Happy Sixth Anniversary Juliet

Happy Sixth Anniversary Juliet! This little piece, surely you've come to expect, is a quasi state of our union. This address encapsulates the hows, the whys, and the hopes, I spend hours of my weeks considering. In the 9th year of our togetherness, I have finally started to believe you like me. While I still have some trouble liking myself, you demonstrate everyday that you have some inexhaustible capacity for enduring this impulsive, and whimsical man you married. Now that we are about to return to our passion for overseas travel, it seems a fitting time to tell you some things that make me happy about you, and where we are in life.

When you  wander in to my office, after I have let you sleep in, I am so excited to see you. It is as if my joy really awakens at the instant I hear your sweet morning voice.

When you emerge from the train, after a very long day at work, I am eager to provide you a safe haven to share your day's stories with me.

Your attire, while always a challenge of time in the selection, is an area for which I may admire your taste, and your ability to marry color and class. This is the yearly comment on your scarves (you all knew there had to be at least one). You will be challenged on our trip to find a new balance when wearing the scarves on your head. However, I already know I will be able to find you among the myriad of tourists, worshippers, and staff. Your style, grace, and particular movements, will make you immediately discernible, as the most elegant woman in a museum or mosque.

Juliet, I am not sure how it is for other people. I just cannot wait to be home, with you, no matter where I go. Yes, I need to work, and I have been away more in our last year than at any time I have known you. I can say with all surety, I don't like it. I do not like being far from you. You are my sounding board, my moral compass, and my coping mechanism. I am not macho (much), or the silent strong type. I do not hide my emotions, or need to be out with the boys in order to feel like a man. I am rather repulsed by the idea of revelry that does not include your joy as well.

I can fool no one. The world knows my affection for you is beyond the range of human norms. I am far from normal, and your love and patience are also beyond these established social parameters.

To borrow a phrase from the GH, who cares! Our army of two is enough to weather the daily bevy of shit that is dosed out to us. We are not naive enough to expect the "starms" won't come. We have, luckily, had the forethought to build a bunker of mutual respect, in order to weather them.

I am so glad you tried me on 6 years ago. I hope that I still fit. We have found some stability to our wanderlust, but only long enough to refuel it. I wonder what your powers of observation can assess from these new travels. I wonder if I am capable of seeing the world more clearly, because of your belief in our travel.

Back to things that make me happy...

When I see you sit up strong and sure, eating something you would never have dreamed of, just a few short years ago, I inflate with pride. Your passion for food is highlighted by your supernatural sense of smell. A corked wine cannot escape you. A cigarette, smoked in 2003, in front of a wind tunnel, remains as pervasive as ever to your keen senses. At times your nose betrays you, with its rampant running. If not, I might be convinced you are not of this earth. And of course, in my world, you are not, and I love that. I love watching your observations unravel a foppish pedant. Although you wouldn't verbally assail his folly, your eyes tell me all I need to know. Faced with the prospect of poor company, we run to the safety of a salty dog, in utilitarian bar. Afterwards, we climb steps to our newest home. Then we sit over Miles Davis at breakfast, and consider the grind of our coffee, laughing that we care, but caring even more. Our food life is how we fill in the spaces. It is how we use our curiosity when we cannot be away from home.

We are returning this 6th year. We are returning to the adventures we were born to experience. It is never easy, and I suppose it could not be. The pull of the past, and the ease at which we believe we can manage anywhere, are polarizing forces in our lives. The days grow quicker and so we must embrace our experiences, this love, and the great fortune of being alive. We must live this gift, and make our mightiest effort to be the best of ourselves. It is the best of ourselves that attracted us to one another, and it is the worst of ourselves that bonds us tighter, and gives us pause. We pause for laughter, self-deprecation, and the ease at which we can be ridiculous, without judgement.

I think this is the crux of it all, right Juliet? The reason we are who we are, is because we are allowed to be. Our home, our dreams, and our fondest minutes exist in the details only known, sensed, and remembered, by us. We may share them without fatigue, and to our final waking moments before sleep each night.

That is the moment when I may be the most happy.  When I watch you drift into dreaming, I listen to the breathy nature of your voice, and rest easy knowing you are there, in love with me.

As I am most assuredly in love with you.

Happy Anniversary Juliet!

Michael

Housewrighter Featured in Purely Domestic Wine Report

Sunrise in the Alexander Valley

The Housewrighter is currently featured in the wonderful wine industry insider's guide, Purely Domestic Wine Report. My friend, Doug Wilder, is a fascinatingly observant man. His keen knowledge of the domestic wine industry has led him to discover many of the nation's cult wines, long before they became household names. I met Doug years ago, when we both worked at Vinfolio in San Francisco. However, I only really got to know him when we spent a day working with the iPhone camera. Now, Doug produces his glossy publication solely with images he takes with his iPhone. That is how powerful this tool can be, and how well Doug uses it. In his writing, and in his photos, there is a deeply considerate artist at work.

Now, and thanks to Doug, I can offer my readers a complimentary issue just by clicking this link, Purely Domestic Wine Report . If you enjoy domestic wines, and want an inside track to what is excellent, up and coming, and recently released, just enjoy this complimentary issue, then sign up for PDWR. My readers receive hugely discounted subscription rates of $45 for online only and $75 (a savings of $45 off the normal $120) for the online and print. The printing is gorgeous, and all of the artwork pops. I leave mine out on the coffee table and people are immediately drawn to them when visiting our home. Doug has been really great to me, promoting my work as an artist. I would love to give back to him. Check out the Purely Domestic Wine Report, and look for more of my work in the future.

Thank you for taking the time to support my photography, and share in this passion for wine and wine lifestyle.

Cheer y'all!

Michael

The Blue Rock Chronicles - Blending

Kenny Kahn and Graduated Cylinders, in Baby Blue, of Course

The Blue Rock Chronicles is my year-long journey, in residence, with Blue Rock Vineyard in Sonoma County's Alexander Valley. Recently, I had the great privilege of sitting in, and joining, the blending of Blue Rock's most popular wine, Baby Blue. My favorite part of being a wine merchant, for many years, was the opportunity to taste so many finished wines upon their releases. Now, after the many thousands of prêt à boire products I have tried, for which I believed many could have been better with my professional input, I was getting my chance to put my money where my mouth is.

Well, let's just say, not only was I bad, I would have likely ruined Baby Blue, and the winery's reputation had I been given the final say in the blend. Gut instincts, guesses, and my long-held beliefs as to which varieties of grapes contribute which characteristics to a wine, were summarily dismissed for real chemistry, mastery of phenolics, and years of blending practice. What do I mean by this? It takes experience, knowledge, and the ability to thin-slice where a wine comes from, in order to know where it will finish (pun intended). In other words, blending wine is a job for professionals.

Great wines are made in the vineyard, is one of the most commonly heard adages in the wine biz. I think this statement, while true in the sense that poor grapes never make great wine, is mostly marketing. It is promulgated to the public via Sommeliers, retailers, and the media in part to cultivate a pervasive ideology of farm to table. The notion that the farmer is the gatekeeper to great wines has attained almost myth status in the industry. I believe great wine is "made" in great wineries. A vineyard can produce grapes sent Fedex from heaven, but if the associated winery is unclean, the winemaker is reckless, and the fermenting conditions are less than ideal, these grapes will yield a crap wine. Great wine is a symbiosis of farm, and skill. A hardy vineyard must deliver its yield to an equally healthy winery. After the harvest, and even after the fruit becomes wine, this is where a new game becomes afoot. How a wine is finished is very similar to a chef plating food. A professional cook uses finishing salts, careful garnishes,  and sauces to deliver something visually appealing, and with complex flavors. A great winemaker makes incremental decisions, during blending, in order to determine balance, acidity levels, richness, and mouthfeel. It is this stage, that I experienced blending Baby Blue. This is a final hurdle that either makes or breaks a wine.

Meet Miro Tchalokov, Blue Rock's consulting winemaker. Miro hails from Bulgaria, and learned winemaking and viticulture at one of Eastern Europe's most important universities for agriculture. Under the radar, which is how he appears to like it, he quietly makes excellent wines at Trentadue winery, and consults on several others, including Blue Rock. In one evening, sitting and tasting with Miro, I learned more about the craft of winemaking than in all of the winery visits, research, and personal experiences I have had. Kenny and Miro are a wonderful juxtaposition of dreamer to pragmatist, yet they are both artistically inclined. Miro would add a little of the merlot, I would expect one outcome, it would be another, a better one. Kenny would suggest some of the vineyard cab, I would be sure it would be too much, it would be perfect. I would offer a suggestion here and there, Miro would humor me, and watch my face sink as the suggestion proved to be fruitless. We were, after all, blending Baby Blue. Blue Rock's most successful wine may have come about from a happy accident, after a challenging vintage for the reserve wines, but now it has a life of its own. It is a fan favorite, a great value in California wine of this ilk, and made by the deft hands of dedicated artisans. Sixteen years I spent tasting wines for a living. I can tell you very quickly where a wine is from, its relative makeup, and its age. However, I have no idea how to blend an unfinished wine. I am so glad these guys do, and that they paid me no real mind, other than to show me so many things I did not know, and likely never will know, at least not like they do. The 2013 vintage of Baby Blue will be outstanding, because Blue Rock is an excellent winery, that happens to grow beautiful fruit, and they have some serious winemaking firepower. Luckily for them, and for Blue Rock clients, they kept my blending input on the periphery. This certainly must have given Miro and Kenny a modicum of self-satisfaction, and a  little touch of, "take that wine Mr Wine Professional."

Stay tuned, as next time, as I experience southern hospitality, at a Northern California wine lunch.

Housewrighter embeds with Blue Rock Vineyard

The 19th Century Farmhouse.

The Housewrighter has embedded with Blue Rock Vineyard for a 1 year exploration of an estate, its winery, and the people who manage them. Kenny Kahn is the magnanimous owner of Blue Rock, in the Alexander Valley. This, recently fashionable, enclave of excellent wine is showing up all over the press lately. Blue Rock is one of the reasons it is. The wines are excellent, but I am not here to write about wine flavors, organoleptic compounds, or scores from critics. I am here to talk about people, to share my observations living at the winery once a month, and to learn just what the hell goes on day-to-day during the winery year. It all starts with Kenny, a native of Memphis, and while his southern charm is evident, do not be mislead by the lilt of his voice when he describes his estate. Kenny is no bumpkin. He is cool, well-dressed in French berets, country denim, and possessing the savoir-faire to relate to kings and countrymen. He is clearly well-traveled and conscious of his presentation.  In the first 15 minutes of hanging out with him, it is apparent he owns the place, and not just in deed, but in show.

In October of last year I took his photo for a Wine Enthusiast article about the Alexander Valley. In minutes I, could feel the wheels turning, and within an hour, we were talking about collaborating. He was looking to grow his presence on the web and get new images of his gorgeous property. I explained, that I am a storyteller, first and foremost. I would be happy to work with him on new images, but the story would have to come from our interactions, my observations, and that the winery year would dictate the storylines. We quickly agreed to meet again on this subject, and shortly after Wine Enthusiast sent my images to print, Kenny Kahn called.

"Can you come up once a month, stay in the farmhouse, see what we do?" said Kenny, rather matter-of-factly. It took me about a second and a half to accept. I was in the wine industry for 16 years, but I have never worked in a winery, or experienced the inner workings of the winemaking operation. Blue Rock is no juggernaut in terms of size, yet it produces several thousand cases of wine,  and Kenny is the only full-time employee of the winery. No question that the man is a hard worker. The vineyards are another story, but not an altogether different one. The immigrant family that toils the earth for Blue Rock is an exceptional saga of its own, and I relish the opportunity to share it with you in the coming months. We agreed I would come up in January, and at least once a month from there.

I arrived at Blue Rock last week in a rented Dodge Ram 1500 with a Hemi. If I was going to live a winery life, once a month for a year, I needed a proper vehicle. Kenny greeted me in the middle of the one-way road  at the site of a broken-down tractor, getting a jump start. "That's how things go at a winery Michael, things break, they all cost a ton of money to fix, but if you don't fix them, you can't do the work." We jumped in the car (a winery appropriate Korean luxury sedan) with Laika (the ubiquitous, and immediately charming, winery dog), and headed to lunch, on a cool sunny day. We drove through the vineyards and Kenny explained some of the history of the area. We got serious tacos at a taqueria where we appeared to be the only gringos in the joint. "The place fills with vineyard workers every evening", said Kenny ripping into a bowl of outstanding and spicy salsa. He warned me the salsa had some kick, and being a native Texan, I devoured 2 to 3 chips before I allowed any heat to settle. If it was going to come, I wanted it to come hard. It did, I was sweaty, and sated.

From there we decided to drive back to Blue Rock through Dry Creek, land of Zinfandel. A farming community for a century or more, Dry Creek is now starting to show signs of powerful monied influences. All around Sonoma county there are new restaurants, lively markets, and folks clamoring for a life that simply got ignored, and left to the "locals" for a hundred years. Now, it's cool to go to wine country. Who needs a flight to Champagne, when there is so much incredible life to be lived right in the American backyard. Blue Rock is this backyard. French country in style, Memphis proud in hospitality, and decidedly American in its optimism. On our way up the stairs, back at the farmhouse, I could not help but notice the light from the carefully placed windows on the landing. The sun was setting low over the high hills in back of the estate, and it was shining a beam of warmth through the afternoon haze. I grabbed my Nikon and emphatically skipped down the stairs to see.

I had always heard that vineyards go dormant in the winter. There is nothing dormant about these lands. The mustard flowers, the essential insects, the birds, and the beautiful sunshine suggest something closer to a botanical orgy, than dormancy. I knew at that point in my day, I had made the right decision. I would tell the story of this place, and I would be better for doing it. Although I am not sure I still need the Ram truck.

Join me next week when we meet Kenny's neighbor and I sit in on the blending of the famous Blue Rock Vineyards, Baby Blue Wine.

Housewrighter Nominated for Prestigious Photo Award

One of my Nominated Images

The Housewrighter was just nominated for a prestigious photography award by the industry-leading website Hipstography. I would very much appreciate your vote. Just follow this link VOTE for HOUSEWRIGHT and vote for my COMBO 280 - Michael Housewright.

Hipstography is the recognized leader in presenting images from one of the iPhone's most dominant photo apps, Hipstamatic. The site is curated by the very talented and passionate Eric Rozen. I was a fan of the site before I was a contributor. My Pacific Coast Series (Combo 280) is an example of how artistically powerful the tool can be, and how striking the coast of California is, even in the absence of color.

Please consider voting for me, and sharing this page with your friends. More exciting news about The Housewrighter coming this week.

Stay Tuned,

Michael