just got back from napa.

best wines we had  while there:

97 seavey
97 dunn
06 kosta browne
05 pride cab

was totally disappointed/underwhelmed by pretty much everything else including:
keenan
sherwin family
plumpjack
del dotto
vineyard 29
cult wine central (they have an adequate pahlmeyer theyre tasting on, the rest is swill)

seriously, from a wine perspective the place is a joke. everything is so full of sugar and oak and not really holding the quality of fruit it needs to to pull it off.
lmao. in my young wine life i already have to write off napa as an overpriced overhyped joke??? lame…

random notes:

im not complaining at all about the tastings/tours btw, just about the quality of the wines poured. with the exception of the super retarded kuleto tour and tasting (tourist trap) everyone was somewhere between fair and great as far as tasting staff and tour quality go (most leaning toward great). everything i really liked which was literally close to only the four wines tasted about was tasted at dinner with the exception of the 05 pride cab (nothing else there impressed at all btw). i would like to say that terra valentine and barnett had potential however.

bouchon was the best food by far although more crowded noisy and slow then the one in vegas which is more refined. terra was okay, the fried quail was great, but i had to send back my lamb entree, it sucked. press was also good, the steaks were very good and rest of the food was just okay.

the del dotto cave tour turns into a tacky hilarious drunken vegas style thing late in the afternoon with the right tour guide (the drew carey look a like) and the right people doing the tour with you (texans). would definitely return for this.
we stayed in a fairly brilliant vacation home:

http://www.vrbo.com/42570

the thing that was best about it was it was right in the heart of st. helena which means it was right in the middle of wine tasting rooms to the north and south (or is it east/west?). either way, good place, good price, great location.

just got back from portland. went wine tasting saturday.
went to four places:

argyle: quiet room, all sparkling wines, a little boring, definitely overpriced (the wines, not the tasting). nice nevertheless.

owen roe: had an appt and met with zoe who was really awesome and showed us around the place which was abuzz with work during
harvest time. then tasted on about ten wines, i took notes and put them on cellartracker. picked up a few of the lady rosa syrah and yakima valley red which is a
bordeaux blend that was the finest of the bunch. unfortunately they werent tasting on the cabs, one of which ive had and loved.

domaine drouhin: amazing view, amazing room/facillity, great chardonnay (almost bought one), and very boring overpriced pinot noir.

boedecker: visited husband and wife team stewart and athena in their new facility in portland. they were very cordial and showed to us and explained tons of stuff
going on during harvest time. we tasted a chardonnay that was great, the 05 athena pn, and the 06 stewart pn (not yet released). they were all excellent. then they
let us taste bin samples of fresh grape juice which was interesting. we chatted for a long time (i had 3 friends with me) and then bought a ton of wine and split.

great trip.

im really proud of our latest release. it was recorded at vpro in amsterdam when we went on a small tour of europe a couple years ago. you can read a review here:

http://earconditionednightmare.blogspot.com/2008/09/gang-wizard-god-time-universal.html

if you want to hear some old stuff we did in 04 it’s here:

 http://www.aerohead.us/dba/sound/gw/youngmoney/youngmoney.htm

in other news i played 1-2 mix last night at commerce with roc and sean and some terrible fish and was pleased to see i held my own and managed to even win a little off the fish. i might actually be kind of good at badugi and only disgraced myself in o8 two or three times.

the wine of hug cellars is good and i highly recommend it. also a to z wineworks from oregon. good and not expensive.

i am having a great day.

http://www.tommyangelo.com/blog/

enjoy!

i could write more but im too lazy. i play 50+ hours of poker every week and then try to find time to spend with mary and the kids.

 nothing too exciting has happened. there were a few outings with friends. saw a couple movies (the fall was good), stuff like that. going to vegas for a few days at the end of the month.

 if you want something exciting to read look at my tasting notes on cellar tracker

http://www.cellartracker.com/list.asp?Table=Notes&iUserOverride=29814&Page=0

that’s what chris and i call being up all night every night while the rest of the world sleeps. im busy catching up on lost. im on season 4 now. i like it but not as much as i like 24, which im only on season 3 of now. love my stories. that’s what old ladies call tv shows.

 ive started playing 1-2 at commerce regularly again. the game is oftentimes good, sometimes meh. funny hands come up sometimes. i posted one here: http://forumserver.twoplustwo.com/showthread.php?t=193720 

mary and i went to market (http://www.marketdelmar.com/) earlier this evening. second time we’d been there, this place is really good. but ive noticed a trend in good restaurants lately. the entrees are never as good as the starters. for instance tonight we had a fabulous soft shell crab tempura, coconut carrot soup, foie gras with blueberry pie tartlet thingy, and gnocchi carbonara. all but the gnocchi rocked hard. the gnocchi was good it was just too creamy and bacony and stuff compared to the other food which was much lighter and more nuanced. the main courses werent bad dont get me wrong they were just a little lackluster. pork curry three ways featured a lovely little samosa, some standard good but boring pork curry with peas, and something else that was boring i dont even remember. duck two ways was even more uninteresting. and it’s not just this place, seems like everywhere i like the entree, the biggest dish, far less than the starters which seem to have more thought put into them.

why do these wussys on lost put up with ben and the bad guys? they shouldve just killed all the other islanders in a massive bloodbath and moved in to their little neighborhood. lame ass show.

notes on paso robles trip with mary weekend of 4-5-08

we went wine tasting and places that stood out were:
denner–the current grenache is so amazing. much better than the RP 92 syrah blends.

grey wolf–quiet little place with very friendly pourers and interesting history. most importantly, the wines were big and bold and kicked ass.

hug–edgar the pourer there on a sunday morning was a class act and the pinot and rose were showing well. even better was his own 50 case project called E2 (dont know how to type ”E squared”). really glad i got the chance to grab a bottle of that… 

longoria–in los olivos. easily the highest quality thing going on in that area.

tolo–wow im glad the lady at grey wolf turned us on to this place. funny little tasting room serving an absolutely killing NV chard bottled in Feb 07 but blending vins 00, 01, and 02! viscous and not overly sweet, but complex instead, this wine blew us away. we were also taken aback by the 01 asini, a sang/zin 60/40 blend with 15.8% alcohol that spent over 6 years in barrel, WTF! complex and delicious wine.

disappointments were:

garretson–met mat who is clearly a very nice guy, we were there for a club member bbq. the food was simple and good, but the wines were not showing well. super salty/alcoholic they lacked nuance and made me decide i will cancel my membership. RP has lost his mind with these wines and they are just big scary monsters that are way too hot and sweet and awkward. the saving grace was a pleasant rose and some old grenache blanc he had going begging.

beckmen–completely underwhelmed with this place (off the beaten track in los olivos). ive enjoyed some of their whites in the past but the reds are all fake sweet and too hot.

epiphany–really enjoyed their sweet rousannes and marsannes in the past, i dont get at all what their doing with this current vintage. strange bad wine.

opolo–the height of mediocrity, the staff in the tasting place were very nice, but nothing could get me to like this bland unappealing juice. yawn.

we went to several others but they werent worth noting either way as great or bad.

wine in paso was significantly and consistently much better than that of los olivos, where we had stayed before
and stopped on the way up to have lunch and taste with friends.

we stayed at an amazing place:

http://www.ameliasloft.com/

this place rocked big time. very cozy and inexpensive as well. would like to stay there again.

we had a really mediocre meal friday night at justin winery’s deborah’s room. while the food was standard boring fare
the reds were pretty kicking (save the dessert wine trash) and i was surprised having hated an older isoceles i had last year
and bad things i heard about the recent quality. the current cab and isoceles they served with dinner was very good. so go for the wine and skip on the food.

better choices for food are:

artisan at 14th and park which serves a perfect cuban sandwich for lunch and

basil which is a thai place near the movie theater downtown that is definitely a notch above your
average local thai place. we were very impressed with the food there.

there is also a terrific candy store with a very big selection right next store to the thai place that is fun to shop in.

one of the coolest things we did while there was go to this place:

http://www.franklinhotsprings.com/
there is mud in the floor of the hot springs pool so naturally you take the mud out and rub it all over yourself and then
lay out in the sun and let it dry. it’s supposed to detoxify you. so mary and i did that and it was awesome.
i bought 2 cases of wine so maybe ill try and plan a big paso robles tasting dinner some place in LA soon…

 oh speaking of great places to eat in LA, some friends and i went to sona on la cienega in hollywood area and it
was pretty amazing, probably the best food ive had in LA ever. cant wait to try it again and order off the menu (we had the
9 course tasting).

http://www.cellartracker.com/event.asp?iEvent=4747

 thanks to everyone who attended! more later.

if im not out playing poker than im here like i am tonight. im watching three’s a crowd (three’s company spinoff) i downloaded off mininova.org and im eating some very nice split pea soup mary made months ago (froze the leftovers), a glass of milk and two slices of flax seed toast no butter (my idea of a diet meal).

i watch torrents on my ipod a lot while i play live hold em and ive been playing a lot of poker so ive been wathching a lot of movies. as much as i hate super violent bloody movies, no country for old men is amazing on many levels. i tried to wach LA confidential because id never seen it and it was terrible, i was really surprised, i wanted to like it but it just jumped around and none of the characters were meaningful. it was more like a  TV pilot than a movie. ive been watching the tv show northern exposure. it’s a little cheesy but it holds my interest. im also watching king of the hill all the way through and im pretty sure it’s the best show to have ever been on TV. i prefer it to the simpsons. ive also been watching seasons of south african and uk survivor. so yeah basically im a big ipod watching douchebag.

im typing this while eating ben and jerrys creme brulee ice cream which is delicious and i recommend it.