Did you know that the Wine Predator –aka me, Gwendolyn Alley– is a published poet?
I started in journalism, earned a creative writing degree from UC Santa Cruz, and then began doing poetry as a grad student in English at the University of Nevada Reno. My publications include my poetry collection middle of the night: poems from daughter to mother :: mother to son, some three dozen poetry broadsides in Art/Life (a limited edition magazine sought, bought, and collected around the world), a co-edited collection (with Danika Dinsmore) between sleeps: the 315 experiment 1993-2005), plus two major public art poetry commissions, one in Pasadena and one in Santa Barbara.
“I like wine – I think it’s my favorite beverage on the face of the earth,” said Stu Smith General Partner and Enologist at Smith-Madrone. “Wine’s first obligation is to give pleasure—it’s hedonistic.”
Thank goodness for wine in 2020!
In a year full of fire and disease, drinking wine is one of the few pleasures we can count on, and for that we’re grateful.
But making red wine in 2020 from Napa? May not happen.
“This year has been a strange year for all kinds of reasons,” Stu said.
In the Before Times, I visited Stu at Smith-Madrone high above Napa Valley on Spring Mountain among the Madrone trees — hence the name, a marriage between the Smith brothers, Charlie and Stu, and the Madrones which embrace their vineyards.
winemaker to winemaker: Gretel Compton of Clos des Amis and Stu Smith chat at Smith-Madrone
Two weeks ago, Stu and I chat again via cell phone. Service is spotty in the best of times up there, and because of the Glass Fire, there’s no land lines. Power only recently returned thanks to several hundred PG&E employees who formed a temporary city at Charles Krug.
“What do you see when you look out?” I asked Stu who has found a spot near the winery with reception.
“I’m looking at Chardonnay and Cabernet Franc to the right and olive trees to the left,” he responded. The white wine grapes were losing their leaves, while the reds were still holding on to theirs. In the valley, he reported that with the temperature dropping down to the 20s, vines there had more color. Between the rows of vines on Spring Mountain, the cover crop was starting to come in fresh and green in response to the first real rains of the season.
“Looking over the vines I can see the part of Howell Mountain that burnt,” Stu continued.
After phylloxera wiped out Carménère in Bordeaux, it wasn’t replanted: too prone to disease and too late in ripening. With so few vines planted, commercial Carménère was considered extinct.
Until in 1994, Carménère was discovered in Chile masquerading as Merlot! Continue reading →
semi-dry Bordeaux paired with savory, salty, and semi-sweet meal
Who doesn’t love kettle corn, that salty and sweet combination? If you like me are a fan, then consider this: semi-dry Bordeaux white wines paired with savory and salty fare! Continue reading →
Art Predator (CC) phot by Randy Stewart, blog.stewtopia.com. and taken at WordCamp SF. “Feel free to use this picture,” he says. “Please credit as shown. If you are a person that I have taken a photo of, it’s yours (but I’d still be curious as to where it is).”
I was trying to finish up my Zin Day Post yesterday, when I noticed on my WordPress dashboard a call for speakers for the upcoming international 24 hour marathon WordPress online WordFest set for Friday 1/22/21.
Well that sounds fun!
So I checked it out and noticed right off the bat that in 90 minutes the submissions to speak would close. I instantly switched gears from Zinfandel to what should I talk about?
wine predator.............. gwendolyn alley 