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Yesterday was my day off. I usually try to pack my days off with as many things as I can, to take advantage of the time and make good use of it. Part of the day off plan yesterday was to jump on the opportunity to enjoy one of the few benefits of working in a fine-dining restaurant: wine tasting.
C&G wines of Portland distributes a number of wines from the French Côtes du Rhône region. One AOC in the Rhône wine region is the Châteauneuf-du-Pape, known for producing especially fantastic Rhône-style blends and varietal wines. C&G was able to fly over cases of 2010 Châteauneuf-du-Pape wines for a industry-only barrel tasting at The Cleaners yesterday.
Côtes du Rhône have for a long time been my favorite wines, resting at the top of my list along with Burgundian wines and Willamette Pinot Noir. While I drink the more affordable Côtes du Rhône wines on a regular basis, I’ve had the pleasure of drinking Châteauneuf-du-Pape wines on only five occasions in the past, and each time it was for a specific special occasion. CDPs generally don’t exist in entry-level form— the most inexpensive CDPs retail in the high-$30 range and quickly climb to $70 and up. From my limited experience with CDPs, I found them to be especially earthy, spicy, and rich in flavor with velvety mouth feel. The 2010s are certainly as such, and some were simply incredible, no doubt due to the fact that 2010 was a relatively good year for the Côtes du Rhône. Having had CDPs on just a few occasions, I was excited to see tables in the event space lined with nearly 100 distinct bottles of wine. Not all were CDPs, but I would guess that nearly 75% were.
Before the tasting, Andria and I decided to grab lunch at Clyde Common next door to The Cleaners, as we’ve never eaten there before and heard many good things. The hype is worthy; the food was excellent. Kale salad with kumquats, grapefruit, and grana padano; kale tagliatelle with walnuts; and fried rabbit with cipollini onion and braised greens were all fantastic (photos above. Yes, I took photos of my lunch; you may take me out behind the back shed and put me down for being a shitty conformist wannabe “photographer”. I hate myself for it enough to welcome a coup de grâce).
On to the wines— we really tried to take it easy and make it through as many of them as possible (without getting wasted), which was a fairly daunting task. I can certainly file this under “white whine” and “what can’t privileged people complain about”: numerous times I heard the many wine industry folks wandering around sniffing and sipping CDPs lament how “it is so much work to taste so many wines in one sitting”. I stayed appreciative, never spit, and drank lots of water. The event’s three hour time frame meant we could take plenty of breaks and snack on charcuterie, cheese, and dried fruit provided by Clyde Common next door. I tried to take as many wine notes as possible, but, as many of us noted, it gets tough when you hit your 40th-or-so taster of Grenache or Syrah based blend. Everything starts tasting the same.
However, there were some distinct standouts in the field. There were a few champagnes for tasting along with the Rhônes. The Claude Genet Chouilly Blanc de Blancs and Brut Rose were both phenomenal. The northern Rhône valley Côte-Rôtie was represented well by a Patrick Jasmin 2004 100% Syrah that was delicous. In the pretense-heavy, totally un-affordable category was Henri Bonneau 2000 Châteauneuf-du-Pape Reserve des Celestins, which retails for well over $400. I made sure to get three of four good tasters of it, and I think it’s completely over-priced; for a wine at that price point, it should have been far better.
The biggest standout was Chateau-Fortia. Fortia had three Châteauneuf-du-Pape wines present: the Grenache based Tradition and the Syrah based Cuvée de Baron, along with their CDP Reserve Speciale. The Tradition and Baron are both fairly inexpensive wines, retailing $35-$40, yet they stood out strong amidst a sea of over-$100 bottles. These two bottles were my favorite two wines of the group, and I head the sentiment resounded by tasters and sales reps alike. I was happy to see a basic, accessible few bottles stand out.
In summation, I’m really happy that these opportunities pop up now and then. I certainly don’t intend to work in a restaurant for the rest of my life, and there are many days that I’m ready to quit and move on to a career that carries less stress and more reward. But, until I do, I’m going to continue to take advantage of the chance to taste wines that I’ll more than likely never pay for in my lifetime.
The TiGr lock is finally here.
TiGr has created one of the most inventive pieces of cycle security since the U-lock, and it is about time. TiGr’s website is full of demo videos of the time it takes to cut through the titanium one-piece banded lock (if it is possible, as sometimes it is not, depending on the tool). There are time comparison videos pitting the TiGr against traditional U-locks, using the common thief methods— bottle jack, angle grinder, bolt cutters, etc. The TiGr seems to be as close to thief-proof as a security system can be, and even protects both wheels as well as the frame. In summation, the cycling community has needed this.
The downside? Titanium is expensive. The lightweight super metal is known for its high price in any form, and the TiGr is no exception at $200 for the 1.25” band and $165 for the .75” band. I’m not sure at this point that I can justify spending so much for security, since even the TiGr’s creative design is no mach for a determined thief. Maybe I’ll go for it someday when I have a couple of bills laying around.
“Your first 10,000 photographs are your worst.” — Henri Cartier-Bresson
I’ve known D for a long time, and Lyndsi since they have been together.
Darren and I have been snowboarding, surfing, skating, and riding bikes together since we were teenagers. Everyone who knows D knows that he has a natural talent when he steps on a board. He snowboards fast and aggressively, he skates the same way, and he surfs with fluid and energetic style. So many times I’ve been in the swell on the coast with D, and it never surprised me to see him on the shoreside of a wave slashing and pumping, blasting out of the lip to head-dive in the water and paddle back to the line-up.
He and Lyndsi found out last year that there was a baby on the way, and their priorities shifted. For D it was especially massive a change. But he has taken on the new responsibility with surprising stoke, and it has been interesting to observe the change he and Lyndsi have made.
I borrowed a bike from D today and shot a few photos of Violet, their daughter, born last week. I’ll have a few more photos here later.
Friday night saw the opening of The One Motorcycle show, which I was pretty hyped to check out, considering my new-found fascination with motorcycle restoration and customization and my current two project bikes. I got the night off work to go check it out with Andria and a few friends.
It was definitely a delight to see the many beautiful and rare bikes there, but I was ultimately disappointed by the amount of people there (which made it nearly impossible to shoot a photo that didn’t suck), and I was really wanting to talk with builders and not just spend my time trying not to run into other spectators. That’s the way these things tend to be in Portland, unfortunately; things that are en vouge and trendy tend to get blown up by word of mouth and scenester hype.
