“Nudist
Winemakers: Just The Grapes”
For this post I have gone above and
beyond my usual wine expectations… and well below my movie standards. This wine
is drinkable yet complex and the movie is exactly the opposite: watchable
without being complex in the slightest. I’ll come back to that… but first, let
me tell you about Wild Horse Winery’s warm and delightful 2008 merlot.
The winemakers at Wild Horse made
their, “first wine in a plastic tub. Stirred it with a baseball bat.” But,
they have come a long way from that college extracurricular project, becoming
one of the leading luxury wineries on California’s Central Coast.
This specific wine, from vineyards at
Paso Robles, is rich and relaxing. It gives an overall impression of warmth and
comfort, perhaps due to the warm daytime temperatures that make the Templeton
Gap the ideal place to grow the grapes that make it. Cooler night temperatures
in this area provide structure and finish to the taste of this wine. I would be
interested to taste the Cabernet, which is grown in adjacent vineyards and is
said to have a more direct fruit flavor. The scent is delicious and seems to
have an echo of cinnamon (although that could just be me). This would go very
well with a rich meal, red meat or pasta. A review on the winery’s website
recommends drinking it with a cheeseburger and I have to agree that it would be
a decadent accessory to that American favorite.
This is a great special occasion wine on
a budget. It runs between $17 and $20, depending on the shop. I usually try to
keep my picks for this blog under $15 (I’m not made of money!), but this was
brought over as a birthday treat.
Wanderlust (David
Wain 2012) is a film starring Jennifer Anniston and Paul Rudd as a couple
fleeing New York City for financial reasons and landing accidentally at a
hippie commune. There are antics aplenty along their quest to figure out their
lives and their relationship. And… that’s about it. The plot and the gags are
fairly predictable and the film falls short of being truly exploratory and
doesn’t stand up to the level of comedy that’s come to be expected in films with
Judd Apatow as a producer. There were some enjoyable moments, for example a
scene where Anniston partakes of ayuhuasca tea in a “truth circle” (my
compliments on the unconventional choice of hallucinogen). However, successful
jokes were outweighed by a number of cringe-worthy jokes that drug on for far
too long.
Wild Horse Winery produces wine with a
purpose that has obviously come to fruition (wine jokes!) after a long journey.
This seems to be the opposite of the sentiment embodied by Wanderlust, which leaves me wondering… Why did the cast and crew,
many of whom are associated with a long list of successful projects, do this
movie at all?
Pairing Notes
#1: This wine is far too nice to be chugged at an appropriate rate to
make this movie enjoyable.
#2: Do not watch this movie with your family… or really in the
presence of anyone you respect (… or really at all). There is an abundance of
casual nudity, without enough humor to smooth over the awkwardness. Although,
(nudity fun fact!) I did find it quite hilarious that Joe Lo Truglio wore a
false penis while playing the role of a nudist winemaker.
#3: However, drink this wine with someone you love, someone who you
can watch a terrible movie with and not mind, while snow falls outside.
Wine info from Wild Horse Winery’s website: http://www.wildhorsewinery.com/
Movie info from IMDB: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1655460/
