Happy Academy Awards Day.

As expected, it's pretty much crickets around here. Vern had a TV set down here to watch Laker games and war movies. I'd turn it on twice a year for Superbowl and The Academy Awards, but after the digital conversion it all went south. I brought my converter box downstairs last year, but reception was so dicey and tentative I'm toughing it out this year and simply missing the proceedings, a virtual sin in this town.

Quiz of the day: What do Antonio Banderas, Gerard Depardieu and Madonna all have in common? They're all great actors? Here's a hint: add Francis Ford Coppola to the list. Yep, they all have vineyards or collaborate with other wineries. If you Google "celebrity vineyards" you get this comprehensive list via Wikipedia (of course). This is also a fun little link.

Wouldn't it be a better broadcast if they had to carry one of these things off the stage? In their gowns? Unassisted?

Two amazing weekends in a row.

Saturday



Sunday


between out there and in here, I can actually see my breath in here today...though maybe that's a breath issue and not a chill factor issue...)

Today in LA

(*click on to enlarge*)

BevWars

Just in time to cash in on the holidays, this BevMo opened in Glendale. For years there was one BevMo in Pasadena, but they've recently been reproducing at a curious clip.

BevMo is a comprehensive beverage-and-more store, your one stop social gathering destination. Half the store is wine, the other half spirits, both sides interspersed with other necessary party needs: snacks, cheese, glass ware, cigars, caviar, beer-water-soda and mixers. They are notable for the 5-cent sale where, if you're a BevMo member, you buy one bottle and get the second one for...5 cents. Here's an interesting bit of info on that one.

So why the sudden proliferation of BevMos? Total Wine...& More. Started in Delaware, now in ten states, including a recent handful in California (the nearest here is, I think, Northridge?), they are on the move and BevMo is scrambling to get into our massive-sized wine store psyches first.

How will this play out for the traditional wine store? I went to BevMo when it first opened. It was a mess, and the kids working there seemed ill-equipped to answer a single wine question. I went back this week to see how they've settled in, and the store remains disheveled and unappealing...to me...and the wine unremarkable.










For a better quality wine experience, try these local stores:
Topline Wine. (and spirits)
Rosso Wine Shop
Mission Wine and Spirits
Whole Foods (the beer department is making quite a name for itself)
55 Degree Wine (and beer)
Red Carpet Wine (beer and spirits)



How can you go wrong with a whole section devoted to boxed wine?











Just in time for Valentine's day...looks like that ChocoVine is flying off the shelves.

Barolo vs. Barbera

(*click on map to enlarge*)

Dude, wine is complicated.

That aside, it occurred to me there was another bottle of something Italian in my locker, (like any half decent wine, by way of path of bewildering generosity) so while I was doing Italian things why not do all the Italian things? Plus, these two wines come from the same general area, the upper left, so opening them one after the other might be educational.

I usually don't read about the wine beforehand because I want to see what I think of it first. This is its own debate; by not reading other tasting notes am I missing out on a possibly more defined wine experience? Or if I read other tasting notes am I letting it define what I taste? It can go either way. Sometimes I like that I tasted what I did minus external influence while other times I wish I'd been aware of the nuances others picked up. So, six in one...I guess.


But in advance of the 2005 Guiseppe Mascarello Barbera d'Alba, I did read online this tasting note:
"Very sweet wild fruit on the nose that is a bit figgy and fudgy with a strong vegetal top note, and a vivid streak of tar. Broad and expansive in the mouth with a wonderful transparent feel to the pure red fruits. This really floats in the mouth with a nice accent of tannin helping to give it some shape. The finish read more...is long and really driven by that tannin which adds a nice earthy note to the finale 89pts"

I confess: I was like, that's just crazy. And that's when I knew I'm destined to remain, alas, a troglodyte. Sigh.
So in Trog-Speak, here's how it went. Both these wines were different and interesting, and I liked them both. They were similar in that they were both sort of medium bodied, and both well balanced with floral and spice things. The Barolo was more interesting, had a little more play between the two while the Barbera was a bit more elegant. I liked them both by themselves, no food, but if I did it again I'd probably opt to have them with a rosemary pork loin or like-herbed chicken.

My eternal gratitude to the poor people who keep giving me this stuff, though. I'm sure there are more than a few people thinking, my god, all that good wine wasted on that ignorant troglodyte. I couldn't agree more, and I continue to love every drop.

...with apologies to Amerigo Vespucci.

If Signore Vespucci knew what this American Troglodyte was going to do to his country's amazing cuisine he'd roll over in his grave - though to many, 'american' and 'troglodyte' are redundant. Here's why.

I had a hankering for meatballs and tomato sauce, so I made meatballs and tomato sauce. Standard meatballs, but with spinach added. Feta would have been good in them. And a curried tomato sauce: onion, jalapeno, garlic, ginger with a basic curry powder plus anise and red pepper flakes. The sauce was amazing! Served over spaghetti squash. (It counts, it has the word 'spaghetti' in it.)

I topped the squash with some Podere Cogno olive oil from Tuscany, home to the world's greatest olive oils. I also opened a 2000 Elio Altare Barolo wine, which, though geographically not Chianti-esque, is still more in the ball park than the curry in the sauce. There's a grape named Nebbiolo? This one had eleven years to work out its thing, and I assure you, it did so swimmingly. Nice medium bodied red wine, nice fruit and spice things, not at all too tannic, very pleasant.

"Tutti a tavola a mangiare!" Loosely translated: Dig in, dem's good eats.