“Cabernet Franc? Isn’t that a blending grape?” my friend Kathy asked. “You’re right,” I assured her. “It’s probably best known as part of a Bordeaux blend. But in the Loire in places like Amirault and Tete Rouge, all biodynamic certified, Cabernet Franc stands alone. And people in the US and other parts of the world are growing it too to make stand alone wines!”
Aldo Clerico and Bagna cauda
Aldo Clerico grew up in the heart of Barolo country in his family’s vineyards in Monforte d’Alba in the Langhe in northern Italy. He studied accounting in college, but in 2004 he returned to his roots to become a wine maker:
“After all, he has Barolo ‘in his blood’, Continue reading
FOTM Donna Granata, Gretel Compton, Bruce Freeman
“Artists teach us to see the world with refreshed vision, they force us to ask questions about society, they console us and even enrage us. But, above all, they engage us and remind us of our own role in the world,” says Donna Granata, founder and leader of Focus on the Masters (FOTM), a non-profit, 501(c)(3), art appreciation program that documents, preserves, and presents the lives and works of accomplished contemporary artists, with most of them from here in Ventura County, California.
To dream the impossible dream
To fight the unbeatable foe
To bear with unbearable sorrow
And to run where the brave dare not goTo right the unrightable wrong
And to love pure and chaste from afar
To try when your arms are too weary
To reach the unreachable starThis is my quest
To follow that star
Ooh, no matter how hopeless
No matter how far…
the beginning of “The Impossible Dream”
by Mitch Leigh (scroll down for complete lyrics)
from The Man from La Mancha
Growing up, we had a player piano, and “The Impossible Dream” was one of the 100 player piano rolls I grew up playing and singing. Continue reading
LOVE… one another
I love the idea behind Thanksgiving– the idea that we as families and friends, that we as a nation, that we as individuals pause, even during a pandemic, to give thanks, to be grateful for what we have, for the bountiful harvest the earth provides for us year after year. The actual holiday of Thanksgiving and what it represents? Not so much.
Turkey
The Thanksgiving story we grew up with is largely a myth that erases the people who lived here for millennia before the Pilgrims and the Puritans made their way to these shores. The first Thanksgiving celebration didn’t even take place in Plymouth, Continue reading
Carménère from Chile with a holiday ham — smoked!
Carménère is the red Bordeaux grape famous for going extinct — and then found flourishing in Chile under the pseudonym of Merlot! It’s hard to imagine how the two could be confused: if you taste Carménère from Chile, you’d never guess it was Merlot. While both have cherry fruit and herbal notes, Merlot is much more mellow, mild, and smooth while Carménère is more wild and crazy with notes like jalapeño jelly. But everyone figured that was just the influence of the terroir in Chile until Continue reading
affordable French sparkling wine aka Crémant
Looking for affordable Bordeaux wines to share with friends and family for the holidays? How about an affordable sparkling wine from Bordeaux? Sparkling wine is made all over France in the Traditional Method, not just in the northern region of Champagne. Made anywhere else but Champagne, sparkling wine from France is called Crémant (French for creamy referencing the creamy bubbles), and while the Southeast has several well known examples, Bordeaux wineries make Crémant also– and it’s surprisingly affordable!
For your next gathering, consider clinking different by pairing bubbles from Bordeaux with a she crab bisque, a green salad, and a selection of gourmet grilled cheese sandwiches. These two Crémant would also be wonderful wines for brunch.
wine predator.............. gwendolyn alley 