Square 5
The Quilt
Here are some images.
Breathing Room
The Vinturi really works, and not just because a dozen winemakers told me so. I got one. I tried it. It delivers.
Purists may scoff, but this clever glass device instantly aerates newly-opened wine, softening the finish and opening the flavors — as if the wine had been uncorked the day before and allowed plenty of time to breathe.
You simply hold the Vinturi — which works by depressurizing the liquid as you pour it through, and thereby pumping more air into the wine (physics!) — over your glass. Pour (see illustration) and voila!
The wine really does open into a more voluptuous, full-figured version of itself after a single pour. And you can repeat this as often as you like.
$39.95 – on Amazon, etc.
New World Sangiovese
Buy this wine! Having said that, let me briefly explain why $9.99 was never better spent than on the freshly-released Ca’ Del Solo Sangiovese 2006, from Bonny Doon Vineyard. Such liquid epiphany reminds us why our Italian brethren often know best, to wit the mighty grape that fueled ten thousand Chianti Classicos, that partnered untold numbers of bisteca fiorentina, and which now has received definitive New World treatment from that shaman of oeno-morphic resonance, Randall Grahm.
It’s beyond me how this brilliantly expressive, graceful, tannically-endowed bottle of wild herbs, dark fruit and dried cherries can cost under $10. But it does. And if you can’t find it at your favorite market, or wine shop then your eyes are probably closed.
(Here’s a hint: New Leaf.)
Sangiovese, biodynamically raised just down the road in Grahm’s San Benito County vineyard, big enough at 14.2 alc to stand up to any red sauce on the planet, yet bouyant enough to warrant a second glass. Better, as are all wines, on Day 2. Molto bene.
Cinematic Journey: Bill Raney’s Book
In 1967-68 Nickelodeon Theater founder Bill Raney took off in a VW van – with his wife JoAnne and their infant son, Zerky — for a year of quintessential hippie adventures around the world. Literally. From Portugal to Greece to Afghanistan to Thailand, with pitstops everywhere in between.
During the journey, Bill started writing letters to his little boy about the trio’s daily foibles and sweet moments, so that when Zerky grew up he would have a record of this amazing journey. But Zerky would never read those letters.
The following year – 1969 – Bill had just opened the new art theater in Santa Cruz, when both JoAnne and Zerky died. After 36 years stuffed into a back drawer, the letters Bill wrote were recently re-discovered and in a heroic labor of love (I’m still in tears over his introduction to the book), Bill published his chronicles as a legacy to his lost son.
The result – briskly edited from Bill’s letters and his late wife’s diary of the trip – is the rugged, fascinating, and ultimately almost unbelievable account of a year that couldn’t ever be repeated today.
Letters to Zerky will be unveiled at a kick-off book talk and event at the Nick, at 11am on Easter Sunday, April 12. Go find out that there was a whole lot more to the crusty movie maven than simply a crewcut and a few velour shirts.
Inside the Flame
A book of sensory adventure: The rituals, passions and discoveries of an engaged life.