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FRASER'S CkOSSWORb
Recommended Wines for the Month: It is
now March and good weather lies ahead; however,
gray and rain will still dominate the scene. Hearty
reds should remain atop of your wine list.
Penfolds Bin 707 Cabernet Sauvignon
1991: A heart pounding example of Cab lrom
Down Under. Possessing stunningly intense fruit, a
velvety texture that leads into a long finish where the
fruit pours over the structured tannins. As good a
Cab as you can find anywhere in the world. $35-40
is not an outrage for a wine good enough to drink
now or in 15 years.
Quinta Do Infitado Vintage Character Port:
Last month’s Port suggestion was merely a prelude
to this blockbuster. This is a big, monstrous, dark
Tawny Port. It’s also certified 100% organic. The
nose is big with fruits, molasses and dark baked
bread. The wine is heady (19.5% alcohol) with a big
mid-palate of plums and cassis leading into a
smooth, peppery finish. It goes for about $24.
Lifelong dissent has more than
acclimated me cheerfully to defeat.
It has made me suspicious of
victory.
!• F- Stone
Cannon Beach
In Coaster Theater Courtyard
Established 1977
Featuring North west. California
& Imported Wines
Collector Wines From 1875
Through Current Vintages
Featuring Over 1000 Wines
Wine Racks, Glasses &
Wine Related Items
XSVTW
It occurred to me over the course of the last month
that my rants against the governmental organization
Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, and Firearms could be
construed, in light of the day’s political climate, as
somewhat right-wing militia oriented. Rest assured
my distaste for the BATF comes from experience and
solid left-wing roots. If however, you are loony
enough to think that Pat Buchanan has credible ideas
and that I am in your camp as an “anti-government
activist”, your line of logic is apparently as clear as
Alan Keyes leaps of logic.
No, I only get into a huff when governments get
ridiculous with their vigor to regulate things that
obviously need minimal oversight, while ignoring
areas which could use considerable concentration.
Wine faces this over-burdening and it keeps getting
worse in the days of downsizing. Just in the last
month a bill was put forth in the Kentucky
Legislature that would make direct shipping of wine
or spirits to a resident of Kentucky a felony carrying
a sentence of five years and $25,000 fine. To what
end does this proposed law serve the presumably
good citizens of Kentucky? What it is
backasswardly trying to do is further solidify the
state and distributor monopoly on alcohol in
Kentucky. It is government for the benefit of
government and those already in the loop. Will Big
Brother one day have to open, sample, test, and pour
every bottle of wine at some point in a “Brazil” like
future?
This is obviously one of the more overt actions
governments in conjunction with the BATF take to
impact the legal trade of wine and spirits. Most of
the rules and regulations are stuff the consumer never
gets to see. Sometimes the rules and regulations
impact what the consumer gets to see and ultimately
what is available to buy.
The regulations concerning labels borders on the
outrageous. Labeling of alcoholic beverages is quite
the bureaucratic event. Recently Chateau Mouton-
Rothschild, perhaps the most famous and prestigious
winery in the world, introduced a wine in its artist
series label. Past labels have featured the works of
such artists as Picasso and Warhol. This recent
release featured a line drawing of a nude young girl.
In a turnabout from other days in which the BATF
rejected labels from Clos Pegase and Kenwood for
artistic nudity, the Mouton label was approved. A
turnabout? Not really, given the B A T F s track
record of taking on littler wineries and turning a head
for larger ones. However, in the face of a firestorm
of organized public protest from some really uptight
people the BATF considered rescinding approval.
The winery ultimately has withdrawn the wine from
sale in the United States.
At the winery where I work we had to change the
phrase “To make glad the heart with wine” to “... the
soul with wine” because the BATF asserted we were
making a health claim. We also had to submit a letter
stating that the two areas on our label that contain
artistically scribbled words (space fillers) had no
“obscene or lewd content”. We are also required, as
all wine and spirit manufacturers are, to print the
alcohol content on our labels. This decree came from
the bureaucracy that has spent millions in lawsuits to
keep beer manufacturers from voluntarily putting the
alcohol content on their labels. The weirdness never
ends.
Perhaps there will be some sort of sensible reform
in coming years in the form ol trickle down
legislation. The BATF has been reluctant to deal
directly with larger wineries that bend their arcane
rules. It just happens that Gallo, yes the biggie ol
biggies, is the most generous funder of Bob Dole’s
entire political career. Gallo is also the 4th largest
contributor to Bill Clinton’s career campaign coffers.
While what’s good for Gallo isn’t necessarily good
for normal sized wineries, their exercising of political
reform through cash contributions may spur some
modest changes.
In the meantime keep the forms and rule changes
coming.
Wine Tasting
Every Saturday Afternoon
1-5 PM
Different Wines
From Around The World
Each Week
Laurel's
Cannon
Beach
Wine Shop
Open 11 AM 5 PM Closed Tues.
436-1100
124 N Hemlock
P.O. Box 652, Cannon Beach O R *7110
263 N . Hemlock
(S 0 3 ) 4 3 6 -1 6 6 6
Casual Dining
Overlooking the Hestucca River
S p irits • Mot Sandwiches
Fresh Seafood D inners • Home Baked Desserts
Live Music Every Saturday Hight
(5 0 3 ) 9 6 5 -6 7 2 2
★
pacific city , oreqon
★
★
N o rthw est Best Places
k n t t i • ! Bxcxiltac«
The Wine Spectator
1) What was the origin of the word “News”?
1X17 S H . « I . e k
P.O. Bax 41
C u a t a Stack, O X 9711*
(191)434-1179
2) Why were buttons first put on coat sleeves?
3) What cheese is made backwards?
4) How did the ouija board get its name?
I
WHERE TO GET AM EDGE
5) What is the origin of the term “A -l”?
I
6) What are policepeople called in Ireland and England, and why?
■ Tavern, Cannon Beach Book Co., Hane's Bakerie, The
■ Bistro, Midtown Cafe, Once Upon a Breeze, Knoodlz,
■¡Copies & Fax, Heather's, Haystack Video, Mariner
| | Market, & Cleanline Surf
7) Where did the phrase “Mind your P’s and Q’s” come from?
8) How did the thimble get its name?
9) Who invented the banjo?
10) Who are the four Kings represented in a pack of playing cards?
ANSWERS
1) It is formed from the first letters of the words North,
East, West, and South.
2) It was the idea of Frederick the Great to deter his soldiers from
wiping their noses on the sleeves of their uniforms.
3) Edam, you moron. Wake up and pay attention, this isn’t that
hard.
4) Yes German, Yes French, get it?
5) Lloyds of London used this symbol to indicate quality of
insurance risk and seaworthiness of ships. A is the best rating on
the hull, and 1 would grade a superior rigging.
6) In Ireland, cops are called “peelers”, and in England they’re
“bobbies”. Both were named after Sir Robert Peeler, who founded
both the Irish and London police forces, as well as taking the
moribund Tory Party into Maggie Thatcher’s Conservative Party of
today. Or yesterday.
7) If you kept a tab in a Pub, the barkeep would score P for pints
and Q for quarts. So, if you started to get too liquored up, or, more
likely, ran out of shillings, he would say. . .
8) It was worn on the thumb, and was shaped like a bell. Thumb
bell became thimble.
9) Fhe banjo was invented by a versatile Irish musician named Joe
Sweeney, a one man band. From that we get, obviously, band-joe.
Oh, my brain is so big it hurts!
10) King David the Psalmist, Charlemagne, Alexander the Great,
and Julius Caesar.
Score Your Worthless Self:
1-9 Correct -- Fugedaboutit.
10 Correct - Keep Workin’ On It.
11 Correct - Well Done, You Cheatin’ Lying S.O.B.
Cannon Beach Jupiter’s Rare and Used Books,
■¡Osburn's Grocery, The Cookie Co., Coffee Cabaña, Bill's
• Manzanita: Manzanita News & Espresso, Bayside
Gardens, Cassandra's, Pacific Coast Books & Coffee, &
Nehalem Bay Video
Rockaway: Sharkey's
T illam ook Rainy Day Books
Pacific City: The River House
Oceanside: Ocean Side Espresso
Lincoln City: Tnllium Natural Foods, Driftwood
Library, & Eats 'n' Stuff
Newport: Oceana Natural Foods, Don Petrie's Italian
Food Co., Café DIVA, Cosmo Café, Bookmark Café,
Newport Bay Coffee Co., Cuppatunes, Bay Latté, Ocean
Pulse Surf Shop, Coastal Coffee Co., & Canyon Way
Eugene Book Mark, Café Navarra, Eugene Public
Library, Friendly St. Market, Happy Trails, Keystone
Café, Kiva Foods, Lane C.C., Light For Music, New
Frontier Market, Nineteenth Street Brew Pub, Oasis
Market, Perry's, Red Bam Grocery, Sundance Natural
Foods, U of O. & WOW Hall
Corvallis: Not Necessarily the News, & The
Environmental Center
Salem Heliotrope, Salem Library, & The Peace Store
Astoria KMUN, Columbian Café, The Community
Store, & Café Uniontown
Seaside Buck's Book Bam, Universal Video, & Cafe
Espresso
Portland Act 111, Barnes & Noble, Belmonts Inn,
Bibelot Art Gallery. Bijou Café, Borders, Bridgeport
Brew Pub, Capt'n Beans (two locations). Center for the
Healing Light, Coffee People (three locations). Common
Grounds Coffee, East Avenue Tavern, Food Front, Goose
Hollow Inn, Hot Lips Pizza, Java Bay Café. Key Largo,
l.a Pattisserie, Lewis & Clark College, Locals Only,
Marco's Pizza, Marylhurst College, Mt. Hood CC, Music
Millenium. Nature's (two locations), NW Natural Gas,
OHSU Medical School, Old Wives Tales, Ozone Records.
Papa Haydn, PCC (four locations), PSU (two locations),
Reed College, Third Eye, TransCentral Library , & YWCA
Long Beach, WA Pacific Picnics
Nahcotta, WA Moby Dick Hotel
Duvall, WA Duvall Books
Seattle, WA Elliot Bay Book Co., Honey Bear
Bakery, New Orleans Restaurant, Still Life in Fremont,
Allegro Coffeehouse, The Last Exit Coffee House, &
Bulldog News
| Bainbridge Island, WA: Eagle Harbor Book Co
W ashington, D.C.: Hotel Tabard Inn
UPPER. LEFT CÙSE. MftRCH m i