Tag Archives: River of Skulls

Halloween Poem, Video, Wine: Scary Smelly Skeleton Pirates on a River of Skulls!

Last year I led some writing workshops in my son’s class. His group wrote a poem, “I am a Scary Smelly Skeleton Pirate” which my son and I turned into this YouTube video. Here’s the text to the poem and here’s two more Halloween oriented poems from that workshop.2halloween07

And here we are as un muy pequeno calavero with Art Predator aka Ms Frizzle of the Magic School Bus fame.

River of Skulls: the perfect wine for Halloween & Dia de los Muertos & more

Twisted Oak's "River of Skulls"Yep, Twisted Oak’s River of Skulls: This is the wine you need for Halloween, Dia de los Muertos, and maybe for all the sinners on your list: Twisted Oak’s River of Skulls, a mourverde with a little syrah thrown in.
from Twisted Oak in Calaveras County CA

This is a special creature, this wine. Sorry to say that unless you have a trip planned to Calaveras county, you’re out of luck. You can get on the list now for next year! Sign up here.

While my favorite blend on Earth has to be GSM (grenache/syrah/mourvedre), seeking out a mourvedre– “the sinner” in all its wild gamey glory–seems perfect for this time of year. And for my money, I’m going for Twisted Oaks “River of Skulls” which conveniently arrived a few weeks ago in my “Twisted Few” allotment!

I had the amazing opportunity to taste this wine at last year’s Wine Blogging Conference 2008 and it wowed the socks off of me. (OK, I admit, I’m a sucker for mourvedre!) This year, El Jefe aka Jeff Stai served it up during the live blogging portion of the 2009 Wine Bloggers conference. This wine not only wowed us bloggers but in recent competition and tastings, it’s done well: they just got wordfrom Twisted Oak in Calaveras County CA from Wine Enthusiast magazine that the 2006 Spaniard will receive a score of 92 points, and the 2007 River of Skulls will receive a 90 point score, in their December issue. Congrats to Jeff and crew!

For more poetry, jump on the TRAIN! For more about wine, head over to Wine Predator! That’s where I plan to aggregate my wine posts and where I will post first from the European Wine Bloggers Conference and from the Enoforum Tour of the Alentejo region of Portugal. (Oh, you didn’t hear about that? You didn’t hear my joyous noise? Go here to learn more.)

There is some ghostly formatting going on here–just attribute it to the hi-jinx of los calaveras!

Twisted Oak’s River of Skulls Mourvedre for all the sinners on your list

River of Skulls: the perfect wine for Halloween & Dia de los Muertos & more

Twisted Oak's "River of Skulls"

Twisted Oak’s River of Skulls

This is the wine you need for Halloween, Dia de los Muertos, and maybe for all the sinners on your list: Twisted Oak’s River of Skulls, a mourverde with a little syrah thrown in.

Not just because the bottle itself is impressive. Which it is–the graphic was created by El Jefe’s son Andrew Stai  when he was 16, with all that intensity for which 16 year old boys are known. (Andrew, by the way, has made it to 20). The punt of the bottle is sensually curved and ribbed, asking you to run your finger around its rim. The shape of the bottle itself calls out to be held, grabbed, carressed, and slugged. Really. It is the perfect wine for a pirate and begs for a candle when it is downed and out.

I first tasted this wine with El Jefe at Doug Cook’s birthday celebration at the Wine Blogger’s Conference last weekend at Santa Rosa.  We were talking between pours and he pointed out the bottle which I’d been admiring for awhile, not even knowing it was his wine, or a mourverde (recall my fondness for Quivira’s? Or even better, the RBJ 2002 theologicum mataro? Now that’s a wild wine…)

So El Jefe opened it up lickety split and poured. Considering the powerful wines that had crossed my palate from Doug Cook’s cellar that night, it stood its ground (of course, mourverdre will do that for me!) There was a some left in the bottle so El Jefe let me take it home–lucky me!

It was the first red wine I enjoyed when I returned–with a dinner of cioppino and brown rice and a salad with blue cheese, walnut, and apple. Some lovely musky earth and spice balances the fresh lively raspberries. Certainly enough to wake the dead or to serve them on your altar. Saints and sinners will appreciate this offering.

from Twisted Oak in Calaveras County CA

from Twisted Oak in Calaveras County CA

This is a special creature, this wine. Sorry to say that unless you have a trip planned to Calaveras county, you’re out of luck. You can get on the list now for next year! Sign up here.