Friday, April 11, 2008
Who Drinks Bling? (A Guest Blog)
filed under: bling, dinkinish o'connor, k'orus, lil jon, little jonathan winery
Months ago I was shopping at Le Grand Épicerie (a chi-chi gourmet supermarket in the 7th arrondissement) – they sell American groceries like Planters Mixed Nuts for twice the price – and I got stopped cold by a display for Bling wine. Yes, hiphop had infiltrated the most chic of Parisian bistros, or rather, some cold-hard-cash American capitalist slapped the Hot Boys’ contribution to the English language on a bottle of crushed grapes to suck in… who, exactly? Who would buy a wine called Bling? (Or, as it turned out, not a wine at all – oops – but Bling H2O bottled water; same difference.)
Today I turn the rest of this furthermucker over to guest blogger Dinkinish O’Connor. When Lil Jon announced his Little Jonathan Winery last week, I got all snob indignant. Living in France where wine is so vitally central to the whole social culture, I wondered who these urban-targeted wines (see the K’orus wine commercial waaay below, they’re French actually) are supposed to appeal to. If I was single and trying to impress a date, I would go the extra length for some expensive, imported something-or-other from a vintage year; I certainly wouldn’t cop shit from Lil Jon. Anyway, I let Dinki take it over. Apart from being the ex-girlfriend who turned me onto Coldplay, she also writes Wino Confidential for Miami.com and helps run Purple Reign, a company she cofounded to throw fabulous wine-centric, Oprahesque events nationwide.
Dinki: I like to use music as an analogy to explain wine and so I ask you to consider this comparison: Beyoncé vs. Aretha. They’re both dynamic singers, but Beyoncé is younger, and so I don’t expect her to have the depth of complexity that Aretha has in her music. Older wines, particularly from older regions, are more complex. They go through a longer maceration process than young wines and, at times, ferment and age in French or Hungarian oak or steel tanks. Some of their vines are born and reared in limestone and tended on stony, misty slopes. I’m not saying that younger wines can’t have the same background; I’m saying, don’t expect them to have the same depth.
Do I expect Lil Jon’s 2008 Merlot to speak to me the way a 2003 Pomerol would? Of course not. It doesn’t mean that Lil Jon’s wine isn’t going to be fun and delicious and perfect for a BBQ. Not all wines are made to be cellared, know what I mean?
Among my favorite one-night-stand wines are 2004 La Garrigue Côte du Rhône, 2005 Perrin (another Côte du Rhône) and 2006 Casillero del Diablo Carménère. On the domestic side, 2005 Gnarly Head Old Vine Zinfandel and 2006 Smoking Loon Viognier. These are all amazing values. The Carménère in particular unravels into a wine with smoky, ganja-like characteristics.
MML: Whassup with Yellow Tail? I notice the (black) folks drinking Yellow Tail over the past few years like we discovered some Romanée Conti. (I don’t know wine. I googled “expensive French wine” and got Romanée Conti.)
Dinki: Back in the day (2003), you’d find bottles of Yellow Tail Shiraz at every black house party in Brooklyn and Harlem. I, too, was smitten by the wine’s ripe black cherry and Welch’s Grape-juicy profile. But wine snobs called it syrupy and flabby (haha). I was fortunate enough to meet a wine boutique owner who opened up my palate to other wines in the same $6-$10 price range that offered a little bit more than a fat, juicy ass: Primitivos, for example, an entry-level, Zinfandel-style wine from Italy. The difference? A little more depth and personality, dark fruit flavors unfolding in a body of sweet spices like cinnamon and nutmeg.
But, don’t get it twisted. I haven’t had Yellow Tail in a while, but the label does show up on critics’ top picks for wines under $15. Quality can increase or decrease over time, especially if you’re producing 85,000 cases of wine. It’s always best to taste it yourself and become your own critic.
Michael A. Gonzales at 3:16 PM on 04/11/08:
yellow tail rules because it’s cheap and it gives you a buzz…