Wine of the Month Club | August 2014 Vintners Series

Ed: He does it again, you know? He’s the only guy that can crack himself up by doing nothing, absolutely nothing.

Paul: I don’t know what it is. You make me laugh, Ed. You’re very funny.

Ed: Good. I’m glad I make somebody laugh.

Paul: We went to saw my folks over the weekend and he was like, ‘Hey, I found my lecture notes from the Peninsula Library about the lectures I gave on wine.’ Did you teach Redondo Union or something or one of the night classes of some?

Ed: Yeah, South Bay Adult School, because I took over for him in 1984, a mere 30 years ago. He didn’t want to teach there anymore.

Paul: That’s right. I remember that, I remember that. Well he brought me the lecture. He used to bring me the lecture notes.

Ed: Okay, that must have been [inaudible 0:43]

Paul: Can we read them? I haven’t seen them yet. So I’m waiting for them, anticipating, excited, and going to read. It is the vendors for August 2014. Here’s my co-host Ed.

Both: Masciana!

Paul: That’s Sicilian, right?

Ed: No, that’s the Italian side. Yeah, which is actually Calabria which is probably you can’t get any closer to Sicily that Calabria, but they think they’re better.

Paul: But good food, but good food.

Ed: Well food is always great over there.

Paul: What’s your latest creation that you’ve been making [inaudible 1:12]

Ed: I got a smoker.

Paul: Did you really? Which one? Brickman?

Ed: No, I got a Master or something like that.

Paul: Oh okay, that’s cool.

Ed: And the first thing I will tell you about learning how to smoke, do not follow the directions that come with it, okay? This isn’t working out well, you know? And as soon as I decided I’ll go my own path, the stuff was out of this world. People were going nuts.

Paul: Did you over smoke the first time?

Ed: No, under smoke, under smoke. It’s almost impossible to over smoke in those things ’cause it’s electric. And they tell you to put half a cup of chips in there, where you’re out there. The damn thing has to go on for 17, 18, 20 hours, okay?

Paul: I know. It doesn’t work.

Ed: And it doesn’t work. So don’t put more than that because otherwise, it might flare up. It can’t flare up, it’s encased in metal. So I filled the thing up there and I let it go for 18 hours. It was incredible.

Paul: There’re a lot of online videos for smoking, particularly in your model. If you look it up, you’ll find it. ‘Cause I have a, I can’t remember which one it is, but it uses the pallets and slice them in to stuff. And it took me, I don’t know, the first one is inedible, way over smoked. But then I smoked a turkey for Christmas which was maybe 10% over smoked, it was really good. I smoked a little turkey for Christmas. And that time [inaudible 2:25] to Christmas in case I completely blew it. But I brought it and people really liked it, ‘cause it’s unusual flavor for turkey out on Christmas.

Ed: Well not anymore. I mean smoked turkey brushes a big deal you know.

Paul: You can buy a slice over Oscar Meyer, but for Christmas, it was a little unusual.

Ed: But I’ve been doing brisket.

Paul: But brisket is a 12-hour smoke, right?

Ed: Everything’s at least 18 hours.

Paul: But ribs, pork’s are a few hours.

Ed: It didn’t over smoke, I overcooked it. And the problem there is you got to vary the temperature.

Paul: Talk to Val. Val has asters in smoking. He knows a lot of it.

Ed: I’ll tell you one thing though, smoking is not a way of cooking. It’s a religion, like barbecue. These people, it’s a religion. I mean they still go to church to learn how to smoke they prophesize their barbecue techniques. It’s pretty amazing. Anyway, we got a nice Rhone wine here.

Paul: Speaking of smoking, this will go great with a brisket. What I like about this wine when I taste it, which I tasted many months ago, it’s a soft [inaudible 3:29], it’s well-rounded. It’s got all the flavor come from it.

Ed: It’s got a little punch to it.

Paul: It’s not that aggressive, but I really, really liked it.

Ed: It’s delicious.

Paul: And we’re really fortunate to get this.

 

Ed: Yeah, and especially since it’s a 2011 which is a very good year. And right now, the relation in 2013s are one of which we featured just a couple of months ago, that was spectacular, especially considering the bad press on the 2013 vintage in most of France and a good part of Italy.

Paul: This is $21.99 on the shelf if you can find it $12.99 if you want more for a Cotes du Rhone.

Ed: A really good Cotes du Rhone.

Paul: It’s really good [inaudible 4:05] this would be great with barbecue smoked ribs. Now, I did a rub recipe. Did you just get the email when we did the one of the wines with the email special onto the grab the rub from Paul Kirk’s book on barbecues? So I made a big batch of it. And I’ve been using it and I used it the other night on some ribs for my family, which I just indirectly heated on the barbecue. And everybody’s flipping over this stuff.

Ed: Well, I did finally see a few commonalities in some of these rubs. A lot of them use, of course cumin is a big deal, alright? But a lot of them use 5-spice.

Paul: Yeah, there’s 5-spice in there.

Ed: And all-spice, I mean garlic, onion powder, that’s a given you know, salt and pepper, et cetera, et cetera.

Paul: But this is good. I’ll afford it to you ’cause I have use it now 2 or 3 times. I use it on chicken. And speaking of chicken…

Ed: Mesh book.

Paul: Mesh book.

Ed: Musque Clone 809.

Paul: This is the Musque Chicken Clone.

Ed: Yeah, it’s cool, cool.

Paul: This is our friends at mesh book who we’ve done a lot of business with. And they are another organization, much like [inaudible 5:14] Then when they have inventory that they normally sell for much more, this wine sells for $25.99. They call us and say, ‘Can you help us out with this inventory. We’ll give you a great pricing, just give it to your members.’ And now I can sell it for $12.99. I think this is as French domestic chardonnay can get, in my opinion.

Ed: Well, it’s interesting and that first of all, I didn’t know there was a Musque Clone of chardonnay. I was familiar with Musque Clone of sauvignon blanc. And the reason why they call it that is because it has kind of a Muscaty sort of component. And the predominant knows in Muscat is what they call musk, a musk oil. And you know what musk is? Musk is the scent that the female doe gives out to attract male.

Paul: From a deer, is it a deer? A female deer.

Ed: Yeah, a female deer.

Paul: Great. [inaudible 6:08].

Ed: Oh God, he’s awful.

Paul: That was awful.

Ed: And anyhow, that’s a musk. It doesn’t really work for humans. I tried it, but it didn’t work.

Paul: I just think this is the [inaudible 6:24] mock up of rich macon.

Ed: Well some of the sauvignon blancs that are from the Musque Clone are a little over the top, and this isn’t. This was really nicely in check. This could really go with a lot of spice and dishes. You know, I don’t need chardonnay in spicy dishes, you need Gewürztraminer, or Rieslings, or [inaudible 6:40], usually like that. But this is amazing stuff.

Paul: Actually we’re having Chinese food today for the corporal lunch for my staff to taste these wines. This could do it actually. You can hold it to a lot. That’s a 96. I’m really generous to that, I don’t know why, but I really like this.

Ed: Well because you woke up in a crappy mood.

Paul: I did, that’s true.

Ed: Yeah, sure:

Paul: Well you know my dog, my poor dog. She’s probably have to go down soon. You have it.

Ed: I have it?

Paul: Oh no you don’t.

Ed: Cavalchina.

Paul: It’s over here.

Ed: I didn’t pick it up either.

Paul: So let’s open that one. This is called the [inaudible 7:25]. This isn’t filling.

Ed: It’s Cavalchina. Now, I got to tell you something. Cavalchina Bardolino, Bardolino is an area right next to where the Valpolicella. They’re made from the exactly same grapes and pretty much the same percentages. The thing is I love Valpolicella. Bardolino’s are kind of like ‘Eh’. They’re just not in the same league, you know? They don’t have the presence of Valpolicella. So I’m approaching this wine with a sudden a bit of contempt.

Paul: Look at this color. [inaudible 7:55] classic color. I’ve been to Bardolino down the little village.

Ed: This is the best Bardolino I have ever tasted, period.

Paul: The way it came to us is so bizarre.

Ed: I mean it’s really amazing. I mean it smells like Valpolicella, it tastes like Valpolicella. It just doesn’t come from Valpolicella, you got to call it Bardolino. But you cannot judge Bardolinos by this one, because I’ve never had one this good. I mean it’s amazing.

Paul: This is probably as complex a Bardolino you’re going to get, right? ‘Cause it’s not meant to be this overly done wine. It’s a pretty simple wine. Particularly when you go to [inaudible 8:23] in Bardolino. They serve it you in a high ball. But they got sold this to us. He also left us a 50-pound sack of pizza flour. I don’t know where this guys gets his stuff, how it comes across his wines, but he’s always got something up his sleeve. He was, ‘Alright, if you buy this, I’ll give you a 50-pound sack a piece of flour.’ I’m like, ‘What? Alright, I’ll take the pizza flour.’ What am I going to do with a 50-pound bag?

Ed: Well I don’t know, that’s quite a bit, you know. But I mean, it’s just bread flour basically.

Paul: I know, there’s nothing to it, but you know. This is 2001 Bardolino. It’s a wonderful town up on the North of Italy, almost near Lake Garda and on the way up to Bolzano.

Ed: And I’m doing a 98 on this ’cause I think it’s absolutely stunning wine. I love it. It’s got some exotic sort of gaminess to it, and a little spice and you know, it’s a wine you could have with chicken, smoked chicken especially, or ribs, you know. I mean, you can’t have always salmon. I mean, it’s just an amazing wine.

Paul: Really has a lot going on there particularly for a barley, cute town. [inaudible 9:28]. Revisiting our friends from the Lake County, Chacewater which we did the [inaudible 9:37] a few months ago, i think it was. But you know I can’t  revisiting this old sauvignon blanc and just kept loving it. And I think sauvignon blanc does well Lake County.

Ed: Absolutely, incredibly well in Lake County. I mean, Fetzer makes a great sauvignon blanc from up there.

Paul: All the spiciness, all the acidity, not over the top with the herbs. And that’s one thing about Lake County, doesn’t get too herby.

Ed: Right, now it’s really clean, really crisp, just a touch of that melon. Not watermelon, but you know, cantaloupe, absolutely delicious. I’m giving that a, nice too.

Paul: A little lemon citrus too.

Ed: Yeah, really fresh, 2013 you know, just nice and clean, and really rock.

Paul: They’re just darn good guys, Ed.

Ed: Okay. $18.99 on the shelf, $12.99 reorder price. And I think we’re both the 96s. And that’s our show for the day, for August 2014.

Paul: That’s really good, delicious. That’s Vintners Series.

Ed: Vintners Series, right. August 2014. Chacewater, Sauvignon Blanc, in your glass. He’s looking at you.