Year: 2004

June 9, 2004

The near-monsoon rains and sudden burst of heat tell us two things: 1) summer is arriving, and 2) it’s time to prep the barbeque for the long grilling season ahead. And, besides a frosty beer from time to time, nothing goes better with grilled meats than the big-fruited wines from California, Oregon and Washington State. Read on for news about several tastings featuring these domestic offerings, as well as aand preview of Hennepin Lake Liquors’ sale—arguably the best summer wine sale in the metro area.

First, the tasting reports. I was lucky enough to sit down with Mikael Thollander and Robert Croce of The Wine Doctor, sampling a lineup of their very best from the West Coast. After a light warm-up of a couple South African Chenin Blancs, we tasted a lovely Riesling from Brooks Winery in Oregon. Charlie Trotter, the Chicago celebrity chef, buys up almost all of Jimi Brooks’ Riesling, but a small amount is available locally at $17.99. Top quality.

Next we moved on to a few wines from Walter Schug, a premium Carneros region producer. The Heritage Reserve Chardonnay was sublime, with a rich fruit and oak balance. Schug barrel ferments its wine and ages it sur-lie (with the fermentation sediment in the barrels for big extract flavors). This chardonnay is one of the few worth the $31 price tag. Great with a grilled salmon or halibut. The Heritage Reserve Pinot Noir—the grape that Walter Schug has devoted his whole life to mastering—was even more stunning.. Elegant yet full of gusto, it would accompany a grilled lamb or salmon entrée perfectly. Also $31 retail. Schug’s ’99 Merlot was massive, but a $42 merlot is a tough sell in my opinion (I’ll contradict myself in just a few minutes!). It was a bit herbaceous in the nose, which is characteristic of merlots from cooler regions like Carneros and Oregon.

Those same regions are emerging as the very best sources of Pinot Noir. The next one we tried, from Maysara, was majestic. This ’01 Delara Pinot Noir, made by the aforementioned Jimi Brooks, was perhaps the finest example I have ever sampled of this sometimes awkward grape. Worth the $45 if you can find it. Ask Phil at Hennepin Lake Liquors to pick up a case and add it to his Summer Sale inventory.

The tasting got even better with two top producers from Washington State. Robert Parker named the first, DeLille Cellars, as the very best in Washington right now. Chris Upchurch, winemaker, produces a couple of estate bottled Bordeaux-style blends, namely Chaleur Estate & Harrison Hill, both of which retail at around $60 a bottle. Then there is the D2, the “deuxieme” or second wine, which blends the remains of the top estate wines. This ’91 D2 retails at about $40, and I found it at first very tight and hot, but as I “followed” the wine over the next 48 hours, tasting it at various points, it opened beautifully to show its full pedigree. It’s as good as, say, a Silver Oak Cellars or Jarvis from Napa Valley, at about half the price.

We ended our outing with two products from Andrew Will, second perhaps only to Delille as the premiere Washington State winery. Both wines, the ’01 Klipson Merlot and the ’00 Seven Hills Cabernet, were amazing. I could only use extreme superlatives in my tasting notes—“incredible!,” “stunning!” (though admittedly, this could have been partly due to the effects by then of about a dozen wines). These wines both retail at $50, which might seem steep, but not if you actually drink the wine. It’s all relative.

The next tasting to report was a benefit fundraiser for a local Humane Society. Greg Varner, proprietor of Excelsior Vintage wine shop , chose most of the lineup.. Whites included Monte Volpe Sauvignon Blanc ($12)(very well received), Bonny Doon Big House White($12)(always a good quaffer for grilled chicken or pork), Gallo of Sonoma Chardonnay($12)(a standard in value chards), and Cambria’s “Katherine’s Vineyard” Chardonnay ($18)(an even nicer accompaniment to grilled chicken, pork, or even salmon).

For the reds, things became a bit more interesting, as Greg’s lineup accented a few selections from my spring Napa trip. The showcase wine of the evening was Duckhorn ’98 Howell Mountain Merlot, and it proved every bit the winner predicted. We sampled from a magnum, so it was showing a bit young but opened nicely over the evening. Also on the sample list was a nice merlot from Andretti Winery, a relatively new Napa producer owned by the race-car legend Mario Andretti. At $12, this is a lovely wine with enough structure to complement a grilled rib-eye. A “Fleur du Cote Rouge” from Torii Mor was medium-bodied and delightful—another example of why Oregon is tops for Pinot Noir and rhone-style wines. This wine would go perfectly with grilled pork tenderloin.

We got a most pleasant surprise from a Meritage from Hahn Estates in central California. A classic five-grape Bordeaux style blend with merlot leading the way, this wine, for under $20, is a great choice to accompany any sort of beef done on the grill. Likewise, the Napa cabernet from Liparita ($25 in California, but not yet available in Minnesota) was powerful and smooth, with enough backbone to stand up to a grilled steak. We also enjoyed a Zinfandel from Chateau Montelena, brought back from Napa, but luckily now available in town. $25-$30 may be a bit pricey for a Zin, but hey, it’s Montelena. Not many know that this premiere cab-chard producer even makes Zin (they make a Riesling too, but only sell it at the winery).

Speaking of Zinfandel, I was fortunate enough to try a bottle of 7 Deadly Zins, an old-vine zinfandel from Central California. Very big fruit for the price (around $20), and a great choice with barbecued ribs. Yummy!

The last tasting in this report was a small, private BYOB event at which a few interesting bottles showed up. Among the three that stood out were two from Gundlach Bundschu, the $12.99 Bearitage and the $19.99 Mountain Cuvee. Both are blends, and great wines for summer beef grilling. The Bearitage is a perfect burger wine, whereas the Mountain Cuvee would show better with a nice sirloin. The third pick was the Steele “Pacini” Zinfandel, long a favorite of mine and also a great accompaniment for ribs or steak.

UPCOMING EVENTS

“G’day in a Glass” is a huge Australian wine tasting on June 16 from 6:30pm to 9pm at the Nicollet Island Pavilion. There is a Trade Only tasting in the afternoon and an event for the public that evening. Over 300 wines will be shown!

Hennepin Lake Liquors Summer Wine Sale
This sale runs through July 3. Come back for details on both the sale and its kick-off wine tasting event in the next report. In the meantime, get grilling!

I can’t think of anyone whose career I am more interested in or more forgiving of than Prince’s. Let it be known, I’d follow the tiny man who penned “Shockadelica,” “The Cross,” “House Quake,” and “Bambi” into the gates of hell if he asked me to. In the nineties I was one of those diligent tools who would drop everything and hightail it to Chanhassen to happily sit outside Paisley Park for hours in sub-zero temperatures for his “surprise three a.m. gigs”… that sometimes never happened. Let’s see, I can’t feel my feet, I have to be at work in two hours, and all I got was this lousy souvenir tambourine shaped like a part of the male anatomy? Cool. Let’s do it again tomorrow night! To this day I could cry that I loaned a cute boy my “sold under the counter” vinyl copy of The Black Album that he forgot was left in his car that had been towed to the impound lot where it sat in his back seat for five record high temperature days one August.

In case you think I’m some drooling Prince-can-do-no-wrong Minnesotan, I’ll risk public stoning by saying I think Purple Rain is ass. I stumbled upon it recently while channel surfing, all I could think was “ouch, there’s a time in history that hasn’t aged well.” Guitarist Wendy Melvoin’s many saucy stage threads made my teeth ache: miniskirt, nylons, and white basketball high tops? No, please. And I’m sorry, “Dr.” Fink, but somehow your stage persona seems like an afterthought. “Get the keyboard player some scrubs and be sure to cover his Jheri Curl and his face.”

The vast cavern between P’s hits and misses is what makes him so fascinating to me. I don’t think he consciously thinks, “Hmmm… Let me write a real stink-burger opus, with an amateurish screenplay to match, just to irritate the haters.” On second thought, maybe he does. Oddly enough, I could respect that. Other than his ill musicianship, it’s the mystery of the man that I love. It’s all very Wonka-like. In fact, rumor has it Around the World in a Day was produced by Oompa-Loompas.

I’m still surprised by the sound of his speaking voice coming out of that tight l’il body. You think it’s going to be squeaky and small and then out comes the sound of chocolate melting in the mouth of a baritone pre-op transsexual. Much like my curiosity with the pope, you can’t picture either of them doing normal, everyday things. Plunging a toilet, waiting for the cable guy? Not so much. It’s also very important to me to know if either of them owns jeans. I like to think that Prince even has four-inch heeled slippers built into the feet of his jammies.

Send your purple prose to Mary Lucia at popularcreeps@yahoo.com.

May 25, 2004

With two week’s worth of wine events to report on, this entry is packed with tasting notes. It is a busy time of year, springtime, so full of promise. The Napa Valley Vintner’s Association event of early May was the harbinger for the lively Wine Fest weekend on May 14 and 15, which featured a variety of gatherings celebrating Napa Valley wines and raising money for a local charity. It was my great pleasure to introduce Fernando Frias of Frias Family Vineyard to The Wine Doctor, so that the fabulous Frias Family wines might become available here in Minnesota. The deal was struck, so stay tuned for what could be the most exciting new wine to enter our market in some time.

Speaking of The Wine Doctor, I recently had the good fortune to sit down with him to taste the wines of Mike Januik, formerly the winemaker for Chateau St. Michelle. Mike had become perhaps the most powerful force in the Washington State wine industry, through St. Michelle’s dominance in the market. So why did he leave? Simply put, to work toward making the best wines in the world. Januik believes that Washington State can produce wines as distinctive and expressive in varietal character as those from the best regions of California. After putting nine of his wines to the test, here’s my opinion: His chardonnays are very solid, but these days not many of us are interested in paying $30 for a chardonnay. His merlots were not distinctive, but then I don’t find that quality in many merlots (Pride Mountain and Paloma being two exceptions). Januik’s ’01 Cabernet was approaching greatness, and I could see where the high ratings were deserved. But it was his Syrah, both the 2000 and the 2002, that made my heart sing. These wines are worth every penny—seek them out and consume with certain delight!

We also tasted a ’96 Chateau Corbin Michotte St. Emilion, which, at $31.99 retail, didn’t impress me too much. But I am tough to please when it comes to French Bordeaux, having developed such a Napa palate. I did get to try just this past Saturday a ’98 Chateau Ducru Beaucaillou, quite a prestigious Bordeaux from the St. Julien region. This was a finely structured wine, but I still preferred its tasting mate, a ’97 Clos du Bois “Marlstone.”

The Wine Doctor and I also sampled a couple of tasty offerings from the South American producer Budini. Both the 2002 malbec and cabernet were very much worth their asking price of about $10 a bottle. Likewise the red and white blends under the label “Le Bistro” were very good, when you consider the $8.99 price.

Moving on to an event I presided over on May 15, during which a small group celebrated with four flights of Napa wines. Standouts included S. Anderson “Stag’s Leap” 2000 Chardonnay ($24.99) and the Kendall Jackson 2001 Cabernet “Grand Reserve” ($22.99).

And, lastly, a wine dinner on May 22 gave us the opportunity to taste Schramsberg’s “Mirabelle,” a non-vintage blend sparkling wine. A great bubbly for picnics, it’s also a great value at about $18. Another standout was the quirky zinfandel from “Blockheadia Ringnosii.” Winemaker Michael Ouellette honors his French heritage by making a wine that is very Rhone in its styling (perhaps akin to a Chateau-neuf-du-Pape, or in a similar manner as Bonny Doon’s “Cigare Volant”). This is a great wine to pair with a spring lamb barbecue. A Ferrari-Carano ’00 Reserve Chardonnay went over very nicely with a salad of spring greens, feta, and caramelized walnuts. And then came the big cabernet blends mentioned earlier, the Ducru Beaucaiilou and the Clos du Bois “Marlstone.” Both were massive and yet supple—great beef wines. And I must mention that just this past Friday I noticed at Sam’s Club in Maple Grove that the ’97 Marlstone was on sale for $24 and change. That, dear friend, is a steal!

We ended this fabulous evening with two knockout dessert wines: First, a sublime Eiswein from Franz Reh in Germany; and second, a delightful port from Silver Oak’s winemaker, Justin Meyer. Along with some locally produced passion-fruit-filled chocolates and a precious Stilton cheese from England, dessert became an international love-fest! Ah, gluttony…

So, what is up on the local scene? I was checking out one of the Cost Plus Word Market outlets, and they do offer an occasional reason to stop in a buy a few bottles. This month they are featuring Cline’s Red Truck blend, as well as the Toasted Head Chardonnay from R.H. Phillips. Two very nice spring picnic wines. Another chain, The Cellars, is having somewhat of a May sale, with a hodge-podge of selections discounted through the end of the month. A few big-name Napa cabs stand out, like Caymus and Staglin Family. And they stay balanced by offering an assortment of ’97 French Bordeaux as well. I might be tempted by the ’97 Chateau LaGrange, St. Julien, at $26.97.

With the spring wine sales now past, the next big sale to anticipate is Hennepin-Lake’s coming in June. Stay tuned for more news on this sale-to-beat-all-sales, if you believe everything owner Phil has to say… Well, time to jump back outside and enjoy what is turning out to be a long and cool spring. The city gardens and parks are lush and gorgeous this year, so grab your favorite bottle of wine, your favorite friend, and go enjoy!

There certainly has been a lot of fuss lately about the health insurance crisis. A couple of weeks ago in the New York Times Magazine, Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton—a person who is guaranteed to get a rise out of excitable Americans on both ends of the political spectrum—set forth her case for reform. Again. She noted that the situation has only gotten worse since she was laughed off the rostrum the first time she proposed radical change to a broken system that will not heal itself.

Within the week, the puissant Newt Gingrich wrote to acknowledge that he agreed wholeheartedly with at least one of Hillary’s principles: that reform must focus on the individual. Although he didn’t say precisely what he means (undoubtedly that innovation and change must come from individuals exercising their profit motives, not the fed acting like a nanny state), we were gratified to learn that the issue means enough to him that he actually founded something called the Center for Health Transformation.

When Hillary and Newt agree on something, the end is surely nigh; only the willfully stupid don’t see the mess we’re in. Business leaders are noticing that employee health benefits are the single biggest debit on the company spreadsheets. When the captains of capitalism begin to complain, powerful people begin to listen. But what can the powers and principalities offer, other than flagrant lip service?

It is an interesting impasse. The only way to effect genuine change is to muster sympathy from influential folks who worry about health insurance only in connection with their stock portfolios. We live in times when enlightenment comes in only one flavor—enlightened self-interest—and no politician will take up the cause of real reform until it is clear that such a position will get him power, money, or both.

We wonder why William McGuire, the CEO of United Health Group, is so eager to raise money for George W. Bush. The president is grateful for the hundred thousand dollars McGuire has raised on behalf of his re-election. Does Minnesota’s highest-paid executive know something we don’t about what is required to overhaul health care? We hope so, considering he was paid ninety-three million last year to run the nation’s largest and most profitable health care company.

We like to pick on McGuire, but we know the problem is systemic. Of sixteen corporate officers at United Health, twelve have given a total of twenty-three thousand dollars to the Bush reelection campaign (just one thousand dollars short of the maximum allowed by law), while none have given a red cent to that bleeding heart John Kerry. (Lois Quam, the head of one division who is also married to DFL point man Matt Entenza, played it safe with a harmless donation to Dick Gephardt.) It may also be worth noting that four United Health executives reporting to McGuire bring home a total of $66.7 million in annual salary.

Which begs the question: Just how committed to change can a person be, who is compensated so handsomely by the status quo? And why does United Health make its home in a state where the company cannot legally operate its core business because it is a for-profit health management organization? Perhaps it is to insulate its executives from the public opprobrium their greed so richly deserves.

What is the Republican agenda for treating the health care crisis? It is to blame bogeymen, to distract from real issues with straw men and red herrings. The people presently in control like to claim that what is really driving health care costs are frivolous lawsuits and filing inefficiencies, and an absence of competition in the marketplace.

McGuire, in his euphonious annual letter from the chairman to stockholders, makes grandiose claims about the need for broad societal initiatives, while gloating about the performance of his company. He makes no specific recommendations for change—at least not anything that might ruffle stockholders. What’s really needed, in the argot of the day, is more “science-based decision making” (in other words, more insurance-company bean-counters making even more decisions—it is called actuarial science, you know) and the computer-compatibility of patient files. This is a little like blaming the oceans on the rain.

“Our health care can—must—work better, be more efficient, and truly provide for all people,” he wrote last year. “As a nation, we can and must cover everyone.” And yet he also points out that “the magnitude of the challenges in health care, combined with ideology, lead some to propose preemptive or unilateral decisions.” The clear message is that drastic times require timid gestures.

Let us translate McGuire’s game plan for you: We can squeeze even more money out of the system for our “stakeholders” by continuing to turn up the heat of our rhetoric, while cashing in our stock options, and being careful to do nothing of substance. When the issue is complicated, it’s best to blame the trial lawyers (malpractice chicanery!) and the nurses (lousy filers!), and raise as much money as is legal for political candidates who care about the basic human dignity of massive profits.

On Tax Day, United Health reported record first-quarter earnings and increased margins. Profits are way up. Oddly, the health care situation for most non-millionaires has not noticeably improved.

For its eleventh year, the Walker’s annual celebration of female film directors kicks off with the apropos new documentary In the Company of Women, a look at the vital role of female filmmakers in the nineties’ independent-cinema explosion. Though it sometimes feels like a ninety-minute commercial for the Independent Film Channel (which funded it), it’s still a heartening overview of the inroads women have made in the male-dominated film world. Other intriguing movies being shown include Double Dare, about Hollywood stuntwomen, and a free retrospective of the short works of Minnesota-born director Sarah Jacobson, who died of cancer in February. There’s also a number of strong features from outside the U.S., including the American premiere of At Five in the Afternoon, an intriguing, Spike Lee-like drama about a schoolgirl in Taliban-ruled Afghanistan who dreams of running for president. (612) 375-7622; www.walkerart.org

For those who know Toots & the Maytals solely from “Pressure Drop”—the best cut on The Harder They Come, the greatest reggae collection ever—a whole world awaits. With Jimmy Cliff, Bob Marley, and Bunny Wailer, Toots has kept on keeping on, even as public interest in reggae outside of Kingston, Jamaica, has dipped and doodled with the speed with which Minnesotans become Twins fans. Toots’ latest, True Love, is a guest-studded affair featuring the likes of Eric Clapton, Ben Harper, Bonnie Raitt, and Ryan Adams, perhaps in hopes of generating the same kind of crossover appeal that reminded everyone Carlos Santana was still alive. It’s an honorable introduction to our man Toots—and since people have been jumping on and off his bandwagon for a generation, no one will mind if you suddenly catch on now.

East L.A.’s band of wolves have had a thirty-year career of remarkably high-quality work, though that hasn’t always translated into the mainstream success worthy of their talent, their 1987 monster-hit cover of “La Bamba” aside. And although it’s good news to us merely that they’re back with their first disc since 2002’s stellar Good Morning Aztlan, seeing who else Los Lobos have invited along for The Ride makes this one especially intriguing. Guests include Richard Thompson, Tom Waits, and Bobby Womack, who joins the band on a remake of his seventies soul classic “Across 110th Street.” Elvis Costello and gospel singer Mavis Staples lend vocals to reworked versions of two older Lobos tunes, “Matter of Time” and “Someday.” Mark your calendars for September 1 and 2, when the band’s crackling live show brings them to the State Fair stage.

Cooing jazz chanteuse Diana Krall met pop-punk icon Elvis Costello at the 2002 Grammys, and so far two great things have resulted—their marriage, and an inspired, romantic collaborative album. Krall is known for giving new life to old standards. Girl In The Other Room, however, breaks that tradition as the first of her eight albums to showcase her songwriting talents. Sexy down-tempo numbers such as “Abandoned Masquerade” and “I’ve Changed My Address” are highlights that foretell a great future for Krall/Costello originals. Costello lends his songwriting finesse on six numbers, and Krall also covers the likes of Joni Mitchell and Tom Waits. Longtime fans will see this as a departure from her usual fare of simple standards, but fear not—this clever, more sophisticated material still preserves her signature elegance.