Maybe there isn’t more than this Provençal life and that’s not too bad so fuck you Belle.

I’m a beast. I’m not provincial but all the same fuck you Belle! I like that the baker has bread like always! What if I showed up and he’d gone hipster and was selling gluten-free cupcakes? That would suck.

I’ll take a wee bit of province and a wee bit of Provence, thank you.

Provence!! Cue lavender fields and olives.

Strike the olives. I hate olives. Although they do grow in Provence.

Actually if truth is told I generally am not too into the Provence pinks. They tend to be too pale, too easy-going, too…well I start singing the “there must be more” Beauty and the Beast song.

Dang I guess I’m a hypocrite. I want the provincial bread. But not always the provincial Provençal wine. Got it?

Fortunately there is justttttt enough interesting stuff this Provençal wine.

And there is a bit more in my life.

Like this non-provincial Provençal wine, it has a lot of the same all but mixed up just enough to keep me going back for more. Living and wine.

2015 Château de Pampelonne Cotes de Provence

Meow meow.

Enough philosophical babble, here are the deets!

Eye: pale pink slightly salmons, quick thin tears.

Nose: clean, medium intensity, cherries, peaches, sweet cherries, and your standard brook. Babbling brook.

Taste: dry, medium acid, medium alcohol (13%abv), medium body, medium intensity, sweet cherries, tangerine, grapefruit, stones n stuff, finish is medium. So there is so much is medium in this it borders on boring but has enough complexity of flavor to just end up balanced.

Quality? Good, medium price n so on. Get the fuck in whilst ye can or I’d never share this “medium”(hint: it’s more than medium) booze.

Love, 

Me, from me non-provincial corner of LA where you see more tortilla makers with their tortillas like always than you do French bread makers. And that’s okay. As long as they keep the gluten in.

It’s not corked!!!

Oh heck I was nervous to taste my second. Because the first was wonk so I wrote the winery and they sent me a non-corked specimen. But what if I was wrong?

I’m a member of this winery. Did I hate one of their top wines? Was this a sign my taste blew? Blows? Blow-ed? Did a blow thing in the past?

I was questioning existence itself as a thing which is probably too much thought for a wine that was obviously corked.

All the same the winery kindly sent me a replacement bottle and I was SO SCARED that I’d open it and it would be the same and the wine was supposed to taste like that and maybe I just had terrible taste buds.

It was not corked. My tasters work. This wine is marvelous and kudos Dragonette for quickly remedying my corked situation.

2014 Dragonette Pinot Noir Fiddlestix Vineyard

Only 380 cases produced. It’s too bad one was corked but gosh dang the real deal is the bees knees.

Bees have real sexy knees.

Fuck dude it’s cherry syrup on butter pecan ice cream. That’s it.

Okay I will say more.

You sip and boom there is some acid. Also if you get to the end of the bottle there is some sediment. This shit is unfiltered like a goddamned boss.

Shit this is…GOOD Cali Pinot?! I Lurve This Pinot. Right now. I’m not normally into Cali Pinot but Dragonette as I mentioned is a goddamned boss.

Okay to sum up it is highly Acidic. Highly cherries that have hung out in vanilla and oak and sunshine. 

This is one of those confusing thangs. There is so much up body up in this Noir you are like “is this a cab Blend?” And then you are like I’m an idiot.

But you are not. Because this lovely is full and nuanced and mellow yet complicated like me when I am not yet fully awake but already trying to decipher my dreams.

It’s like…the cherries. But they are complicated. Did I mention them? The cherries? Like every color and roasted and boiled and maybe even pickled. All the cherries.

I mentioned them right?

And there is mayhaps some oak. 

Double checked: 20 months in French oak barrels–13% new.

This is cherry Coke vacationing on the shore near the forest in…in wherever there is earth n dirt and an enchantress stewing cherries. 

Yah.

Happy spring y’all.

This is your unicorn Pinot.

Cheers!

I apologize in advance if this entry is more maudlin and less haha funny. Because I want to toast to family. Which matters.

Family is the…BEST thing. If it weren’t for my parents I…well I need not go on. 

So. Accelerating to the drink because I can tell you more of my not-haha-funny past my family saved me from later. History will always be there where we left it.

How many of us can create wines in honor of our papas? If I ever make a wine I would. That’s what Joseph Carr of Josh Cellars did when he made

Josh Cellars Legacy Red Blend

And the winery was kind enough to send some to me. If my family were in town I certainly would have shared the wealth. But it was Tuesday night in LA and I needed to write another wine blog and there was nary a soul to share with. So I am cheers-ing with the camera. With you.

My blog family.

I love you dear readers. Not as much I love my family but like, a whole bunch.

But because I love you I’ll stop being sappy and talk of this vino I would share with you.

Were you here. 

My lovelies.

Okay wine.

The grape varietal combo is luscious:

45% Merlot for the juicy alcoholic tastiness. 45% Zinfandel for those of us who like our rough and also slightly spicy stewed fruit. Then 5% Cabernet Sauvignon (everyone will drink it!) and 5% Petite Sirah (why not?).

This drink is indeed good for family because it is medium in almost every category. So no one will argue. It’s a balanced bottle.

To the eye: deep cherry-plum red, medium tears

Nose: clean, medium intensity, cherries, plum, tobacco and raisins, youthful (2014)

Tongue: dry, medium acid, medium tannins, medium alcohol (13.5% abv), medium body, medium flavor intensity, plums, raspberries, currants (red and black), stewed dried fruit (raisins, prunes, cranberries), vanilla, cigar box, cloves, allspice, medium finish

All over: good quality. Quite do-able. If I was at a party and someone handed this to me I’d be at home.

I’d take this wine home. Cheers!

omGODello i.e. A Whole New Wine!

WHOOAAS dudes have I EVER reviewed a white wine? 

Maybe…once? Oh wait twice if you don’t count a few bubblies. Bubbly Une. Bubbly Deux. Bubbly Trois.

And I don’t count bubblies in the same category as flat whites because they are made completely differently. And two of them came in cans for heaven’s sakes. And speaking of heaven, let me get punny and bring up GODello.

Godello. Not just a new thing to be writing on white wine but this is a whole new grape! From Spain! Omigosh.

Cool down kids, we will get through this. Stronger together.

Breath. In, out. 

Okay. Drink.

2014 Adras “Godello” Ribeira Sacra (13.91 from Garagiste)

Is this heavenly? Does it make me think of church?

Yes and yes for different reasons.

The church bit: Ya know the wet stone feel of an old church? If you don’t, hie thee to Europe. Or an old church or the St. Louis Art Museum–the old wing. But not to the church I grew up going to because we had grape juice at communion. And it was red. Although now that I think of it if I ran a church I would be forced to be punny and serve Godello. Because the more wretched the pun the better.

It runs in my family. Or should I say it puns in the…okay I’ll stop.

Oh right so there are a lot of wet stone notes in this wine hence the church remembrance. Yummm wet stone smell. And then in your mouth a bit of that chalky taste reminiscent of all the limestone that…okay probably wasn’t in your actual youth so much as my wine-addled mind’s imagination.

Heavenly? Well it is all full of lemons and meyer lemons (totes diff taste y’alls) and honeydew melon tastes. But then there is just a whiff of a finish of grass.

So imagine you are at, say, a church potluck. That for some reason is being held in the stone-smelling sanctuary. And someone brought a nice bright fruit salad with melon in it and it must have some lemon juice and maybe an orange slice or so in it. And while munching on the salad, breathing in the stony air you step out of doors for some reason. Maybe you’ve heard the lemonade-monger, that crazy kid! And it is a sunny grassy spring day. And there is a kid selling lemonade and you say yes and while chewing that salad you gulp some lemonade and breath in the church lawn. Got it?

That’s the combo of stone/fruit/herbaciousness you will get. In Godello.

No one said religion was simple.

No? Not working for the imagination? Well then find a bottle. Okay? Just say a little prayer of thanks for tasty wine.

And trying new things!

Novelty. Is sometimes the ticket to temporary brilliance.

Get ye some godello. Go with Godello!

I love you as much as she does,

 

Burn special nightly

The recipe that got me on a burn-inducing frittata kick was from the lovely Joy the Baker and this recipe and needing to use up some DAMN tasty chips.

The chips being Siete Grain Free Tortilla Chips. Especially being in the lime flavor. A lovely publicist sent them for me to try and I was terrifically pleased.

Holy heck they are made with cassava flour. I’ve no experience to judge cassava. But I liked it in this application. And avocado oil? I hate avocado but these flippin’ WORK. They work especially well in eggs.
Now as to the danger.

Frying pans that are safe to put in your oven are trouble. 

You think “oh this handle is harmless,” and sure, it is when you are using the pan on top of the stove. But not when out of the oven. 

Ugh burns. I went on a kick of making this frittata and although I got hep enough to not straight up grab the handle straight from the oven I kept bumping into the skillet. Burned myself around 8 times in a month I think. I should be more careful cooking.

But I should also keep making this frittata because it is stinkin’ delicious.

Frittata Chilaquiles Don’t Get Burned Extravaganza based on this recipe by Joy the Baker

• Olive oil
• Salsa: 1-ish cups pending thickness of salsa and your own taste buds, I never measured
• 1/2 tsp ground cumin
• 1/2 tsp garlic powder
• 1/2 chili powder (I used the cheap ol’ grocery brand)
• 1 dash crushed red pepper
• 1-2 oz lime tortilla chips 
• Sea salt
• Freaky ground black pepper
• 4 eggs
• Dash almond milk
• 2 oz sharp cheddar

Heat oil in 8 inch skillet. Add salsa and allow to cook until dry-ish. Heat oven to 375 F. Stir spices into the salsa and cook a little but more.Whisk milk, taters and salt n pepper in a separate bowl. Take the skillet off the heat (turn that burner off) and layer in chips. Add the egg mixture. Sprinkle with cheese. Bake 15-25 minutes yeaaaa! Be careful.