Bastille Day: An American Homecoming

My friend Paul is something of a recorded music maven.  He seems to have an encyclopedic knowledge of the stuff -- and he has very, very good taste, to boot.  ("That's all relative," says my kid, who also has good taste, but who tends to focus on the more head-bangerish and hip-hopperish genres.)  Paul also has this interesting idea that you can pair wine and music to marvelous effect.   Since both wine and music seem to stimulate my senses in very positive (and sometimes memorable) ways, I think he's on to something.  He writes a blog about that, and various other things, called Tasting Notes.

When I discovered that Tasting Notes contained a set list of American music for the 4th of July, I was delighted.  You see, I have some friends who were returning from a tour of duty overseas that included a stop in Kuwait (yes, he's a Marine; he left his family in Okinawa while he was in the Middle East), and they arrived with a 3-years-long pent-up hunger for all things American.  While they enjoyed their time in foreign lands, and came to appreciate things like Okinawan beer, tiny painted flowers on their toenails, and women shopping in burkas, what they really wanted when they arrived at our door was a couple of slices of NY-style pizza, a big old piece of medium-rare steak, and used DVD's from Blockbuster.

They arrived on July 14th, which is not quite American Independence Day, but a good French substitute.  (And no, I never called them "Freedom Fries."  Those of you who have forgotten what Lafayette did for us should be ashamed of yourselves.)  We picked them up at the airport, and skedaddled to Wine Giques' SoCal HQ, where all the aforementioned items -- pizza, steak, DVD's -- could be found within walking distance.  They feasted on their chosen bits of Americana, then we all retired to the back deck, where I streamed music from the Tasting Notes set list, and we lit candles, drank wine, and chatted. 

The wine?  Well, in hommage to Lafayette and Bastille Day, we drank French.   2004 E. Guigal Côtes du Rhône.  Lovely, full-bodied, silky and plummy; a smooth match for the Cali twilight and the piano stylings of Dick Hyman.  A perfect wine and music pairing, for what proved to be a perfect homecoming for my friends.   Here's to the freedom to drink what you want, and the courage to defend that freedom to the last drop.    

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Grapecraft's Clark Smith has been exploring the wine and music thang for quite awhile. Check out http://www.grapecraft.com/grapecraft/page/music.jsp