Inmates of the Asylum

Here I be with Alexis, and Don and Shirley Regole, (party animals native to Tucson) and again below, with Paula Woolsey, the Asylum's owner. I did the first winemaker dinner there in 2002, and am still allowed back.

The Asylum in Jerome, AZ

The culinary center of the blazing new Verde Valley, Arizona wine scene is the fantastic Asylum restaurant in Jerome -theasylum.biz- where I had a long liquid dinner with owner Paula Woolsey. This is the Wild West wine frontier of America, and I played a bit of a role in the early days several years ago when I spent a lot of hang time at the first winery in the area, the late great Echo Canyon. Their first Syrahs showed that the area was capable of making world class wines, and now with Page Springs and Merkin established, and PlumpJack moving in, the Verde Valley has a bright ethanolic future.

The newest wine bar in Vegas, the SleezeNCheeze!

At a remote location in Baja Henderson Nevada, Flip Flop Frank and neighbors got a head start on Alexis and I, as at our earlier appointment (see the post below) we actually had to talk while others drank. We remedied this when we got to the SleezeNCheeze . . . . thanks Frank!

CES Blogger party in Vegas -

Here we see the Siren and I (with Marilyn) at the awesome CES blogger party, ItWontStayInVegas.com held at the thermonuclear AtomicTestingMuseum.org on Flamingo just east of the Strip.

Of course we missed the wine library nut, Gary Vaynerchuk (http://tv.winelibrary.com/) but we poured wine for the extremely well dressed LeVar Burton, who complimented my gold suit and my Black Zeppelin, and philologist Marina Orlova of HotForWords.com who didn't blink when I mentioned pentanol and aldehydes.

Bottling on Elvis' birthday, done!!!

147 cases of burning love; the 2007 Stillman Syrah, Arroyo Seco. Unfiltered, clone 877, cool climate, 2 year old French oak, minimalist label. I'll drag some with me to Vegas and Sedona for sampling, then leave it alone when bottle shock sets in late next week. It'll be fine by Valentine's Day, when I will unleash it on the novice lovers of White-Trash-By-The-Sea, also known as Cayucos, California.

Amateur lovers? Of course, just as New Year's Eve is for novice partiers.

What wine goes with wild boar?

For the moment, a Tudor Pinot Noir. But since the piggies are attacking my prospective grower's other crops (avocados, berries) I think I should be proactive. Yes, that's a real spear.

The complexity of winemaking -

To judge by this blog, my life is just one party after another. And that's true, though in between I have the pleasure of haranguing vineyard owners to plant what I want them to instead of what they think will sell five years from now, haggling with mendacious cork and label suppliers over wildly varying prices for the same type of product, dealing with lying wine salesmen without succumbing to enological Tourette's syndrome or just reaching for a spear, and other terroir du merde. Can't they understand that I'm an artist?

That's enough complaining for this year.

I'm really looking forward to the geek blogger party in Vegas on Friday, where I can answer my least favorite question, "So how did you become a winemaker?" with my favorite answer.
"I made the best damn pruno in San Quentin, bitch."