Cellar Report: 1990 Chapoutier Hermitage...aka "good things come to those who wait!"

I've been in the alcohol enabling business for a long time. How long? Don't ask...it makes me feel very unambitious to ponder. The point is I don't have too many "holy shit!" moments over wine. But last weekend, after dragging a bottle I'd been somehow smart enough to tuck away in the home stash about 15 years ago out of the archives, it went beyond holy shit into the realm of "oh my fucking god!" What caused this outpouring of vinous religious fervor was a bottle of 1990 Chapoutier Hermitage "La Sizeranne". A quick primer here: Chapoutier is a great wine producer in France's Rhone Valley, and their 100% syrah bottlings from the Hermitage appellation tend to be instant classics. I just never imagined it could get this good. This was one of those drinking moments that just kept getting better and better, the wine changing in the glass with every sniff and sip...there goes some smoked meat followed by white pepper and violets. Wait, was that really bacon fat that was covered with dirt all wrapped in lavender and rosemary? And who thought to throw cocoa into the mix? Crazy stuff here, this one just went on and on and on and etc. Case in point why it's always fun to have some stuff stashed away for a few years. Sadly, it's gone....but luckily I do have a 1.5 liter of their 1989 bottling waiting a similar fate at a future dinner party...heehee!

You call this work??

I don't know about you and what you do on your days off, but this Monday on one of my sacrosanct days off, I found myself inexplicably having to spend all afternoon working. At my job! Well, not exactly AT my job, but it was still about my job. Sometimes in this thing called the wine business, demands are made that need to be responded to, and this was one such day. I had not one, but two appointments I was expected at. How hard was it? Check this out.....

First off, at 1pm, I had to make my way to downtown PDX and drive around the block twice to find a parking spot a 1/2 block away from Bluehour, where I was expected to sit through a four course wine tasting lunch featuring four Italian winemakers who were in town with their importer to flog their wares. Did I mention this was my day off? So I trudge in, find a seat among others who sacrificed pieces of their own lives, and listen to these winemakers talk about their, well, admittedly stellar wines while being forced to consume a first course of Kumamoto oysters followed by a plate of strozzapretti pasta with a gorgonzola dolce sauce. Then, as if I hadn’t given enough of myself already, they actually had the temerity to bring out a plate of grilled lamb loin chops over slow cooked polenta (that lovely plate of meaty goodness above), while the wine server just would not stop filling my glasses with Valpolicella Ripasso and Amarone. So instead of being home relaxing, I find myself having to rush through a final course of artisan cheese with a single-vineyard Amarone Reserva because I had to hustle off to yet another appointment.

Luckily my next “work” appointment was only about four blocks away, so I was able to steel myself to walk upstairs at Masu Sushi to be confronted by this....


And these.....










And yet more of this....


For god’s sake, how much am I expected to put up with?! A sake tasting with endless sushi? Didn’t they hear I was just at a four-course lunch?? Can’t these wine suppliers at least ask me about my schedule? How much do they think I can eat and drink??? Give, give, give...it's all I seem to do, all so that others may drink better at the wine shack. I can only hope my hard work and dedication pays off................