Sain't Christopher

Pity, Party of One

I think I'm being funny, instead I get sympathy

Dawnami:  You should really return that alarm clock.
Me:  I don't have a reason, it works, it just isn't what I expected.
Dawnami:  You should return it, you're dissatisfied.
Me:  If that's the case, I should never have to pay for anything in life.
Dawnami:  Awww.

Go in Peace

Candles

I didn't make it to Auschwitz.

10 years ago I had a college friend living in Prague and I went to visit her in the apartment she and two friends had rented.  We decided on January, I'd be flush from all the holiday OT and the tourist trade would be at a minimum.  I planned to stay for a week then head up to Krakow, fully expecting to make a trip to the prison camp.

My first night in Prague, Amy took me to a pivnice (bar) where she and the other ex-pats had their once in a lifetime living abroad experience hanging out with other ex-pats.  I was talking to one of the guys, telling him my plans to go Krakow the next week.  He was impressed that I'd managed to find a place to stay, what with all the world wanting to be there for the 50th anniversary of Auschwitz's liberation.

Huh?

Yep, everything was booked.  Which was fine, I'd spend another week in Prague and I would instead go to Terazin, the camp outside the city.  In the meantime I would suffer through exploring one of the most beautiful cities in the world.  I'm tough that way.

Everyone who goes to Prague makes it to the old Jewish Quarter, now a sort of museum made up of old synagogues and civic buildings.  It  was a Nazi idea, after killing all the Jews there should be a museum preserving their record. So, unlike the Frankfurt Jewish quarter I'd visited the day before, the buildings were kept intact.

First you walk through the hundreds year old cemetery, a somber but not disturbing experience.  Then you go through a couple of the buildings and see the old Torahs and other religious treasures the Nazis had looted from all over Europe.  One synagogue had names painted on the walls.  Each name had a date after it, documenting the death of Czech/Slovak Jews that had been killed by the Nazis.  The names had been painted in the 1950's and then painted over in 1967 by the Soviets, a response to the 7 days war.  They are in the process of repainting the names and had about half of the 77,297 done when we went through.  This was chilling.

But it was nothing compared to the next room.  They don't prepare you for it.  After the dark room with the names is a room filled with natural light and lots of color.  The colors are drawings and painting made by the children who'd been held at Terazin.  And then comes the kick in the stomach.  I mean a big kick in the stomach.  Each one of those kids was executed, over 15,000.

It was an hour later, at the end of lunch, before we spoke again.

I put off the trip to Terazin until the next week, I would have to work myself back up for that trip.  So, at the end of my second week I stood in front of the Jewish Quarter entrance waiting a bus that didn't show.  The camp was closed, everyone was at Auschwitz.  The Jewish Quarter was closed too. 

I had steeled myself for depression, for shock and for sadness.  Instead I just walked through old town heading toward the pivnice and a beer.  On the way I found some happiness.

Every two years there is a European competition for  marching bands.  Not big, organized groups that spell out their college's initials, these were groups of twenty or thirty middle-aged people whose European upbringing stopped them from becoming trekkies.  And every two years they invade some town and the day before the competition they take to the streets and later the bars.  Of course, I found this out later.  I was just walking past Venceslas square on my way to the memorial for the students who immolated themselves in the "Prague Spring" uprising of 1967 (I wasn't going to waste that emotional girding).  Then I hear the oom-pah-pah and see the crowd.  Cool.  I took a photo, watched them for a while, then walked on toward in a lighter mood.  Two blocks over I came across another one.  By the time I got to the bar I had come across 13 marching bands and I was in a great mood.  Two hours later one of the bands started to come in looking for drinks.  I had to meet one of Amy's roommates for dinner so I didn't stay.  But on the way I saw that all the bars along the street had colorfully dressed musicians with beers in their hands.  That quickly, that easily I went from one end of the spectrum to the other.

It's 10 years later and again I'm caught unawares, this week is the 60th anniversary of Auschwitz liberation.  Life goes on, people work, people love, people play in marching bands and the horrors of the camps seep below daily thought.  Or, they are replaced by the newer killing grounds in Cambodia, Rwanda, Croatia, Afghanistan, Iraq, Bosnia, Columbia, Sudan . . . and more. 

So, I write checks that don't make me feel any better and I forward petitions that probably don't do anything.  I stay informed, a witness, for all the good that does.  No strong lesson, no moral.  Just sorrow and hope.

Go in Peace

Chortle

I've been cracking myself up for the last two days repeating something I heard on the radio: a Southerner said he was Happy as a puppy chewing jello.  Well, that and the blblblblblblbblblblb noise that is now code Dawnami and I use for the ridiculous efforts men make in the bedroom

Go in Peace

Class

Steve Martin wrote this sweet op-ed for the NYT in tribute to Johnny Carson.

Go in Peace

Genes

Proof that parents never stop being teachers:

10 years ago I was just beginning to head down that road of enological pretentiousness when I went to wine country with my folks.  St. Suprey has a great visitor center, and they give good tour, so that was the first place we went.  As the group moved along you could hear the susurrus of blossoming snobbery, usually it was the man "educating" his companion.  When we finally got to tasting, the guide asked the group, "And what is the first thing you look for in a glass of wine?"  Without missing a beat Mom answers, "Floating bits of cork."  The group waited until the guide burst out laughing and told her she was exactly right before they laughed too. 

Sometimes, my Mom rocks.

Go in Peace

Only Dead Fish

190 hits today, 5 comments to the last post.  What have I learned?  People care more about central nervous system depressing, reality altering wine than they do about my unique interpretation of daily life.

I can accept that.

Wine is that last great class stigma in America.  The same average Joe who feels completely comfortable walking through the lobby of a Ritz wearing a robe still gets a little flustered when presented with a slightly corked bottle of wine in a restaurant.  It wouldn't damage his self image in the least for a concierge to give him a look of disapproval across the foyer but if that same look comes from a man in a white shirt and bistro apron holding a bottle then Joe becomes meek and self conscious. 

The problem is generally dismissed as a culture gap, Americans aren't raised with wine so it is an achievement of elitism and sophistication to drink wine.  And like art, music, and anything else considered high brow, other Americans may take the "I don't know whether it's good or bad but I know what I like, dammit" attitude.  I know I did.  I've been learning about wine for over a decade and all the really important stuff, the stuff that would have saved me from feeling like a rube, I didn't learn until the last two years.

Here are the 6 most important things that I wish I'd have learned years ago.

1. Taste changes and develops over time.  A child craves sweet because it is a source of energy, he dislikes bitter because it probably will make him sick or it is hard to digest.  A person probably isn't physically going to like big red wines like Cabs until he turns 30 (women a little earlier).  At 22 I choked my way through reds wondering why I didn't like them- I wasn't meant to.  Unless . .
2. A person raised drinking wine or tea will be accustomed to tannins.  The French give their kids wine diluted with water, which cuts down on the tannins just like cream or milk in the tea English and Indian kids get.
3. Some wines shouldn't be drank without food.  This brings us back to Two-Buck-Chuck.  Drinking the Cab without food is not a pleasant experience but this isn't the wine's fault.  It's just fine with a burger or a steak.  I remember friends from my 20's ordering cabs instead of cocktails and making the pucker face.
4. We Americans have been the victims of a marketing plan.  Some genius decided that it would be best if Napa wine makers marketed single-varietals.  That is why we drink 100% Cabernet whereas the rest of the world has blends.  Look at the Bordeauxs that I tasted Saturday, not a single-varietal in the group.  That means that "table wine," what Americans have to call blends, isn't inferior because it isn't a single varietal.
5. No wine is inherently better than another, to think so is just snobbery.  I learned this during the last food and wine course I'd taken.  We'd been matching great foods with outstanding wines all week and for the last night's lesson we were brought a White Zin.  All around the table there were guffaws of superiority.  Then they served up Mexican shrimp and avocado with a side of comeuppance.  I meant to put a White Zin on my list of 5 whites yesterday but forgot along the way. 
6. It's just wine.  I recently came across a quote from Marlene Dietricht, "In America sex is an obsession, in other parts of the world it is a fact."  And so it is with wine.

And here is a great read for anyone interested; I'm in the middle of re-reading it right now.  The author has a great sense of humor. Here is her definition for Claret: "what we British call the red wines of Bordeaux, often labeled Chateau Something."

Go in Peace

Yes, you in the back?

I don't usually respond to serious comments on this site, if I get free speech so does everyone else.  But this is important to me so I wanted to address it:

Okay, knowing nothing whatsoever about wine, I think I'm going to have to keep you on speed e-mail.

Hey, Mister Smartypants... how about your top ten picks (both whites and reds, so top twenty) of the "grocery store" wines... say, under $15. My favorite brands are usually Clos du Bois, Kendall-Jackson and BV. Lisa occasionally makes recommendations and I usually write them down.

Stacey

First off, Stacey, I'm not Mr. Smartypants.  His name is LT and he lives in Chicago with Mimi. 

Now, about the wines.  I'm always glad to give a sermon about the grape and I think it is very important to have good drinking wine.  I'm also insulted about how much we get charged for it.  Yesterday we bought a $10 bottle of White Bordeaux and were initially thrilled with it.  I mean it was a great match for a simple lunch of a sausage scramble and salad.  Once we started thinking about it, we figured that this same great wine sells in France for no more than $3 and we started to resent the American Wine industry that is still maturing slightly behind the American consumer.  Here's 5 reds and 5 whites.

Red Wines

Cline Cellars Red Truck, Table Red, 2003, $8
Cline is a good producer of grocery store wines, I've tasted there several times and a good number of their wines are great for the regular drinking.  Three years ago I got introduced to their Oakley Vin Rouge that was just under $6 a bottle and I think we went through 3 cases.  This is available at Whole Foods in Ypsi/Ann Arbor my friend DaveB is the wine guy there and he tells me it's a big seller.

Columbia Crest Two Vines Shiraz, 2002, $7
I just want to be clear: THIS WINE ROCKS!  Last year's vintage got a 90 from Wine Spectator and it flew off the shelves. The new release is in and it hasn't been reviewed yet so buy it now while you can.  I've got two cases in the basement.

Charles Shaw Cabernet, 2002, $2
Tons of press for "two buck Chuck" and why not add my take to the that big warm steaming pile of opinion.  When you read the Best Deals Under $15 articles there are almost never any Cabs on the list.  The technical word for this is "bullcocky".  I'd rather drink a fruity cheap Cab for $2 rather than an overly tannic out of of balance $20 name bottle.  Cost benefit analysis- drink it.

Barefoot Cabernet, 2002, $10 - 1.5l
My friend LJR introduced me to this bargain several years ago and in that time the wine has gotten better without the price going up.  They sell a 750 ml, but I always find the magnum on sale.

Clos du Bois Sonoma Merlot, 2002, $11.99
I remember this wine 10 years ago when it was named a best buy from Spectator and everyone went nuts for it at $8 a bottle.  I track American wine development  by my parents.  Back in the '70s they started out with Boone's Farm before moving to Blue Nun. then to German Rieslings, White Zin, Beaujolais and then one day my Dad tells me he's buying Clos du Bois Merlot.  The next year the hot wine is Merlot and Clos starts going up in price.  I think it peaked at $17 a bottle.  Now, like a Hilton sister, it's time in the sun is over and it's back to being a cheap bargain.

White Wines

Edna Valley Chardonnay, 2003, $11
This fall we tasted almost 60 California Chards and we were amazed.  All of these different growing regions, different winemakers and yet the stuff ranged all the way from A to C.  We'd have 12 in a row, all the same color and viscosity.  We were presented with choice between too much oak and way too much oak.  There was the same choice between too much butter and way too much butter.   Some of the more adventuresome had too much oak and way too much butter or way to much oak and too much butter.  A good number were bold enough to have both too much oak and too much butter.  Ummm, were was a going with this?  Oh, yeah, plenty of those types of Chards if'n that's what you like.  I'd add Simi, Chateau St. Jean, and Kendal-Jackson as well.

Penfolds Chardonnay Rawson's Retreat, 2003, $6
This is a move away from the tyranny of butter and oak, an Australian compromise between between Europe and US styles.  This is great with seafood.

Azure Bay Sauvignon Blanc-Semillon, 2002, $9
This is a great food wine, especially spicy Asian foods and Salads.  This is a New Zealand wine and like the Aussies they make their product "fruit forward" which I really like.

Frog's Leap Sauvignon Blanc Napa, 2003, $13
A long time favorite of mine, I can't speak highly enough about this.  The big secret that Napa doesn't want to get out is that every other white wine is more food friendly than Chardonnay.  Once you don't barrel the wine, like chardonnay, the cost comes way down and the producers don't want that.  Not exactly, anyway.  The newest trend: unoaked chardonnays, more like the French style of a white Burgundy.  But because it is a trend, these clever bastards are actually charging more.

Fat Bastard Chardonnay, Burgundy, 2002, $8
Speaking of bastards.  This is a nice introduction to the French style of chardonnay.  It is crisp, clean, and refreshing on the palate.

Mumm Brut, Napa Valley, $14
What is life without champagne?  Dull.  KT taught me that the night she brought bottles to the park where I was petting dogs.

***********************************

Well, that's a pretty good list.  I hope they are available where you are and that your particular state liquor board doesn't jack up the prices.

Go in Peace

Noah

Of the many ways we are spoiled here in Northern California, my favorite is the wine supply.  Our corner party stores here totally outclassed the wine shops I checked out in Minneapolis last year.  The best of the best here is K & L out 4^th Street by the ballpark, that’s where the Maitre’d and I went today for a tasting of Bordeaux wines.  Every Saturday they pour for the masses at the reasonable price of $17.  French wines are not a strong point for me, but I’m growing more and more fond of them, mostly because I’m developing a preference for terroir qualities that tend to go missing in most California style wines.

Here’s what we had:

1999 Carillon d’Angelus, St. Emillon ($24.99) (90% Merlot)

A weighty merlot, dark purple.  The fruit and tannins could use a little taming, luckily the acid and alcohol was pretty low.  This is the second label from Angelus, something they only do in the poorer growing years.

1999 Phelan Segur, St. Estephe ($24.99) (60% Cabernet Sauvignon, 35% Merlot, 5% Cabernet Franc)

Had this last year at a tasting with LJR.  A very traditional style Bordeaux with all the expected berry and earth flavors.  We liked it a lot until we had the 1996 next.

1996 Phelan Segur, St. Estephe ($29.99) (60% Cabernet Sauvignon, 35% Merlot, 5% Cabernet Franc)

Same makers, same proportions in the blend, but a better year for wine and an extra 3 years in the bottle made this bottle easily worth the 5 dollars more than the ’99.  The fruit had absorbed the oak and this brought everything into a great balance. 

1998 Haut Bailly, Pessac-Leognan ($29.99) (50% Merlot 50% Cabernet Sauvignon)

This wine had a better nose and displayed both red and black berry flavors along with a smoky character.  This was a wine that will get better over the next three years and then hold for another 10 or more.  Wine Spectator gave it 90 points.  I’ll be buying a few of these.

2000 Ferriere Margaux ($68.00) (75% Cabernet Sauvignon, 20% Merlot, 5% Petit Verdot)

This one had a serious earth smell that the Maitre’d didn’t like but I really did.  Like a stinky cheese, the flavors were not in proportion to the odor and I thought it tasted really good.  The fruits were nicely fleshed out but the top notes were the chewy ones, tobacco and chocolate.  This got 93 point from the spectator, but that only works if you really like this sort of style and based on a private survey of just us, one out of two didn’t.

2000 Haut Bages Liberal, Pauillac ($39.99) (80% Cabernet Sauvignon, 17% Merlot, 3% Petit Verdot)

This is considered the best release ever for this vineyard, it got a Spectator 93.  After a while you get tired of saying that it has cassis, plum, etc . . . It’s a cab, of course it has these.  I’m not concerned about the individual berry notes as much as I am about whether they are in balance with the tannins and oak.  For a four-year-old wine, the tannins are half what a Napa cab would be, but the balance with the fruit was great and the guy pouring guesses this is a wine that could keep that up for almost 20 years.

2001 Pichon Baron, Pauillac ($49.99) (70% Cabernet Sauvignon, 25% merlot, 5% Cabernet Franc)

Robert Parker says this about the 2001, “93 points Robert Parker: "A very successful effort for this vintage in the Medoc, this deep ruby/purple-colored Pauillac exhibits class/nobility/breed along with black currant liqueur, licorice, and incense notes.”  Huh, class/nobility/breed, what a putz, eh?  Truly a great wine, though.  An amazing 45-second finish.  This is another one for a long stay on the shelf.  I’ll get one or two of these.

And then we had some bread, rinsed our glasses out and got what turned out to be the find of the event.

2003 Marjosse Blanc ($9.99) (85% Semillon and 15% Sauvignon blanc)

This was such a refreshing, brisk wine that we bought a bottle to take with us for a late breakfast at the Blue Jay Café on Divisadero.  It was perfect with my andouille sausage, mushroom, and Swiss cheese scramble with salad.   We’re gonna split a case of this.

2002 Petit-Verdrines, Sauternes ($11.99 – 375 ml)

If there’s been an annoying trend in Napa for the last few years, it’s been the explosion of grossly over priced late harvest wines.  There are some wine makers, like Van der Heyden, who truly make an exceptional product that is worth the $40 a half bottle or more that they go for.  But, 90% of them aren’t anywhere as good as these sauternes that go for quarter the price.  I like this one for not being too sweet.

2002 Doisy-Verdrines, Sauternes ($25.99) (80% Semillon, 17% Sauvignon Blanc, 3% Muscadelle)

Probably pick up a bottle for my sister.  This is the classic Sauternes, just sear the Foie Gras (while you still can) and roll your eyes up in pleasure.  The melon-citrus quality is nice.  A bit too sweet for just sipping, for my taste anyway.

And there you have it.

Go in Peace

Circles

In the last few months I've been re-connecting with a high school friend that I've lost touch with over the last five years.  When we do get a hold of each other, it is usually a good two/three hour talk that always leaves me a little in love with her.  Any man would be, she's smart, funny, sincere and even though I've seen her only a handful of times in the last 20 years, I still think of her as a close friend.

Why did we lose touch?  Part of it was career commitment.  She went back and got her Master's in midwifery while I, as you readers are well aware, have been trying to get my times down so I can make the U.S. luge team in '06.  The rest was just distance and time, the usual.

But, I do think of her each January.  That's when I get my renewal notice from the Pearl S. Buck foundation.  Her birth-name is Ginhee, she is the daughter of an American soldier and a Korean citizen who was adopted by a very nice couple in my little 'burb.  Growing up, I never gave it a thought, there were a few Asian kids amongst the whiteness that was Livonia but I don't remember it as an issue.  Hell, it wasn't until my Grandma pointed it out to my folks that my first serious relationship constituted an inter-racial coupling (she was half Filipino).  I don't think I comprehended Ginhee's situation until I was in the Army.

There are 50,000 soldiers in South Korea at any given time and they get rotated on a yearly basis.  A good number of soldiers marry Korean girls and even more just sleep with them, exploiting their hopes for a better life in America.  This is a huge problem for the Army.  The biggest problem is not the amazing number of VD cases, but that is what they use to scare the troops, the big problem is unwanted pregnancies.  They told us what sort of life a mixed racial child could look forward to provided they made it to adolescence.  Not pretty, folks.  It horrified me to think that this could have been the life for my friend had not some agency gotten her adopted.

I did some reading on my own and learned of the Pearl S. Buck foundation, a great organization that organizes adoption for mixed gender children and unwanted daughters along with providing support for women who keep their ostracized babies.  Since then I've made a yearly donation, thanking them for their great work and for giving me this incredible person in my life.

Anyhow, should anyone else wish to find out about this organization and make a donation, go here. 

Go in Peace

Walmart

On one hand, I couldn't be happier about the child that Uber Friend KC and her man Luke will be adopting.  I have no attraction for fatherhood, but unclehood is a downright hoot.  I can't wait to teach the child annoying  mouth noises and take her our for her first piercing.  Oh, the fun we'll have.  And I can't think of a better playmate for a small developing child than KC, she's gonna be great.

On the other hand, all these inexpensive, foreign babies are taking work away from good traditional hard working American babies.  Its not fair really, should U.S. babies be shunned because they throw their broccoli off the hi-chair while a third-world tyke eats it all up, glad to not be eating the rice gruel they'd been weened on.   Sure, it's trendy to get the sleek foreign model (available only in a dark beige) and what says status more than spending $20K for a child when most manage it for the cost of (ironically) Chinese take out and two bottles of Beringer chardonnay?  Oh, and there are perks.  Lucky Parents staying at China's White Sway Hotel while waiting to pick up their child are gifted with a "Coming Home Barbie."  Yep, this rare collectible, complete with small generically Asian baby, comes with each adoption just like those snazzy umbrella and scarves that come with a Mercedes*.

It's gonna take a whole lot of advertising, maybe with a Bob Seger song in the background, to compete with all that.

*There is no emoticon for facetious.

Go in Peace