Bad Trannies and Great Pinot

we drove 200+ miles to paso robles yesterday to buy a 300-liter steel tank from gary of shadow canyon vineyards. it was a hot one in paso but we were ready (or so we thought). after a nice lunch on the city's town square park we attempted to hit the road. my car wouldn't go into drive. oh shit! after a visit to 2 useless transmission shops we decided that come hell or highwater we'd get the tank and drive bank, even if we had to drive the entire way in 2nd gear at 45 mph.

we made it to shadow canyon, a great spot in the templeton gap. gary grows syrah and grenache that is used in lots of high scoring wines. and he's a great guy. 4 C notes later we had the tank in the bank to the escape and we were ready to see how lucky we are.


we made it! not sure how, but we did.

we drank a bottle of linne calodo rose like it was a big gulp. it was hot is SF and we were happy to be home and not stuck in paso, king city, salinas, gilroy or san jose. we also drank a nice loire white to cool off. then we decided to see how the pinot was doing. both of us were floored by how much it had change in the last 3-4 weeks. the fruit is dropping back nicely and the acids are mellowing too. we drank a bottle of aaron's 07 wahluke syrah. aaron filed through the festivities in the castro (pride weekend) to get home.

what a day! all worth it.

here is a quick video of the tasting, i figured you didn't want to watch me work on the tranny.

*Note: the transmission repair cost = one tone of pinot noir...

Deux Golden Glasses

Well our marketing department finally lived up to it's duties. Brian got us into The Golden Glass at Fort Mason. I think the event organizers need to come up with another name; the deviant in me thinks the name sounds porn related. My mind is in the gutter.

a label we liked

The event is intended to showcase Slow Foods and wines that use grapes that are indigenous or "classic" to their region. Sounds good to me. The place was packed with a mixed crowd that favored single women in their 30s. I think someone should have told them the Deux Punx are both married. But why spoil their day?

LOTS of Italian wines, a region I am a bit weak on. Their were a few US and Kiwi wines and 1 or 2 Spanish items. We made a lap of whites with breaks for slow foods and water. Most wines were good, a few things very good and 1 or 2 that amazed. The white standout was this Offida Pecorino Pistillo from Poderi San Lazzaro.

white winner

Next came a half-assed lap of reds. 1 Borlo and your palate is shot. More food. Lots more water. At some point I was just spent and didn't care. The standouts were a lesson on Amarones from a very nice guy and the Paritua Pinot from New Zealand.

red winner's riesling friend

If our marketing department can swing it, we will be back next year.

deux punx taking a break

Note to single men: lots of available ladies drinking lots of free wine...

2007 syrah bottling video

because we were so busy with the bottling the 2007 syrah we didn't capture too much video. here is some of the clean up (can you tell how tired we were?) and some driving around seattle.