Simple Math is doing Sonoma Coast pinot and Sebastopol chardonnay! MOVING BARRELS IS FUN. MOVING BARRELS IS FUN, I try to tell myself. These are going to be just ridiculous wines, so watch for more info.
Grand Cru Tasting – Part Two (at long last)
“Better to be disinterested than disingenuous.” ~Christian Lane
It’s good to know that while standing outside, wearing slippers in an acid rain pouring down sheets of bad news and crippling doses of negativity, there’s a haven near my house where there’s a portion of the good life notwithstanding. Really, it’s a sweet spot for the Regularian, that being the person who knows how to find joy without necessarily shooting for the moon. When the tragically ordinary looms as just one more of a series of similar rest stops along the raceway, I keep my hand on the throttle and zoom on by with one eye peeled for anything of note. Well, the shiny squirrel bait glimmered – a happy accident, you can call it – in the form of wicked good wines from several sources under one roof. Not another trade tasting, but something more direct and certainly more relaxed than the cafeteria feel those gatherings can evoke.
This is a simple bit about a project on the south side of the Russian River, the side I like. It’s sunny, not nearly as moldy/mossy down there, and there are some superb vineyards in a kind of isosceles triangle between Forestville, Graton and Duncans Mills. RRV, as we call it. In the American Wine Building, where a century ago our local wines were made, now lives a tribe of experts creating syrah, grenache (garnacha en Espanol), and mourvedre (mataro and monastrell elsewhere). I add the varietal variants as a kind of clue into what this Regularian loves, so that when you see them on wine labels you can intuit my joy for yourself and perhaps join me vicariously in a bout of sipping something gorgeous while reading a paranormal mystery novel or something. Hey, it’s like being in my world without being on my couch. That way, my wife doesn’t get worked up about whether you can hang without lamb shanks and my cats don’t say “Oi, what’s with the new guy? He moving in?” Anyway…
What we have here is Wind Gap Wines as well as as Pam & Pax Mahle’s Pax Wine Cellars. When I walked into the building, I was just knocked out by the look and the vibe. Erin and Ben from Twomey were there (amazing pinot noir, reader), and I met Erin’s new bundle of joy whose name I can’t remember but whose cute little hat and most excellent papoose-carrier I wished was around for me in ’71. It was punchdown time, so Ross Hallett was pushing down syrah caps in tanks about 7 feet tall. Pax was hanging out in the next room with one hand on a hose and the other on a forklift, about to mount his steed and shuffle some bins around. The smell of must was in the air – and Ross was dappled with deep purple juice – with nary a fruit fly about. I was gathered there with a few associates from around the country, having converged in the Bay Area for bit of a corporate confab. So as Lee I and rolled up, Ross comes over, grabs a glass, smells it and says, “Oh, goodie. Leflaive. ’03, love it.” Yeah. We’re hanging in the right spot today. A guy under 25 that can identify a producer and vintage rather than the vineyard is my kind of wine geek. But mind you, just as regularian as any due to the absence of snob factor. Might I mention – yes, mention I will – that the way the building was set up and the vibe of its denizens was much like an art gallery/performance space I once was a managing partner/resident artist of. Oil paintings on the walls, a living loft upstairs, members buzzing around in a co-op atmosphere, including a wine glass blower named Chris…So imagine my feeling of having arrived home.
Anyway, what we took a look at, in addition to some whopping Burgundies, was a little bit of Twomey (pron. “too me”), some Pax and a dollop of Wind Gap wines. I’ll let you follow the links yourself. Not because anybody’s paying me to promote them – I do that of my own volition – but because all I want to say to you is that if each winery’s website information gives you the steam enough to go ahead and plunge forward to try some of their wines, believe what you read and see. I am telling you that among the droves of options for special occasion pinots, Rhone varietals (roussane & syrah), chardonnays and blends of grenache and mourvedre (pron. “mo-VED”) – these guys all have it in spades. Of particular note are: Twomey merlot, Pax Wind Gap Vineyard syrah and Wind Gap Griffin’s Lair Vineyard syrah. Trust me. Or don’t. But ha – I caught you trusting me just now, didn’t I? You’ve followed this post for 789 words, and I would assume that by now we see eye to eye.
Not gonna go on further. Not gonna do it. (Spool Dana Carvey’s George Bush through the mind’s eye. That was fun, yes?) For now, it’s time to bid the dog adios and hit the highway to present a Simple Math tasting. Wish me luck! These aren’t stodgy critics I’m going to visit, but they don’t want want to be occupied with the ordinary. That’s why I’m dropping by with a cure for boredom. Seriously, peace to all. If you celebrate a holiday at all (yesterday being the Solstice and today being Look On the Bright Side Day), Hanukkah underway and Kwanzaa on its way, not to mention Christmas….just have a wonderful time and know that we’re all lucky in one way or another. Life’s about what you’ve been given and how you’re going to turn that into something that you can give right back. Let’s get out there and do it, team, alright? BREAK!
