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Bods, Masi - I was in Manila last November and brought a couple of bottles. Spent time with Storm but didn’t get a chance to open the wine, so get hold of him and go drink!

Storm dpent a vouple of days with us. Went to the Napa Valley yesterday and took him and another couple to Inglenook for tasting. We got lucky - great host who took us on a tour og the vineyards and through the caves. Bods, Masi - you really need to come and visit!

Cabs go well with a mild blue cheese. Or. A good (real French) Brie or a Crottin de chavignol. Or maybe even an aged Gouda.

 

Don't know much about Aussie wines. With all the local wines here no reason to go far afield excep for some premium Old World wines.[/quote

 

 

Funny...you think you know cheese Google it Gouda cheese are like cheedar cheese di yan pang wine look up Swiss gruyere..World known.. matches with white wine..I live in Zurich.. Try Spanish/Argentinien wine has body...Google it for your proper knowledge

 

Google isn't the end all and be all of information.

 

It's all about taste. If it works for you, good, if not, no one is forcing you. Yes, gouda is much like cheddar. But not all cheddars, and not all goudas are created equal. An aged gouda can be quite nutty while remaining sharp, so it CAN go with a bold red.

 

There's only one rule, if you like it, go for it. If not, don't. Who says red wines don't go with fish? Or whites not with red meats? A dogmatic approach to anything food will limit your enjoyment. Proper knowledge? Only for those with no imagination.

 

On another note -

 

I went exploring a week or so ago in an area i haven't visited in almost 15 years. Paso Robles. It has changed! Where there were 30-40 wineries, now there are over a hundred.

 

Visited only a few in search of a good Paso Robles pinot.

 

Tobin James - good (not great) wine at a very affordable price point. Bang for the buck.

 

Hug - very limited wine selection (and production). For me that's a good thing. It means they concentrate on doing what they do well. Wonderful pinots - soft tannins, dried red cherries, cedar, and just a hint of muchsrooms. No barnyard but very clearly a pinot,with all,the complexity and character you'd expect. More Burgundian in style than Californian.

 

Windward - all they do is pinots. Nothing else. Same comment as at Hug - they do one thing and do it well. Mid-range price point and well worth the money.

 

Re-find - not a winery, a distillery. They take the second run grape juice, the.must, and even the seeds and stems, press one more time, then ferment and distill. They make what they call a vodka and a gin. The vodka is much like a grappa in character, but more neutral. The gin is redolent of,juniper berries and local herbs. Then there's the aged vodka. In a blind tasting you might even be tempted to call it a whiskey. You get the wood - mostly oak - and toast notes. There's a hint of sweetness (I think because it's grape-baed).

 

Come Christmas, i will be tasting the aged vodka against the Cuban rums I brought home, both neat and in what I've started calling a Rumhattan - a Manhattan made with dark rum, and a Cubanito - think Bloody Mary but think rum.

Most people, in a fit of pique over the broken cork, often will not have the sense of using a filter. Lol!

Why waste good wine/liquor over something so trivial? And yet they'll drink corked or cooked wine without complaint.

I'm not sure if it's being made locally now. Yung Emperador pwede pa nilang gawin dito, but not Fundador.

Assuming indeed that they make Fundador here, they cannot make the corks here, and it is the cork that is at issue here. How was the brandy itself? Ooops sorry. I don't think you were able to drink it, with bits ofcork floating around. If, from your experience, the brandy tastes off, then may kalokohan na nga silang ginagawa.

Like when I read that the Andrew Tan group wasbuying off Pedro Domecq and Whyte and Mackey, that sounded a little off. Nowadays, if you have enough money you can buy off anything, even if it will be out of historical context and common sense.

Think of the Indians taking over Land Rover, the Chinese taking over Volvo. A service advisor at Volvo told me of a Chinese buyer who asked if all Volvos are now made in China. Otherwise he won't buy one. Lol!

Sorry that was so off-topic.

OnT: so many new Aussie wines at Rustan's now.

Why can't you drink the Fundador if there's cork floating around? One tip - when a cork breaks (not as unusual as you might think. Cork is a natural product and is highly variable.) or when it's an old wine and I know there will be a lot of sediment, I filter the wine. Pour it through a filter from a coffee maker. Use a disposal paper filter so you don't flavor the wine/liquor with coffee. Works really well.

Thanks, too.

November should be good. Not too hot. And not too hot here upon return. Let's see. I don't know if I can do a solo flight. Havana and adventures like that calls for winging it alone. But I'd like to soak up SOuth America, if that is the halfway point. Uruguay beckons, Buenos Aires calls. Bucket lists all.

Bods - I have started planning a Cuba trip for late October. Jumping off point will be Cancun. Estimate right now is about $1500/person Cancun-Cuba-Cancun. Arrival and one day in Havana. Then Trinidad, Remedios, Santa Clara, Cienfuegos - 6 days. Back to HAVANA for a day then return to Canvun.

 

Cuba tourist cards are available at Cancun airport for $25. No waiting. Cuba is changing day by day, hence not as much time in Havana, and more time in the countryside and smaller cities. We'll stop by a tobacco farm or two and buy some cigars as well. One meal at La Bodeguita Del Medio in Centro in Havana - most likely lunch as dinner is jammed with tourists. Drinks at another Hemingway hangout TBD.

 

I have a guide who will drive us around and arrange for BnB places for us to stay. Nothing fancy but clean and with running water.

 

You in? Tick one item off your bucket list!

I'm not sure there's a Cuban embassy here. Polish embassy nga wala dito eh. You apply at the Dutch embassy and they send your application to the Polish embassy in Malaysia.

I don't even have a US visa lol. Can the runway in Havana support big planes? Emirates will surely have a flight there because they go anywhere. I don't want to transit through the States. But anyway I've seen pictures of Havana in National Geographic and it really has character. I love old places, and simple folks for photographs.

See you!

You can go through Mexico or some other South American country. Lots of flights in and out of Havana. Runway supports big planes - we flew in on an Airbus A320 but I saw at least one 747 on the runway.

 

Most Europeans go to the east coast of Cuba where there are some fancy resorts for tourists. And there's an airport there as well. If Emirates flies to Cuba I would expect them to land there.

 

I have another friend who's interested in going to Cuba. October or November. I'll check into making arrangements. If you're interested, that will make 4 of us all together. A small group is more manageable. 4 or 5 will be just fine.

 

Thanks for taking the time with Masi and Storm while I was in Manila. Dinner was great! And the companionship was better.

Wow! Havana!

That should be something! I've seen pictures of Havana and it's like it's trapped in a time warp. Great for camera buffs. I like the colors they have there, the old houses, the old automobiles - the place has character.

How about visas? I presume that a traveller has to have a stop in the States before he can go to Cuba.

Great place for camera and car buffs. I never saw so many marble staircases in my life! Every single run down dilapidated building we went into had this gorgeous grand marble staircase.

 

Wonderful people, great food, cigars and rum!

 

You can pick up a visa at the airport in Cancun. When I went last year, I flew first to Cancun then hopped on the plane to Havana. There's a Cuba visa counter at the airport. $25 gets you a tourist visa. You may need to buy medical insurance when you get to Havana and that's $40, I think.

 

Isn't there a Cuban embassy in Manila? They're starting flights from Miami later this year.

So that's right after the Holy Week. Let me check the schedule, and I will also try to coordinate with the two.

 

Re: Havana Club bought in Havana - that should be the real deal! Is that the 7 Year old? I read it's a good one.

 

I also didn't need to mess around with the Diplomatico. Smooth and excellent drank neat. The Diplomatico, made in Venezuela, bought in Tokyo, being drunk in Manila. Go figure. Lol

 

See you.

 

Exchanged messages with Storm. He should be coordinating with you as well.

 

Yup - Havana Club 7 year. Best of the one I tasted, even the reserva. Rules have now been eased here - not only can travelers returning from Cuba bring back $100 worth of rum and cigars, it's also now okay to bring in Cuban rum and cigars purchased in Europe (and I would guess in Asia as well).

 

Who's up for a Cuban trip? I already have one friend here wants to join me on a Cuban adventure late this year - maybe November - or early next year. We could meet up in SF, Cancun (or Miami if commercial flights are already running by then), or Havana. I can help set up a place to stay (a casa particular, basically a B& and a guide to help us get around and make arrangements for other cities.

 

Rum, cigars, history and photography! Not to mention great food!

About this San Franciso tiff, was Boz Scaggs around? Does he still have a winery?

 

Didn't see him there. I haven't followed his winery so I'm not sure. last time I saw him in the Bay Area was some years ago at the Sonoma jazz Festival. He was one of the featured acts.

 

I did see Tyler Florence (a celebrity chef) who was there signing wine glasses.

Wow! It's a good thing I've a whiskey drinker lately!

 

I'm back! Glad to see the team is still here!

 

Bods let's drink!

 

 

Let's go!

Single malts ba yan? Lol

 

Good to see you back!

Aside from wine, I've lately become a little rum fancier. Still got some Brugal here, and Diplomatico. And Tito's Handmade Vodka, from corn, from Austin, Texas, the best vodka I've had, though the bottle is long empty now and it was the last bottle available at Unimart's.

 

Cheers! See you soon.

 

Bods, Masi, Storm - April is only a few weeks away!

 

Final schedule (or at least as final as I can make it) - Arriving Manila April 5 around noon. Leave for Baguio April 7 morning. Return Manila April 12 morning. leave April 14 morning.

 

So I have April 5-6 and April 12-13 free for dinner. Bringing a bottle or three for us to consume. What day works best and where? Wife and I will be staying at the Holiday Inn and suites @ Glorietta in makati.

 

Let me know! Bring the wives!

 

Re: rum - I brought a bottle of Havana Club back from Cuba early last hear. Very different from the other rums that i can find here, and from the Tanguay that my brother has a bottle of. I haven't had the need to add water to it to open it up. I did find that the local rums in Cuba were really quite nice - except for the rather harsh rums at the roneras on the street (yes, I tried one of those as well!).

 

LOS ANGELES (AP) — The 83 bottles of wine cited in a lawsuit this week as having dangerously high levels of arsenic came from 28 California wineries and were bottled under 31 different brand labels. Some of the labels included several different types of wine, such as merlot, chardonnay, burgundy and rose.

Those labels and the types of wine cited in the complaint:

— Acronym (GR8RW Red Blend).

— Almaden (Heritage White Zinfandel, Heritage Moscato, Heritage Chardonnay, Mountain Burgundy, Mountain Rhine, Mountain Chablis).

— Arrow Creek (Coastal Series Cabernet Sauvignon).

— Bandit (Pinot Grigio, Chardonnay, Cabernet Sauvignon).

— Bay Bridge (Chardonnay).

— Beringer (White Merlot, White Zinfandel, Red Moscato, Refreshingly Sweet Moscato).

— Charles Shaw (White Zinfandel).

— Colores Del Sol (Malbec).

— Glen Ellen by Concannon (Glen Ellen Reserve Pinot Grigio, Glen Ellen Reserve Merlot).

— Concannon (Selected Vineyards Pinot Noir).

— Cook’s (Spumante).

— Corbett Canyon (Pinot Grigio, Cabernet Sauvignon).

— Cupcake (Malbec).

— Fetzer (Moscato, Pinot Grigio).

— Fisheye (Pinot Grigio).

— Flipflop (Pinot Grigio, Moscato, Cabernet Sauvignon).

— Foxhorn (White Zinfandel).

— Franzia (Vintner Select White Grenache, Vintner Select White Zinfandel, Vintner Select White Merlot, Vintner Select Burgundy).

— Hawkstone (Cabernet Sauvignon).

— HRM Rex Goliath (Moscato).

— Korbel (Sweet Rose Sparkling Wine, Extra Dry Sparkling Wine).

— Menage A Trois (Pinot Grigo, Moscato, White Blend, Chardonnay, Rose, Cabernet Sauvignon, California Red Wine).

— Mogen David (Concord, Blackberry Wine).

— Oak Leaf (White Zinfandel).

— Pomelo (Sauvignon Blanc).

— R Collection By Raymond (Chardonnay).

— Richards Wild Irish Rose (Red Wine).

— Seaglass (Sauvignon Blanc).

— Simply Naked (Moscato).

— Smoking Loon (Viognier).

— Sutter Home (Sauvignon Blanc, Gerwurztraminer, Pink Moscato, Pinot Grigio, Moscato, Chenin Blanc, Sweet Red, Riesling, White Merlot, Merlot, White Zinfandel).

 

 

Arsenic?

 

Maybe that's why I've been feeling funny of late. Lol!

 

Glen Ellen, Corbett Canyon, Sutter Home, Franzia, Beringer, Rex Goliath, Concannon are available here, so prudence is the greater part of valor.

 

Thanks pre!

 

So what did these winemakers say in their defense? How does arsenic get into wine?

 

Many (if not most) of these wines are low end wines. Notice the presence of 2 buck Chuck and Sutter Home , as well a a Beringer white zin.

 

I've never liked Concannon and couldn't put my finger on it. maybe this is why! I visit them once every 5 years just to remind myself why I don't buy their wines. They do produce a pretty nice Irish whisky, though. They ship their old red wine barrels to Ireland where they're filled with whisky and shipped back to Livermore.

 

Mogen David is well-known to the vagrant homeless wino community as MadDog 20-20. Way low on the quality scale. More like grape juice that's gone bad. On the same level as Ripple and Thunderbird.

 

Cook's??? Who drinks Cook's? Not even as good as Andre and that's REALLY putting it down....

 

Vineyards tend to not be rich, loamy soil but rather rocky land. Arsenic leaches from rock along with other trace elements of other metals. All these are soaked up by the vines and end up in the juice of the grape. These minerals are among the elements that give local character, otherwise known as "terroir" to wines.

Lapit na April!

I couldnt wait and popped the 1975 Gruaud-Larose. Very, very nice....but clearly over the hill and going downhill so it was good I opened it when I did.

 

I do have a 1999 Gruaud-Larose and that should last another 5 years or so.

Scanning old negatives. This one is from 1999. shot with a Hasselblad 500CM, 80mm lens.

 

Mono Lake, CA. This scene is gone. Water levels have been allowed to rise again so most of this tufa formation is now under water. No more peninsula - just a few spires ticking up above the surface of the lake.

 

This is a low res image scanned from a 6cm x 6cm negative. TriX400.

 

Also of note ----

 

I went to the San Francisco Chronicle Wine Competition Public Tasting last Saturday. Guess who won a Silver Meday for their 2014 Syrah? None other than ---- (drum roll, please!!) Charles Shaw! Yes, THAT Charles Shaw. I guess I have to go try that wine.......way back when, in the second year of the label, they also had a rather nice syrah. Same winery and winemaker, perhaps?

 

 

 

And yes, that's really a 1944 port. No, we didn't open it. There's just too much historical value to that bottle.

 

The big bottle is a 9 liter Napa Cab. A cult wine. Not sure when that will get opened but I suspect it's still a bit early - in that large a format it needs a lot of time to come to full potential.

 

We did open a magnum 19895 Silver Oak Alexander Valley cab sauv. Some folks say they like the Napa cab better, but there was just absolutely nothing wrong with the Alexander Valley wine.

 

One of these days we'll open a bottle or three of his old Bordeaux, and I will bring a few of my Rubicons to the party. And my 1975 Gruaud-Larose. It's time to pop the cork on that bottle. Bods and Masi - you really need to make your way out this way!!

It seems that your concern is about water damage or mold on the label. Wine storage in the olden days. when wine ref is nowhere to be found is the basement of the house or wine cellar. where temperature is cooler specially in summer. It's cold and damp surely the label would not survive it. This how the great vintages were stored the likes 1700's Chateau D'Yquem that was once belonged to Thomas Jefferson,

1945 Chateau Lafitte, and etc. in storing wine the main concern is the temperature you don't want to cook the wine and turn it to an expensive vinegar. I have once saw a documentary by the late Jaques Costeau in retrieving champagne from a sunken ship. They did open it and drink it and it's still bubbling. The important thing is the temperature and the condition of the cork. That why they store wine laying down not upright in order not tot dry the cork.

The point is that mold and water damage can be an indicator of storage issues - mold on labels typically is a result of condensation that occurs when temperatures and humidity rise, causing condensation on the bottles.

 

I visited a friend this past weekend - he has this awesome collection of wines. He buys to collect, I buy to drink, but he's got some amazing wine. Here are some of the older bottles in his collection. THESE have been stored properly. constant temperature, humidity at the right levels.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

1990 is not that old. If you have mold or water damage, something has happened to those wines.

image.jpgimage.jpeg

 

These bottles are ripe for the picking from left 1995 Chateau Calon Segur, 2000 Cos D' Estournel,

My favorite it goes well with Foie gras a 1990 Chateau D' Yquem and lastly 1996

Chateau Plagnac.

I'm seeing some wear and damage on the labels - I hope you've stored these wines properly.

His list was a real head scratcher! Parang listahan lang na nakuha kung saan, which should explain why Charles Shaw is in there. Lol. Totally clueless.

 

Charles Shaw why not have you tasted it? it's my everyday wine. Years ago I bought 4 cases of 96 Chateaus Plagnac at Trader's Joe for $3.99 now if you follow Bordeaux 1995, 1996 is a good year. It's AOC is only Bordeaux but in a good year there is a lot of sleeper. I'd consume that wine everyday like there is no tomorrow. comparing it to a first growth on a bad year there is no contest.

The great Bordeaux that I tasted are the ones that is 15 years or older. Like a 1982 Chateau Talbot that has been decant for at least

6 hours. Last December we opened a bottle of 98 Heitz Cellar Martha's Vineyard and a 2000 Chateau La Tourette AOC is Pauillac.

The Heitz is good but the French is simply superb it's the terroir. I stay away from Burgundy Though it's a tough nut to crack. It's either a great wine or bad. Also Merlot based from the Right bank except Cheval Blanc which is Cabernet Franc. But if you're looking for Cabernet Franc

Look for the Loire region Chinon, Bougeil.

 

I have tasted it. I live in CA and have been drinking California wines since the mid-80s. I was one of the first to taste 2 buck Chuck. As I noted, there were some passable wines and a pretty good syrah. But not any longer. thin, acidic, lacking in structure. but, to each his own.........if you like, drink it.

 

I just refuse to drink bad wine. I'll use bad wine to fertilize my yard before I drink it.

 

You sound like a lot of wine articles I've read. Not hard to find a good Burgougne even in a "bad" year. It just may be more expensive than in a good year. I see better California cabs than most Bordeaux. So far my impression has been mostly correct - the French keep most of the good stuff for themselves and ship the rest overseas. The exceptions are the big names who know they can get astounding amounts of money in the New World.

 

Martha's Vineyard was replanted in 1996, so it's hard to see a 1998 being any better than average. It typically takes 4 years for vines to start producing good fruit.

Chateau D'Yquem, Lynch-bages, Caymus, Pio Cesare, Gaja, insignia Robert Phelps, Pichon Lalande, Richebourg, Hermitage,

Cote de Blonde or Brune, Littoral , William Selyem, Cos Estournel, Chateau Mouton, Chateau Armallac, Charles Shaw. Just the few of my favs.

You put Charles Shaw in with the good to great wines? LOL.....

 

Charles Shaw is the classic "we can't sell it so we'll dump it on the broker market" cheap wine with no provenance. Used to be called "2-buck chuck" because it was under $2 at Trader Joe's (in NY it was 3-buck chuck because it was $2.99 when NOT on sale!).

 

Some history - In the wine glut of mid-90's winemakers were selling off their lowest quality wines instead of bottling them and incurring yet even more losses. Bronco Wines bought them up, put them in the cheapest bottles they could find and sold them at Trader Joe's (what some referred to in those days has the "poor man's Whole Foods") for $1.99. In fact, there were some decent bottlings. The early cabs were halfway decent, they had a nice (drinkable) chardonnay, and they had one stellar syrah.

 

Within 2 years, Costco began carrying Cameron Hughes wines - a similarly brokered wine (IOW, the label did NOT produce their own wines, but bought from others and bottled under thier own label). Cameron Hughes has developed the reputation Charles Shaw never had for good wines at good value prices. And these days, even Whole Foods has a $2.69 wine that's better than 99% of the Charles Shaw wines ever bottled.

 

***Sorry for all the edits, maybe someday I will learn to type!***

Wow!

That meat looks so sinful lol!

 

Had a lot of ramen during the holidays as we were in Tokyo, this - plus an unforgettable Osaka steak:

Nice hunk of meat!

Following up my last reply - see if you can tell me which was shot with the DSLR and which with a rangefinder-type camera.

 

Visited Yosemite a couple of weeks ago, hoping for an overnight snowfall to dust the trees with snow. Nope, didn't happen....but i did get off a few shots anyway.

 

Yosemite Falls in the rain

 

Half Dome Dawn

 

Meadow

 

Merced River

if i could only afford to buy an expensive DSLR

Why do you need one? The camera is only a tool. A fancier camera won't make you a better photographer, only one with less money. Some of the best photos I've seen recently came off iPhones. and some of the worst from a Canon 5D.

 

Learn to make the most of what you have first, then as you upgrade your gear, you will find it easier to produce good images. otherwise all you have is GAS. (That stands for Gear Acquisition Syndrome.)

 

Blue cheeses go from mild to really stinky. A Point Reyes Blue would be considered mild.

 

Broke tradition this year and did NOT open a rubicon for Christmas dinner. Instead we had a 2006 Retzlaff Family Reserve cabernet sauvignon. Very nice with the prime rib and the Smithfield ham (a lot like the old-style "Chinese" hams I grew up with). but, since my daughter was feeling like she missed something, we opened a 2002 Rubicon for Christmas Day dinner......

IMG_2590.JPG

On the 27th we took my wife out for her birthday celebration to a SF restaurant called La Folie. Very nice, French cuisine. Casual but elegant. Great food! We split a half-bottle of the Chinon you see in the picture, and I later had a glass of a very nice 1976 Chinon. THAT was an experience! At $25 for the glass you know it had to be good! But they let me have a taste first before pouring me the glass. That was nice of them.....

IMG_2579.jpg

See you in April!!

 

Not going to flood you with pics of Christmas dinner (or the wife's birthday dinner) but I couldn't resist this one to close out the year......this, my friends, is how you do a prime rib. USDA Prime (not a lesser cut!) roasted on the bone. Simple salt and pepper crust, but I left it in the fridge for 2 days with the salt and pepper to let the flavors all permeate the meat.

 

So a gouda, it is. I'm not sure what a mild blue cheese is. All the blue cheese I've tasted are not mild haha.

 

I've gotten in touch with masi. Told him you'd be here in April. Si Ferdie madali na ma-contact.

 

Blue cheeses go from mild to really stinky. A Point Reyes Blue would be considered mild.

 

Broke tradition this year and did NOT open a rubicon for Christmas dinner. Instead we had a 2006 Retzlaff Family Reserve cabernet sauvignon. Very nice with the prime rib and the Smithfield ham (a lot like the old-style "Chinese" hams I grew up with). but, since my daughter was feeling like she missed something, we opened a 2002 Rubicon for Christmas Day dinner......

On the 27th we took my wife out for her birthday celebration to a SF restaurant called La Folie. Very nice, French cuisine. Casual but elegant. Great food! We split a half-bottle of the Chinon you see in the picture, and I later had a glass of a very nice 1976 Chinon. THAT was an experience! At $25 for the glass you know it had to be good! But they let me have a taste first before pouring me the glass. That was nice of them.....

See you in April!!