AINT IT STRANGE - WINE AND MUSIC 2013 #1

I haven't done this for a while (lucky readers) but this evening opened a bottle of wine and put on some music that just matched perfectly so I thought I'd share it.

The wine: Selaks Winemakers Favourite Chardonnay 2011.

The music: Patti Smith Group Radio Ethiopia.

Hello.................hello....................... hello...........................

Anybody there?

OK, who cares if you are or not. I'm enjoying both.

Radio Ethiopia was a 1976 collaboration between these two:

Ivan Kral and Patti Smith

It was the follow-up album to the outstanding 1975 Horses which radically changed my choice of pop/rock music from British R&B and US West Coast to something edgier.

Smith's reading sort of matched my own with her references to poets and writers like Rimbaud, Proust  and Verlaine ( I didn't connect with the American beat poets though like Ferlinghetti and Ginsberg - I thought they were tossers).

Outstanding tracks from this album (to me) are 'Aint it strange', 'Poppies' and 'Pissing in a river'
........ which brings me to the wine ( as I've consumed half of the bottle so ...excuse me for a moment ..................

Selaks Winemakers Favourite 2011 Chardonnay:

is an edgy, well structured and thoroughly thought-out wine. It has great commercial appeal as proven by the fact that supermarkets are brave enough to stock it and promote it even though it is of high quality (they still beat the supplier down on price and promotional support though which is similar to Radio Ethiopia. Stupid critics of the time tried to pan the album as a "sell-ot to commercialism"these idiots were subsequently proven wrong).

This is a classic Hawkes Bay Chardonnay with peach and tropical fruit flavours (from both grapes and yeasts used) and that Hawkes Bay 'edginess' (sorry, I can't explain what that is - listen to Patti Smith and you'll see what I mean). The clever use of oak and retained acidity really stretches the wine out and leaves you feeling refreshed and wanting more.





Patti Smith Group's Radio Ethiopa's signature tune 'Radio Ethiopia' has been criticised as being overdone, overlong and self indulgent with a cacophony of guitars and drums. That may well be but one man's poison etc.

Selaks Winemakers Favourite 2011 Chardonnay's winemaker Brett Fullerton is certainly not overdone, overlong and self indulgent . He is one of this country's best winemakers and is quiet, unassuming and dedicated. He is one of life's heroes having experienced more than his share of tribulations but has just got on with it and rewarded us with great wines.

The connection? Both Smith and Fullerton are craftsmen and artists. You don't produce outstanding art without a proper grounding in the basics of the craft (like Pablo Picasso, Henry Moore, Colin McCahon or Ralph Hotere). Do the apprenticeship and results follow. For me. I look forward to Smith's new releases and, as she has matured and changed, she still delivers. I have followed Fullerton's art and craft as well and enjoy what he delivers.