Easily, Halloween has always been my favorite holiday.
I think that part of it is because it’s so close to my birthday. Imagine, as a kid, how awesome your birthday was… feeling like you’re the most important person on the planet… knowing that you could do or eat whatever you wanted… It was your day.
Some of my favorite memories, growing up, were centered around my birthday. Having it so close to Halloween, many of these memories involved the sights and sounds of the season…
The heat of the Summer giving way to the cool winds of Fall…
The turning of the leaves from green, to yellow, to orange, to red, to brown…
The decorations…
Indian corn, gourds, and pumpkins…
Front lawns converted into grave yards…
Garages becoming haunted mazes…
It all meant the same thing to me…
My birthday was coming up!
That… and so was Halloween… my favorite holiday.
Remember how awesome Halloween was when you were in elementary school? Everyone showed up dressed in their costumes… Everyone. The more unique… the more strange… the better. The first ten minutes of class were spent walking around and figuring out what everyone was dressed up as.
The teacher would give you activities that vaguely resembled lessons…
She would read you a “scary” story…
You would count how much candy corn was in a jar for math…
As an art project, you would wrap a white napkin over a Tootsie Roll Pop and draw a face on it to make a ghost…
On the real… the “lessons” were just a way to kill time before the big Halloween parade. You remember the parade… It would start when one class would begin to walk through another… That class would follow the original class, and they would walk through the next class… The next thing you knew, every class was now parading as a giant snake throughout the entire school. As a result, you got a chance to see EVERYBODY’S costumes.
Upon the parade’s conclusion, everyone would go back to their classrooms and have a Halloween party…
Candy…
Music…
Candy…
A movie…
And hella more candy!
Once school was over, there was just one more thing on your mind…
Trick-or-Treating!
How magical is the idea of trick-or-treating? It’s amazing, right? You, and a group of friends, walk up to a stranger’s door and ring the bell. When they answer, you shout at them, “Tick or treat!” And they give you candy. It’s pretty awesome.
Now, trick-or-treating definitely changes as you get older…
When you’re in elementary school, your folks will take you out for about a half hour. As soon as your little plastic pumpkin-shaped bucket is full, you’re done. Your parents will take you home, inspect your candy, and eventually let you eat your earnings…
As you get to the latter years of elementary school, and the early years of junior high, trick-or-treating begins to change… Your folks begin to put a little more trust in you… You head out with a big group of friends. You’ve graduated from pumpkin buckets to pillow cases. You’re not just gonna go out for 30 minutes… You’ve got hours! The goal is now simple… Collect as much candy as you can.
If you think about it, trick-or-treating is a lesson in capitalism. Candy is the currency, those houses are your customers, and your costume is your sales pitch. At the end of the night, it’s those that put in the hard work… it’s those that pound the pavement… it’s those that out-hustle… Those are the ones who bring home the most candy.
There’s this weird thing that happens as you get into high school… As you continue to trick-or-treat, many of your peers begin to drop off. Maybe they don’t think it’s cool… Maybe someone told them they were too old (and they believed it)… Maybe they don’t want to hustle… Whatever the case may be, when you take a moment to look around… People stop trick-or-treating.
Or as the Goodie Mob would say…
“People don’t dance no mo. All they do is dis.”
This idea was never more apparent to me then when I was a sophomore in high school. The year was 1994…
Back in the day, on Halloween, we used to roll 10 kids deep… but sophomore year was different… As Halloween came around, most of my friends did not want to trick-or-treat. Instead of the usual 10, our group had narrowed down to three…
Just three…
Zach DeLawyer, Morgan Lumber, and yours truly.
In planning out or trick-or-treating route, we quickly realized the advantage of having a smaller group… Having fewer people with us meant that we could move more quickly from one house to the next. We realized that we would be more efficient. We could hit more houses in less time. What we had in our small group was opportunity…
We had an opportunity to do something that had never been done before…
We were going to hit every single house in our small town of Ben Lomond in a single night!
Every.
Single.
House.
Okay… Not every house, but a whole lot of ’em. Here was the plan…
Zach lived on one end of Ben Lomond, and I lived on the other. At the end of the school day, I would ride the bus over to Zach’s house to meet both him and Morgan. We would begin trick-or-treating there, and work our way over to my house (on the other end of town). My dad would then drive Morgan and Zach back home.
The only thing left was execution. And THAT is when things got interesting…
We began trick-or-treating around 4:30pm. Now, I know that many folks would call that too early, but when you’re planning to go to every house in the town (or at least a lot of them) you cannot wait. At first, there were a few houses that would not answer the door, or were not ready to accommodate trick-or-treaters… But most of the folks were very nice, and were excited to hear of our plan.
About an hour into our mission, the streets began to fill up with packs of younger kids screaming as they bounced from one house to the next.
As night began to fall, more and more ghouls, goblins, and ghosts emptied into the streets. We would come across groups of kids our age who wanted to stop and hang out with us, but we could not be bothered…
We were on a mission!
For those that didn’t look at the map (How dare you?!?!), the complete trip consisted of an ominous 6.66 miles with an elevation gain of 397 ft. With each house, and each contribution of candy, our pillow cases got heavier and heavier. It got to a point were we were literally dragging our pillow cases behind us. The entire trip took about 5 hours. This was not an easy task for a group of 15 and 16 year-olds.
But, sure enough, we did it!
We hit the last house on our map at 9:30pm (What? Too late? Don’t judge us!). As we hit the straight-away on Glen Arbor Road, the joy of a hard day’s (night’s) work was about to pay off. My house was half a mile away…
All we had to do was get home…
That’s all we had to do…
But then, it happened…
As far as roads go in a small mountain town like Ben Lomond, Glen Arbor is a busy one. About once every minute, a car would come racing by us. On a quiet night, the sound of a car coming is something you get used to. A low moan, transitions to a high purr as the car flies by at 40 miles an hour. They vary slightly, based on the size of the car, but the sounds are usually quite similar…
So when a low and slow rumble starts to creep up behind you, you notice… And we did.
We turned our heads to find a 1975 VW van passing us at about 10 miles per hour. As the van pulled even with us, we saw heads in the van turn… and the eyes attached to them staring us down.
There was a bus stop about 30 yards ahead of us. The van pulled over right there.
What were we supposed to do?
We were almost home. The only thing between my house and us was this van. We weren’t going to hike 6 miles back to Zach’s house.
We decided to keep walking toward the van.
And then, it happened…
The doors of the van flew open, and out jumped five dudes.
Five seniors from our high school.
Five football players.
My heart sank.
Four of them hung back, while one of the young men approached us.
“Give us your candy,” he muttered calmly in our direction…
Now, in times of stress our body responds. It starts when our adrenal glands release a hormone called adrenaline. The hormone causes our heart rate to speed up and our blood vessels to constrict. That, coupled with the instantaneous release of glucose into our blood stream, contributes to our fight-or-flight response. As a defense mechanism, we will either fight or we will flee. I am always more inclined to do the latter…
“Give us your candy!” he repeated.
I grabbed tight to my bag of candy and began to cautiously step backwards.
Morgan stood still.
But Zach…
Zach had a different response…
“I ain’t giving you my f-ing candy!” he yelled back at the football player.
“That’s a shame,” the football player responded, “I guess I’m just gonna have to take it!” He grabbed on to one end of Zach’s pillow case, but Zach would not let go. The two of them began to play tug-o-war with the candy in the middle of the street.
Several cars drove by us, but not a single one stopped to help.
After about a minute, I looked over at Morgan (who had been a statue up to this point). His face began to change. Zach and Morgan, though not related by blood, share a mutual cousin. They had been the best of friends almost their entire life. They were as close as brothers. Morgan’s momentarily frozen face began to change to one of anger. I could see the fire inside him beginning to build.
In a moment, I watched Morgan drop his candy. He cocked back his right fist, and began to run toward the football player who was tugging on Zach’s candy. With a high-pitched scream, he jumped into the air and punched the dude in the back of the head.
The football player immediately let go of Zach, and turned toward Morgan. He grabbed Morgan by the collar and began to shake him. In one motion, the football player picked up Morgan’s 120 pound body and threw him into a bush. He then grabbed Morgan’s candy, jumped back into the van with his friends, and took off…
We were almost home…
We almost made it…
But there we stood…
We were shaken…
We were defeated…
At the end of the day, you have to know that our mission was not about the candy. Zach and I still had ours, and of course we shared what we had with Morgan. It was about the journey. We had made a plan. We put in the hours. And we did what we set out to do. In the face of our peers who had said that we were too old to trick-or-treat, we were gonna show them that we were not. This was our night to shine…
In an instant…
In one action…
Those bastards took our Halloween from us.
They took our innocence.
Living in a small town, word gets around fast. The next day at school, we didn’t have to tell anyone what had happened to us… They already knew. We didn’t expect any sympathy from anyone. And sure enough, we did not get any.
A lot of our peers reacted to the story with laughter. Some even had the balls to tell us that we deserved it, since we were too old to be trick-or-treating in the first place. I don’t think any of them would be laughing as much if they realized what was going to happen the following year…
Again, Ben Lomond is a small town. It was not just students at the local high school who knew what happened… Parents heard of it too… Parents of younger children… Parents who were now afraid to let their kids trick-or-treat.
The next year, when we were Juniors, nobody trick-or-treated. Not just me, or Zach, or Morgan…
Nobody trick-or-treated in Ben Lomond in 1995…
Okay…
Maybe a few people did, but Halloween was not the same that year. Those guys that jumped us for our candy did not just ruin our Halloween. They ruined it for an entire community.
The idea of not celebrating Halloween (my favorite holiday) just made me sick. Something had to change. So when we were seniors (in the Fall of 1996), we committed to make that change…
In the Fall of 1996, we made it happen…
When you become a senior in high school, you begin to gain perspective. You understand that for some of your classmates (many of whom you’ve known since you were in kindergarten), senior year is the last time you will see some of them… for the rest of your life. You know that this prom and this homecoming will be your last. And as for Halloween and trick-or-treating, you know that after your senior year it will never be the same.
It all started with Morgan Lumber…
He was the one who was the most affected by the events of that faitful Halloween night. He was the one who got tossed in a bush and lost his candy. While eating lunch, he brought it up…
“Who’s trick-or-treating with me this year?”
That one question gave us licence to jump on board. Zach was all in, and so was I.
I fired up the computer, and used this brand new site on the internet called google to print out a map of our route. That Halloween, at school, I gave copies to Zach, Morgan, and several other friends in an attempt to fire people up about trick-or-treating.
As stoked as we were on Halloween this year, other folks had different responses…
“I’m too old for trick-or-treating.”
“Why would I trick-or-treat, when I can go to a party?”
It was just more of the same stuff from two years prior.
A small group of friends had a different response all together…
My buddies Nick TheDrummer, JR FromGirls, A Boy Named Sue, and Morgan DaChef got a hold of our map, and decided to have a little fun.
“Thanks for the map,” JR smirked, “We’re gonna be looking for you tonight. And when we find you, we’re gonna jack you for your candy.”
With that threat, I looked JR in the eyes and responded, “You know where to find us. Bring it, bitch!”
That night, just as in the past, we got started early. We came prepared with two pillow cases each, and a map of our route. But that Halloween, we weren’t just getting ready to trick-or-treat…
WE WERE READY TO FIGHT!
We each grabbed two long tube socks. In the bottom of each sock, we carefully placed one raw egg.
Maybe they would find us…
Maybe they wouldn’t…
Maybe they would take our candy from us…
But one thing was sure…
If they were getting our candy, they were gonna get wet.
A couple of hours had gone by in our trick-or-treating mission. Our pillow cases were starting to fill up. And with our senior-sized bodies, they didn’t seem as heavy as they did in years past. We had almost forgotten about the threats of our peers…
But then, it happened…
The sound was that of a car horn repeatedly being honked. We looked back to see a brown 1982 Toyota Tercel hatchback creeping up along side of us. It was Nick’s car. A car I had known all to well. All of the windows were rolled down, and a head peaked out of the passenger side. It was JR.
“We’re coming to get you, bitches!” he threatened.
As they slowly continued down the road, Zach was the first to respond. “Oh Hell nah!” he exclaimed as he reached into one of his tube socks. He pulled out an egg and fired it at Nicks car.
SPLAT!
It was a direct hit on Nick’s rear windshield.
Immediately, Nick slammed on his brakes and jumped out of his car. “What the f–k, bro!?!?” he yelled out as he raised his arms up.
“What are you gonna do?” Morgan Lumber yelled back.
“You’ll see!” Nick responded as he jumped back into his car and peeled out.
What were they planning?
We just shrugged it off, and continued trick-or-treating…
About a half an hour later, we had reached a stretch of road that didn’t have many houses.
It was dark.
It was flat.
It was quiet.
As we turned a corner we saw Nick’s car parked on the side of the road.
We approached with caution.
We approached prepared.
I quickly hid my pillow case of candy behind a bush. I then reached back into my belt loops and pulled out my egg-filled tube socks. Morgan and Zach pulled out their tube socks as well…
When we were about 20 feet from the car, the doors flew open and Nick, JR, Sue, and Morgan D. stepped out.
“Give us your candy!” they all yelled in unison.
Zach raised the middle finger of his free had and shouted back, “Go f–k yourself!”
“Let’s get ’em!” Morgan DaChef called out as he charged straight for me.
Now…
You should know that Morgan DaChef and I had a bit of an awkward history. He, along with Nick and JR, was in a band with me for about a year. He was a really fun guy to hang out with. He also hated me for a quite some time… and for good reason. The summer before, I had started dating his ex-girlfriend of about 4 years. It was an awful… awful thing that I did to a friend. It was a stupid thing to do, and I will forever be sorry.
Back to the story…
So Morgan D. came charging right at me. Though he was bigger than me, I stayed calm. My candy was hidden, and I had a plan.
When he was about 10 feet away from me, I held my egg-filled tube socks out to my sides and began to swing them like nunchakus. When he saw me swinging something in the dark, Morgan began to slow-up. Before he could fully react to what was happening, I hit him with the eggs.
YAP!
YAP!
I caught him on the top of the head with the left, then the right.
Now look… It was dark out. He didn’t know what was in those socks. For all he knew, they could have been rocks. The only thing that he was certain of was that he got hit with something… That, and now something was oozing down his face… For all he knew, it could have been blood (not egg).
Morgan DaChef grabbed his head and yelled, “What the f–k did you just do, Jeff?!?!” In a rage he picked me up over his head, and body slammed me on a sand dune. He then grabbed his head again and ran off toward the car, shouting to JR and Sue, “I’m bleeding!”
Slowly getting back to my feet, I looked over at Zach. He was on the ground, wrestling for his candy with Nick.
From out of nowhere, I then saw Morgan Lumber run up and smash two eggs on the back of Nick’s head.
YAP!
YAP!
Nick let go of the bag and clutched his head just long enough for Zach to roll back to his feet. With an upper-cutting motion, Zach delivered the final blow to Nick’s chest.
YAP!
Crying, Nick ran back to his car where everyone else was waiting, and jumped in.
As they drove off, an arm stretched out of each window of the Toyota Tercel… each with a middle finger raised high.
In return, each of us grabbed our pillow cases of candy and lifted them high above our heads as symbols of victory.
We did it!
We won!
We avenged our Halloween nightmare of two years past!
The rest of the night was a blast. We were amped up. We were happy.
We brought Halloween back to Ben Lomond!
We
Did
It!
When I got home that night, I threw my candy on the scale…
TEN POUNDS!
I was shocked!
We did it!
You know…
Back then, I was hella stoked to have that much candy at once.
Today?
I wouldn’t know what to do with it.
I’m not really a huge candy guy,
BUT
I am a big wine guy…
Today, a lot of wineries have gotten into doing candy and wine pairings around Halloween time.
This past Saturday, Kara and I decided to stop by a few places to see what they had.
When we showed up at Kirigin, we started with a glass of sparkling wine to cleanse the palate.
The first pairing was Chardonnay with Kit Kat. The wafer of the Kit Kat brought out the butteriness of the Chardonnay.
Up next... Pinot Noir with Whoppers. The light milk chocolate of the whopper was a good choice.
With the Zinfandel, we had Reese's Peanut Butter Cups. Jammy Zin + Peanut Butter Cups = Liquid PB&J
Hershey's Kisses with Syrah was a nice one. It was kind of refreshing to have milk chocolate (instead of dark) with a wine.
Before leaving Kirigin, you have to try their Vino de Mocca. It's a fortified dessert wine, made with grapes, oranges, chocolate and coffee. I would be stoked to get that in my pillow case when I trick-or-treat this year.
On the way back toward Morgan Hill, we stopped by Clos La Chance in San Martin…
I'm liking this wine flight!
Up first... Viognier and Candy Corn Pumpkin. Not a good choice. The butteriness of the Candy Pumpkin makes the Viognier taste like a crappy Chardonnay.
Now the Hershey's Bar with Almonds and the Santa Cruz Mountains Chardonnay was rad!
Let me just say that I've never had a Take 5 before I did this pairing... Now I'm obsessed! Pretzels. Chocolate. Caramel. Peanuts. Peanut Butter. Legit! Oh... and the SCM Pinot Noir was good too.
Estate Syrah and Snickers really satisfies.
The final pairing of the day was a Kit Kat and a Meritage. Not bad, though I think Kirigin had it right by pairing Kit Kat with a Chardonnay.
Well…
There you have it!
Here’s hoping that your Halloween is filled with GOODIES… and you don’t get MOBBED!
Yesterday, Kara and I had a hankerin’ for some fish.
I thought it would be really neat to prepare it two ways, so I decided to make a Tilapia Ceviche and some Barbecued Shrimp.
Before heading out to get some groceries, I opened up Kevin Zraly’s wine book to get an idea for what types of wine go well with seafood. After flipping through his chapter on the white wines of France, I left for the store with the intention of getting either a Loire Valley white (like Sancerre or Muscadet) or a white Burgundy (Chablis perhaps).
While at Trader Joe’s, I spotted this gem…
Chateau Des Cleons 2010 Muscadet Sevre Et Maine
The Muscadet region is on the Eastern end of the Loire Valley of France where the Loire River meets the Atlantic Ocean. These wines are made from 100% Melon de Bourgogne grapes. They should always be dry and light in style. See how it says “Sur Lie” on the label? That means that it was fermented on its skins (not really… see the comments below), so it should have a bit more body than a Muscadet that does not read as such. The book says that Muscadet is good with shellfish and fishfish, so I was more than happy to pick this bad boy up for only $6.99.
I’ll get back to the wine in a bit.
But first…
The food!
Here’s how I make my Tilapia Ceviche…
Cube up about a pound of fresh Tilapia and throw it in a non-reactive bowl.
The key to Ceviche is to layer the flavors.
Here’s a fun game…
Take a sip of wine for each new layer.
Dice up half a large red onion and throw it on top of the fish.
Mince up one clove of garlic and throw it on the onion.
I added a small green bell pepper from my garden. Diced, of course.
Next I put in one quarter of a jumbo yellow bell pepper that Kara picked up from the farmers' market.
Here, I piled in a third of a large cucumber which was cut into little pizza wedges. So whimsical!
Add one small diced avocado. California love!
Open up a small can of diced chillies and dump it on top.
Chop up some cilantro. Add it in with some salt n' peppa. Stop to bust a move while humming the music to "Push it!".
The secret ingredient is carne asada seasoning. Shhhhhhhhh!!!!! Don't tell anybody.
Zest one lime over the top. Squeeze in the juice of three limes. The acid from the lime juice will "cook" the fish.
Stir, but do not mush it. Cover with plastic wrap and throw it in the fridge for a few hours.
While the Ceviche is marinating, we move on to the Shrimp…
These are large peeled shrimp from the seafood counter at Safeway. I marinated the pound of shrimp in a shallow glass dish with olive oil, salt n' peppa, fresh rosemary and thyme from the garden, and the juice of one lime for about 20 minutes.
While the shrimp is marinating in the fridge, preheat the grill with the burners on high. After ten minutes, set to medium indirect heat.
Now…
Arrange the shrimp on pre-soaked bamboo skewers, making sure that all the shrimp are facing the same direction.
Grill the shrimp for 3 minutes a side on indirect heat with the lid closed. Be sure to baste the shrimp in the marinade.
Color: A nice straw yellow. I was pleasantly surprised by a tiny bit of frizzante action.
Nose: Lemon/lime spritzer with a touch of grass and minerality. Nice.
Taste: I see now why this wine is recommended for lighter fare. It is dominated by its acidity, which pairs well with food. There is a nice floral component, mouth cleansing lime, and a dancing minerality. There is a nice touch of spice. The skins give it a medium to light body. Very cool.
Score: All I’m thinking about this wine is how clean it was. It was fresh. It was vibrant. Every sip made me thirst for another. This wine is a solid 88. Way to go, Chateau Des Cleons!
Back to the food…
Duo of Seafood: Grilled Shrimp and Tilapia Ceviche a la Jeffrey w/ a light Spinach and Shallot Salad
The spinach and shallot salad was prepared by Kara. A very clean, palate cleansing bite.
The ceviche was very fresh, with a perfect balance between the acidity of the lime and the fattiness of the tilapia.
But the shrimp…
The shrimp…
The SHRIMP was Tha BOMB!
Juicy. Rich. The flesh just pops when you bite into it.
Amazing!
And with the wine?
Hella Dope!
The clean flavors of the wine just rounded out the fatty richness of the seafood.
But wait!
There’s more!
Morgan Hill Cellars Blackberry Wine with a long-lost friend.
Kara and I have been sitting on this Blackberry Wine from Morgan Hill Cellars for about a year.
I’ve been dying for some vanilla ice cream for the last few weeks.
So…
Vanilla Ice Cream with Blackberry Wine... I got my just deserts.
De-Lish!
Stay Rad,
Jeff
PS – If you ever make ceviche, do yourself a favor… After you serve the ceviche, save the leftover juice from the bowl you marinated the fish in. Peruvians refer to it as Leche de Tigre, and it is known to be a cure for hangovers. I just drink it ’cause it’s awesome!
If I would have known my meal would be featured on Stay Rad, I would have picked more handsome looking menu. I demand you come back soon for another night of vegetarian goodness. Don’t blow this by not bringing more wine.
Thanks,
Dave Thevegetarian
PS – Seriously. Bring more wine. I’m running low.”
Later that day, Dave texted a picture of grilled halloumi to me, via my wife (I don’t own a cell phone), with the message, “Come on over… and bring the wine.”
Never having been one to back down from a challenge, I yanked two random (yet related) bottles of wine from the rack, grabbed Kara by the hand, jumped in the car, and shouted, “It’s on!”
Kara began to shake her head. “Again?!?!”
Once we arrived at the House of Thevegetarian, I reached into my fanny pack to see which wines I had picked…
A Cabernet Sauvignon/Syrah and a Syrah. Who'd a thunk it?
Since there was no halloumi left, we jumped right into the wine.
I first started following this Chilean blend a few months back when I saw that Jay Miller of the Wine Advocate gave this wine a 90. When I saw that it was $9.99 at BevMo, I picked up a bottle and really liked it. The next week, BevMo started their 5 Cent Sale. I was stoked to see that it was on the list of 5 cent wines, until I saw that they jacked up the price of it to 17 dollars! Since I liked the wine, I still decided to pick it up with a savings of $1.50 per bottle (when you buy two). What’s crazy is that now that the 5 Cent Sale is over, BevMo lists the regular price of the wine at 17 dollars, but sells it for $11.38 with your BevMo Club Card. Meanwhile, Wine Library lists the regular price as $12.98, but sells it for $9.99. If I lived in New Jersey, or if I had a free shipping coupon, I’d hit up the Wine Library for this one.
Aside from the weird pricing thing with the Montgras, there is also a question about the blend. I could have sworn that when we checked the back of the label, it said it was 70% Cabernet Sauvignon and 30% Syrah. Jay Miller refers to it as a 50/50 blend, as do all of the websites that quote Jay Miller’s rating. The Montgras website says it’s 60% Cab and 40% Syrah, so I should go with that, but remind me to have Dave check his recycling bin. As Tom Cruise once said to Jack Nicholson, “I want the truth!”
Now remember… I’ve had this wine before, but have never scored it.
Here’s the breakdown…
Color: Reddish purple.
Nose: Chalk (I love chalk!). Plum. Raspberry. Tobacco. I really loved the bouquet.
Taste: There is an instant BIG plum attack, followed by tobacco and green bell pepper. The one drawback was the tannins. They were HARSH! I love mine big and round. Not harsh. I made a note that it would probably be best served after some decanting or cellaring for a year or two.
Score: I was surprised by the Montgras. Maybe it’s bottle variation. Maybe I’ve become a harsher critic. I just remember liking this wine a whole lot more a few months back. The first time around, I would have said this wine lived up to the hype… But this time, I was kind of disappointed. Don’t get me wrong. The wine has a beautiful nose, and the balance of fruit and vegetal flavors is interesting. The problem is those harsh tannins. I just can’t get over it. At 86 points I cannot justify paying 12 bucks for it.
“Their tasting room is for the birds, but… I already had this Syrah. We may as well try it.”
Here’s what I thought…
Color: Reddish purple. Much like the Montgras.
Nose: Chalk (mmmmmmmm). Plum. Tomato. Nice!
Taste: A very nice combination of dark fruit, chocolate, and bell pepper. The tannins are very soft and round. Good finish.
Score: Believe me, I really wanted to hate this wine. I really did. There was just one problem. The wine was good. You cannot deny how delicious this thing is. I’m giving the wine an 87. The Kendall-Jackson website says current vintage of the wine is $16, but I’m pretty sure I got it for around $12 at Safeway. If you are in a pinch, and looking for a nice Syrah, you may want to give the Kendall-Jackson a shot.
The Thevegetarians had opened up some nice wines as well. I really liked their wines, but I promised not to score them.
I can respect their wishes, but…
They did give us a tomato from their garden before we left…
Tomato del Vegetarian
Look… I said I wouldn’t score the wine, but I didn’t make any promises about tomatoes.
Lucky for me, I just found a ripe tomato in my back yard this morning…
A Rad Tomato
So I decided to do a little head-to-head tomato challenge today…
Who will win? Who gets cut?
Tomato del Vegetarian:
Looks: A light brick-red color. This tomato was the bigger of the two. It was about the size of a racquet ball. There was a low flesh/seed ratio with lots of juice-filled seed-pocket space.
Bite: The membrane was a little bit chewy, but not unforgivably so.
Flavor: Sweet, but with a green sensibility.
Score: This tomato was very nice. Considering his inability to build a succesful fantasy baseball team, I was surprised that Dave was able to produce such a good tomato. This tomato would taste great sliced up on a turkey sandwich. I give it two wedges and a stem.
Not bad.
A Rad Tomato:
Looks: A much darker red. Let’s call it ruby. My tomato was about the size of a large ping-pong ball. With a much higher flesh/seed ratio, this tomato had much smaller seed pockets and a meatier flesh.
Bite: There was a nice snap to the membrane, and the flesh was the perfect blend of meaty and juicy.
Flavor: Sweet and dark tomato flavor. Much sweeter than the first one. It had almost a salsa-esque flavor to it.
Score: With these two tomatoes, it’s all about preference. I think the sweetness and texture allows this tomato to stand on its own. I’d love to have this one quartered with a plate of charcuterie. I give it three solid wedges.
The winner!
It looks like when it comes to tomatoes, the Rad ones always come out on top…
The cream always rises...
And just so you know I didn’t pre-plan my victory, I took this picture in the off-chance that Dave’s tomato would have won…
"Eggs" by Jodi Liano. You know what time it is! Yeeeeaaaaaaaaahhhhhhhh Boooooooooyyyyyyyyyeeeeeeee!!!!!!!!!
writing the post about it, and reliving the Hulkster’s Powerful Protein Shake experience was really tough for me. The more I wrote, the sicker I felt. After I published the entry, I avoided eggs for about a week.
Now look…
I’m not one to give up so easily. All I needed was a little BREAK from the EGGS (You like that one?).
A few days ago, I decided to jump back on the egg wagon. Here’s what I made…
Jeff and Kara in a Hole.
I really liked this one. The letters that I cut out of the bread were a little too small. As the egg was frying in the hole, a lot of it piled on top of the bread. This increased the cooking time, and made for a messy presentation… But… It was delicious.
Kara would have liked it to be a little more runny, but I’m beginning to like mine over hard.
This morning, I made this…
Egg, Bacon, and Smoked Mozzarella Panini
Now, in the book, Jodi uses brie, but I had some smoked mozzarella that I wanted to finish off… so I did. I got the ciabatta and bacon from Trader Joe’s. One problem was that the ciabatta loaf was too fat, so the panini could not get as flat as I would have liked. Another issue was the bacon. Trader Joe’s is a nice store. I love it. Their bacon selection, however, is HORRIBLE. I got this crappy turkey bacon that did not get anywhere as crisp as I would have liked. Next time, I’m going to Safeway to get me some real crispy pork action.
By the way, the sandwich was f-ing AWESOME! I can only imagine how good it would have been with better ingredients.
Okay…
So…
Here’s the deal…
Since we returned from Healdsburg, I haven’t tasted any new wines… but I have been reading a lot recently. I wanted to share some of these books with you.
I know. I know. This is a wine blog, so let’s see if we can tie in some wine…
When I was in high school, I was in a punk rock band called The Willies.
I'm the skinny kid, practicing my punk rock jumps with a mic in my hand.
“I know Gary!” I wrote back to Nick. “I’m a huge fan of his video blogs Wine Library TV and Daily Grape. He even follows me on Twitter. I just don’t know if I want to read a book about business.”
“Just read it, dude.”
A few days later, I was kicking it with my buddy Dave Thevegetarian when I meantioned Gary’s book. Dave was all, “I’ve got Crush It right here. You want to borrow it?”
"Crush It!" by Gary Vaynerchuk... and you should too.
I was all like, “Sure.”
The book is a quick 142 page read (including two appendices). It’s all about tapping into things that you are passionate about, creating blogs, and using social media to build your personal brand. This book is very entertaining, and… dare I say it… inspiring. I was just a few weeks into this blog when I read Crush It, and have since been inspired to take on the world. If you like blogs… If you have a Facebook or Twitter account… If you are passionate about anything… You must read this book!
One of the things that Gary preaches in his book is to become an expert on your passion, by reading as much as you can on the topic. So last week, I picked up this…
"Kevin Zraly's Windows on the World Complete Wine Course" next to some spheres inside some cubes.
This well-written 338 page textbook is the number one selling book about wine in the world. Kevin takes the reader through a step-by-step guide on getting to know all the wines on the planet.
Right now, I’m in the middle of Class One: The White Wines of France. I am stoked on the way he presents information in this book. Zraly makes wine a whole lot easier to understand. If you like wine, and want to know more about it… Grab this book!
As interesting as Windows on the World is, I’m realizing how much more I have to learn about the subject of French wine (and wine in general). The good news, according to Zraly, is that the best way to understand wine is to TASTE it.
Looks like someone’s gonna have to make a run to the wine shop and make a raid on the Alsace section. Riesling, Pinot Blanc, Gewürztraminer, and Pinot Gris better watch out… None of them are getting out alive!
Tonight, my wife went out to dinner with a few of her sorority friends from San Jose State. I was invited, but it just seems more like a “girls night” type of thing. I decided to skip it.
Tomorrow, she’s going to Napa with some other friends. Again… it’s a girl thing, so I’m out. Don’t trip, though. Come Sunday, Kara and I will be heading up to Healdsburg for a few days in celebration of our first wedding anniversary. Believe me… I will have my wine time. I will have my food time. I will have my Kara time.
There are three things I must do when Kara is away.
1) I must eat greasy food.
2) I must watch tv that she rather would not.
3) I must open up her wine and have a taste.
So, earlier I made myself a greasy plate of red, white, and blue potato hash (She took the camera with her, so you’ll have to trust that it looked delicious). Right now, I’m watching the Giants beating the Padres 2 to 0. And here’s the wine…
Redtree 2009 Cabernet Sauvignon. When the wife takes the camera, I steal pictures from the interweb.
Kara decided to pick up the Redtree 2009 Cabernet Sauvignon at the BevMo 5 Cent Sale. Cecchetti Wine Company, the producer of this California red wine, gives a suggested retail price of $8 a bottle. BevMo is selling it for $10 during the 5 Cent Sale. My guess is that you would normally be able to get the wine for 6 or 7 bucks (Let’s all check BevMo.com after the sale is over).
Wilfred Wong (the resident wine taster for BevMo) gave the 08 vintage of this wine 88 points. The Wine Enthusiast gives the current vintage an 85, calling it “A great wine to buy by the case for a house red.” The wine maker pitches this screw-top cab as being both fruit-forward and food-friendly (They are also, apparently, fans of alliteration).
On the real, though… We both know you’re reading this to know how I feel about it…
Color: Rose bush red. It is light in color. I can see my fingers through the wine.
Nose: Chalk dust (I do love chalk!), orange peel, cocoa, and a little bit of tomato. Not bad at all.
Taste: There is some fruit at the beginning, but not what you’d expect. It tastes a little like a cranberry, orange, and lime zest cocktail. There is some nice acidity that would go nice with pasta, pizza, and pistachios (I can do it too, Redtree). The only drawback with this wine is that it is extremely thin. There is not much of a backbone at all. I would drink it now if I were to buy it again… I mean… If Kara buys it again.
Score: 83. Pitched as a value red table wine, I can’t see the value in spending any more that $6 a bottle for it. I’ve paid less for better (L’Authentique anyone?). Again… It’s not bad. It just ain’t that great either.
Well, look what happened…
I start writing, and the Giants extend their lead to 4 – 1. I should do this more often.
Did I mention that the wife will be away tomorrow?
Sometimes, you use the word “sometimes” at the beginning of a sentence, to set a mood.
Trader Joe's 2010 Grower's Reserve Zinfandel. Sometimes, you just gotta.
Look. We got this Paso Robles zinfandel on Sunday afternoon for $4.99. Kara asked if she should decant it. I was like, “Sure”. She popped it and poured it into the decanter. Then I looked at my watch.
It was 2 o’clock.
We weren’t planning on having dinner until 5 at the earliest.
Listen. I know that it never hurts to decant a wine. It always helps. Many times I’ll leave a bottle open overnight, and see improvement the next day.
But if you don’t know the wine… It’s structure… How it changes…. If you’re not sure about how it will last… I would never go longer than an hour.
Eventually, all wines will fall apart. The better the wine, the longer it takes for that to happen.
Do you feel me?
After making a T-Joe’s type of dinner, I sat down to try the wine.
BBQ pulled chicken w/ dijon broccoli slaw. Montel Jordan would be all, "Shadadada dap dabadahhhh. This is how we do it!"
Color: This wine was straight purple. When pouring it into the glass, I noticed that it was almost a light pink.
Nose: Dusty strawberries and wood. Hmmmmm.
Taste: Jammy fruit. There were these mouth-coating smooth tannins, a sharp cranberry, and a touch of cherry fruit roll-up. Not bad.
But then…
I started diving into the food…
The dish I made was quite sweat in nature. A Texas style, if you will. After going back to the wine, the sweetness of the BBQ wiped out the jammy fruit. What was left of the wine was this unpleasant acidity. I figured that maybe it was just a bad food pairing, but after the meal, I went back to the wine and all I could taste was that same hollow gross acidity.
Score: I was gonna give it an 86, but had to change it to an 84.
Sometimes, decanting is a good thing.
Sometimes, food and wine go together.
Sometimes, a wine falls apart on you.
Sometimes, food reveals flaws.
Shall we move on?
Today, Kara whipped together a really neat looking and tasting dinner…
Tabouleh cucumber romaine split and a simple salad w/ goat cheese. Pee Wee Herman would be all, "Mmmmmmm. Vegetably."
With it, she served up the Bruzzone 2009 Estate Chardonnay from the Santa Cruz Mountains. This wine was a gift from Thevegetarians for Kara’s birthday, so I didn’t bother looking up the price (that’s rude). I’m sure you can find out how much it was by clicking the link on the wine.
Bruzzone 2009 Estate Chardonnay next to some balls.
Color: Light gold. This wine looks like chardonnay.
Nose: Pear. Apple. Petrol. Toast. Not bad.
Taste: The first thing I noticed was the mouthfeel. This wine is THICK! Very viscous. It’s almost oily. Also… this wine is a spicy oak bomb. There are nice notes of apple and peach. Like the zin from yesterday, I’m also noticing a fruit roll-up flavor in there. There is a little custard on this wine.
This is a BIG chardonnay. Almost too big, but not.
It did not pair well with the tabouleh. I would love to try it with some vanilla ice cream.
Score: I’m not going to give this wine a score, since it was a gift. I did like it, however. If I were going to score it, I’d give it an 87.
At the end of the post, this guy (the winemaker for Chateau Ballan-Larquette) asked me to let him know what I thought about it.
Well…
The other day at BevMo, I was checking out the wines for the 5 Cent Sale (again… a total scam), and I found that they had the 2007 and 2009 vintages of the exact same wine I already had. I decided right then that I had to purchase those other vintages and do a vertical tasting.
The problem is, 3 bottles of wine is just too much for one man to drink alone (1 bottle is too much). So I needed to make an event out of it.
That’s where the Thevegetarians come in.
Dave Thevegetarian has been my best friend ever since we were in third grade. Third grade, man! If you want to figure out how long we’ve been friends, take the age that you are supposed to be when you’re in third grade (I’m too lazy to ask my Kara. She teaches third grade.) and subtract that from 33. That’s about how many years we’ve known each other, or something.
Dave and his wife, Kara Thevegetarian, both happen to be vegetarians, coincidentally. They love throwing dinner parties. I would invite the Thevegetarians over for dinner at my house more often, but I doubt they would eat my Blue Cheese Burgers. They had us over for dinner last Friday.
“You bring the wine,” Dave told me, “and I’ll make some dope food for you, home boy.” In spite of Dave Thevegetarian’s odd choice of words, I pulled my three bottles from the old wine fridge along with a little bubbly, grabbed Kara by the hand, and headed over to the House of Thevegetarian.
“It’s on!” I shouted.
“Oh brother!” Kara responded.
We arrived at 6:30 pm to a table loaded with vegetarian hors d’oeuvres and a cork screw. I opened up the three bottles of Chateau Ballan-Larquette and arranged them thusly…
Chateau Ballan-Larquette 2006, 2007, 2009, and vegetarian goodness.
While waiting for the wine to breathe a little, Kara Thevegetarian poured us each a glass of this…
Clos La Chance 2009 Central Coast Sauvignon Blanc. Why it was kept in the vegetable crisper is beyond me.
I’ve always been a fan of Clos La Chance. So much so, that KaraIsRad and I were married there.
See! I told you!
The Clos La Chance 2009 Central Coast Sauvignon Blanc is a grassy lemon/lime machine. The perfect aperitif on a hot summer day. I’m not giving you a score for this one, ’cause I didn’t take any notes on it. Let me just say that I recommend it.
On to the vertical tasting…
The Cateau Ballan-Larquette is a “value” Bordeaux. The list price for this one is $19.99. At BevMo, you will pay that much for it during the 5 Cent Sale, but when it’s not on “sale” you should be able to get it for about 15 bucks. This wine is 55% Cabernet Sauvignon, 28% Merlot, 17% Cabernet Franc. It spends 12 to 18 months in steel and cement tanks.
Up first…
2006
Color: Ruby red with a little rust.
Nose: Chalk (I love chalk), Cola, Green Bell Pepper.
Taste: This wine is GREEN! Bell peppers for days! There is also a spicy black pepper component. Good acidity. There is a little bit of bacon fat in this one which really brings the whole thing together.
Score: A solid 88. Solid!
How about some food?
Roasted Asparagus Soup by Dave Thevegetarian.
Up next…
2007
Color: Same ruby color as the first. Maybe a little darker.
Nose: Bright Cherry. A little wood shop action too (Strange, since to my knowledge this wine is not oaked).
Taste: Very green with some SHARP tannins. Sour Cherry. Acid. A little rubbery bike tire thing.
Score: I originally gave this one an 87, but after the tasting was completed I gave it a retaste. It just doesn’t hold up to the other two wines. I now give it an 86-.
Note: I bought this wine two weeks ago at the 5 Cent Sale. All of the vintages at Bev Mo were 2009, but I found this one tucked in the bin. At Bev Mo, they display their wines upright at room temperature. There is a strong possibility that this bottle was sitting around the store for two years before I bought it. Not being stored properly, this bottle may not represent the 2007 vintage properly. Two questions: A) Have any of you tried the 2007 Ch. Ballan-Larquette and have notes to share? B) Would any of you ever buy an odd-vintaged wine that was not stored properly?
What? You want more food? Okay…
Stuffed Zucchini Crumble. It tasted WAY better than it looks.
Alright. More wine…
2009
Color: Same as the rest.
Nose: Blueberry. Cocoa. Chalk (I love chalk). I’m looking at my notes from Friday. It says “DOPE!”
Taste: Bell Pepper. There is this sweet lacquered wood taste to it. See that table in the picture above. Imagine taking a bite out of that, but in a good way. There is also a cranberry and white pepper component.
Score: The 09 was my favorite. It edged out the 06 because it was a little more complex. Give it an 89+.
For fun, I also had the other folks rank the wines before I revealed my scores. Here’s what they said…
KaraIsRad: She liked the 07 the best. It was followed closely by the 09 which barely edged out the 06.
Kara Thevegetarian: She also thought the 07 was the best, but she liked the 06 better than the 09.
Dave Thevegetarian: He was very much in my camp, scoring the 09 as the top wine (followed by the 06 and 07).
The takeaway for me was that this is a wine that can be consumed young. If you are going to hold it for a while (I had mine for 3 years), make sure that you store it properly. Put it in a cool place if you do not have a wine fridge, and keep them on their sides. Decanting for 15 minutes to a half and hour is a good idea. The 07 did start tasting off after a few hours, but again… I think it was doomed from the start. I am looking forward to tasting more wines from Ch. Ballan-Larquette.
What? MORE FOOD?!?!?
Baked ziti of smoked mozzarella. Like a circus, this dish was "in tents"!
After the business of the night was done with, we had a really fun time hanging out. We even had a dance off.
Here is what my camera saw…
Sparkling white wine paired with sparkling bon fire.
Emile's California Champagne by Guglielmo.
Croatian Fig Brandy. Yikes!
Good times, but now I’m hungry…
Dave called my bluff and brought me some fruit. What a sweetheart.
Stay Rad 