Meet The Mötley Crü

mot‧ley  [mot-lee] adjective, noun, plural -leys.
1. exhibiting great diversity of elements; heterogeneous: a motley crowd.

cru [kroo; Fr. kry] noun, plural crus [krooz; Fr. kry]
1. (in France) a vineyard producing wine of high quality, sometimes classified by the government as either a Great Growth (Grand Cru) or a First Growth (Premier Cru).


La & myself have been tossing around the idea of starting a wine club for the last year or so. We finally got motivated & sent out emails, MySpace messages & spread the word with our friends & this past Saturday we had our second meeting. Each month we decide on a theme, the first meeting was Bring Your Favorite Wine, this weekend's theme was Wine from the Southern Hemisphere & everyone that comes must bring one bottle that coincides with the theme. Next months theme is Old World Wines.

We are not your average group of stuffy wine geeks. In fact the only rule is no pretentious wine drinkers. We are a rough & tumble group who buck the typical stereotype of a wine drinker. We are tattooed, pierced, professionals, students, artists, etc.. The conversation usually drifts in all directions & I mean all directions. No topic is too taboo. There still is wine talk, with the occasional chit chat about who is enjoying whatever wine at the moment.

Our group has grown from seven people to eleven with friends & family in town for the holiday, we had people from New Jersey, Texas & of course Memphis.

The wines for this meeting were all great picks with nearly every major wine player in the Southern Hemisphere represented. Here is our list of wines.

2006 Crios de Susana Balbo Rosé of Malbec Mendoza, Argentina

2005 Pannotia Vineyards Torrontés Mendoza, Argentina

2004 Melipal Malbec Mendoza, Argentina

2005 Dos Lomos Malbec Mendoza, Argentina

2002 Marques de Casa Concha Cabernet Sauvignon Puente Alto, Maipo Valley Chile

2005 Caillero del Diablo Cabernet Sauvignon Central Valley, Chile

2004 Root 1 Cabernet Sauvignon Colchagua Valley, Chile

2004 Three Rings Shriaz Barossa Valley, Austrailia

2004 Rawson's Retreat Merlot South Eastern Austrailia

2005 Suavignon Republic Cellars Sauvignon Blanc Marlborough, New Zealand

2004 Luzon Jumilla, Spain*

*someone needed a geography lesson but this wine ended up being one of the favorites, plus our unofficial motto is "the only good rule is a broken one".

Our next meeting is sometime in December so be sure to look for the report on our Old World Wine tasting (this time a map will be distributed for the geographically challenged).

Some See & Hear For Ya....(Sip & Taste will make an appearance soon)

Tasting Notes: 2002 Beaucanon Estate Merlot

I promise not to make any references to that movie...uh, what's it called? Upside down? Leftways? Rightways? I can't remember, but I am not drinking any F*&$%ing PINOT!!!

The bottle we had last week of 2002 Beaucanon Estate Merlot made me completely forget about Paul Giamani's (aka Miles) winey ass (can you say 'suck it up, princess?'). I will call this Nappa Valley Merlot what it is....A Pinot killer.


If more Merlots were this good the Sideways effect would be upside down. The 2002 Beaucanon Estate Merlot is a big boy, yet refined & elegant. Maybe it is the wineries roots that are deeply rooted in Bordeaux that buck the style of typical Merlots that give the grape a bad name. Ya know the ones...the one dimensional, fruit driven, crowd pleaser's.

The wineries genesis began when Jacques de Coninck came from Bordeaux to search for prime vineyards, convinced that the New World held the promise of great wines. I think he struck gold with his estate on the historic Longwood Ranch in the Rutherford American Viticultural Area in Napa Valley.

The nose of this Merlot leaps out of the glass & dope slaps you....it is so intense you can almost see it. It is full of fruit, mostly blackberry, black plum & some dried fruit. There is also a touch of herbs & evergreen. Very alluring. The palate represents the same. It is voluptuous yet brawny. The tannins are chalky had me craving a nice bloody fillet. The minty finish went one for minutes.

This is really a delicious Merlot. If the producers of Sideways had a bottle of this before shooting the movie, I am sure the famous catch phrase from the movie would have been "I am NOT drinking any F&*^$@G PINOT!!!"

Ooops, I broke my promise.

Let's Do Lunch

I love that phrase. What I love even more is doing lunch. I am lucky...sorta. I get off of work everyday at noon (but at the price of going in at 3AM), so I can do lunch everyday if I wanted. To me, there is no better way of unwinding after a hard days work of pushing pixels for the man. A glass of wine (or three) from whatever joint we choose plus a tasty sandwich or lunch portion of a dinner entree is the perfect apres work treat.

There are numerous benefits of 'doing lunch'. One being that lunch our is almost always cheaper than dinner out. The menu at most places is about the same as it is at dinner & sometimes if you are lucky the portions are the same size at lunch as they are at dinner.

There is one drawback that I have found to doing lunch. Usually the kitchen staff & front of the house staff that work lunch are the "B-Team". We have figured out not to eat at the Beauty Shop for lunch. The last two times we have been there for lunch the service was terrible & one couple of weeks ago I had the worst burger I have ever had.

The next best thing to doing lunch....is doing lunch & then coming home to take a siesta.