The Wine Commonsewer

Sauna Not Steam

Good Morning Gentle Readers,

The scorch meter spontaneously ignited yesterday so I can't answer the question de jour, which is: How hot was it, TWC? I could tell it was hot though because the Harley guys left their leathers at home for the customary Saturday afternoon ride.

I love the heat, something about a warm dry evening breeze rustling through the cottonwoods that does a body good. It may be the subtle essence that's almost not there. Can't quite call it an aroma, because, unlike Ponderosa Pine or greasewood after a thunder storm in the desert, cottonwood doesn't overwhelm the senses.

Annnnnnnnnnd...the number one reason I like the heat is:

It shuts up the donkeys and that miserable parrot.

Well, okay, that's just a fringe. It's also too hot for the dirt bikes. When we wuz kids, we just rode. These kids got leathers, full face helmets, and motocross boots, all of which are hot and heavy and cost a lot more than a hi-tech silencer would cost. The parents would never consider hacking the turbo mufflers off the Suburban. But stick a silencer on Junior's 250? Ain't gonna happen.

Shaddup Old Man, that's just kids having fun. And it's nothing like the dirt bike wars they're having in Temecula's wine country. Does that make this a wine post?

By way of illumination, meth exports have largely replaced Navel Oranges as Riverside County's primary cash crop. Navel Oranges are mutants, clones (with belly buttons) of a single genetic malfunction that occurred in Brazil in 1820. The still-producing parent tree of every Navel Orange you or anyone else has ever eaten is in Riverside. In the day, neither Fla or The OC could hold a candle to the citrus production in Riverside County.

In 1902 the tree was fenced and still is. Today it abuts a major intersection in the city along what was once US 91 from LA to Las Vegas (and points northeast).

And, over the years, all the motocross greats have settled here because it's Dirt Bike Heaven. That's the demographic. Riders are drawn to Riverside County like snowboarders to Park City.

This began as a short post about the heat and I'm babbling.

Photo appears courtesy of UC & the Orange Public Library

As Ever,

TWC

Flunked II (update)

Good Morning Gentle Readers,

In my furor, I failed to mention that Mrs TWC provided much of the impetus and connectivity that went into the making of the documentary Flunked (trailer below) . You'll see her name in the credits and she appears in the outtakes.

BTW, I just got a text that she was zipping down Splash Mountain at the Magic Kingdom, which [gasp] stays open until the bars close here in the Golden State (2:00 AM). Can't say that about the Mouse House in Anaheim.

UPDATE from Mrs TWC:

You can't believe how uncrowded Magic Kingdom is compared to Disneyland. I have never in my life seen Main Street this  empty on a Friday night in summer. I've also never seen so many angry, screaming, frazzled parents dragging around their melted-down shrieking children at midnight.

Quality family time I suppose.

As Ever,

TWC

Mr Mom & The $700.00 Bus Ride

Gentle Readers,

Mrs TWC is in Fla for a few days at the Foundation for Education Excellence conference. Pretty sure those guys are focused on Florida schools and reforming some of the legal impediments to implementing tiny little bits and pieces of school choice.  I think she's interviewing a New Jersey Senator for something else. John Stossel is a keynote speaker. Mrs TWC is moderating the panel on school finance. I try to keep up.....

Just thinking about school and finance in the same sentence flames me out. Californicate spends over $22,000.00 A YEAR to educate my two kids. Yet I get a letter (Mrs TWC hid it) from the school district explaining that this isn't enough to cover the cost of busing. They want me to cough another $700.00. For busing. I'm hopping mad, apoplectic. And where's the notice of the school board meeting where this was discussed? Didn't get to my house.

It's simple math really, and when we're done, you'll see what I mean.

34 kids per classroom
$11,000.00 per kid in education spending

Follow along boys and girls, that's.....

$374,000.00 per classroom.

Peel off a hundred grand for teacher salaries and benefits and that leaves.....

$274,000.00 per classroom, per year. For that kind of folding long green I'd expect a limo out front at 7:30 AM every weekday.

What, exactly, are you people doing with that money?

Yes I'm aware that school funding is complex. Why is that?

The conference is also screening this:

As Ever,

TWC

How Do YOU Spell Zoloft?

Good Morning Gentle Readers,

Not much else to say, except that the picture isn't staged. Mrs TWC brought home some sustenance. It was stuffed with care into the first available box by the clerk at the local Big Box Membership Store.

Pretty sure Mrs TWC calls it insurance. Betty Ford probably has a different name. TWC calls it like it is.

Cabernet, take me away. Yes, that rhymes. No coincidence, neither.

Now a word from Calgon, proud sponsor of The Wine Commonsewer.

As Evoir,

TWC

Stephen Wright on Romance

I almost had a psychic girlfriend but she left me before we met.

Sam Kinison on Terrorism

I don’t worry about terrorism. I was married for two years.

1997 Chappellet Cabernet Sauvignon

Good Morning Gentle Readers,

For Father's Day? 1997 Chappellet Cabernet Sauvignon. For the record, this is not the Pritchard Hill Cab.

Parker's words belie throwing an 89 at this wine. Is there cognitive dissonance between his otherwise glowing review and an 89?

This is an impressive Cabernet Sauvignon. The color is a dense ruby purple. The bouquet offers up tight but promising aromas of minerals, smoke, and black currants. A Bordeaux-like austerity greets the taster, but as with Bordeaux, there is plenty of density and concentration in reserve, which is particularly noticeable on the back of the palate. The wine is pure, promising, tannic, medium to full-bodied, and nicely extracted. Chewy tobacco, spice box, and black fruit characteristics emerge with airing. It is good to see this winery turn out a wine of this quality. It's an ager however, and patience will be required. Anticipated maturity: 2003-2018

Agreed, patience. The Chappellet is definitely good for another decade. I've another bottle and I'll wait. Patiently.

With the ensuing time in the cellar since Parker penned his review, the austerity and the need for decanting is gone.  It is a rich wine, and paired with medium rare, mesquite grilled top sirloin and the smoked asparagus, it was excellent.

However, considering that 1997 was one of the three excellent 90's vintages for California Cabs, TWC expected a little more WoW.  I wanted died and gone to heaven. I got pretty dang good. And here is precisely where the subjective comes into play.  And if I've said it once.....

This is a fifty dollar wine in today's money. I've had twenty dollar wines that smoked it. I've had even more expensive wines that.....

Amphetamine Annie was a regular at the now-defunct 4th of July Bashes. She'd acquired a bit of a taste for red wine and one year Jim brought an expensive Bordeaux that wasn't ready yet (along with some other great wines). He and Kent and one or two others would hide the good wine from the Coors-swilling rabble and we'd sneak a glass here and there. Sometime during the afternoon, TWC called Annie off to the side.....

TWC: Want to taste a $100.00 wine?

Annie (enthusiastically): Yeah!

TWC: Okay, but keep your mouth shut.

I poured her some of that Bordeaux in a clean glass. She sipped.

Annie: HE PAID A HUNDRED BUCKS FOR THAT!!!??? (spits it back in the glass)

TWC: Shhhh! Shhhh! Shhhh! Shhhh! (LOL) Jesus Chrysler, would you shut up?

Point taken.

Bonus (here):

Amphetamine Annie? Ain't seen her in a while. Heard she quit shoveling snow, gained some weight, got off the booze (I'm gonna tell you what, she could drink YOU under the table, and right got dam now), quit smoking, found AA, Jesus, and a lover of the female persuasion. Wayne figured that was coming but he's gone and don't know.

Talk about the Tallahatchie Bridge. I'm with the much reviled Mr Hearst. Truth is stranger and far more interesting than fiction. 

As Ever,

TWC

 

The Library Blond

Good Morning Gentle Readers,

Can't see it? Go here.

As Always,

TWC

Tip of the glass to former blond Noelle B