Get that dirt off yo'shoulder

Now! Get that dirt off of your shoulder,

Not to say that I am above taking artistic license with the words of others but then again not that I am the originator of such stylistic prose that it might be mistaken for modern dogmatic doctrine, the words be speaking to me and I be saying them.  So I say brush off the past and make a new start because there is no time like the time that we make.  Spend it however you like; with the one you love or love the one you with.  I might wear long black robes and carry a gavel from time to time but that makes me as much of a judge as does having a striking silver mane whilst driving unsuspecting women to a chilly end in an Oldsmobile make one a Kennedy; with respect to the Senator. 

I say live and let drink.  If your (head) above the hard deck set by the municipal, county, state or federal body that monitors the hooch in your neck of the nape…er…neck o’the woods then have with you the sense of mind to mind your mind, body and blood alcohol level and don’t tread upon mine.  So when an unsuspecting neophyte of the craft beer realm had the obtuse (And I’m going with the “not sharp or blunt” definition here, not the “slow to understand” one because that would just be trite on my part, Hee Hee) sense to tell me at the recent Pizzeria Biga 1^st Annual Fermentation and Beer Bash, held in the theatre built to see dough, cheese and sauce wage an ever marauding campaign upon the bocas (Seriously! It means “mouth” in Spanish and has nothing to do with veggie burgers or God’s waiting room down in FL) of the uninformed in the Great State, that maybe being able to partake in 20 of the finest Craft Brews from all over the Fifty-Nifty United States, including some rich and rare incarnations and alchemical bastardizations of the reinheitsgebot made right here in the GS, might be a bit much for some. Well I had to respond objectively and responsibly... 

So I said… “Only try each one twice!”

The rest true believer is the stuff that legends are made of.  No finer pairing, in the bastion that is Pizzreia Biga, is there than that of the Biga Pizza and the marvelous nepenthe of Craft Beer.  And to marvel at this spectacle of the bourgeois and proletariat out en mass to put it to the test was truly a sight and glass to behold!

The abundance of finely fermented libations is below>>>

ATWATER
DIRTY BLONDE	WHITE ALE
VANILLA JAVA PORTER	FLAVORED PORTER
GRAND CIRCUS IPA	INDIA PALE ALE
VJ BLACK	IMPERIAL STOUT	LIMITED BREW
SHORT'S
HUMA LUPA LICIOUS	INDIA PALE ALE
BELLEAIRE BROWN	BROWN ALE
NICIE SPICIE	FLAVORED WHEAT ALE	LIMITED BREW
ANOTHER CAUCASIAN GARY	FLAVORED White Russian Style ALE	LIMITED BREW
NORTH COAST
OLD RASPUTIN	RUSSIAN IMPERIAL STOUT
BIG SKY
HEAVY HORSE	SCOTCH ALE	LIMITED BREW
DOGFISH
THEOBROMA	FLAVORED ANCIENT ALE	LIMITED BREW
FESTINA PECHE	FLAVORED BERLINER WIESSE	LIMITED BREW
VICTORY
HEADWATERS PALE ALE	PALE ALE
OMMEGANG
HENNEPIN	FARMHOUSE STYLE SAISON
LAGUNITAS
UNDERCOVER SHUTDOWN	HEAVY HOPPED IMPERIAL BROWN	LIMITED BREW
BROWN SHUGGA	STRONG ALE	LIMITED BREW
AVERY
THE CZAR	RUSSIAN IMPERIAL STOUT	LIMITED BREW
THE KAISER	IMPERIAL MARZEN	LIMITED BREW
BEAR REPUBLIC
NOR CAL ALE	CALIFORNIA STYLE ESB
RACER 5	INDIA PALE ALE

ALRIGHT! So maybe I was a bit off the mark, Try each one THREE times!!!  The weather proved to be more than cooperative thanks to a Papal dispensation, a Chaldean Sun dance and the prayers of the Thirsty.  By the By all the best put forward for what proved to be a tip-top craft beer event.  Pizzeria Biga Chef, Owner and Proprietor, Luciano Del Signore was there greeting and meeting all that came to take pleasure in the evening. 

With Alberto De Santis, Matt Malane and Jeff Jepko making all the atmospheric attributes of the venue comfortable and Chef Joe Cosenza presenting an array of “Smack your Nana” fair from the kitchen, guests were absorbed into a gauntlet of fermentation with both the best biga and beer available.  The bar staff was savvy as were the servers on the patio and in the dining room and never did a glass stay empty.  The event was punctuated by having many industry folk in attendance including several proprietors of local craft beer restaurants and retailers along with brewery representatives from Atwater Brewing in Detroit and Victory Brewing in Downingtown, PA and the fine folks of Imperial Beverage there to lend a hand and a glass to the event. 

Ms. Lorraine, Ms. Sophia and Ms. Alyssa

Mark, Tom, Shawn and Raymond

Colleen and Javier

Please and Thank You:  Always great to help out a local business and those in need at that.  Well, Mr. Jason Peach is doing just that sort of thing.  He operates Bedside Healer Bears Inc, which makes the cute teddy bears we know and love and tailors them to give support to our loved ones at their bedside.  Please contact Jason with any inquiries Peach@bedsidehealers.com. 

Keep Hope Alive and never trust a big butt and smile

Show me what 'cha got!

Well, show me what you’ve got?

No question has ever been a complete call to arms as this.  No hiding it, whip it out.  Whether you’re at the poker table, the negotiation table or under the table at a Royal Oak nightspot, you’ve been called. And with respect to all of the gents I know who judge each other by who has the bigger, ahem! Amarone, I thought this a perfect time to show them the difference between having it and using it.  So cover your ears darlin’ because as luck (and the inability to organize a wine cellar) would have it, I found a pair o’nicley aged wines from the region that beat all.

You might have heard the term “Ripasso” before or possibly had it slung at you like a 90 mile-an-hour breaking ball in your fave Italian spot or passed by scads of bottles flaunting it on the label at your preferred hooch purveyor.  Well it is now a much more common style that you can pretty much find on most Italian centric wine lists and in most retail shops.  This term is a reference to a process (as is Big Hairy Knuckled Brother, Amarone) in which a majority of the grapes picked (say about 70%-80%), same ones that are used to make Valpolicella, are vinified immediately. The remaining are kept aside and left to dry until the end of December when they are vinified and re-fermented with the wine from the fresh grapes. The result is higher alcohol content, rounder style, lower acidity and more extraction than a typical Valpolicella Classico and much less of a sticker price than its Big Brother, the sight of which can sometimes cause diners to stroke out.  Nothing wrong with being able to grow and show, and coming from the same family as Amarone, my bet is that these wines will not have only aged gracefully but be able to teach us a trick or three. 

Tale o’the Tape

Allegrini “Palazzo Della Torre”, Italy-Veneto, 2000

This is a taught one, melty anise, dried violets, grilled mushrooms, covered in tar and charred black olives with gorgonzola, just filthy.  Figured the color would subside a bit over the past 11 years but wrong on that account.  Smokey & Craig were right, Older the berry; Sweetah the juice! Wait, it’s the darker the berry and well this one’s darker than a sumbish too.  Tasting blueberries baked with brie, portabello on top o’some beef and concentrated sweet plum tannins in the rears. 

And here’s what they said: #65 on Wine Spectator Top 100 Wines of 2004! "Lots of black fruit, violet and mineral character. Full-bodied, with densely packed fruit on a rounded, expansive palate, with well-integrated tannins and a long, fruity, minerally finish. Delicious now, but should open up even more. A great value at this score."
-Wine Spectator 91 points
Still selling online for around $20 and apparently available.

Allegrini “Palazzo Della Torre”, Italy-Veneto, 2001

Well I have known a few sets of Sis…Siblings in my day (Cough, Cough) and let me just say if 2000 is the dirty yet sweet older sis…sibling, then this is the sexy, full bodied one.  The aromas are perfume like with a musky-sweet smell of roses wrapped up with spiced gumdrops and fresh black mission figs.  I say godddamn, viscous and so smoothly integrated.  The fruity floral flavors are doing the Dougie in my boca.  Dried peaches and apricots, wet stones (has anyone ever licked a wet stone, I have, I was in Spain and it was shockingly correct, of course a lot of things seem that way after a gallon of Albarino) vanilla and a crazy floral-anise taste on the back end I cannot describe without being inappropriately graphic.

And here’s what they said: One of Wine Spectator's Top 100 of 2005! "Densely packed on the nose, with currants, flowers, mineral and oak. Medium- to full-bodied, with spicy dried fruit flavors, firm tannins and a long, minerally finish."
- Wine Spectator 90 points

No availability on this vintage but the 2007 is current and has some nice press. 

So a few drinks for thought…the Venetians have been making wines in this style for some time (Back when Morris Day and the Time were topping the charts) but unfortunately,  just like all the other pretty girls at the dance, we just didn’t take the time to notice them.  It wasn’t until the early 21^st century (Since 2009 Ripasso has been recognized with its own DOC designation by the Italian’s) that John & Jane Q. Public (along with all you savvy buyer types) really started to discern among them.  Quite often you’ll hear these wines referred to as “Baby Amarones”.  Now frankly there’s nothing little, cute or cuddly about this here hooch and I don’t think you’ll be disappointed if you put a few of those hard fought sheckles of yours into  a bottle or three.  I am not saying these wines smack Amarone around but damn you can’t sweat the technique, not to mention (but I’m going to anyway) that the best Ripasso’s come from the best Amarone houses (LIGHTBULB!)  If you happen to be in the Great State and looking to sample some of these, might I recommend speaking to your preferred hooch purveyor for some suggestions and/or the well dressed wine ninja at your fave spot to dine?  Take some chances, make some bold decisions, Oh and don’t forget to ask the question.  You just might be impressed, or get lucky.

Please and Thanks:  To all of YOU! The fine folks that have taken the time to check out my wild prose.  You’re all aces in my book and I’ll never forget about that time, with the thing and the guy at the place.  And those that have not, well how in the hell would you know seeing as how you are NOT reading this, I digress.  This is all just a time consuming way for my lawyer to use the insanity plea for whatever ballyhoo and/or tomfoolery I might get into next.  Please drop me a line with anything you like, would like to see kibitzed about or just to criticize. 

 

Keep Hope Alive and make HEY while the sun is shinin’

Thank you sir

Please and, thank you sir, may I have another!

Profanity, although it was the weapon of choice for my Father, and he wielded it like a half-in-the-bag grundfuttock; I try to refrain from the use of profanity in this little corner of the world.  In the construct of life I have a mouth that has been described as “filthier than Kardashian vagina” but I digress.  Bill Cosby said it best, “Profanity is easy, you know the audience will laugh as soon as you curse”. 

So rather than keep to the low-brow hijinks of the bourgeois (and trust me there will be plenty!) I’m trying to class up the joint.  If you find it necessary to toss out a mouth bomb or three, please think, maybe grab a thesaurus and hit backspace before you go on banging away at that keyboard and posting something that’s just going to make you sound like Kenny Powers (Danny McBride is Classic).  So act as IF, you trout mouthed heathens.

Keep Hope Alive and remember it only takes a moment to be polite.

Who's still able to perform?

So, who is still able to perform after all this time? 

That is a question that I have asked myself, among other things, most recently?  After a basement debacle; backing of a storm drain and subsequent vino diaspora to higher ground, I found that I have all sorts, types and appellations of singular bottlings that require consumption.  So being the imbiber I be and having the meantime to reorganize and reprioritize all of these bottles, I found a few (Jeeeezus, 10 year old Napa Merlot) that I thought would be the equivalent to the opening of Al Capone’s Vault, cue Geraldo.  It’s all over but the crying and the headache.

Tale o’the Tape

Round 1- The Exodus

The Pinot Noirs; I heart them until I get punched in the face because I have been cheating on them with Washington Syrah or the occasional dirty little Nebbiolo from Piedmont.  But the rest of you ran to give approval to her fickle little heart en mass. 

1. Clos du Val, Napa-Carneros, 2005

Cork was clean and pristine; covered in tartrates.  A lot of different things on the nose, some baking spice, wet leather, strawberry & rhubarb cake that I hated as a kid.  Got a mouth full of Cherry flavored cigar.  The finish was Hot, and that’s good if you are with someone you like but bad on this wine.  Current vintage on this is 2008 and has always been a solid wine.

2. Buena Vista , Sonoma-Carneros, 2005 (Say WHAT! A throwback for you folks who remember the old AHD, How’s the boat Chip?)

A little vinegar aroma on the cork, which could have been taken out with a slotted spoon or a hard tap on the punt.  Smells were limited to cherry juice, wet cigars and nail polish remover.  Astringent on the tongue, fruit was stewed and the body was gaunt.  Shows that the current release on line is 2006 but that has to be wrong since I obtained this bottle back in the year of our lord 2007 AD.

3. Voss Estate, Martinborough NZ, 2005 (Imported by Meadowbank Est.)

Opened with bright baked berries, potpourri and cedar tones on the nose.  Cloved oranges, (‘Member making those in grade school; you member!) rosewater, cranberry relish and drying plum tannin on the finish.  Seems pretty peak at this point. Availability is probably nil for this vintage but this producer is available in the US.

4. Fromm Winery LaStrada, Marlborough, 2003 (Imported by Meadowbank Est.)

First aroma was autumn leaves then bazooka bubblegum and some Dr. Pepper on the nose.  Palate was surprisingly coating and viscous with some mushroom ragu, cranberry sauce and raspberry cereal bar on the finish.  Fell apart rather quickly and really showing some wood (Hee Hee), seemingly past its prime.  Availability is probably nil for this vintage but this producer is available in the US.

Round 2 – The Ancestry

The Merlots; Where in the f*** did they come from?  Merlot, once THE proud, regal California variety of choice in dining establishments;  only to be usurped, mostly with help from a poorly distributed Paul Giamatti movie.  C’mon? The only reason you saw it, is because it’s one of the few movies ever to feature “The Business” and you got to tell people ALL about Pinot Noir.  Hells Bells! I get up and clap a tune when I see Clos du Val placements on Entourage.

1. Swanson, Oakville-Napa, 2002

As I uncorked the bottle, I couldn’t help but feel the same emotion bubble up that is reserved solely for peeling back the steamy piece of cellophane from a perfectly heated Swanson frozen dinner.  Nose had canned black olives steeped in my grandma’s Scottish tea (with apologies to the English whom, as I have been told since I was a child, couldn’t make a proper cup if held at gunpoint) and stirred with an oak stave.  Raspberry iced tea, plums and bakers chocolate linger on the palate and are quickly turning into a Fruit vs Tannin MMA match.  Definitely got to this bottle late.  Current vintage on this is 2007 and I have been told the current offering is smashing, at least to English standards.

2. Provenance, Carneros-Napa, 2002 ( For those that remember the St. Vincent & Sarah Fisher Garden Party, this was a leftover)

Pull the cork on this and the black fruit comes up to sting the nostrils.  Black cherry, dunkin donuts coffee and a hint of mint gum.  Once in my boca (mouth, for you kids that took German in high school) dried black cherries, blackberries with anise and dried herb tannins on the back end. Tom Rinaldi developed this merlot (with grapes from Andy Beckstoffer) based on the style he produced at Duckhorn for a little over two decades.  Still showing off its pedigree with the swagger of a MILF on vacation.  Current offerings range from Single Vineyards to the regular Napa Valley bottling, check with your preferred purveyor if interested.

3. Trefethen, Napa, 2001

This just started poorly and finished same.  Cork broke, first sip was a tongue full of sediment and my cat threw up right in the kitchen.  After all was cleaned up (Cork, Tongue , Floor), from the glass we had more of the black olive in tea aroma (possible appellation correlations) luncheon meats and aromas of fruit chutney.  On the tongue, take 2, little fruit and a lot of olive, balsamic and some harsh tannin.  Got to this one late as well.  Current Vintage 2007 and this has always been a benchmark for what merlot can be in NV. 

Round 3 – The Contenders

The Sangioveses; They’re friends of ours. Shaking my head and smiling about these wines only because I know that Cal-Ital (a lovely hyphenated abbreviation for the California version of a wine that has Italian origination) can be a champion if respected, spoken to slowly and not compared to its cousins across the sea.

1. Pietra Santa, Cinega Valley, 2003

Where? Cinega Valley, perfect place to grow this grape and the right guy is making it.  Spoiler Alert!  Alessio Carli was born and raised in Tuscany, grew up making Chianti with his Dad and then went to work for one of the most prestigious wineries in Tuscany, Badia a Coltibuono.  If all of that means nothing to you, then take heed! This cat knows what the F he is doing with this wine.  The nose is kalamata olives with sage and cranberry sauce with vanilla cream.  In the glass, this drinks like a prime Brunello di Montalcino.  Great integration of fruit, herbs, spice and tannin.  Showing its age as the finish isn’t as intense as the wine promises up front.  Current release is 2007 and should be reasonably priced.

2. Luna, Napa, 2002

Damn, smells like my Granny’s house! Strawberries, lilacs, calililies, roses and barnyard funk hit the nose. Taste like cherry incense that my dirty high-on of a roommate used to burn to cover up his “medicine” (Well, that’s what it’s called by the Great State circa today) Interesting ripeness still on the back of the palate that dries up and gives me cottonmouth.  Go figure.  Current vintage 2008 on this one.

So what can I tell you about wines of a certain age?  Can they be trusted, will they be there when you call them and will they disappoint you? Hell-if-I-know, but one thing is for certain…They’ll get you drunk.

I’d rather have a bottle of wine, beer or otherwise a year early rather than a day late.  Don’t ever be afraid to allow even a modest ($8-$10) bottle of wine lay down for anywhere from 6 months to a year, it might surprise you.  Or if you’re willing, invest a little more and buy 2 bottles, drink one now and keep the other to have later.  Compare discuss, socialize, argue but above all else share.  These can be fun or in the case of my basement stomach churning, experiences.   Bottom line is to have fun with it kids!  The majority of wine and beer today is made for immediate consumption, Like at a friend’s barbecue, where you meet the person of your dreams, you say something witty and a cartoon dune buggy driven by Megan Fox races through the yard with $100 bills flying out the back…wait sorry that’s the next video my brother in law is putting on You Tube. 

Please and Thanks:  The young men who comprise the Stop Spot Men’s Softball team need as much support as they can get this season defending not only what’s left of their dignity but last year’s regular season title.  So if by chance you find yourself in the vicinity of Ferndale’s Heritage Park on a Wednesday evening this summer, stop by the diamond for some non-alcoholic family fun.  Then after head down to get autographs from them at the Stop Spot!  Games generally start after 8pm, They can put on a show folks.  Stop Spot Lounge 1309 E. Nine Mile Ferndale, MI 48220 248-548-7771

 

Keep Hope Alive and tip at least 20%