Monday, June 30, 2008

Anderson Valley Video

I was in AV this past weekend for a wedding and thought I'd check out how our "dream grapes" were doing. I hope the video I shot shows just how smoky the fires have left the valley.

Spent Saturday tasting. The wines and prices (including good wine maker discount) are nice at Handley. I was very impressed with the staff and Gewurtz at Toulouse. Calvin, my son, still talks about the Toulouse dogs Tess and ME. Didn't get a chance to talk with Josh Chandler at Lazy Creek because they are up to there eyeballs in dirt building a new cave.

The smoke was thick, the weather warm and the roads were dusty.

Wednesday, June 25, 2008

Will our Pinot be smokey?

Fire Fire Fire.

California is on fire and grapes are in danger. Some prime Pinot grapes in Santa Cruz got blazed a few weeks back. First the freeze, then the drought and now the fires? WTF!

There is a link to the fire closest to our grapes. MAP.

Hope you like your Pinots on the smokey side!

Tuesday, June 17, 2008

does punk rock age as well as wine?

Hell Yes!

Last night i went to hang w/my buddy Andy as he's in town playing bass w/the Melvins and Jello Biafra. This was the first of two nights at the Great American celebrating Jello's 50th bday. The show started with the Melvins play "Mangled Demos" (circa '83) in which they played songs from their "hardcore days" with original drummer Mike Dillard and Dale playing bass and ended with the Melvins and Jello Biafra playing a combination of music they'd collaborated on and small number of Dead Kennedys songs. All the bands were in fine form and the Melvins/Biafra combo kicked ass - both on their newer songs and on the Dead Kennedys songs. It was awesome to see Andy and it was great to see proof that punk rock can age well when left in the right hands.

On a personal note - the first time I can remember seeing the Melvins live was 1986 - it was this show:

April 25, 1986 Olympia, WA - GESSCO Hall w/ Malfunkshun, Metal Death Squad, 64 Spiders

And I remember the whole show vividly as it was one of the best (if not the best) shows I saw at GESSCO hall. As a tribute to those early times here's a great clip of the Melvins from public access tv circa 1984:



and someone already got videos up from the shows (got to love youtube!):

Wednesday, June 11, 2008

What's in My Cellar?

Not too much actually. I tend to buy and drink in the same day. However, the folks at CellarTracker have made it easy to keep up on want is down in the garage and when I should be drinking it.

The site layout is a bit cluttered, but it could be very cool if they put some time and money into it. The reviews range from simple to overly complex. But it's always nice to see what someone else thinks of a wine you own.

See if you can best my 147 bottles with a value of $3200. It won't be difficult.

Support them.

the garage (aka pinot crushpad 2008)