Wine for Spain and Portugal Exam

Had the theory and blind tasting today. Did surprisingly well considering I missed three out of four lectures and still can't smell much of anything through my stuffed-up nose.

That said I guessed correctly that the white wine was a Chardonnay from the USA, and I guessed that the red wine was a Syrah, which was also correct, but didn't get the country of origin right. I honestly don't know what I was thinking with this one. I had basically chosen Syrah based on how purple in color it was, since my nose wasn't quite up to snuff, but I wasn't sure where it was from. It didn't seem dark enough or potent/tannic enough to be from Australia or the US, and I completely forgot that the Rhone in France is a huge area for Syrah, and I ran out of time, so at the last minute I ticked off New Zealand, which is kind of out in left field, because New Zealand is just not known for Syrah (Shiraz). Even after I ticked off the New Zealand box and handed my test in to the teacher, I thought, Now why on earth did I say New Zealand? It was panic test-brain, that's my best explanation.

Apart from being a bit nervous during the blind tastings, I actually quite enjoy the detective aspect of them. It's fun to look at different elements and see what answers I can get from them. For example today, from the color of the red wine alone I was able to narrow the grape varietal down to Syrah or Gamay. And with the white wine, the vanilla and buttery butterscotch aromas tipped me into Chardonnay territory.

The piece that was so frustrating today with not being able to smell properly was that it was really hard to tell what part of the world the wines were from. As I think I mentioned before, a big clue can be found in how much fruit aroma there is in a wine vs. earth and mineral aromas. So if the wine is more fruity, or fruit-driven than anything else, that can be a sign that the wine is from the New World (North America, Australia, New Zealand, Chile, Argentina, etc.). Whereas if the wine is more earth/mineral driven (chalk, clay, leaves, mushroom, etc.), then the wine is more likely an Old World wine from France, Germany, Italy, Spain. This is not 100% all the time obviously, but it's a pretty good rule of thumb.

Today I just couldn't tell the difference. I got just a muddle of aromas, but couldn't pick out whether there was more fruit or earth in either of the wines, so in the end I just had to guess. At least though, now I know what it is that I'm not able to figure out, which is progress!

I know I said I was going to talk about Madeiras, but I've already gone on too long, so I will try to remember for tomorrow. We move on to wines of Germany and Eastern Europe tomorrow. This will mean Rieslings, which I love, and a dessert wine from Hungary which I have never tried but is supposed to be delicious.

I wanted to give you the details of the Chardonnay we had in class today, because it was a nice mix of buttery, vanilla oak and apple, without making you feel like you were just drinking a glass of popcorn butter, but I didn't write down all the details, so I will owe you a second wine tomorrow.

Cheers!

Wine for Song Lyrics

I was reminded this morning of how fun it can be to misunderstand the lyrics to songs. The radio station I listen to in the car on my way to class played "Funky Town" and I recalled that I used to think that the lyrics to the chorus were "I want two tickets to Funky Town". I think they're actually "Won't you take me to Funky Town" or something like that. This way, she is asking someone to take her somewhere, as opposed to my version, where she could have just been talking to her travel agent.

You know that song by The Police with the chorus "We are spirits in the material world"? When I was younger I thought they were saying "We are spare ribs in the material world". These lyrics make absolutely no sense, of course, but I didn't spend too much time worrying about that. Apparently, I just wanted spare ribs. I must have heard that they were particularly delicious in Funky Town. Hence the two tickets I needed to get there.

Clearly I have always been a star in the lyric-writing department. When I was about five years old, I wrote a song with the words "I met all my friends...at my nursery school. Karina and Diana and Christina, too. I don't know if there's any more to do." and then repeat. I have no idea what that last phrase of the song meant, but I'm sure it was significant.

By far my best song was written, I think, when I was even younger than five (my sister can correct me if I'm wrong). This one was brilliant in its simplicity. I urge you to set these lyrics to the tune of your choice and give it a go: "Undies undies, bop bop bop. Undies undies bop bop bop. Undies undies undies bop bop bop. You look like a bop bop bop." Yup, that's right. Me. Mozart. Child prodigies, both.

About 10 years ago, I was in a production of "Henry IV, Part I" at Shakespeare & Company in Lenox, MA. This was when the theatre company was still performing at the Edith Wharton property, and the outdoor theatre was this wonderful wood stage behind the main house, surrounded by trees on three sides. We would often make our entrances from the woods, emerging out of the darkness and shadows of the trees into the lights of the stage. It was a magical spot for Shakespeare, and it makes me sad to think that there will be no more performances on that stage; the stage no longer exists now, and Shakespeare & Company has moved to an entirely different location.

"Henry IV, Part I" is one of my favorite Shakespeare plays, and I played a few small roles in this production: I was a traveller who got chased off into the woods; some sort of freaky Druid woman dressed all in black ( this was the worst because the mosquitos in an outdoor nighttime summer production in Massachusetts are, to put it mildly, aggressive, and we were supposed to remain absolutely still while getting eaten alive); and finally, a soldier on the battlefield.

"Henry IV, Part I" has a terrific battle scene which ends the play, and we had hours of stage combat training with broadswords and bows and arrows. Stage combat is spectacularly fun, because so much of selling it involves lots of vocal commitment; in other words, shout and grunt a lot. Practicing during the day in the sweltering summer heat was not always a joy (one person even fainted), but watching the whole cast performing in the evening with the swords glinting in the stage lights as people fought each other in and amongst the trees was pretty cool. We even had a few storms come in during these battles scenes, and hearing the thunder crash and the lightning reflect off the swords as the storm approached was beyond thrilling (until of course you realized you were holding a large lightning rod in your hand, and then it was just freaky).

I must admit, I was pretty darn good at the sword-play, but in the end, my role in the final battle scene was that of Crazy Mace Lady. I was given a baton with a black-painted plastic chain, at the end of which was a black nerf-ball with sponge spikes attached. In the stage lights, it looked pretty real, and my job was to go running through the battlefield, swinging my mace and bashing people, both dead and alive with it, while screaming bloody murder. This was not only loads of fun for me, but was also much loved by many of my cast-mates. We had such fun with it, that my friend Amanda and I wrote our very own heavy-metal song, inspired by Mace Lady.

Here are the lyrics: "Mace lady!! She's crazy!! Hit you in the face...with her mace!!!" Repeat. And repeat. And repeat. I know we wrote some other lyrics to go with that chorus, but I can't remember them now. I think we can all agree that's probably a good thing.

My wine for writing lyrics is Seven Hills Syrah Walla Walla Valley 2005. This Syrah is a beautiful inky garnety-purple color, which I feel is an appropriate salute to Mace Lady and the havoc she wreaked. It is a complex, subtle Syrah, with a nose and palate of raspberry, blueberry, figs, plums, black pepper. violets and clove. This would be a wonderful wine to have with beef stew, or steak au poivre, but would also be delicious on its own, say, while writing a song, or after a hard day of macing.

Please share your best mis-heard song lyrics in the comments section; they're always so much fun!