Progress Report Before Vineyard Vortex

Over one thousand words for day, already.  Off to take some pics of the vineyards in the Valley, Glen Ellen.  Need a break from the studio’s encapsulation.  Not even noon.  Precisely, 11:47a.  Also on the day’s lineup: SPOKEN WORD, wine lined, from my spine.  See?  Already there.

A bit chilly, in this creative cave.  Need sun, like what goes into these bottles.  Should I go into the Room tomorrow?  Questioning Self.  Need wine’s elements around the pen, always.  Re-thinking.  Maybe the pictures’ll provide poise, peace ...

[5/21/11, Saturday]

wine range

Have come to the decision.  Not going into the tasting Room on Sunday.  This author needs two straight days of lab, connection with paper.  Deadline, Sunday night, for a submission quite significant.  Details prolonged.  Will miss the specifics of that stage, though.  Everything from empty glasses, to glasses with lipstick stamps, to the elbow puddles, to newly removed corks.  I’ll be fine with the pages, the saved images.

The beats put me, my stabilized instability, into a Wine Lounge’s cushion.  Comfortable.  Precisely what’s required, desired, after a week like the one past.  Tomorrow night’s pour, a blend.  Appropriate, as this book is such, with its hazardous turns and turbulent melodies mold me.  And readers, hopefully.

Tranquility about me.  Malbec, poetry.  The vineyards, layering in lusciousness.  Lovely.  This morning, so tempted to pull over, push the camera’s button.  Could wake early in the morrow’s blossom, charge the camera tonight.  You know what, I should, the Mendoza pour urges with its rarefied surges.  Oenological onomatopoeia, true grape fluidity.  The bottles on my desk: an ’07 Meritage, a ’93 SoCo Cab, which I think I’ve written on prior.  One to be deployed this weekend.  Saturday, a wine writing mission, but to where?  Wine, meant 2B mystery.  Have to get ready for rest, in clock’s near, even if I want to just type into distant evolves.  Will just enjoy what the glass gifts.

[5/19/11, Thursday]

vinoLit, 5/16/11

Lot of discovery in the wine world for me, of late.  New wines, incredible people.  Possibilities.  As I’ve always stated for my record, in these writings, wine is occasion.  It’s travel, it’s transcendence.  It’s growth.  Curiosity, uncaged.  More reflective tonight than I usually am after a podcast.  Maybe it’s the rain.  Or maybe I’m just glad the awkwardness of being in front of the lens is finally over.  Either way, I’m thinking, about all facets wine, sipping and scribbling.  Ceja, still in the glass.  Tastes so much more ghostly after having time to decide its approach to palate.  Multi-layered mystery.  Easily one of the best representations I’ve tasted of the classic Rhône in months, if not over a year.  Sip, sip ...

Rain Post, In-Wait

Love rain and wine.  Waiting for the podcast to upload.  And I don’t mind, the obnoxious technological stall.  Just enjoying my pours.  Surprised at how forcefully these drops descend.  Great day at NWG today, even though last night’s ’07 Mayo Cabernet followed me into the car, to Highway 12, to the office.  So, I now sip slow.  Pouring for mySelf like I do guests in the tasting Room.  One obnoxious character from yesterday still on the inner chalkboard.  Should I write about her, her entitlement?  Is she worth it?  Would she sell?  Of course she would.  It would, I hope, prompt readers to ask, “How could you be so crabby, ill-mannered, when out tasting wine?  Especially with a view like that?” The tasting Room, even the “VIP” Room, invaluably inexhaustible for these pages.

Petite Syrah Reflection

Syrah, Now Petite ... And in My Mind, Complete

Love this new arranged rearrangement.  Cozy, even more comfortably elegant than before.  And I didn’t think such was plausible, as I was already in love with place.  So was Meliss.  We decided to do a little surveillance, see the new sequence, have a glass of wine, order an app.  She started with a glass of the ever-encircling ’09 Sonoma-Loeb Chardonnay.  I went with the Alexander Valley Cab Franc blend from Farrier, 2007, as per the she jotting our orders.  Unbelievably layered, luscious, my selection, the wine mine.  Had never heard of this label before, so I asked our beatifically convivial hostess Marlaina, who I learned is also the wine navigator at Petite Syrah, about this AV faction.  She informed me of levels all, even bringing the bottle out for me to appreciate.  Had never had a host, hostess, provide such, accommodate quirks like this wine writer’s.

Terrifically taken aback by the decor, acoustics, menu arrangement, and of course the wine, we just conversed on the change.  We both like the shift, thought it Lounge-y, more inviting, with a pervasively tranquil angle.  For our starter, we elected the Fingerling POTATOES: Crisped / Parsley / Cara Cara Aioli.  “How unique, or riveting, could this be?” I asked mySelf.  I thought of this as a bit of a test, for this new concept.  What could they do with Fingerling Potatoes that would rattle a critical palate like mine?  Well, I was jolted jubilantly.  No, I was humbled.  I was silenced.  Put in my place.  Incredible texture, flavor coherence, plate presentation.  And the aioli, a dipping narcotic, believe me.  A bonus, it paired quite well with my ’07.

Still in love with this spot on Santa Rosa’s 5th Avenue.  Further infatuated.  Next time we’re back, I’ll be getting another deluge of that Farrier, and the Hanger Steak that I saw the couple to the right of us enjoying.  Encompassingly, expectations trumped.  Glad Syrah went Petite.  As my adoration of this delicious structure, now on imagination repeat.  Another wine location for Mellis, mySelf.  Sipping, thinking about sipping there.

So what’s the tasting Room delivering for this wine scribe, today?  Need new characters, even though sometimes I think I’ve seen everything.  Need to make a list of visitors’ origins, to start.  This rain should provide some valuable camera snaps.  Can hear it now, taunting me through an exhausted ceiling.  Now, 9:26a.  Wine Lounge beats paired with early rain.  Perfect for Literary ignition, creative wine visionary cognition.

Part of me wants to stay home.  The other knows it’s better if I’m in the tasting Room.  For the work.  For the work, that being the BOOK.  The rain, escalating in passion.  Why does rain couple so optimally with WINE thoughts, the succeeding writing?

[5/15/11, Sunday]