KEEPING UP

Richard has threatened to excommunicate me from the blogging community if I don't post a bit more often. Autocratic I know, but he is a schoolteacher no matter how much he tries to be cool as a musician.I've been hellishly busy at work and at work recently and at home have had family stuff to attend to including my niece's wedding. Angela was married at Soljan's winery last Friday and it was a great event (Thanks Tony Soljan). The venue, setting, food and wine were all spot on.

THE ART OF NOISE

I went to see the Jeff Beck concert last night. It was a great experience of the art of Beck, milking impressive sounds from his guitar in a refreshing jazzy setting.
Many of the pieces however were spoiled by the noise emanating from the (celebrated?) drummer. He was OK when he kept it to a minimum but when he (the drummer) let rip it bloody hurt. I heard on the radio that Japanese whalers are using sound guns called LRADs, which stands for Long Range Acoustic Device. It’s said to cause “nausea, panic and ear damage.” They should put Beck's drummer on their ships - he would drive away all self respecting environmentalists. At times the sound was palpable - I could feel it in my chest.
The Beck group weren't sexy in the way that the Cohen ensemble were (apart from the Bass player (female - there's something inherently sexy about female bass players). Actually she was bloody good and apart from the overbearing drumming and some messy amp feedback her sounds came through pretty good. I understand that she plays with Chick Corea.
Before the concert we met at Starks wine-bar in the Civic Theatre building. This continues to be good and is a little oasis in an otherwise crappy area offering little beyond Irish pubs, noodle bars, takeaway outlets and convenience stores.
I had Waipara Hills Riesling 2007 -bloody good example of the varietal from Waipara obviously. I believe that the most interesting Rieslings and Pinot Noirs come from Waipara (and have done so for over 20 years).
I only have one gripe - they, like most other bars, have good wines on the list (blackboard menu)that are by the bottle only. Why don't they pour them by the glass?. The profit they will make and the consumer interest they will generate would more than off-set any wastage they might incur.

DO YA THINK I'M SEXY?

Well, Rod Stewart did - someone should have told him he was dreaming.
There's something a bit off-putting about ageing rock stars, film stars, businessmen and politicians trying to look sexy and cool.
Last night I saw Leonard Cohen and his supporting musicians and it was the sexiest show I've ever seen.
Cohen is 75 years old. I loved my Dad who died at 80 but I never saw him as sexy.
Cohen and the beautifully balanced, silky smooth and honey sweet music from and behind him was very sexy. Right from the beginning the warm sound, underpinned by some superb bass lines (yes Bass!)and structural percussion created a platform for the other great musicians to (in an understated way) put in highlights.
Once again I thought it was sexy and some of the geezers up on stage were even older than me.
This show was a classic and I hope that a really good DVD comes from the tour. It was possibly the best I've ever seen.

The wine? Really, the music was so great that who cared about the wine. just as well I guess as the offerings at the Vector Arena are very disappointing. It is a Fosters contract so punters have to drink Carlton beers and Matua and Shingle Peak wines. Nothing wrong with Matua top wines but these are not on offer. (Aotea Centre have a Pernod Ricard contract and they offer some of the top Montana wines).We had Shingle Peak Chardonnay which was overpriced and ordinary.

CHAMPAGNE ON A STICK

We had Lynn's birthday bash last night. We drank mostly Champagne and the majority of that from magnums. In our enthusiastic imbibing of Lanson Black Label NV Brut (with one magnum of 1988 vintage) we forgot about the magnum of 1979 vintage Lanson that had been put in the freezer to rapidly chill (sacrilege I know but needs must). This morning, of course, we discovered it had burst (see pic). The frozen sorbet was a very good 'hair of the dog'.
I was reminded of another time when I had seen 'burst' Champagne. This was a container load (about 750 dozen) that in transit some idiot had plugged in the freezing apparatus so that when it arrived and we opened the container doors out spilled broken cases and burst bottles of lovely NV, Vintage and Rose Champagne - all frozen. The whole lot had to be destroyed.

PROSTATE OR PROSTRATE?

Richard (of RBB) is anticipating receiving lots of gifts of Nestle Scorched Almonds for Christmas (Oh the big spenders in Nuova Lazio!)
Here is a suggestion of a wine match for them.

Artisan Riverstone Merlot 2000
Amazingly intense fruit with good solid tannins and firm acidity. Ripe black fruit characters, chocolate and coffee come together with cedar and cigar box. The finish is long and lingering.

This was a review from Tiz Wine.

The reason for this suggestion is because of a USA study that suggested that red wine, almonds, coffee, and certain fruits and nuts rich in a nutrient called boron may help stave off prostate cancer. While researchers are not sure exactly how boron lowers risk for prostate cancer, the new study showed that men who consumed the greatest amount of boron were 64% less likely to develop prostate cancer, when compared with men who consumed the least amount of boron in the study.

He could of course, if staving off prostate cancer is more important than the wine and food matching, go to a Caltex service station and fill up on petrol with boron in it.

The more Merlot he drinks with the almonds may make him less susceptible to prostate troubles but will increase his prostrate potential.

SLIPPERY WINE

Years ago when I was test driving a car (the Rover 620ti I still drive) the car salesman described the car as 'slippery' meaning that it was deceptively fast being conservative looking but with a real kick beneath the bonnet.
Last night I drank a 'slippery' wine - St Clair Vicar's Choice 2007 Pinot Noir. This was on sale at Countdown for about $12 (very good price for Pinot Noir) so I bought it to go with my BBQ meal. As 'Her Indoors' was out I sipped away at this while putting up some Christmas lights on the deck and listening to old Rolling Stones albums (Mick Taylor's guitar and Bobby Keys sax on 'Can't you hear me knocking' is still as good as ever). Even before my food was ready I had drunk three quarters of the bottle without realising it and finished the rest with the meal (felt a bit seedy at the gym this morning). The wine is fairly simple in a good way, being non-complicated. The fruit is juicy and delicious and the wine just slips down. This is a Pinot Noir or a red wine for people who claim to not like either. I'm going to buy some more before the Wine Sale ends.

CHRISTMAS? BAH HUMBUG!

A lot of wine is drunk during the Christmas period as is a lot of other forms of alcohol. Pre-Christmas parties wouldn't be what they are without the accounts women drinking too much sparkling wine and the music teachers too much Chardonnay. The problem is though, that in New Zealand when the weather gets warmer (indeed hot as it has been on the last two weekends), wine is not really the best drink of choice.
Who wants to drink a lovely big Chardonnay, rich Viognier, any form of red etc. when most of the parties are out of doors afternoon or early evening scenarios. Best choice is very chilled sparkling wine or lower alcohol Rieslings. Even current vintage Roses are getting a bit tired 9 months after vintage. There will be plenty of Christmas (before and after) wine sales though so I recommend taking advantage of these, buying in quantity the best keeping wines at best deals and storing them away for the following year.