Drinking with Intent

I believe that drinking with intent is absolutely acceptable in the right situation, on the other hand there are situations in which drinking with intent can actually become an issue. Inebriation can be an absolutely beautiful thing. Sometimes it can help with a bad day, week, month, or job you must do. Sometimes it can just help you sleep through frustration. Sometimes it helps you achieve a pure, ethereal emotion while celebrating with friends. Sometimes it can land you in jail at the end of what proves to be an increasingly long night. As a result drinking with intent should be reserved for those that are mature enough understand its application and consequences. As I write this I must admit that little warmth in the belly leads to a free flowing opinion, so to speak.

The bar/party experience: Unknown people are all around you, and you begin ordering drinks with a group of your friends. The night progresses and this is what you see around you. There are a bunch of guys around and they are hardly dressed for a proper event. Baseball caps are on sideways, jersey’s replacing dress shirts and raggedy jeans that don’t fit. You also observe all of the ladies running around with not so perfectly fitted tiny little black dresses and four hundred dollar heels. The parties on at this point and, even though the brothers showed up underdressed, let’s go. The crowd starts drinking with intent and the party builds. About half-way through the party the hardly mature start to drop like flies (age does not matter here, it is a mental maturity.) Some of the ladies are nearly breaking their ankles trying to maintain the heels they are in with a solid buzz, and the guys are starting to get a little too cocky. An hour before the party is over some of those hanger-on hardly matures that were all cocky earlier get in a fight and the other semi-matures are just drunk enough to run out to watch. The fight happening and breaking up is usually sign enough for the semi-mature to run out to their cars and take off to avoid trouble, plus the scene is dying. If at this point you are still around you may work your way back into the room long enough to notice that the girls have entirely forgotten how fitted those skirts weren’t and the remaining guys are desperately pawing away. While some of the true hanger-ons of the hardly matures are barfing in the bathroom or actually falling all over themselves around the room. I mean really, grown-ass men that are not maintaining themselves, really? You are not safe in this situation. If you are observing this while drinking a bit more and just finding the whole scene infuriating and comical at the same time, you may well be the mature. Look out. You prove this when all your friends are ready to go and somehow you find your car, jump behind the wheel, and proceed to explain how you are not that bad of a driver when you have been drinking. I will admit that in this instance I am that moron, and I will admit that I will probably drive away again sometime down the road. I only hope to be strong enough to accept the consequences when they come...... It’s something to think about really.

The home experience: Friends and family sitting around talking while enjoying a few drinks, everybody is under control and enjoying good conversation. Of course, as the glasses fill the conversation grows in volume, the music grows louder in the background, and the smokers break for the outdoors to enjoy what is alcohols best friend. I nice little cigarette break. The smokers will have a tendency to disappear together and for long periods of time, please forgive us, we love you. There may be a bit of gossip forming here and there, but overall the group is in good spirits. This is a situation in which somebody is bound to extend their confidence in their ability to hold their liquor beyond its threshold. At the end of the night, at a private party, if somebody does go beyond their ability it is nearly acceptable. You are amongst those who love you. You will be taken care of, and lovingly left to sleep in the floor. The next day you will have something to help with the headache, lots of water, and allowing that your stomach will accept it, a bit of breakfast and, god-willing a Bloody Mary. All will be well and aside from a little (or a lot) of chiding you will survive.

A joyous occasion, a wedding of course: This one comes quite directly from personal experience and is a very dear one to me so please, bear with me.

The first night that I will recall is that of the night before celebration for the official wedding date of our close friends. Oddly enough they were married shortly before their wedding day for explainable reasons that I shall not go into. None the less we had a bash at our favorite local dive-bar the night before the official day. We were drinking with intent. The prettiest young bridesmaid had a good ole’ time drinking lot’s of juicy drinks along with some sweet shots. At the end of the very enjoyable night we all (this is the maturity part) jump in a cab and head on home. The next morning that beautiful little bridesmaid had a dangerously shitty hangover (this is the consequences part.)

We will now talk of night two, which is my own experience remembered in a teary eyed, fond rendition. Same wedding and I wish to communicate that this couple means the world to me. I am the Best Man, and in my mind that means it is my duty to relieve whatever stress I can throughout the event and give a toast. Of course when things are perfect they go well, and that couple got hitched without incident. Then the corks started coming out of the bubbly for the toast, and this is where we went… I begin pulling corks and pouring glasses getting ready for the big toasts of the evening and in good form I am sampling to ensure things are correct (and calm the nerves.) The Maid of Honor gives her toast efficiently and moves on in good form. I jump up and get all teary-eyed while I give the toast in which I had drawn a complete blank, luckily the love in my heart took over and delivered me a room full of likewise teary-eyed loved ones. After that, I drank with intent. It’s almost embarrassing today to think of myself walking around a formal event drinking out of the bottle, but it remains one of the most memorable experiences in my life! This was one of the ethereal moments….. Congrats Liz and Josh, March 23, 2006.

This leads me to a conclusion, and I will point out that I have certainly performed at various maturity levels throughout my experience with alcohol, and save a few situations may revisit trouble again down the road. I only hope that when I hit that trouble my friends will be there to get my back as I would theirs. At the same time I will use this text as a personal reference to try to ensure that in the future I act more responsibly with alcohol when I am not “safe” and hope that you will do the same. All parties should have a happy ending for all of the guests. When you are going to drink with intent it is okay, but you must surround yourself with those who love you. You must also recognize throughout the night that you may be the one that another will need to depend on.

Cheers

My Truth of Terroir

Terroir: A sense of place, specific to that place, as perceived in a glass of wine.

As you taste wines from around the world you begin to find unique expressions that speak to where they are from. They really do have their own language when they are made well and from a particular space. This is true wherever a grape is grown.

If one were to put a drop of wine in front of a scientist, they could deconstruct the wine and explain to you with precision what was going on in the juice. Acidity level, tannin, alcohol, flavor compounds, solids per million, and so on. They would explain to you that the mineral content in a wine is far to low (parts per million) to taste. Terroir does not necessarily exist in a laboratory, and does not always display itself in every wine.

Unique flavor is a gift of the vineyard or region, even on a large scale. Sunbathed California wines, regardless of varietal always show a more significant ripeness and fruit profile than the majority of their Old-World counterparts. This is what begins to set wines apart. A claim to one significant world region being better than the next is moot when you consider terroir.

Ethereal exists in the wine world when you can close your eyes while tasting a wine and be transported to another moment when you have had that wine in the past. Be it a particular producer, region, vineyard, or bottle it is then that wine becomes so incredible to take in. A crazy idea really, because in my mind it doesn’t even matter if that wine is of your preference. If the wine is correct that must be respected, and as such appreciated for its expression.

I consider my palate under-experienced. At the same time I have tasted enough wines to have a few that I know well, as you might. The other day I tasted a 1992 Chateau Haut Brion, and it tasted just like Haut Brion just a hint light with vintage variation. Upon sipping I was lead directly back to my first taste of Haut Brion as my palate was dosed with the pencil lead, graphite, and scorched earth flavors that I have come to associate with these wines. I associate those flavors with the mineral content that the scientist says are in-perceivable, and frankly, I do not care who is right. Other wines and regions have this effect on me; Spottswoode, Chabils, Dry Creek Zinfandel, Mosel Riesling, Southern Rhone and I can’t wait to find more to fill this list.

Mineral is only a piece of the puzzle though, many things effect the final flavor of a wine. Sometimes it is indeed the soil itself that makes the expression. How much sunshine does your vineyard get? Do you get more morning sunshine or afternoon? Almost every change in a vineyard can be tracked to a taste or expression down to the slope of the hill. Winemakers in California and Oregon have begun dissecting large classic regional vineyards into tiny, individual blocks when making their wines for this very reason. This is absolutely exhilarating to the wine geek in me. While there is a lot of land around the globe to make quality wine there is just something special about being able to taste one particular little spot.

I hope, my friends, that this little rant might inspire you to take a moment. The next time that a wine is poured and in front of you take pause to look, sniff, and taste the juice in the glass. Come to know the wines that you love and you will be rewarded again each time that you get an opportunity to enjoy another glass. The most beautiful wines in the world can become as a friend and in every instance that your palate happens upon them they make you happy.

Cheers

The Winemakers Folly & Confusion of Critics

Making wines for the critics…

Opulent and lush with port-like fruit profiles, overstated alcohol, a lack of varietal accuracy, an absence of acidity and a lost sense of place.

Sharp green notes and lacking fruit in a thinly textured watery base with a pronounced citric acid flavor reminiscent of Vitamin C tablets.

I am not necessarily calling out Mr. Robert Parker or James Laube or James Suckling or Steven Tanzer or Allen Meadows or Wilford Wong or any of the hundreds out there making a profession out slapping a numerical score on a wine that they tasted. Be it a tasting with the bottle and the price in front of them, a blind tasting, or double, triple, centuple blind tasting, the scale for judging the quality of wine has become useless for the consumer.

86-100 points…… The current fad of scoring wines using a 100 point scale was initiated by Robert Parker and a friend. Robert Parker gets my respect without question, his recall is astounding remembering the wines he has tasted along with the score (within a couple of points) that he awarded the wine over thirty years of tasting, in addition to creating a publication that pays him well while remaining free of industry influenced advertising dollars. Still his palate is his own and the score on the wine is merely an opinion. An opinion that in a sense may have skewed somewhat over the years of being threatened by winemakers for allotting scores that did not help their wine sell and being shunned, at times, by entire regions in the world.

The 100 point scale is geared for North America where we are used to a grade school fashioned scale: 96-100=A+, 90-95=A, 80-89=B and so on. If one were to use logic here you would assume that the majority of the wines rated should be in the 70-79, C, or average rating. Realistically the ratings are severely skewed up an entire letter grade because wines that score in the average range do not sell as well and the industry does not like that. Those who fill their bank accounts with the funds of the industry must respond and as such wines keep climbing in ratings year over year to maintain sales, whether or not there is actually any improvement. I could go on about the flaws in a hundred point scale even though I do secretly use my own version of the scale for personal records, and I could talk about how you never see an add in Wine Spectator from a large producer where Spectator has awarded their advertised wine with 72 points.

More-so I find myself concerned for the very identity of varietals and regions being lost in an escalating trend to produce wines that produce scores. Mr. Parker announced this year that he would no longer taste and rate wines made in California allowing those that I lovingly refer to as his minions to cover the state. The hard part here is that a precedent has been set at this point based off of Parker’s taste-buds over the last few years, and this precedent will be followed by his minions and all of the copy-cat critics that are worried that not aligning with this precedent would make them look like they didn’t know what they were talking about.

93 Point Pinot Noir that is jammy and powerful… Pinot is not supposed to be jammy and powerful, it is supposed to be elegant and complex.

98 Point Cabernet Sauvignon that is port-like and pruney with silky tannins and overstated oak… Cab should be heavily structured and age-worthy, yes, but it is being taken too far.

Winemakers you are losing your identity and the identity of your vines! At the end of the day a wine should be varietally correct and a sense of place would be nice. The flavors that make wine a journey for the taste-buds are being destroyed by exaggerated ripeness and oak programs that are ridiculously aggressive all in the name of a score. I’ve got one for you…. Go to your vines, spend time understanding the art of Mother Nature before you start forcing your signature upon her. Allow the grapes to speak to you at optimal ripeness rather that exaggerating it’s voice. Seek varietal character while allowing the taste of your particular spot to shine. If you make five wines from five vineyards and they all taste nearly the same, and the same as the other wines in your price bracket, maybe you are exerting too much control over the natural process. Forget what the critics have to say and simply ask yourself: Am I happy with my wine regardless of the score that is allotted the bottle or how many medals it wins at the State Fair? When that becomes an emphatic “Yes” you might just have something.