Two Great Wines, Two Big Gripes

I have neither Ranted nor Raved for some time, not because I have mellowed in my old age, but because I am perennially out of time. However, I am motivated by two Rave wines and two Gnawing public policy issues.

Rave No 1: Sorrel ’05 Hermitage: the most exciting wine I have tasted in several years.

Not surprisingly it is Syrah and it comes from Hermitage in the northern Rhone; in my opinion, the source of France’s best red wine value. My first sniff of J M B Sorrel’s 2005 Hermitage “Ler Vigneron” Lot 8 set my heart racing, my first sip left me ecstatic - Berlioz’s Symphony Fantastic playing on my palate. But it comes at a price - $89.99! In this economic climate? I hesitated for a minute or two, but then concluded “To hell with it - this is too good to pass up” A Super Rick’s Rave.

Rave No 2: My “Ultimate Turkey Wine”

With Thanksgiving just around the corner, and Christmas close behind I remind you of Montferrant Rosé Cava (Spanish sparkling wine), which, with every passing year, gains more and more fan. If you are already hooked you’ll need no reminder. It makes everyone happy -young, old, big red wine lovers (once they get over their sparkling Rosé phobia), and even lovers of fruity wine.

How does one wine do all of that? Lets start with the white meat/white wine shibboleth, which I do not accept. Delicately flavored food needs delicately flavored wine - the flavor of lobster is obliterated by an oaky, buttery Chardonnay, but complemented by a crisp, minerally Chablis, which is Chardonnay from the Chablis region of Burgundy. The day-after Thanksgiving, that cold turkey sandwich could go with either a white or a light red, but that Thanksgiving dinner with all the flavorful stuffing, gravy and tasty accompaniments, is a candidate for full-flavored red, like a big muscular Zin, which may not be the choice of many members of a family gathering.

So, bring on the Montferrant Rosé Cava! It is a relatively dark rosé, made mainly of Monastrell, the Spanish name for the French grape called Mourvedre, a tasty red that lurks in many southern French wines, and which gives Montferrant its bright black-fruit bouquet and its dark delicious fruit. In addition it has a tangy touch of tannin and the ability to stand up to that full-flavored turkey. Last, but not least. it is festive and should be served chilled.. Make your Thanksgiving and Christmas turkey memorable. $19.99/17.99 (bottle/bottle-by-the-case, mix or match). Open for tasting every day till Thanksgiving!

It occurs to me that over the past six months my Rants have been piling up, urging me to let them out. Only a few Rick’s Rants are non-wine-based - but letting them out makes me feel better.

Rant No 1: Employer-based health-care.

I understand that, like all members of Congress, those two senators, who have been haranguing us of late, have unlimited life-time health care paid by their employers - us the taxpayers. Is that socialized medicine?
If either or both recognize that health care “insurance”, of the kind we taxpayers are offered, is unlike any other kind of insurance, they are too smart to admit it. Conventional home insurance for example, is based on the fact that the statistical chance that any house will burn down does not generally increase year to year, but as individuals, it is a foregone conclusion that our healthcare needs increase as we get older. The insurance industry would prefer to insure the young who feel that they do not need it and prefer not to insure the old who do need it. They are able to increase premiums to the point where those who need it can no longer afford it. It used to be called highway robbery.

Rant No 2: Those bailouts.

If I am unable to sell that Rave No 1 wine can I get in line, behind GM for a bailout even though I knew, when I bought it, that any Rick’s Pick at $89 would be a tough sell? GM knew, in 1973, what was coming and they “downsized” the tanks that we were driving at that time. In the course of time oil prices dropped, perhaps with malice aforethought, killing the plans for alternate energy resources spawned by the1973 embargo, and it encouraged the auto industry’s highly profitable promotion of trucks gussied up as SUVs. The geniuses at GM, in mid-2008, suddenly woke up to the fact that SUVs would no longer fly and that they needed $125 billion and an undisclosed number of years to bring a replacement to market while they burn through billions in cash.

It brings to mind GM’s “Hydrogen Economy” PR red herring in 2003, which I believed then, and still do, was aimed at perpetuating the highly profitable SUV era and delaying the inevitable. It made no economic sense and even less technological sense. It led the lay public and many decision makers to believe that you could dig a hole in the ground and find hydrogen, just like we find coal, oil natural gas and uranium - that was the deceptive implication of “zero emissions”.

The supply of hydrogen is unlimited - simply separate it from water. But that requires energy. Electricity is the easiest way, and when you generate electricity in a hydrogen fuel cell you get back electricity (and the water you started with), but less electricity than you used to generate the hydrogen in the first place.

So hydrogen is a form of energy, just like electricity. Neither is a source of energy.

We have a huge infrastructure, probably reflecting an investment in the trillions, for generating and distributing electricity. For the hydrogen economy we start from scratch. What is more, we now have unused capacity for recharging electric vehicles during the night-time hours.

I am surprised that Honda has a limited number of hydrogen fueled cars on the road in California. At least they have put their money where their mouth is. All it takes to relegate GM’s hydrogen economy to the dust bin of history is a major break-through in battery technology!
I read recently that Warren Buffet has invested a few billion dollars in a Chinese company dedicated to research on battery technology and manufacturing electric cars!

Rick Lewis

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