The Best Song Title of all Time
Impeded from enjoying an evening outdoors by merciless June rain, my wife and I found ourselves halfway down the Youtube rabbit hole. We were taking turns selecting video clips, mostly obnoxious punk rock footage, and somehow or other, I Hate You by the Monks popped up. Decent enough song (Big Lebowski fans will recognize it), but I was ecstatic to be reminded of the brilliant title. “Wow... I Hate You,” I said, “that's obviously the best song name of all time!”
Moon over Minervois: Clos du Gravillas
The rocky heights of the village of Saint-Jean de Minervois in France’s Languedoc indeed regularly produces grapes each year, subject to the universal vagaries of Mother Nature. In St. J de M, the celebrity grape (historically) here is the Muscat Blanc à Petits Grains, or just Muscat for short. Gorgeous, floral, exotically-scented sweet wines are synonymous with the village, but in this remote hamlet, more strange and wonderful things are to be found.
Morning as an Innervating Tonic
I begin writing this just before 5 a.m. It's a beautiful time of day when the few humans stirring might be particularly dedicated partiers, inordinately early risers, or just nocturnal. Excepting those whose vocations summon them involuntarily from their cozy beds, these hours are for the curious and the pensive. The world breathes differently in the early morning, sharing tranquil secrets with those who wish to discover them.
What Day is It?
A Little Tale…
These days, we often experience a sense of the loss of time. This bouleversement of points of reference and daily markers can be unusual, if not somewhat unsettling. It seems that story time (which is almost always) is getting a refresh. Fiction or documentary, fairytale or hard-core journalism. Story upon story. Here’s one I’d like to share. It’s one that can perhaps give you an insider’s knowledge of the workings of a small, independent wine shop called Metrovino, and our place in the big wide world.
Sage Behind the Weeds
2019 Wildman Wines “Astro Bunny”
Pét-Nat - Riverland, Australia $32
2019 Wildman Wines “Piggy Pop”
Pét-Nat - McLaren Vale, Australia $32
“The greatest pleasures of traveling are finding a sage hidden behind weeds or treasures hidden in trash, gold among discarded pottery. Whenever I encountered someone of genius, I wrote about it in order to tell my friends.”
- Matsuo Bashō
Raging Against the Quotidian
It was 8:00 a.m. and I was out in the sun raking the dead grass out of my lawn. Wearing a T-shirt with an image of Baudelaire and the slogan "Get Drunk” emblazoned upon it, and applying myself to the lifelong pursuit of comprehensive ear damage by blasting nauseatingly catchy '60s girl-group pop through my headphones, I dragged my green bin around the yard collecting the little piles of debris. I was even relatively well-rested and amidst this exceptionally domestic and mundane activity, I almost forgot how weird life has become.
In Praise of Alleyways
I must confess that I have long enjoyed the odd and often insalubrious appeal of the back alleys of cities. Vancouver, Paris, Madrid, Genoa and Calgary. Yes, Calgary. Nearly 25 years ago, we opened Metrovino in a location described forebodingly and dismissively as “a back alley”. Predictions of our commercial fate were not universally positive…
Nothing to Do but Live
The snow falls deep into April, and days that would have been considered pretty in December are now unwelcome, if not oppressive. I stare out the window and think about how atypically unsavory weather can be rendered irrelevant by exciting prospects. I suppose that in its own way, the authoritative instruction to assume that every fellow human that you see is almost certainly a vampire is mildly exciting.
Good Times, Baden Times
It was back in the days when people travelled; you know, those bygone times when you could eat in restaurants while travelling... It seems like a million years ago, but it was actually mid-February. I was sitting in a Scandinavian-influenced breakfast place in Portland at 8 am, enjoying a drink and wondering why Calgary's bylaws prohibit the service of alcohol at such a beautiful hour for imbibing.
