It’s Tuesday, May 24, and a series of violent thunderstorms are on their way to Chicago. Fortunately, I don’t have to fly anywhere for ten days ( I travel then to Boston and Cambridge MA for a week). On this day in history, in 1830, Sarah Josepha Hale published the song “Mary Had a Little Lamb”. In 18244, Samuel Morse sent the first ever telegraph message from Washington, D. C. to Baltimore, Maryland; the contents were “What hath God wrought” (Numbers 23:23). On May 24, 1935, the first night game in major league baseball was played in Cincinnati, with the Reds beating the Philadelphia Phillies 2-1. And, in 1976, this day saw the famous “Judgment of Paris,” in which a blind tasting of California and French wines saw an American wine win in both the red and white categories, enraging the French but establishing American wines as worthy of international respect.
Those born on this day include Queen Victoria in 1819 (yesterday was Victoria Day in Canada), and Bob Dylan (Zimmerman) in 1941, making him 75 today. How the years have flown! Those who died on May 24 include Duke Ellington in 1974. Meanwhile in Dobrzyn, Hili shows her Jewish nature (her name means “She’s mine” in Hebrew) with her dolorous musings:
Hili: Life is like a flower.
A: And you mean by that…?
Hili: In time it wilts.
Hili: Życie jest jak kwiat.
Ja: To znaczy?
Hili: Z czasem więdnie.
Lagniappe: a tw**t from Emergency Kittens showing a naughty fluffball. You can see all four photos by going to the original tw**et (click on image below):
https://twitter.com/EmrgencyKittens/status/734751014419472384
And, from reader jsp, an ancient cartoon of an Egyptian cat god:
There is a movie about the famous tasting called Bottle Shock featuring Alan Rickman as the wine seller who organizes the event. It focuses mainly on the winners, though.
The cat cartoon poses an intesting quetion: perhaps the pyramids were just boxes for the cat gods?
Mary had a little lamb,
Who had a sooty foot,
And into Mary’s bread & jam
His sooty foot he put.
American vines & European are intimately connected thanks to the infamous blight –
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Great_French_Wine_Blight
fascinating. I love the use of the phrase ‘Judgement of Paris’!
Mary had a little lamb,
She tied it to a pylon.
Ten thousand volts went up its arse
And turned its wool to nylon.
Sorry! Could not resist!
This reminds me of a charming poster showing “Anubis’s Day Off” (Google Images will oblige).
I can highly recommend Bottle Shock as a fun romp of a movie about wine (loosely based around the Steve Spurrier and the “Judgment of Paris” wine tasting.)
(Sideways on the other hand I found pretentious, sometimes offensive, false, and dull.)
Re “Judgement of Paris”
On my first visit to the USA, in 1969, I sat next to a Professional American, who told me about a competition in which American wines had recently been adjudged superior to French. I recounted this to a colleague at the firm I was visiting in LA who actually owned a small vineyard. He told me that the relatively stable California climate could produce consistently good wines, but that freak ideal years in France could produce great wines.
I would be interested to hear opinions about whether this is true today, or, indeed, if it was true then.
I live in France and each time I return to UK my dear French wife asks me to buy some New Zealand Sauvignon whites as they are so much superior to anything I can buy in France. Unless you can buy top Bordeaux wines Australian American and Chilean wines are better although the French will never admit it.
I can easily buy French wines (here in the USA) that are superior to CA wines at the same price. I’m talking wines in the $10-$30 range.
There are great CA wines; but they are now commanding “great” prices as well.
I don’t know about NZ wines.
There are excellent wines to be had from France that are not the big names.
I agree with Richard Bond’s general assessment: CA wines are consistent; but generally not that interesting*. (That is those that aren’t crazy high in alcohol and/or oak — which I won’t touch. Blech!)
(* Cabernet Sauvignon, Merlot, Shiraz, Chardonnay, Riesling, Gamay, Sauv. Blanc, Sangiovese, Nebbiolo, Primitivo, etc., all planted in close proximity? Hmmm — not likely to result in interesting wines — at least not for many of those varieties. There’s a lot more to making excellent wine than lots of growing degree days.)
I have yet to drink a Chilean wine that rasied my needle beyond “acceptable”. (That’s a low bar.) I’m sure they are out there; but I haven’t found one at a price I’m willing to pay.
I find the same issues with Australian wines as with most CA wines. Sure, acceptable wine. I can drink it. But I’m not really interested in doing so.
BUT, of course, with all such things: À chacun son goût.
I have been really liking a NZ wine “Matua”. I’ve had a tasty Sauvignon bland & a nice red.
The judgement of Paris just makes me think of the Trojan War.