2007(?) Mary Michelle Norton

From memory - I drank a bottle of this a couple of months ago. I'm fairly sure it was the '07 but don't have the bottle in front of me. While browsing Binny's wine site I found this Norton and stopped in the Downers Grove store to pickup a bottle a while later. The staff had no idea what I was talking about - Norton... you mean the malbec? After some explaining, they sent me "back there maybe" into the far corner of the store and there were about a half dozen bottles on the shelf in the "other" section of the store. On the way out, I showed my find to the guy behind the counter that had never heard of Norton. He seemed unimpressed.

This was a solid ten buck bottle of wine. Definitely Norton, but it seems that they're working to make an easy to drink, accessible wine that can be enjoyed young. This is not a monster Norton that needs years of cellaring to tame the tannins. Good fruit, a friendly wine that would be a good introduction to Norton for a traditional vinifera drinker.

2005 Horton Vineyards Orange County Norton

Solid effort from Horton, one of the vineyards responsible for re-introducing the Norton grape. This is a more accessible Norton than something like the Cross J and a better "beginner" Norton. Not as big as the previous wines, but still substantial. Good balance of fruit and tannins, it's the first Norton I've tried that seemed ready to drink. A little of the Concord grapiness noted in the St. James Cynthiana but in balance. Tart. The muskiness noted in the previous Nortons I've tried isn't noticable in this bottle. At 13.1% ABV it doesn't have the high alcohol heat that's so common in big wines.

Again, the wine opened up the second night after spending a night corked in the fridge. I had help from relatives on the second night and the bottle was emptied fairly early - preferred over a eight buck Argentinian malbec. The '05 is no no longer on the Horton website, and the '03 blend at $12 is the only Norton I see listed. If it's as good as this, it's worth the twelve bucks. 13.1% ABV. DF grade: B-, I'd buy it again.

Cable News Sucks

Why can't people, especially overpaid college educated talking heads learn to argue without constantly devolving into streams of logical fallacies? It's an ad hominem followed by a false analogy, all wrapped into a straw man. And it's not just cable news, politicians all the way to the top spew this crap. ("Some say...")

Aarrghhh!

St. James Winery 2005 Norton

Another St. James Norton, this one is much better than the St. James Cynthiana and doesn't have the overpowering muskiness. My taste buds are acclimating to Norton. It's no longer the unfamiliar flavor that it was on first taste, and I'm getting to like it. Having decided that Norton likes air, I ran this through a Vinturi and it made a big difference. However, unlike the Cross J, this one seems to have peaked after being open for one day and wasn't quite as nice the third day. It's a big wine and was an easy move from the '04 Bordeaux we had with dinner. Aged 18 months in unspecified oak, $10, 14.9% ABV. Good value for a ten buck bottle.

St. James Winery - 2005 Cynthiana

The Nortons have arrived and I'm starting at the low end. Cynthiana is the same grape as Norton, which is pretty obvious after a taste. Not much in technical details on this wine aside from the fact that it's aged in oak and 14.2% ABV and topped with a screwcap. $5.99 on the winery website.

St. James says that Cynthiana is a little lighter style of Norton. That being the case, can't wait to try their Reserve Norton - this is probably the biggest six dollar bottle of wine I've ever had.
Tasting notes:
Day 1: Smells like Norton. It's a different flavor profile that I still haven't pinned down the components to, but it's growing on me. Spicy, and this one has a bit of Concord grapiness to it. Nice medium dark color on a swirl. But it falls apart on tasting. It's big all right, solid tannins but not too much, spice (hint of curry?), rasberry, and St. James says "fig", which I guess I could see. Then it gets gamey, like a muskiness that stays with the finish, and the finish goes on forever. A little bitter too. Might be a bad bottle. Wanted to drink something better, so into the fridge it went. Moved to a decent Rhone, which tasted like watered down cool-aid at first compared to the Cynthiana.
Day 2: Still a Norton. The gaminess has let up a bit, and so has the overt grapiness. The nose has opened up, more spice and dark fruit. Similar on the taste buds too. There's just a hint of concord now and the wine has gained a whole bunch of depth. Nortons seem to like a lot of air.
Day 3: Tried some with the Son. He also noticed the muskiness, which is much tamer now. Like day two but more so.
Conclusion: Interesting wine, I might try another bottle to see if the muskiness was the result of an off-bottle or that's just the way it is. Worth the six bucks it cost just to experience something so different.

Norton?

My sister came back from a trip to St. Louis with a bottle of Cross J Norton from Stone Hill Winery in Hermann MO. Have to admit I was more than a little skeptical since I've never had a really good - or for that matter drinkable - midwestern wine. Did some research on the intertubes and found some interesting info on the Norton grape. I opened the bottle one evening and was entirely surprised by the Cross J. It's a BIG red, a credible wine. Although it seemed pretty closed and didn't have a lot of fruit, or for that matter, much of a nose at all, it seemed pretty young and like it might have some serious potential. Shared some with the Neighbor and my son, and both of them made polite comments about the new wine. Corked it and into the fridge it went, half a bottle. Too good to toss, but not good enough to drink more than a glass.

Two days later I found it in the fridge, pulled it out, and poured a glass. WOW. What a change! The wine opened up and changed totally. Huge nose. Serious tannins, but not overwhelming, and definitely a bit smoother than they were on opening. Big flavors of dark fruit and some cherries in there too. The fruity finish went on forever. I would not have bought another bottle of Norton based on the first taste. The second try changed that: I have eight bottles on order from Chrysalis, Horton, and St. James.

It's been a long time since I've bothered posting here. Ron Paul is no longer invisible. Obama is president. And Jon Stewart is the most trusted newsman, beating Brian Williams by a sizeable margin in a meaningless online poll.

I think that I'll start posting here again, using it as a notebook for some wine tasting notes (as well as some occasional musings). It's basically an internet notebook - one that I'm not likely to lose - that's available from pretty much anywhere.

Laptops Open for Inspection

I'm wondering how the ruling that laptops, even those owned by American citizens returning from foreign travel, can be seized, kept indefinitely, and inspected or even copied, squares with the fourth amendment:

The right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures, shall not be violated, and no Warrants shall issue, but upon probable cause, supported by Oath or affirmation, and particularly describing the place to be searched, and the persons or things to be seized.

A laptop computer is essentially a large filing cabinet and many people keep their financial records, personal communications, business data, entertainment, etc.. on thier computers. The "papers" referenced in the fourth amendment are now digital files, and of course the government does not recognize this. This ruling also applies to iPods, phones, and basically anything with digital memory.

The Last Mile

There's little doubt (in my mind anyway) that the best model for connectivity to the home is for the homeowner to own either directly or though his local municipal government, the "last mile" - the connection from the house to a neighborhood aggregation point. The current scheme which has the link to the home being owned by the phone company or cable company cuts the competition significantly for your communications dollar and locks you into limited options. Imagine having a fiber or high speed copper connection connected into a central point that allows connection to a smorgasboard of telephone, cable, and internet options, all competing for your business.

ars technica has an interesting article up on this about just such a project in Ottawa. It will be met with resistance from the established corporations and it'll be interesting to see if that resistance can be overcome.

They Called It "Enhanced Interrogation"

At the risk of having Godwin invoked, Andew Sullivan has written an ugly but relevant article on Nazi torture. Initially, waterboarding and hypothermia were prohibited as torture, but later added to their repertoire. Is it purely coincidental that the US also uses the euphemism Enhanced Interrogation?

Jim