THE GURGLING COD

Beaujolais not-so-nouveau

Spotted in the local supermarket on 9 August:

Weak dollar or no, $10.99 is pricey for BN in November, let alone August. Aged BN is, however, the favorite of a certain musically talented feline. If I ran a supermarket, and I was sitting on a ton of BN, I'd start Free Sangria Fridays.

Hi, Neighbor!

Those of you who grew up right will recognize the title phrase as the first part of the slogan for longtime Sox radio sponsor Narragansett. The brand got a relaunch a few years back, and they've renewed their commitment to being neighborly.

Mostly.

How do you get between those little legs?

Balk steps to Robert Parker (no, the other one) with some thoughts on box wine.* The phrase "ladybug taint" inevitably recalls the joke about smelling moth balls, the punchline of which appears as the title of this post. And while we are on the subject of insect genitals, boxwine, when will the Man make juiceboxes of Beaujolais Nouveau available? And speaking of ladybugs, pretext enough to post up the disco-era nugget that makes "Yummy, Yummy, Yummy," seem like "The Jack of Hearts."
*You got The Awl up in your RSS? You should.

If you got a nickel, and I got a dime, let's get together, borrow an additional $74.85, and drink some wine

These hard economic times* are affecting us all. Even doctors:
The University of California at San Francisco has told medical faculty members that they cannot spend more than $75 in university money on a bottle of wine at a recruitment dinner or other official event, The San Francisco Chronicle reported. A by-the-glass limit of $15 was also set. A spokesman said that most professors understand the need to limit such spending, but that there have been periodic incidents that prompted the new rules. He noted one recently rejected expense voucher for a dinner for six people where half the bill was for wine.
Lest non-academic readers of the Cod jump to the conclusion that life in the academy is like a non-stop party on Robert Parker's yacht, rest assured that most of us do not roll like Bay Area doctors. The per diem at my day job is $32 for meals (out of state): $7 for breakfast, $9 for lunch, $16 for dinner. It's fun, sometimes, to calculate how deep that gets you into a meal that involves eating at a restaurant where people it might be useful to eat with would eat (usually, a tray of olives and a cocktail).
*Contemplating a recession-themed mixtape, tentatively titled "A Dance to the Tune of Economic Decline." Suggestions?

Kashmir Mouthfeel

Well-placed operative Aeneas passes along the following gem:

THE GREAT LED ZEPPELIN WINE PAIRING

 

A SPECTACULAR EVENING OF WINE, FOOD…

and ROCK’N’ROLL OF AN AWESOME VINTAGE!

 

"I HAVE FUN"  AUTHOR MIKE EDISON TO JOIN WINE EXPERTS IN AN UNPRECEDENTED CELEBRATION!

 

A NEW CONCEPT IN WINE TASTING AT BECCO, TUESDAY MARCH 17

 

New York, NY --  Hey fellas, have you heard the news?  On March 17th, visionary restaurateur and viticulturist Joe Bastianich will “Bring It On Home” to his flagship restaurant, Becco, for an unprecedented evening of wining, dining, and grooving with the music of Led Zeppelin.

 

The idea for this event was born when Joe and his friend, hedonistic author and journalist Mike Edison (I Have Fun Everywhere I Go — Savage Tales of Pot, Porn, Punk Rock, Pro Wrestling, Talking Apes, Evil Bosses, Dirty Blues, American Heroes, and the Most Notorious Magazines in the World) were pondering just how big a wine would be needed to be paired successfully with the monster riffs of their favorite band. An explosive Burgundy with “Black Dog”? Perhaps something more earthy to enjoy with “Stairway to Heaven”? And of course, a heady Pinot Noir to tipple with “Going to California.”

 

Joining Joe and Mike is wine writer and expert David Lynch, who will argue, among other things, what wine goes best with the dry notes of the epic "Kashmir," or the salty, off-the-bone meat of "Heartbreaker." Together they will guide you through a “set list” of wines from around the world paired with your favorite Zep tunes.

 

In addition, Chef Billy Gallagher has created a menu that will leave you singing — six courses, one for each of the first six Zep records (including Zep I through Zep IV, Physical Graffiti & Houses of the Holy), with two wines per course.

 

Says Joe —  “The great earth bears fruit in wine and song. Libation and Led Zeppelin!”

 

Tickets are only $175 per person, inclusive of tax, tip, a special parting gift — and of course, a “Whole Lotta Love.” But seating is limited.  Call 212.397.7597 and ask to speak with Jim Brigman or Jeremy Ensey to reserve your seats early.

I was asked to provide satire, but I think it's built right on in. I do welcome your wine and song pairings as I fill a tumbler with ice wine and put on some Celine.

Dom? More of a shower.

The Gurgling Cod has been meaning to say more about The National, the downtown outpost of Hugh Acheson's Athens, GA empire. They do handsome Sunday suppers that Suzanne Goin better watch out for.* They have a Tuesday Dinner and a Movie deal with Athens Cine' cheap and good enough that even the most socially maladrioit, can't-spell-Knowshon UGA film nerd undergrad might just get to kiss someone prior to graduation. They have a charming staff, great drinks, and a lovely space. None of that actually got the Cod out of slackjawed Tumblr paralysis and into an actual post on the joint. However, word of the Grower Champagne Dinner** on the 10th of December rallied me to action. Because I wanted to make the shower champagne vs. grower champagne joke. Sorry. It does not appear that Peter Dale, CDC at the National, is kidding around with the menu. If you are checking it out, be sure to practice your most histrionic delivery of "Champagne for my real friends, and real pain for my sham friends."

*I can just see Acheson rolling through Hollywood, with one of those car PAs you can get at Radio Shack, being all like "Lucques... I am your father." (Freeals, based on my one experience, the Lucques Sunday Supper gets more unwarranted love than Will Muschamp and Kevin Barnes rolled into one.)
**It actually has nothing to do with boners. But "there is a growing recognition in the region that its viticulture has become slovenly"? Damn. They don't do PR like this in the States.

If the Archbishop of Canterbury got a nickel, and you got a dime...

 ...you can get together and drink some wine.

The first "director of hospitality and welcome" at an English cathedral has unveiled far-reaching plans to make its operations more business-like.
Mark Hope-Urwin, a former executive with the John Lewis deparment stores chain, has been recruited by Birmingham Cathedral to oversee a radical change to its image and branding.
His plans, revealed today, include a chain of city-centre wine bars and "loyalty cards" for regular worshippers to obtain discounts at the cathedral's shops.
The new appraoach to attracting and retaining worshippers could become a blueprint for dioceses across the country
The wine bars would feature stained-glass windows, pictures on a religious theme and be decorated in "episcopal purple".

Two things:
1) The Episcopal Church, of which the flesh-and-blood host of the Cod is a sometime congregant, has plenty of other stuff on the table, and now has its very own Buddy Christ.
2) I have a hard time not believing that this is one of those deliberately lame efforts on the bluff the listener game on Wait, Wait, Don't Tell Me -- one of the ones where you imagine a disgruntled Roy Blount, Jr. is huffing Ancient Age fumes from a rag, and hurling spitballs at Paula Poundstone.

Clamato anticlimax

I enthusiastically support foods that are regionally popular in spite/because most other people find them appalling. Boiled peanuts are one example, lutefisk a more extreme example. In New England, clam juice is actually something that you find in the supermarket, not urbandictionary.com. If I ran a brunch place in New England with a Bloody Mary bar (a series of pretty big ifs, granted), I would make sure clam juice was available, if only to allow the hungover Yankee to frighten and repulse his hungover non-Yankee brunch companion with the spectacle of spiking his road back to equilibrium with the juices of a bivalve. At the same time, a well-crafted michelada can be a nice alternative to the 96 oz margarita one would order in its place. But the Budweiser & Clamato mashup pictured at left? It might just be too awesome.
More generally, this is a product that partakes of a larger swath of products that seems to be based on the notion that consumers are incapable of combining things in their home. It's unclear, for instance why people buy hot n spicy V8, when it's not hard to keep a bottle of Tabasco around. Of course, there are people who  get rich inventing things like sliced apples in bags, and I'm a diehard opponent of bottled salad dressing, but with the exception of Goober Grape for stoners, do any of these premixes have some unseen advantage over their plainer sources?

Stanley Cup Tasting Notes

Worth also noting that the Red Wings partied like the champs they are:

That's Veuve Clicquot, not some Methode Chumpanoise fizzy plonk.

No Chateau Neuf du Papi?

Deadspin is not often where grist for the Cod's mill comes from, but the morning trawl pulled  up news of Longball Vineyards. I am generally pro-altruism, and have lived and died with the Red Sox since birth. But I am just not feeling the Manny Being Merlot, the Schilling Schardonnay, or the CaberKnuckle. Partly, "Charity Wines" gets me off on the wrong foot. It may be idiosyncratic, but "Charity Wines" somehow seems like it should be importing "Chateau De Pity Fuck." But mostly the names -- the puns make it hard for me to take either the wines or the charities seriously. I would be interested from hearing from folks who know the wines, but I suspect this may in part be a way to sell some five-dollar Chilean bottles for twelve dollars. Also, there is no information that I can see about how much of the sale price goes to the charity. These folks are doing more than I am for charity, and I feel like a churl for pointing out my reservations but here is my advice to generous Red Sox fans who like to drink wine. 1) Go to The Wine and Cheese Cask, have them pick out a bottle or two for you. 2) Go home and break off a check for The Jimmy Fund.