The Wine Commonsewer™

Terrazas Reserva Malbec 2003

Good Morning Gentle Readers,

Three years ago I reviewed the Argentinian Malbec I'm drinking tonight.

At the time Wine Spectator popped for a well-deserved 90 for the 2003 Terrazas Reserva Malbec and, really, all that's changed in three years is that the wine has gotten less fumey* and more better. That's grade school terminology for patience: laying down the wine pays off in the glass. IOW, keep it around for a while and it just gets better.

The wine remains earthy, intense, and full-bodied with black fruit. It has good depth and balance with enough Syrah-like pepper on the back side to keep it interesting. It's an excellent wine and will be delighted to hang in your cellar for another five to ten years.

Enjoy it now with mesquite grilled New York steak, some good conversation, and a little Stan Getz. Dessert? Optional.

You too will be sorry when it's gone.

As Ever,

The Wine Commonsewer

*fumey refers to the smell of raw alcohol (fumes) on the nose (when one swirls and smells the wine or first tips the glass to sip), as in rubbing alcohol or cheap vodka. Fumey isn't entirely or always unpleasant but it tends to get in the way of the pleasant aroma of red wine. The condition tends to fade with cellar time and/or a little breathing. In this case, the cellar time has been three years and the difference is apparent.

On Any Given Sunday

Good Morning Gentle Readers,

Chatelaina* and the Reverend Jack kick off college football, Southern Style.

FATHERS
North:  Expect their daughters to understand Sylvia Plath
South:  Expect their daughters to understand pass interference.

HOMECOMING QUEEN
North:  Also a physics major.
South:  Also Miss Mississippi, or Georgia, Alabama, Tennessee etc.

PARKING
North:  An hour before game time the University opens the campus for game parking.
South:  RV's sporting their school flags begin arriving on Thursday for the weekend festivities.

GAME DAY
North:  A few students party in the dorm and watch ESPN on TV.
South: Every student wakes up, has a beer for breakfast and rushes over to where ESPN is broadcasting "Game Day Live" to get on camera and wave to the students up North who wonder why "Game Day Live" is never broadcast from their campus.

TAILGATING
North:  Hot dogs on a grill, drink a beer, listening to local radio station with truck tailgate down.
South:  30-foot custom pig-shaped smoker fires up at dawn. Cooking accompanied by live performance of Sugarland , who come over during breaks and ask for a hit off the Jack Daniels.

Whole thing here.

*pronounced (Chat-uh-lane-ah without much emphasis on the syllables)

As Ever,

TWC

Rudyard Kipling on Ammo, Literature, & Red Wine

A man can never have too much red wine, too many books, or too much ammunition.

Bill Kalles (No Star) Update 4 (Donation Info)

Good Morning Gentle Readers,

As you know, Bill was involved in a tragic motorcycle accident that took the life of his daughter.

Bill's release from the hospital is imminent. He's going home today. Good news indeed.

This Saturday, Rolling Thunder Motorcycle Ministries will host a benefit BBQ for Bill in downtown Moses Lake, Washington.

Donations to give Bill a hand with funeral and medical expenses can be made as follows:

RTMM
P.O. Box 2023
Moses Lake, WA 98837

Ed Baxter at (509) 771-0070

Alternatively, you may send donations in care of his church:

Grace Harvest Church
313 N Fig st.
Moses Lake, Wa 98837

As was mentioned the other day, donations to the Jessica Kalles Memorial Library fund can be made as follows:

Moses Lake Library
Attention Connie Kuhlmann
418 East 5th Avenue
Moses Lake, WA, 98837-1797

Checks should be made out to:   

North Central Regional Library

A short letter should accompany the the check explaining that it is for memorial books for Jessica Kalles. If you want to know the titles of the books that have been purchased, please include a note to that effect and your return address.  A small memorial sticker will be placed in each book.

Thank you so much for your thoughts and prayers.

As Ever,

TWC

Mrs TWC on Nashville Radio

Good Morning Gentle Readers,

Just finished up with some purple and blue octopus ice cream courtesy of Play Doh and the House Blond.

The real reason I've asked you all here is to let you know that Mrs TWC will be live in Nashville Thursday morning around 6:30 AM PDT (Should be just after 8:30 AM local). Sorry about the short notice, it happens that way sometimes.

That'll be Supertalk 99.7, Nashville Tennessee, on the Ralph Bristol show.

Listen live here.

She'll be talking about Tennessee's universal pre-school program, considered the gold standard of universal pre-school programs.

As Ever,

TWC

NoStar Update 3

Good Morning Gentle Readers,

As many of you know sometime contributor and full time friend, No Star, was involved in a serious motorcycle accident on Sunday which claimed the life of his twelve year old daughter.

A memorial fund has been established at the library where she was a fixture. It is a small community and the entire town is grieving over the loss of Jessie.

For those of you who would like to contribute to Jessie's library fund, checks should be made out to North Central Regional Library and mailed to:

Moses Lake Library
Attention Connie Kuhlmann
418 East 5th Avenue
Moses Lake, WA, 98837-1797

A short letter should accompany the the check explaining that it is for memorial books for Jessica Kalles. If you want to know the titles of the books that have been purchased, please include a note to that effect and your return address.  A small memorial sticker will be placed in each book.

Thank you so much.

As Ever,

TWC

InDecision 2008: Vote For Me & I'll Set You Free

Good Morning Gentle Readers,

Can't get excited about the presidential race? Feel like this Run For The Roses is InDecision 2008? Indigestion 2008? For a real choice, a vote for The Wine Commonsewer may just what the doctor ordered. Or you could take one of these.

Here's the latest coverage on TWC's campaign.....

Can't see the news video? Look here.

Bonus:

As Ever,

TWC

Tip of the glass to Kent

No Star Update

Good Morning Gentle Readers,

UPDATE 2:30 PDT

An anonymous FOB (Friend of Bill) is looking into the idea of a Library Memorial Fund in Jessie's name. Jessie was in the library almost every day and everyone knew her.  Moses Lake is a small town and the entire town is sad and grieving.

UPDATE 1:01 PDT:

For now cards or flowers may be sent to Bill Kalles:

C/O Harborview Medical Center

325 9th Avenue, Seattle, WA, 98104

Actually, I'm not sure if the ICU staff looks kindly on flowers. 

As many of you know Bill is a man of faith and his church is now working out the details for a memorial fund. When that information is forthcoming I will pass it along. I had given some thought to a pay pal account on behalf of Bill but perhaps we'll wait and see how the church fund works out.

In the interest of simple expediency, those of you who prefer to do so, can send him a card and a check at the hospital.

Another thought from an anonymous friend (FOB?):

I was thinking of calling the library in Moses Lake (Washington) and asking them what options they may have for memorials.  Jessie loved to read, and she was even writing a children's story herself.  Bill has talked about it a lot and often mentioned taking her to the library for books.

Funeral arrangements are still pending, but we may have better information by tomorrow.

The feeling is that if the funeral service takes place next week that Bill may be able to attend.

________________________________________________

Bill is touched by all the good wishes, here and elsewhere.

He is still pretty drugged up for the pain (oxycontin). He is lucid but rambling, which I guess is normal. Apparently he is charming the nurses but they also feel that the loss of his daughter has not fully sunk in.

He is anxious to get out of the hospital and get his mind cleared.

Although I believe he is out of immediate danger, I'm not sure exactly how fast that is going to happen. Getting out of the hospital I mean.

No word yet on where to send condolences.

As Ever,

TWC

Good Night Jesse Girl

Gentle Readers,

Most of you know him as No Star and have seen his infrequent wine reviews and frequent comments here at TWC. The bad news is that my friend Bill Kalles is in intensive care as a result of a motorcycle accident this afternoon.

But it gets incredibly worse. His twelve year old daughter, Jesse, was killed instantly. She was everything he lived for. I can't imagine.....

Just now I yanked my own two together on my lap, all elbows and complaints. 

Jacob's head gave me a charley horse.

Katie! Get your elbow out of my face.

I wanted to hear that stuff. Because it meant they were alive and with me, and it occurs to me how very lucky I am, and how fragile this life that we call our own really is.

I haven't told them yet. Not about Jesse anyway.

Our thoughts are with Bill and his family. And Emmy, too.

Sometimes life is such a got dam drag.

UPDATE: I have word that Bill is stable this morning. Although he was pretty badly beat up, the doctors are optimistic.

UPDATE: Nick Gillespie was kind enough to post this at Hit & Run. Lots of kind words for Bill from people he has spent some online time with over the years.

Jennifer Abel also has some thoughts worth sharing.

As Always,

TWC

2006 10 Knots Chardonnay

Good Morning Gentle Readers,

We're breaking new ground here and this is something you'll not likely see again anytime soon.

TWC has never reviewed a white wine. Never. Well, except to say that lips that touch white wine shall never touch mine (except for maybe Sandra Bullock).  That little threat keeps the ladies and the gay guys sipping a little Riesling every now and again.

Back in May, the PTA put on a fundraiser at the Champions Club.

On the way out Michelle (the PTA President and organizer) handed me a bottle of.....

2006 10 Knots Chard, bottled by Sextant Wines of Santa Barbara County.

Sorry, Mike, I know it's white. Might have been insurance on her part.

I figured, how cool, we can make some sauteed mushrooms.

Winery tasting notes.....

Aromas of angle food cake, cotton candy and almond balance the lemon meringue flavors of this versatile food friendly neutral oaked Chardonnay.

You can have my lifetime allocation of Angel Food Cake and I cannot imagine drinking anything that tastes like cotton candy. If cotton candy is your thing wouldn't you order a Shirley Temple (with vodka)?

I know, we're talking white wine and I'm a rube here. There's all sorts of oddball flavors and aromas that make up the pleasure of a good glass of red so I'll get off that pulpit and just say that had I read the winery tasting notes beforehand I'da classified the wine as lawn pourin'.

In what shall remain a paean to plausible deniability, I sort of unintentionally fell into a sip. It was the intriguing aroma. I took a hit just before I poured the wine into the pan with the shallots. Hmm. Nice aroma (nose for you snobs). I love the aroma of food and drink and I'm one of those odd gentlemen that serruptiously takes a quick whiff of everything from the potato soup to the expresso.

And at twenty bucks US, the 10 Knots Chardonnay (White Burgundy in Francais) turns out to be a rather tasty wine. Crisp and clean. Citrus, apples, and almonds. No cake. No cotton candy. No meringue.

I'd serve this with appetizers, crab cakes, shell fish, or, mmmmm, grilled Mexican prawns.

It is a perfect wine to keep in the fridge to offer your friends who appreciate white wine. They'll thank you for it.

I'll not say how I know that this chardonnay is quite good (bordering on excellent). Further, I'll deny tasting it, because I didn't, so don't be spreading lies and innuendo that has no basis in reality.

Now, move along folks, there's nothing else to see here.

As Ever,

The Wine Commonsewer