All right. The Negress has been busy. She has drunk wine, done a partially sighted tasting, and had her options and ambitions confirmed. She is beginning to realize she isn’t like everyone else here beyond the Negritude. The Best Wine Ever For Now is out there, waiting to be tasted. I like my journey better where the wine comes with people, food and circumstances.
You need examples? Well, there was a partially sighted tasting at the Rudd Center for Wine Studies at CIA Greystone Wednesday afternoon. We all knew that the wines were either predominantly Cabernet Sauvignon or Merlot and all were of the same vintage. We made mistakes and picked a favorite, but the best part of this tasting was the cheeky chat and bold declarations. One woman, a veteran restaurant owner in Seattle, said she would never serve any of the wines poured in her restaurant, praising French wines in general as a better value. Another person brought up the increasing “Frankenwine” tendencies of Napa vintners (to this mind, Napa isn’t the only criminal in this jail). One sommelier noted that some of the wines were bretty, which was helpful since I now have a clear idea of what brett tastes like.
I didn’t speak up at the time, but I’m beginning to love blends. Blends are not Frankenwine, but a kind of alchemy that can enhance a varietal’s identity. My favorite of the wines was the 2005 Cliff Lede Cabernet Sauvignon, Stag’s Leap District, which was 14.8 percent alcohol by volume and 85 percent Cabernet Sauvignon, 13 percent Merlot, 1 percent Malbec and 1 percent Petit Verdot. Cabernet Sauvignon can be satiny but little vegetal. Merlot is like flannel by comparison. The worst of them drink like chewing on an old blanket. Call this one slubbed silk. This wine was smooth, well-integrated and had none of the Bigfoot-kicks-you-in-the-head tendencies of some of the flashier Cali Cabs we’ve tried. As the rest of the conference went on, we got good writing and reading advice, drank a lot more wine and generally frolicked in Napa with the exception of a overlong winery dinner at Trinchero Family Vineyards. Wines thrive at 55 degrees. Human placed in these conditions with long waits between courses, not so much. The Negress likened the event to the Bataan Death March on Twitter and is sure it did have better food. The Negress did some writing for Mutineer magazine about the symposium. Best comment of the Symposium: “I’m gonna go home and drink Scotch.” Most frightening potential future wine-related malady: crappy tooth enamel. As for the auction, it was preceded a vertical tasting of 04, 05 and 06 vintages of some Napa wines. I tasted about half the wines, but didn’t find the setting conducive to detailed observations. For some wines, I have notes like “furry; immature; odd,” which may have made perfect sense at the time. Now my guess would be that flannel-in-the-mouth effect I get from Merlot would account for the fur, which might lead to soft tannins that were all over the place. Since my palate is not your palate, you really had to be there.
One thing that was different about this year’s proceedings was seeing at least two Hispanic wine writers. Tony Lawrence and myself have played the flies-in-the-buttermilk role at the symposium for the past two years. Chef Tony went it alone for three years before I arrived. You cannot tell me there are no people of color interested in writing about wine. The Symposium organizers should probably reach out to others, but it’s nice to see a little progress on this front.
Annual photo of the sheep working at Spring Mountain Winery
Thanks to being in Napa and San Francisco for 11 days, I missed this month’s edition of Wine Blogging Wednesday. Perhaps I’ll explore the Piedmont later. Onward.
