Boomtown (Dusted Valley) Syrah 2005

So I sat down to watch Sideways for the first time with my trusty bottle in hand. (Yes, I am four years behind. This is why I am the charlatan and you are not.)

And actually I had a glass. And not just a glass. An actual piece of stemware! Thank you, Crystal, for ending my "champagne from a paper cup" days.

So, in that newly acquired glass was Dusted Valley Boomtown Syrah 2005. Next to it was a pile of whole-wheat flatbread, dried apricots, a surprisingly good Spanish olive oil and a cheap balsamic vinegar.

I point out the vinegar because having it really helped with mellowing the drink (or deadening my palate—you choose). So did the copious amount of parmesan cheese I plopped on each of those warm, chewy bread triangles.

God, I love food.

So, talk of food and slow indie movie making you sleepy? Just put a little Boomtown under your tongue. The burn will bring you back down to earth.

PRICE: $15 at Walla Walla Wine Cellar
DRINKABILITY: Quaffable, but... uh... far from transcendent.
SNOB VALUE: Ninety points and top 100 value wines of 2008 in Wine & Spirits magazine
WHERE TO FIND IT: Walla Walla Wine Cellar
FAMOUS LAST WORDS: I'll let Paul Giamatti take this one.

NY Times neglects to interview the charlatan

Carly sent over a link—from the online edition of the NY Times—to an article I wish I’d written. It discusses some fairly high-profile studies (blind taste-tests really) that seemed to show that wine snobbery is all in our heads. But as the Times aptly points out, the people who preferred the Two-Buck Chuck were not necessarily “experts.” They were just average charlatans like yours truly.

One favorite (and quite telling) passage:
“…But assuming for the moment that it’s true that most drinkers prefer the cheap stuff, why does anyone bother buying $55 cabernet? One answer is provided by a second experiment, in which presumably sober researchers at the California Institute of Technology and the Stanford Business School demonstrated that the more expensive consumers think a wine is, the more pleasure they are apt to take in it.”

And while that’s a good point—certainly there is a placebo effect to swilling a bottle so expensive that it makes me late on my rent—I think that pricing isn’t entirely an effect of the winemaker’s ego. Something the Times article doesn’t really touch upon: There are higher production costs for better grapes.

But the writer does hint in that direction, invoking context as being an important (and perhaps the most important) part of enjoying a bottle.

What can context do? A wimpy Rose that I would normally scoff at becomes really quite drinkable with the addition of quick-witted company and an artsy period drama. A $10 Italian table red drunk with the accompaniment of s’mores is almost transcendent. Champagne bought in gallon jugs became an indulgence when it poured from a rented fountain at my best friend’s wedding.

So, my darlings, please try not to drink alone in dank basements. Find a sunny spot in the yard or lay in your truck bed looking at the stars. Wine is only as good as the place where it’s consumed.