So I’m going “over the hill” to earn my daily bread. I’m on Adobe Road, that handy way to make the jump from Petaluma to the Carneros Highway. There’s a double-yellow line, and the road’s not exactly a butter-smooth speedway. And what to my wondering eyes should appear in the rearview mirror but a big, white rig much larger than the average sleigh strapped to eight (or nine) mongo-sized reindeer (tiny ones can’t really do the job, one realizes logically) – climbing right up into my sphere of influence. It’s veering over the double yellow a good 4 feet, jockeying for the right time to pass me and the Saab thirty feet ahead. Yeah, I’m originally East Coast, but here we go again: California road etiquette. The guy either wants a hug or a haircut. I just want to enjoy the gorgeous strains of “Birthday” by the Sugar Cubes that are streaming from my cerebellum. That was one of the greatest songs ever created, and I’m thankful that on my 39th, I can remember it well enough to sing it on my morning drive. Suddenly, the truck finds a left turn and heads toward Glen Ellen. Whew.
This is a great time for reflection. I mean, I’m driving 50 miles to my day job. You’d think I could reflect. So I do. Starting with the most recent memories, there’s some practical wine advice I want to impart, this being a wine-related blog…. You may have heard of Monticello (Napa Valley). It’s a second label project (re: bread ‘n’ buttah, keep-the-lights-on and keep the payroll account full to prevent a tasting room uprising). The chief cook would be Jay Corley and the Corley family, who landed in the valley in ’69 to pave a better way in the wake of some awesome viticultural discoveries from Rubicon to Trefethen to Joe Heitz’s property. There was much more to be learned and, since the Napa Valley was at that point still fairly pristine – no land rape evident yet – the alluvial fans and eucalyptus groves had much teach us about how big ol’ rocks, sunshine and fog could make for the most successful winegrowing region on the West Coast. The Mission grapes had become part of a robust, transcontinental trade but the magnificent cabernet sauvignon was yet to find really good footing. Groan. This is looking like history – gotta stop that.
Point: Corley is a good winery. The ’07 chardonnay from Corley’s Oak Knoll estate property goes like this….
Corley 2007 Chardonnay – Estate Oak Knoll District, Napa Valley
½ hour – 2 hours of air: Slightly hot immediately but blows off to curd, popcorn, white pepper. Viscous, memorable. Overripe pineapple finish, low acid.
24 hours of air: Nose: Toasty balsa wood, lettuce. Palate: Lemon, lime, mouthwatering slate. Lost weight. Finish: Oaky banana.
I like it. I’m getting away from higher acids and rejoining where “yum” left off. But then I love Batard-Montrachet. Don’t you??
Also, notes on a red, with the incumbent culinary experience to go with it (one you wouldn’t expect):
Corley 2006 Proprietary Red – Napa Valley
½ hour – 2 hours of air: Color: Bricky. Nose: Nutmeg. Feel: Astringent, light-bodied, empty, cottony leather-raspberry fruit in a wire cage of large tannins.
5-7 hours of air: Mouthfeel plumps out with striations of spicy bramble, round and classic merlot and a raspberry-zap dialect to the cab franc. Much improved.
** Kitchen caveat: I came home late and needed to don the mantel of chef. Thankfully, the fam was patient, so I par-boiled some baby taters, pearl onions and French shallots. Then I grilled them while I sautéed tofu, shrooms and fresh OG broccoli with poultry seasoning, in EV olive oil, with a new pepper sauce I hadn’t used before. It’s made with soy and garlic, and sounded good. (I want to use more sauces to improve my life and the lives of others, but cannot invent them from scratch yet. Hooray for Trader Joe’s.) The stir fry rocked and the kabobs rolled. I like to pronounce “kabobs” like “kebabs” to sound British. Don’t you? Isn’t Ben Kingsley iconic? Anyway, this food paired with the Corley Prop Red sucked. You never know. I stretch the rules as often as possible to see what holds water and what needs to be reinvented. But that pairing failed because the tannins set fire to the black pepper. Too much, Pedro, too much. If I’d only had the courage to pop a Rieussec – but it wasn’t Birthday Night yet.
Regularians don’t maintain 5000-bottle cellars – they visit or design them. Can I get a holla?
Another thing about the wine tasting game. That Corley Estate red wine clearly evolved over time. Go back and read my notes, won’t you? The same held true with the chardonnay; again, see those notes? What we can cull from this is that, naturally, the pop-n-pour first impression is rarely the one to go by. We know this. But as a friend told me he learned from Andre Tschelitcheff (re: granddad of California wine production, period.) the best thing you can do to learn about a wine is to taste it every two hours all day long, as well as revisiting it the next day. I used to do this with every new vintage of Bryant cabernet when I was in the flow with the broker. Ah, the golden age of yore… But since joining the wine biz, I have been milking every wine I can for at least three days, either sucking the air out or just dropping the cork in. If you don’t, you can and should. That way, when you taste aluminum, cranberry, dog breath or cat pee, you know you were a cheapskate when buying that bottle. (( Shopping strictly for the deal will get you exactly what you requested: a reject, a bottle-shocked flagon of plonk, a stinker. Drink Campari instead. ))
Similar to this Corley experience and nearly every other positive one I can relate if you ask me to…. a culmination comes to this conversation. Simple Math chardonnay is this type of wine. I’m eager for you to experience it, particularly on the second day it’s open. It goes from fresh, cuddly and toothy to straight cush. Just how I like it, and anyone who enjoys Russian River Valley fruit will find oodles of merit in this juice. It is dirt cheap but it ain’t marked down, cowpoke. Ne’er shall it be besmirched with an orange sale sticker. If the Gary Fisher’s out of reach, Huffy is still completely reasonable until you hit it on the slots. We’ll keep making it and we’ll keep the lights on for you.
Until next time I have anything to say about wine (heh – ask my wife to refute that one; she’ll take you up on it)…peace and wellness.
C
