What I've been drinking:
2012 Yvon Metras Beaujolais
Just discovered an awesome new wine store, not too far from me in
Prospect Heights, called Passage de la Fleur. Apparently it's owned by
the same people who own the lower east side wine geek destination The Ten
Bells. They have a ton of really interesting direct import stuff, and
also a really impressive amount of large format bottles. They only stock
natural wines. I bought both this wine and the following wine there.
Yvon Metras is a culty producer I've read about a fair amount, but I had
never seen any of his wines in any of the stores I usually patronize. Major
props to PdlF for stocking this. The woman working there, I believe her
name was Emily, said she found the wine very "poulsard-like," and I
totally agree. In fact, tested blind, I would probably mistake it for
poulsard, with its light color, and rose petal and orange peel aromas. But
it did have that telltale "vin de soif" transparency on the palate
that makes good Beaujolais so lovable. Really awesome wine, improved for
days, great value at 20 bucks. I couldn't keep my nose out of the glass.
2011 Nicolas Carmarans L'Olto
Very interesting wine, also recommended to me by Emily at PdlF. This
wine is made by a producer I know nothing about, from a region I know very
little about, with a grape I've never heard of called Fer Servadou. The
wine was dominated by peppery/vegetal sort of flavors with a parsley/cilantro
bitter herb kind of thing going on. There was a subtle berried fruitiness
as well, but this was a far cry from anything I would call "fruity." Nice
and light on the palate with an interesting savory, almost cheesy kind of thing
on the finish. Honestly, the flavor profile was so bizarre I thought the
wine could have been flawed, but I still really liked it, and I don't have the
tasting experience to definitively say when a wine is flawed. Very
interesting wine, if a little scary.
2010 Domaine Gabriel Billard Cuvee
"Milliane"
Definitely an earth driven wine with nice minerality and a leathery
licorice sort of component on the nose that made the wine feel almost
nebbiolo-esque. Nice tart sour cherries on the palate. The grand
cru drinkers among you might fine this wine to be a bit "thin" but I
found it to be light and bright and unpretentiously drinkable. $24, for
me, is a lot to spend on a bottle of wine, but for great burgundy it's a steal.
2011 Huet Vouvray "Le
Haut-Lieu" Sec
I bought this wine because I wanted to try some good quality Loire
chenin blanc, and Huet seems to be a very esteemed domaine, but to be honest I
found this wine disappointing. It was very tight aromatically and just
generally austere (even after a decent decant). Definitely had a nice mineral
component and good acidity but if I'm going to shell out 30 bucks I want a
little more. I found myself wishing I were drinking a $15 Muscadet. Maybe
2011 was a weird year in Vouvray, or more likely this wine just needs 10 years
in the cellar. In any case, this wine just wasn't singing that night...
2012 Berhard Ott "Am Berg"
The wines of Bernhard Ott have already gotten a lot of hype and seem be
to selling like Miley Cyrus albums this holiday season, so I'll just add that I
too think this wine rocks. This is Ott's entry level Gruner Veltliner,
which at $15 would be uneconomical NOT to buy. This wine is delicious,
complex, very versatile with food, and working well above its pay-grade. Great
stocking stuffer.
What I've been listening to:
Jorge Ben-A Tabua De Esmerelda
I love Brazilian pop music. I love the grooves, I love the
sophistication, I love the singers, I love the songs, and most of all I love
the unpretentious joyfulness that is hard to find in our overly angst-driven American
cultural landscape. But, I will admit, I often struggle with the slick,
cheesy, elevator style production used on a lot of Brazilian music. In
some cases, I'm able to ignore the copious flutes and dated synthesizers and
enjoy the music for what it is, but other times I find it completely
unpalatable. However, with this record I don't need to compromise. I
love the production, the record has a ton of "vibe," and the music is
incredible. This record is a complete powerhouse in terms of vocal
performance. And yes there still are flutes.
Azealia Banks-"212"
I think I'm a bit late to the party on Azealia Banks, but my god she is
amazing. Just when you were starting to get dark on your city because all
these articles by David Byrne and Patti Smith and the like started floating
around talking about how New York City is on its way out as a place where the
arts can thrive, and you start thinking about moving to Detroit or Poughkeepsie
or Estonia, you hear something like this and your faith is completely restored. A friend was explaining to me how Banks writes the rhythms for her verses
first and then after the fact plugs in words whose syllables match those
rhythms. I don't know if that's true, but that would make sense to me
considering the incredible dizzying musicality of her lyrical phrasing. Azealia
Banks, you make me proud to live in the 212. WARNING: this track contains
some pretty unsavory language. My 13-and-under readership should seek
parental supervision before listening.
Jingo-"Fever"
Ismail Jingo came up singing covers of songs by American musicians like
Percy Sledge and James Brown in Kenyan night clubs. Supposedly he even
performed for the Godfather of Soul himself at the airport upon his arrival in
Nairobi and, as the story goes, was so good that Brown joined him onstage and
sang "Talking Loud and Saying Nothing" with him. "Fever"
was by far Jingo's biggest hit during his lifetime, and the track enjoyed a
resurgence of crossover success when it was featured in the soundtrack of the
2006 film "The Last King of Scotland."* This is one of those
tracks that is like candy for me. Whenever I don't know what to listen to
immediately I put it on, and I've listened to it on repeat. I have a
fever, and the only prescription is more "Fever."
Kanye West-Yeezus
That's right. I'll admit it. I love this record. When
I first listened to it I was blown away: the minimalist palate and the dark
industrial sort of textures were very striking. But I decided after that that I
had no desire to ever listen to it again. I thought it was another
example of high-concept, low-content music. But sure enough, this record
has crept its way back into my consciousness and back into my listening
rotation and, I have to say, I think it's really good. Does it seem a bit
half-baked lyrically? Sure. Is the overall aesthetic a bit grating
at times? A bit. Do I find some of the Justin Vernon stuff
unnecessary and annoying? Definitely. But I'll be damned if it
isn't one of the most adventurous and fearless hip-hop albums I've heard all year.
And by one of the most commercially successful artists in the world no
less. No one can deny the charisma and passion and intensity West puts
into his delivery, even if the words, at moments, miss their mark. And
the record has a fascinating patience to it—it's more about tension than
release. It completely upends the dynamic contours (or lack thereof) that have become the
status quo in modern hip-hop production. If nothing else, this record is
important because it has set a new standard for how experimental and
groundbreaking a commercial hip-hop record can and should be.
Anyway, I was given the job of curating the wines for Thanksgiving
dinner, so expect an update on how that went soon...
Happy Holidays!
*I got all this background info about Jingo from an amazing blog about
African music called "Afro7." Check it out! http://afro7.net/
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