Today finds me “in the market” in Dallas… in other words, meeting with buyers, sommeliers, and a winemaker (you will not believe who! but I’ll reveal that later… let’s just say that I’ll be tasting a 100-point Parker wine today…).
Posting hastily but wanted to share the good news that I’ve been asked to be the official blogger for Barbera Meeting 2010 in Asti (Piedmont): four days of tasting and meeting with Barbera producers, March 8-11.
But the really super cool thing is that the PR firm who’s organized the tastings has asked me to bring some of my best blogging buddies and friends along for a veritable Barbera blogfest!
Not that I needed ANOTHER blog but here’s the blog I’ve created just for the event. The whole affair is pretty darn blogicious, if I do say so myself! And I am completely geeked to taste through scores and scores of wines with some of my favorite bloggers in the English-speaking world…
In other news…
I can’t reveal the super-secret identities of the folks who had me over for dinner last night but suffice to say she’s a nationally renowned food writer and he’s a famous music writer.
Steamed giant asparagus and vinaigrette (with home-baked white and brown bread) and roast herbed chicken and potatoes were fantastic but the coolest thing was that he let all of the guests call out requests from his music library.
Mine was: “Thelonious Monk, 1957, New York City.” Famous French music writer then turned me on to a super cool recording I’d never heard before, Thelonious Monk Quartet with John Coltrane at Carnegie Hall in 1957. I know the Monk canon well and to hear different (new-to-me) versions of some of his classic was a real treat… and it paired nicely with the 1999 Tertre Roteboeuf.
I think Right Bank always goes better with Monk, don’t you? Miles? Definitely, Left Bank… ;-)
Thanks for reading!
Do Bianchi 
…and Coltrane with both banks, for sure!
Yeah, baby – thas’ what i’m tawking ’bout
I thought that Stevie Ray Vaughn’s “Texas Flood” paired marvelously with the Sassella
you drank sassella without me?!
congratulations. I’ve recently become a Barbera fan. For too long, I discounted that variety but I have seen the error of my ways. Catching up on your blogs (& Tracie P.’s too) lots of interesting stuff and beautiful photos.
Truly bummin’ that I can’t join the crew in Piemonte, Jeremy. Looking forward to following the action on the Barbera blog.
PS: the Monk/Trane Carnegie Hall performance is simply stupendous. Glad you finally got to hear it.
Barbera, Trane and Monk, life cannot get much better than that! After following your blogs for quite a time I am really glad I will meet you in person in Asti!
Greetings from Poland,
Andrzej (of winogranie.blog.pl)
sorry Tracie, we did. we have more:)
Doesn’t Monk require something more transcendent, syncopated, off-minor? The Tertre Roteboeuf is a more-than-fine wine, but not so Monkish, I think. I’d pair Thelonious with a ’76 LdH Bosconia: ethereal, but not without a funky left hand figuring the bass.
What color was that wine? Ruby, my dear…
Yes, it was ruby, my dear, with a sweet and lovely midpalate and a nutty finish. An evidence that it’s not a Blue Nun.
It wasn’t me that started that old crazy asian war
But I was proud to go and do my patriotic chore
Ruby took her love to town…
Honestly, the wine that I would pair with Monk, above any other, would be Valentini Trebbiano d’Abruzzo… It’s funny how when I think of pairing wine with the jazz great, I can only imagine Italian wine…
We need Anthony in this debate, please…
“Well, You Needn’t” agonize over the exact pairing. You can “Worry Later” about it. But while I’m trying to “Think of One” that’s ideal, I realize that sometimes the wines with a bit of “Ugly Beauty” will work very well. Perhaps a wine from Sicily, such as Cornelissen, or Occhipinti or COS, might do nicely. An oxidative or orange wine also would handily fit the bill, and of course a single malt drunk “Straight, No Chaser,” would be sweet. If one is more of a weed-head? Why, of course, “In Walked Bud”!!!
Mr. A. Wilson… it was a “Unfinished Situation” without “Amalgamation”, like a sweet “W-2 Blues”. You should have met “Our Gang”. We didn’t do “Karaoke” but the “Southern Gentleman” with all the wine is a doll.
Am I right?
Really great post. You have hit on a few of really nice ideas. Thanks for posting it. Putting this website on my RSS feed!