PurpleSunshine redesign. Got rid of the old do-nothing index page; tarted up this weblog and made it the entry point for the Web site. Typing in purplesunshine.com now brings you straight here.
     I also added some photos on the trifles page and made a few other improvements here, there and under the hood. Please leave a comment if you notice any glitches.
 :: posted by Dante Ramos at 8:17 PM
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"Am I a great vintage?" Mildly amusing toy from the British wine magazine Decanter. Turns out I'd make a good Burgundy or Australian red but a crappy Rioja.
 :: posted by Dante Ramos at 3:08 PM
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Wine tourism resource. We got an e-mail recently from one of the people who run WineCountry.com, a recently relaunched site that bills itself as "the essential link to our lifestyle." OK, "our lifestyle" could mean anything. But it turns out to be pretty thorough. And if you were going to be, say, in Sonoma for an October wedding, their exhaustive list of all wineries there could come in handy.
 :: posted by Dante Ramos at 6:21 PM
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Summer wines. When I think about drinking wine on the front porch on a summer evening, the album that plays in my head is "Avalon" by Roxy Music. Fitting, then, that the album was in Steph's CD player while we tested eight wines for their warm-weather fitness. Thanks to Eliot and Laura for bringing the wine and to Steph for providing the food (and the music).

     1) "Olivia." 2003 Ceretto Vignaioli di Stefano Moscato d'Asti. $27. Average 16.5; range 14-18. A full-bodied, lightly perfumy wine that overflows with peach and apricot aromas. Laura thought it finished like papaya. Eliot said it does what it's designed to do, though he probably wouldn't drink it by itself. We tried this at the end of the night with Steph's peach cobbler, and as Pam noted, the wine and the food were "in lockstep." A food and wine writer for the San Diego daily argued recently that "Americans talk dry and drink sweet," and our collective love for this wine sure backs that up.

     2) "Pavement." 2003 Eberle Syrah Rosé, Paso Robles. $13 at Cork & Bottle. Average 14.8; range 14-15. Very consistent scores for this lovely wine. "It rained on a bunch of rose bushes," said Eliot. The nose was light, but we found a bunch of different fruits in it: honeydew melon, said Becky; white raisins, said Pam; peaches, Steph said; mangoes, I said. Nice body, finishes dry. Pam said she'd like to drink it after taking a shower after being at the beach all day.

     3) "Henley." 2000 Carneros Creek Fleur de Carneros Pinot Noir [PDF]. $18.75 at Bacchanal. Average 14.7; range 14-16. The nose reminded Laura of Raisinets. There's something chewy, dark, almost asphalty about this wine, but the thing most people noticed was an unsweetened chocolate flavor. Light in body. It reminded Steph of a chocolate mousse.

     4) "Vivaldi." 2003 Marquis Philips Holly's Blend, South Eastern Australia; mostly Verdejo. Average 14.5; range 12-16. A fairly uncomplicated, fruit-forward, well-put-together white wine. Several of us found the wine citrusy, and for that reason you might mistake it for a Sauvignon Blanc. But it's got a heavy honey feel to it. As Becky put it, "the honey binds everything" -- the grapefruit, a strong floral bouquet, some walnut undertones. Laura liked the long finish. But Pam found the honey "overly omnipresent." (FYI: Alder at Vinography, a terrific new wine blog from San Francisco, has a detailed post on this wine.)

     5) "Fantasia." 2002 Ceretto Blangè Arneis, Langhe, Piedmont; 100% Arneis. $20 at Bacchanal. Average 14.2; range 9-18. "No, this is what I want in the shower," Pam said. This white wine is very crisp and, several people thought, very refreshing. High acid profile, and sort of minerally. Laura found it lemony. Becky likened it to pineapple juice mixed with Pellegrino. I thought it was fine but one-dimensional. Steph didn't like it at all. she found it fizzy and didn't think the alcohol was well integrated.

     6) "Motels." 2002 Sanford Pinot Noir Vin Gris, Santa Rita Hills. $15 at Cork & Bottle. Average 14; range 12-16. Those of us who've sung the praises of previous Sanford rosés were a little surprised at our measured reactions to this one. It's a decent wine, and a fairly complex one at that. The nose was a little powdery, with hints of grapefruit, flowers, almonds, honey and fresh-cut parsley. Eliot said it had a grapefruity tingle on the front of the tongue and tasted like cherry in the back. Laura wasn't sure how well it'd go with food, but Pam said it'd be the perfect complement to grilled fish with lemon-mango salsa and fresh cilantro.

     7) "Bryan." 2000 Mont Marçal Brut Reserva [PDF], Cava; blend of Macabeo, Xarel-lo and Parellada. $11 at Cork & Bottle. Average 13; range 10-15. Fabulous for hot weather, Steph said. Laura thought it'd work for afternoon fun, but she'd want more sparkle, bubble and flavor for a celebration.

     8) "Bananarama." 2000 Michele Chiarlo Barbera d'Asti. $11.75 (at Bacchanal?). Average 12; range 11-14. Pam found it confusing but thought it would work well with lamb. Eliot thought it had a lingering spearmint finish. I went through cycles of liking and not liking this wine; there was a weird Eurofunk underneath the nice raisiny, tobacco-ish nose, and the nose also kind of reminded me of fresh Pampers. For the naysayers, Becky nicely summed up how this wine went down: "It's too harsh to be a Roxy wine."

     The fake names all refer to songs about summer and the musicians who made them: "Summer Lovin'" by Olivia Newton-John and John Travolta; "Summer Babe" by Pavement; "The Boys of Summer" by Don Henley; "Summertime" by Fantasia Barrino; "Suddenly Last Summer" by the Motels; "Summer," part of Antonio Vivaldi's "Four Seasons"; "Summer of '69" by Bryan Adams, and "Cruel Summer" by Bananarama.
 :: posted by Dante Ramos at 12:22 AM
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Bordeaux blues. Fascinating Times article on the dreadful economics of grape-growing in Bordeaux. The money graf:

Overproduction is a worldwide phenomenon that is particularly painful in Bordeaux. When 30,000 acres of vines were pulled out in California, most came from corporate-owned vineyards in the Central Valley. In Bordeaux, much of the overplanting has been by small landholders who depend on their vines for their living.

French authorities are trying to help small producers by loosening regulations, letting people print varietal designations on labels and keeping wine off the market to bring prices up. The NYT writer takes a little potshot at the end: "Why higher prices would help when demand is already low is not clear."
 :: posted by Dante Ramos at 11:22 PM
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Carneros memories. Delia sends along this picture from the cellar at Schug Winery. From left: Hiroo, Vini, Dante, John, Delia, Steph.


 :: posted by Dante Ramos at 10:17 PM
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