Fermentation: The Daily Wine Blog

The Milky Yellow Trance of Summer

It may just be fond memories of drinking it in the warm summer air of the south of France, but I'll swear that the buzz I get from my beloved, milky yellow Pastis is a different kind, a softer, a richer and fuzzier and more comfortable buzz than I get from drinking any other kind of alcohol.

And I like it.

As someone recently explained to me, "Pastis is something you either like or don't like." And it's so true. My experience is that the majority of people don't take to the anise-flavored, herbal, somewhat bitter drink that will also throw of hints of sweetness. But for me, May through September is Pastis season. I can think of no better beverage to sip when nothing but a long, quiet, warm afternoon and evening looms in front of me.

Pastis is very popular in France and has been since Absinthe was banned in that country in 1915. Absinthe producers got rid of the wormwood, reformulated their recipe and introduced the French to a new kind of drink. Today, the French consume two liters per capita!! And I'd bet half that goes down gullets located between Provence  and the Cote d'Azur.

Now, many folks will argue that Pastis should only be served without ice. My preference is to drink it over ice. I like a glass filled half way with small ice cubes, enough pastis poured over the ice so that it reaches the same level as the top of the ice, then finished with varying amounts of water to create a particular strength. I like just enough water to retain the grip of the Pastis and a moderate degree of flavor intensity, but not too strong so as to remove the thirst quenching quality of the drink that recommends it so highly for summer consumption.

What you will usually find in a decent bar is either Ricard or Pernod. These are the two most popular Pastis sold across the globe. However, I do recommend you seek out other more refined examples. The better Pastis will be somewhat less sweet than Ricard and Pernod, somewhat more herbal, but often also more intense with star anise and fennel flavors.

But back to the buzz.

I'm not a drunkard. Never have been. Don't like the feeling of being drunk. Never have. But I can't recommend highly enough that simple, Pastis buzz. I wish I understood it better. I wish I could explain its source. What I can do is recommend you explore it.

Wine and the Nominee to the U.S. Supreme Court

How interesting that the Granholm v. Heald Supreme Court decision of 2005 will play a small role in the confirmation process of Justice Sonia Sotomayor to Associate Justice of the Supreme Court.

At this point it appears the decision will play only a small role. But here are the details.

In 2004 Justice Sotomayor was part of a three judge panel of the 2nd Circuit Court of Appeals that found New York's discriminatory posture toward out-of-state wine shippers to be constitutional in the case of Swedenburg v. Kelly. This case was eventually appealed and joined to a similar case out of Michigan and heard before the U.S. Supreme Court. In a 5-4 decision, the Supreme Court overruled the Sotomayor panel stating that New York's form of blatant discrimination against out-of-state wine shippers violated the Commerce Clause of the U.S. Constitution.

Clint Bollock, formerly with the Institute For Justice and who was arguing on behalf of wine lovers in the Swedenburg case, has written an article claiming that though Sotomayor's position on the issue was bad for wine lovers, it is nonetheless and example "of a restrained judicial impulse".

Bollock does not elaborate, but it's notable that this decision will be used in other venues to bolster Justice Sotomayor's credentials as a moderate.

Setting aside the Constitutional issues, it's interesting to note that support for discriminatory policies gives indication of one's "moderate" political tendencies. This sounds right to me. After all, if you look at those characters who, in the past, have lobbied and worked for more free trade in wine, you'll see they were often branded as "radicals" looking to upset a decades old apple cart claimed to have served us just fine.

Constitutionally, Sotomayor's Swedenburg decision can be seen as an example of giving deference to the states over the federal government, federalism over statism. In the ultimate Granholm case, the issue came down to balancing the meaning of the Commerce Clause's requirement that the federal government controls interstate commerce and the 21st Amendment that gave the states the right to regulate the sale and distribution of alcohol. Judge Sotomayor sided with the 21st Amendment and the states.

From where I sit, I'd argue that the Swedenburg case demonstrates, perhaps, an anti-free trade bias on the Justice's part. Her decision in Swedenburg curtailed free trade, helped keep trade barriers in place, and favored a narrow understanding of the Founders desire to see interstate commerce uninterrupted by state-imposed roadblocks.

It will be interesting to see if the Swedenburg case comes up in the confirmation hearings and how it might be used. If nothing else, the nomination of Judge Sonia Sotomayor gives the direct shipping issue a small push into the sunlight again.

The Precious Nature of Socializing

Has anyone noticed that the solemnity of an important gathering of friends is not marked by the rubbing together of soap then a licking of those soaps?

Has anyone noticed that no religion uses wet towels to represent salvation and the diminution of sin?

Has anyone noticed that no community gathers strength and identity through the embrace of radishes grown in its vicinity?

Has anyone noticed that men don't pursue women through the act of watering and dining them?

Isn't it true that wine, far more than anything else, is used to express the precious nature of community and socializing? Why is this true? Why don't radishes or wet towels or bars of soap serve this purpose? I haven't an answer to this question, but rather I have had the opportunity to reflect on the fact that wine is dynamically ingrained into the human experience of socializing.

I came to this line of thought as I pondered the potential impact of social networks and social networking tools on the human species. At first glance it seems that socializing is an ingrained part of the human species, even its most common expression. But, more true than this is the fact that periods of quiet loneliness are a far more common element of the human experience than is social interaction. Surely we all spend far more time interacting with ourselves than interacting with others. And it is certainly true that in the past, technology has provided no means at all for socializing on the large and grand scales that current technology allows.

Perhaps the rituals that have arisen around gatherings and communal activity and perhaps the symbols, such as wine, that have been employed to celebrate gatherings of more than one, have in fact been in response to the uniqueness, preciousness and rarity that is the movement out of self and into the many.

If this is true, what does the current rush to embrace a 24/7 mode of socializing via Facebook, Twitter and other tools mean for human culture and even human evolution?

What does the future hold for wine-as-symbol when the preciousness of gatherings that it celebrates is no longer so precious? Again, for this I have no answer, but I suspect the answer is just now brewing.

The Bleeding Potential of the Petaluma Gap

I sat and had lunch today in the middle of a region of Sonoma that MUST obtain its own AVA status.

The Petaluma Gap is, I think, everything and more that the Alcohol and Tobacco Tax and Trade Bureau (TTB) demands of an American Viticultural Area. For the record, the TTB demands that applicants for AVA status show that their region 1) locally known by the name specified, 2) that the boundaries of the proposed AVA have current or historical evidence demonstrating their validity and 3) that there be evidence of growing conditions such as climate, soil, elevation and physical features that distinguish the region.

This defines the "Petaluma Gap".

Currently the Petaluma Gap region sits primarily within that monstrosity of an AVA known as "Sonoma Coast". While the Sonoma Coast has gained some fame among aficionados for its Pinots, the appellation is so large as to be meaningless. Carving it up, starting with the Petaluma Gap region would go a long way toward fixing the problem that is "Sonoma Coast".

The region is located in southern Sonoma and runs on a rough west to southeast direction from the coast to the Sonoma Mountains with the Marin County border to the south and the northern edge running up to Santa Rosa.

As is written on the Petaluma Gap Winegrowers Alliance's website, "Wind and fog define the area, giving the term "micro-climate" real meaning."

And there is no question this is true. Most of the region is well below the fog line and is covered in fog in the morning and the night, unlike much of Sonoma Coast that is above the fog line. This is Pinot, Chard and Syrah Country. And there is even some riesling planted that I can't wait to try.

I was sitting on the veranda of a beautiful estate, Azari, that has yet to release its first wine. When it does, wine folks will flock to it. But for now, the wines are still in barrel and we sat above them eating a quiet lunch, the owners and I. We talked wine, history, the industry and about our pasts and looked out at what are already golden hills.

The growers in the Petaluma Gap region primarily sell their wines to top wineries that put "Sonoma Coast" on their labels for lack of a better, more defining term. I'm not sure how the members of the Petaluma Gap Association feel about seeking AVA status. But I know that if they did it would be good for the whole American Viticultural Area program since the uniqueness of this area would demonstrate that the TTB can grant AVA status to a meaningful and deserving region.

It is very easy to become jaded about terroir, appellations, new wineries and even the magnificent landscapes that define Sonoma County after working in the wine industry for 20 some odd years. But then you are find yourself amongst fine people, eating fine and authentic homemade food on a lovely day, in a beautiful region that bleeds potential all while sitting above a collection of barreled wine that demonstrates that potential and the cynicism melts away.

The "Mouth Agape" Factor

There are a few things that always leave me stopped in my tracks, mouth agape and oblivious to everything around me, leading often to being knocked back to consciousness by a jostle and the trailing sound of someone saying, "get out the way, asshole". Those things tend to be a beautiful woman and a striking and monumental piece of architecture.

In places like Chicago, New York and Paris I can often be found on a corner, looking outward and upward, staring at some man-made, habitable piece of art and lose touch with the movement around me. But this doesn't happen so much in the case of man-made winemaking facilities. So I thought it pretty cool to come across DesignCrave and it's post on the Ten Architectural Wonders of the Wine World.

Among the Ten is Dominus, located in Yountville, California in Napa Valley. The author of the post says this about Dominus: "a stunning angular obelisk of natural stones contained within a tough wire mesh.  From afar, the building appears to be fully concrete, but as you approach its stone character is revealed."

I remember the first time I laid eyes on the Dominus winery while driving south on Highway 29: "What the hell is that," I thought. But I was drawn to it. The Dominus structure is geometric and probably appeals to me for the same reasons that the many simple, concrete, vertical skyscrapers in Chicago do: extraordinary simplicity. But the thing about Dominus is that it has no relationship to its surroundings, making it somewhat gaudy in its "man-made-ness" and simple lines.

To me, architecture is most closely related to fashion where art is concerned. Many of the things that appear on the bodies of models on runways in Paris, Milan and New York will function as cover-up, but their primary function is interpretive. The same can be said of buildings like the Dominus Winery. It certainly does function as a winemaking facility, but it's primary purpose is to express an idea.

As some of you know I'm a huge fan of "Top Ten Lists". Give me a Pastis, a warm day and a few intelligent friends and I can while away an afternoon constructing them. For those of you who love wine and Top Ten lists, check out this post in DesignCrave. It's fun and thought provoking.

C'est La Vie

If you traversed the heart and mind of a travel-lover I'm positive you'd encounter the same conditions that afflict the wine lover: desire for adventure, a willingness to dive into the unknown and even a proclivity to absorb disappointment and move on. I'm sure of this.

On my recent travels I drank not a single sip of wine in any form. Had I wanted to it was available, but the climate, both meteorological and spiritual, wasn't entirely suited for that kind of adventure. Still, I embarked with a particular adventure in mind under conditions that were unknown and, as I look back now from the comfort of my home and as I type and think, I'm still absorbing disappointment, but I'm moving on.

The upshot of these travels remind me of the feeling of disappointment one gets when they open that fine dessert wine after having consumed way too much in advance, leaving its charms and potential inaccessible due entirely to my own poor judgment in choosing to open it at this inopportune moment when my body and mind are incapable of appreciating what is in front of me.

C'est la vie, right? There will be other dessert wines and they will even be reached for and experienced at the perfect moment when mind and body are ready for them.

Well, yes...and no.

As it is with wine and romance, the joy that comes with travel flows in direct proportion to the expectations we heap upon it. More importantly and again as it is with wine and romance, the judgment that informs our expectations for travel can't be clouded by self-deception, early childhood trauma, ill-founded optimism or the belief that doing the same thing might result in different outcomes.

So, there may be other dessert wines, other travels, other romances, and they may please the palate, the heart and the mind, but not if they are not properly prepared for or even approached with proper and well-founded expectations.

It's All About the Lotion!

It's All About The Lotion!

I'll Have A Double!

I'll Have A Double, Por Favor!

And I Work Why?

And I Work Why?

Where Are My Sandals?

Where Are My Sandals?