Just a weird note to clue you in to some interesting websites/blogs/events on the horizon. Let's just call them weblovents. The Open Wine Consortium is a site for both industry and enthusiasts alike. I would like to attend their European Wine Bloggers Conference in Rioja, Spain this year. On to more wackier things...
Visit the Wine Map website. They have joined with the Sonoma County vintners and Google Earth to create an interactive info site that gives a 3D view of vineyards and producers. Hopefully other appellations will join in. For champagne nuts, try Peter Liem's Besotted Ramblings and Other Drivel.
So, as not to get too overtly absorbed in the banalities of wine geekdom, let's wander the path less traveled. My dear friend Phillip (lets just call him by his newly acquired nom de plume, "I've retired so screw the formalities" name, GIZMO) has moved to the new "go to" destination of Joshua Tree, CA. I refer to this location as, Hotter Than The Hinges Of Hell. Gizmo is currently tracking down the ghosts of Gram Parsons, James Turrell and Howard Hughes. For that group I might suggest a sassy Eschezeaux from Robert Jayer with a psilocybin chaser ... but I digress.
The allusive point here is that searching for authenticity is a slippery slope and not for the faint at heart. Gizmo is a consumate builder whose last gig was building a LEED Platinum certified home for Al Gore in Nashville. I can understand why he needed to seek out a simple life of sunsets, scorpions and solar showers. He is currently photographing tortoises that are mating in the sandy front yard of his lizard ranch.
All the pedigrees and reviews, whether they be about wine or construction, seem to boil down to simple ingredients: How are the bones? What is the quality of your experience? Does this shake you and wake you up? How do you feel being in this created space as the morning light comes through the window? How is your life different after this quiet Provencal dinner and conversation on the evening's terrasse with the aioli and '90 Domaine Tempier?
In the face of construction budget arguments/Bush SubPrime Fallout, 100 point Robert Parker systems, Interior Desecrators and $4.00 gasoline... I'm worn out. Damn the euro, for all those needing a French vacation, email me!!
