Three of our guest wine bloggers have already put up wonderful posts about this very special tasting event; to enjoy their perspectives, please click the following links:
Ok, enough lists. Onto our 2011 summary. We begin …
With January.
Seems so long ago. What on earth was happening in January of 2011? Well, it was a bit of the good and the bad. On the one hand, beloved actress Zsa Zsa Gabor had to have her leg amputated, and Roger Federer lost in the semis of the 2011 Australian Open, but on the other hand, I was auctioned by Nadia G!
How about February 2011? Well, another month of the good and the bad. One one hand, Tiger Woods was fined for spitting on a golf course. But conversely, The Ramones won a Lifetime Achievement Grammy. So, all’s well that ends well. And at Ridge? Well, February 2011 saw the Monte Bello Hospitality Team go pruning, and of course, it was ZAP! And that was all good.
Which brings us to March. The month in which I enjoyed the greatest tasting experience of my entire life. The Monte Bello Assemblage Tasting. Did I care that Hillary Clinton was in Egypt? That Space Shuttle Discovery was making its final landing? That Coptic Christians and Muslims were at each other’s throats in Cairo? That Phil Collins retired? That the Superintendent of the Chicago Police Force was stepping down? Nah, didn’t even notice. I was making Monte Bello!
Which means I almost didn’t even wake up for April. But good thing I did! Otherwise, I would have missed Penelope Cruz getting her star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame! And I wouldn’t have known that Dennis Rodman was getting inducted into the Basketball Hall of Fame! And heaven forfend if I wasn’t present and accounted for when they announced the guestlist for the wedding of Prince William and Catherine Middleton! And on top of all that, I wouldn’t have been there to celebrate the anniversary of The Judgement of Paris!!!
June was a whole different animal. Very emotional. There was some loss. I’m not gonna lie about it. We lost Peter Falk AND Clarence Clemons. That was hard to take. But there were new beginnings as well. We saw bloom on the mountain. That was beautiful. Samsara. The circle.
By July, we’d gotten our heads on straight again, and we were ready to rock. Everybody was ready. To rock, and to swing. The Arab Spring was rocking. The Queensland Reds of Australia were rocking (they defeated the Canterbury Crusaders of New Zealand 18-13 to win the Super Rugby championship). Jane Austen was rocking (A rare manuscript of an unfinished novel sold for 1.6 million dollars at auction!). Even Jürgen Klinsmann was rocking. He was named head coach of the United States men’s national soccer team. And Ridge Vineyards was rocking too. We rocked probably the hardest at Zinbo #1. That was some serious rocking. Zinfandel and BBQ. Yeah, that’s the rock. Let it rock, let it rock, let it rock. I want to rock. Rock and roll hootchie koo. I love rock n’ roll. For those about to rock. Rock you like a hurricane.
August is a funny month. You never can tell with August. Sometimes it’s groovy, sometimes it’s funky. It can have the funk, but it can also get in the groove. The 2011 rendition of August was mostly kind of funky. I mean, after all, dig this synchronicity. In the same month, Tim Pawlenty announced the end of his campaign for the Republican Party presidential nomination, and Jhala Nath Khanal resigned as the Prime Minister of Nepal! Crazy! And that’s not all! It only gets weirder! Dig this: Nick Ashford of Ashford & Simpson dies in the same month that Jerry Leiber of Leiber & Stoller dies! Crazy!!!!! And if that weren’t enough, both Lady Gaga and Katy Perry got banned by The Ministry of Culture of the People’s Republic of China. Crazy!!!!!!!!!! Fortunately, things were pretty stable at Ridge Vineyards. In order to combat all that CRAZINESS out there, we relied on the consistency of a series; in this case, our Ten Questions with Paul Draper series. Something about checking in with Paul on a regular basis, all month long, felt soothing. He comforted us. He got us through.
By September, we were back in control. We knew what was going on, we were in the saddle. Sonya Thomas won the United States Chicken Wing Eating Championship without batting an eyelid. That New Zealand Emperor Penguin was back in the ocean. And Google+ hit the ground running. And as to us? Solid. We started the month with Fall Release Tastings at Monte Bello and Lytton Springs, and just kept on rocking in the free world after that. Rocking in the free world.
October was pretty crazy. There’s just no gettin’ around it. Things were nuts. The NBA went on lockout. Steve Jobs passed. Sarah Palin declined to throw her hat in the presidential ring. A swede won the Nobel Prize for Literature. Paul McCartney got married again. Wootton Bassett became Royal Wootton Bassett. And the St. Louis Cardinals won the World Series. S#*t was crazy. Here too. Harvest began on the mountain. Which was crazy.
November is recent enough that I feel I still remember it. I remember China launching the unmanned Shenzhou 8 spacecraft. I remember the 5.6 magnitude earthquake NNE of Shawnee, Oklahoma. I remember the resignation of Silvio Belusconi. And the sentencing of Dr. Conrad Murray. And most of all, I remember what I was thankful for.
Which brings us to December. The end of the year as we know it. And I feel wine.
And I hope that you do too!
On behalf of all of us at Ridge Vineyards, we thank you for an extraordinary 2011.
With all the excitement of harvest looming on the horizon, and all the forward looking this involves, it does indeed seem as if a proper “look back” at the Monte Bello Fall Release Event is in order; even though it was only last weekend!
Anyhow …
On behalf of all of us here at Ridge, and most especially the team here at Monte Bello, I wish to thank everyone who attended this extraordinary happening; I don’t know who was happier, our guests, or us!
I drove up that morning nervous, exhausted, stressed, and unhealthily focused. A huge event afoot, and all responsibilities on my shoulders. I was deranged.
What paused me, and fully recalibrated my psyche, was this:
That’s what I was looking at as I was unlocking the driveway gate. I was instantly unwound.
Once inside the Old Winery Barn, it was down to my office. That’s when things started to heat up again. So much to do, so little time. Staff began to arrive, the catering team arrived, the parking team arrived. So many people. I was beginning the routine that would be mine the rest of the day; running laps around the property. I was frenzied.
But pause was soon again given. It was tasting time.
You probably know by know just how good these new vintages are showing. I was happily rediscovering. Point scores are nice, and we’re happy to receive good ones, but at the end of the day, the wines have to perform when it matters most; when YOU’RE tasting them. I mean, sure the new issue of Wine Advocate had just simply showered down praises on these wines (97 points for the 2008 Monte Bello, and 95 points each for the 2009 Lytton Springs and the 2008 Monte Bello Chardonnay!) …
… but what were YOU going to think?
After tasting the line-up, I felt very good. Very, very good. And I felt that you, too, were going to feel very, very good.
Which was good, given that the first arrivals were starting to arrive, and as expected, the event had drawn out a hearty crop of serious Ridge-o-Philes. And believe you me, these weren’t the only two seriously vintage Ridge shirts I would see, though these are certainl two classic and excellent examples:
So it was go time, and we were ready. We had a great team on hand, the wines were showing beautifully, and some very key members of the winemaking team were in the house:
Paul Draper & Eric Baugher talking Monte Bello winemaking ...
Shun Ishikubo pouring 1992 Monte Bello out of magnum ...
Tara pouring below the ghosts of founders past ...
Zani expertly enacts the art of wine tasting merriment ...
Pete pours cool as a cucumber in the face of hot demand ...
No discussion of the Fall Release Event at Monte Bello is complete without acknowledging the presence of Pizza Politana. Not only did they manage to actually drive a wood-fired pizza oven up our mountain, but they then proceeded to serve some of the most delicious (and PERFECTLY paired) offerings we’ve ever had the pleasure of placing alongside our wines.
But a great idea (wood-fired pizza oven truck!), great ingredients (local, sustainable, organic, NorCal farmer’s market fare), and great pairing do not a great event make. It takes great staff, and the folks from Pizza Politana were tops.
Things were definitely getting intense. You know when you’re starting to golf-cart the guests in that the event is really starting to happen.
Then suddenly this …
… becomes this!
Fortunately, there was this to adjourn to (once the collective tummy was full up on pizza and wine!) …
Yeah, that’ll do …
What a day, what a day …
When I began assembling the components of what have become this post, I was looking for one image, something that could somehow capture the magic of it all; I found this, and figured I had it …
Pizza and Monte Bello. Perfect.
But in looking through all the images I’d shot over the day, there was another idea that I just couldn’t shake, and in the end, it’s what I’ve decided to go with; the bookend.
After all was said and done, and I was coming down the mountain …
… I knew, finally and for certain, that all was well.
