Edmund St. John is a hyper-local winemaker here in Berkeley, specializing on Rhone varietals, mostly for sale by mailing list (the name is from partners in life Steve Edmunds and Cornelia St. John). I’ve picked up their wines at their house. Steve is retiring now, so I opened his 2008 syrah, and have his 2001 Los Ropos Viejos cued up. The syrah is meaty and juicy, with good fruit.
The Los Robles Veijos label says “Produced and bottled by intuition and blind luck”. Typical of their sense of humor. Another blend they produce was called That Old Black Magic, but I drank it all.
The Westide Road Neighbors pinot was so good. It was a work retreat and they came and did a tasting for us. After they left three of us were sitting by the pool and a staffer came over and said hey they left this full open bottle, do you guys want to drink it - ummm yes indeed we do.
From the “when in Paris, sometimes ya gotta drink Italian wines” file. Anyone want to guess what Italian wine this is? The waiter said he kept trying to pronounce the label until his eventual realization:
This was very nice. In general, we long ago gave up taking pictures of the wines we drink in Paris, as we’ll never see them again when we return to NYC. I’m going to miss drinking very good wines at 10euros/glass or 40-50euros/bottle, tax/tip included.
Just to add (my editing ability on the above has timed out): I will also miss, as much, the 4euro glasses of happy hour wines that are better than the usuals served at home for $12-15 (before tax/tip). And, going off topic a bit here (sorry), I just spent 6.40euros ($7) at an excellent bakery for 2 croissants, 1 chocolate croissant, a small raisin/cheese ring & a fresh traditional baguette (large). I think that’s the equivalent of 1 chocolate croissant at Apartment 4F (in Brooklyn, I place I love and frequent regularly), once I add tax/tip. End of rant (maybe).
We gave up comparing prices between Europe and US on food and restaurants (and to some extend quality especially at mid-level restaurants) as it is just sad and depressing
My first batch of homemade wine, a 1997 Cabernet Sauvignon. I didn’t quite know what I was doing, added no sulfites or oak, corked it with a hand corker, but it was stored in my basement at a year-round 58-63F temperature. It didn’t brown too much, or oxidize beyond a touch of acetone that blew away quickly. I still have several bottles.
Sancerre and kibble to start the evening. The Sancerre was in the fridge, so I decided to treat myself. I deserved it. One cataract down; one to go. (no, I didn’t drink post-surgery. I follow directions.)
Another one of old homemade wines from my cellar: 2009 “Vieux Couriel” GSM blend, roughly 70% grenache, 20% syrah, 10% mourvedre. The fruit from the grenache is still lively, the syrah’s tannins have muted, mourvedre is as earthy as at the beginning.
Home winemakers like to give their wines cute names. “Vieux Couriel” is a takeoff on “Vieux Telegraph”, the Châteauneuf du Pape grenache-based classic. Couriel is email in French (but I think they mostly say “email”).
