Posted on 07/30/2003 11:11:03 AM PDT by chance33_98
I'm not sure whether you mean you never drink Napa or Sonoma county wines, or you drink only Napa and Sonoma county wines.
Robert Mondavi, Raymond and Christian Brothers, of course, are all Napa-based wineries, and their premium wines are all Napa country wines.
Sonoma county wines were traditionally less refined than their Napa cousins, lacking a region with the panache of the Rutherford Bench. Historically, Simi (long lived reds) and Korbel (method champagnois sparkling wine, mostly from grapes other than chardonnay traditionally) made some of the best wines in Sonoma county, with Hanzell coming in with amazing burgundian style wines in the late '50s. And Napa based Louis Martini's famous vinyard that produced the guts of his special selection cabernets is in the hills between Sonoma and Napa county and, if I recall correctly (it's been years since I was up at that vinyard), actually straddles the county line. The great, very long lived, Lytton Springs Zinfandels made by Ridge of course come from the Dry Creek valley in Sonoma county, and Clos du Bois had made some lovely wines in the past 30 years. More recent great Sonoma wineries have included Chateau St. Jean (amazing Chardonnay) and Matanzas Creek (their '85 is the ONLY merlot I have ever bought cases of for aging). There are several old Italian family owned wineries in the Healdsburg area, such as Parducci and Pedroncelli, whose wines have improved greatly over the years, but continue to lack real sophistication. I thought they were more fun when you could bring your own gallon jug and fill up with dago red (e.g. ususally a zin/carignane blend) for $1.50. When I had to spend real money (like $1.50 a fifth or more), I'd go see Isabelle Haigh, the old Simi daughter who was a friend of my grandfather and great uncles. She'd sell me a case of 'carignane' for $12, and it would have 6 bottles of carignane and 6 bottles of the 1935 cabernet savignon. (The '35 was a prize-winning wine, and, for some reason no one remembered, several thousand bottles were bricked up in the undeground cellars and forgotten about until somewhere around 1960. When found, it was amazingly good, and they were selling it (limit 3 bottles) at the winerey for a number of years. I think the last of it was going for some $35 a bottle around 1972.) Ah, memories.
Because they were more purely Spanish, the Mexican upper class also has maintained the arrogance of the vice-regency towards the other latin americans, as you point out.
Until one gets to know the other latin american elites, from an American pespective, it is hard to imagine any more despicable group of people than the Mexican uppper class.
And, indeed, the reason we have illegal immigration to the US from Mexico is that conditions in Mexico are terrible.
It's a lot of it ---but not all of it. We don't need Balkanization but that's what is happening.
Nothing could be more true.
I can't recall exactly what happened with Christian Brothers, I think it was a combination of declining market share and bad management: they were always pretty much a jug/entry varietal level winery, and their premium wines, though occasionally good, never caught on at the price points they wanted to hit. Too many of their wines were 'sound commerical wine', which wasn't a bad thing, just not what the market wanted.
No, Sonoma county is no longer as charming as it once was. It has been overrun with yuppies on the one hand and Mexicans on the other.
Hey, me too! Was probably their last chance to have a for-real country. (Monroe Doctrine aside, of course.) Seriously, what in the hell are we going to do with this overly picturesque and expensive neighbor? This is getting to be like the most dysfunctional family in the neighborhood taking over the whole town!
Now what about using our millions of illegals to get the Iraqi oil fields back in full production? Or drafting some of them into our very own Foreign Legion. Illegal they may be, but with proper direction, they needn't be of no use to the cause.
Come on Cato, think outside the box: what about using them as Martian Colonists?
I like the idea of colonizing mars with mestizos, but the notion of using them in Iraq is troublesome: we don't need anymore gringo-haters running oil supplies -- we have that in Mexico and Saudi + others.
Perhaps we should just send the millions of illegals back to Mexico, after fortifying the border, and explain to them that the real problem is the oppressors running the country and suggest that they take matters into their own hands, with a useful infusion of arms, of course. Send an M-16 and 1000 rounds of ammunition back with each deportee.
Or does anyone off the street get to walk into a booth and vote?
I'll tell you this, I have never,ever had to produce Identification at my voting booth here in the San Gabriel valley for a California election or National Election and I live in a pretty Conservative City. Ever.I'm also certain that on the Leftside of L.A.,out in Venice and Santa Monica,they take people by carloads to voting booths.Demoncrats have ballots sent to empty parking lots so they can show up w/ mail at a specific address if asked. As horrible as that sounds,if you're homeless and you're going to get a few dollars and/or a good meal for an hour of your time,people will do just about anything.That is only one example of RAT behavior. You asked.
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