Vintage Tuesday - Wine, Food, Travel and Insanity

Howdy Ya’ll.  Greetings from Nashville, Tennessee.  What a place to celebrate Cinco de Mayo.  This is more of a beer and Tequila holiday and today we are right in country music’s epicenter.  Talk about as far away from wine as you can get - we found it.  The ever adventurous Trixie wanted to explore Second Avenue and Broadway where all the pubs (honky tonks as the locals call them) are located.  We go moseying along (gotta look like we fit in by “moseying”) checking out the different venues.  Country music was echoing out of every door that we walked by.   Resisting the urge to buy a cowboy hat and big belt buckle, we found the Hard Rock Café.  Yes!  Music that I understand.  I poked my head in the door and asked if they know where any live rock music was playing.  They looked at me as if I was from Mars.  Laughing, they said “Rock music around here?  Not a chance!”  OK, Trixie talked me off the ledge and said just roll with it Angus.  Tonight we’ll fake it as country music fans and learn what it’s all about.  I had a feeling this was going to be a bad night. 

As we continue “moseying” along Broadway, Trixie spots a place called “Tootsie’s Orchid Lounge”.  She yells out “Wholly Shiraz - I didn’t know I had a cousin that lives in Nashville - and she owns a bar!” Of course we have to go inside.  This was one of the oldest honky tonks where many of country music’s biggest stars played before they became famous.  It is the ultimate in elegantly tacky decor with a twist of fun and insanity - right up our alley.  This place had a huge beer drinking crowd so in a very quiet voice Trixie asks what kind of wine they have.  I’m thinking don’t even bother girl, you know the answer to that question.  Yep, here comes.  The predictable answer, we have both kinds red and white.  Where have I heard that one before.  OK,  we’ll have two whites.  Of course it was served in plastic cups and was everything you would expect it to be.  

Pretty soon the band took the stage.  Wow, this is embarrassing I actually know most of the songs they played and they were really good.  One of the songs was a Grateful Dead tune.  This is awesome!  - or so I thought.  Then the band announced it was written by some famous country music person that I can’t remember.  They never did mentioned the Dead.   

Before long I was tapping, thumping and foot stomping like everyone else - horrified, I realized I was becoming a country music fan.   No this can’t be happening - I almost felt like ordering a beer.  Trixie saw what was happening and gave me a smack on the back of the head yelling “Snap out of it Angus”  I don’t want to own a pickup truck. Dazed, I came back to my senses and ordered another glass of “white wine”.  It must have been the plastic cup, but the second glass was much better than the first.

I have to admit, I was completely wrong thinking tonight was going to suck.  Spending an evening with Trixie at Tootsie’s (say that three times fast) listening to the band play their heart out and singing about lost loves, old dogs, rusty pick up trucks and cheatin’ hearts was a hootin good time.

Happy Cinco Ya’ll

Angus

Any music lover knows these words - “All I’ve got is a red guitar - three chords and the truth.”   The legendary words of Bob Dylan’s All along the Watchtower were made famous by Jimi Hendrix and in later years covered by many other artists..  

I have been playing (torturing) guitar for a long time - and yes, it is Red.  A 1992 Fender Stratocaster so in honor of my very own special baby parked in front of the amplifier, we are celebrating with a Red Guitar 2005 Tempranillo from Spain.  Spain lays claim to the modern day 6 string guitar.  Could you imagine life with only wine and no guitars?  I guess that is better than guitars and no wine! 

My first guitar was the basic acoustic that my mom bought me for Christmas. However, my second guitar has a questionable past that I can’t get it to talk about.  Years ago when Trixie and I were in college, we would clean apartments in our complex as people moved out during the beginning of the school year.  There was one unit in particular, the “noisy” one down on the end that always had people’s attention.  The person that lived here did not seem to want to move out and it was the last day August 31 - D-day.  That evening he was still in there - we think.  There was some seriously loud music coming from inside.  The next morning, September 1^st we went upstairs, knocked on the door - no answer.  Was this guy alive?  The door was unlocked so we cautiously opened it yelling Hello.  As we gazed around the room,  it looked like he had not take the trash out all year.  The key was on the counter but we had to wade across a toxic waste dump to get to it.  We were thinking the EPA was going to show up at any moment.  

Walking around the dump, I saw an acoustic guitar propped up against the closet door.  It had a great sound and apparently it was now an orphan - being abandoned in the middle of the night.  Hey I could give this a good home.  Trixie and I opened the closet to look inside.  We were surprised to see it lined with aluminum foil and about 6 inches of dirt laying on the floor.  Trixie asked “what was all this - he must have been a real pig!”  This was the first time I had seen anything like this but I told her, “I think he was into indoor agriculture.”  The ever naive Trixie said  “So do you think he was a horticulture student and got an “A” on his class project?”  I just smiled and said - I don’t think so.  To this day I still have the guitar.  It sits here near my laptop at Vintage Tuesday’s world headquarters. 

The Red Guitar 2005 Tempranillo has a bit of a fruit and cherry taste with a hint of spice.  A great ruby color and a warm comfortable finish.  It makes a good reasonably priced wine that would go great with a hearty beef dish.  ….or just have it by itself with the hum of the amplifiers and the scream of the guitar. 

Here’s to Jimi, Bob, Eric and all the other legendary and not so legendary guitar players of the world.    And….   here’s to my Red Guitar

Cheers and Keep on Rockin!

Angus

Well we made another trip to our neighborhood wine shop to see the “wine wizard”.   We found a bottle with  an interesting label called “Cycles Gladiator”.  There is how you want to pick out wine - how interesting is the label!  I mentioned this one in the wineglish post a few days ago just because the title seemed odd to me.  

Now the problem I have with all of this is mixing wine with bicycles.  - yes this is the voice of experience!  Years ago I was an avid bicycler taking those crazy 100 plus mile trips pedaling my…. well you know, I was peddling it off.   These days I go in the garage, open the car door, turn the key, kick up the air conditioning, CD player, great tunes and all the creature comforts.  The bicycle only makes it out a few times a year for a leisurely cruise through the neighborhood. 

Once upon a time during a younger crazier time in my life, I was with friends in college and we had a little too much wine.  Oops - that only happened once - I promise!   At the end of the evening I had to ride my bicycle back to my college apartment.    Some of you think riding a bicycle can be a little tricky, try doing it without a sense of balance - or at least a temporary altered sense of balance.  I was riding across a pedestrian campus so cars were not a problem, but there were curbs and other adventurous obstacles that I had to avoid.  In those days I could ride 100 miles but that evening’s  1/2  mile ride home was quite an adventure.  So….. that is why the title puzzled me - bicycles and wine seemed like an odd combination. 

Much to my surprise, there actually was some thought that went into the label.  Now there’s a novel approach  - I’m glad someone else put some thought into it because I’m done thinking tonight.  The label and wine company are both based on a little bit of history.  (You are actually getting an education here!) At the peak of the early bicycle years during the late 1800’s (would love to try some wine from back then) a French painter G. Massias created a famous Parisian art poster of a new bicycle called  “Cycles Gladiator”  - Who knew?? 

Most pictures that I recall of the 1800’s bicycles always had some goofy looking guy with a big mustache in a suit riding a bike with an enormous front wheel - I always wondered how he even got on the bike.  Well this one is a little different.  There is definitely not a guy in a suit in this piece of art.  She seems to be floating behind the bicycle and makes a great picture for a wine bottle. The winery is named Cycles Winery in Soledad, CA - the Central Coast Region of California.    It was quite a nice bottle of wine with an interesting label .  Best of all it was only $9.99 which is right in line with the Vintage Tuesday budget (quarters stuck in the sofa).  I wonder if anyone will ever name a wine Schwinn Roadmaster?

Trixie and I popped this one open while listening to Amy Winehouse.  What a great combination, wine and winehouse - another one of those coincidences?  Many of you probably saw her perform at the Grammy’s recently .  I don’t watch much TV, but that night Trixie drug me kicking and screaming to the evil TV and I was mesmerized by her performance.  We had to run out and buy her latest CD Back to Black.  The music sent a shiver up my spine - it was also cold out, maybe that was it.  For a young British singer, she comes across with the heart, soul and attitude you might picture in a smoke filled lounge from decades ago with Etta James, Billie Holiday or one of the greats from that era.   If you like funky “off the trail” music, this CD is a great one.  She does a great remake of “Me and Mrs. Jones” appropriately renamed “Me and Mr. Jones.”

The Cycles Gladiator 2004 Merlot wine was quite good.  There are hints of spices and berries.  A very mellow red wine, the kind of wine we really enjoy.  Trixie thought she picked up a hint of smoke but I think it was the music from the CD!  That lounge thing was coming through.  If you are looking for a great combination of wine and music, Amy Winehouse and Cycles Gladiator wine can certainly do the trick.  Just don’t jump on the bike afterwards!

Cheers!

Angus