While watching the Academy Awards the other night I started thinking (what an incredibly boring show, even with Alec and Steve, so what else to do?): How are films made? Besides the obvious of a great script and dialogue and scenery and costumes, lighting, etc., and of course the greatly talented actors and directors who bring it all to light, at the end, it all gets pieced together after numerous takes. Get the line wrong? Take 2. Get it wrong again? Take 3. And so on, and so on, take after take until it’s just right. Then, it’s edited down, soundtrack and whatever else applied, and there you go. Oh, if it could be so in the wine industry.
HIGHLIGHTS: Architects Meet Us On the Hilltop. Building-Wise, What Do We Really Need Now? Fan Keeps Up Much Needed Urging. Moving Along: To Do List.
COUNTDOWN: 35 WEEKS
Now that eight weeks of The Little House On the Hilltop (TLHOTH) project have come and gone, let me share what’s happened since the last post:
A “guest” posting by Scott. I need to get this guy out here more often.
WS’s Harvey Steiman posted a piece on Feb 23rd discussing his recent surprise while tasting the ’05 Ch. de Pez. I’ve had this wine many times, not the ’05, but the ’88, ’89, and ’90. They were classic wines back then, and I don’t know about now, but I have a hunch about their current style. When Steiman first rated this wine, probably back in ’07 or ’08, he scored it an 88. In his recent tasting he liked it so much that he said he might start drinking Bordeaux again and scored it a 90. I know that there really isn’t any difference between an 88 and a 90 score, e.g., it’s got to be something like 88 +/-2 or 3 or 4; an 88 is not absolute, exact. However, for the critic and the consumer a score of 88 is 88 +/-0, or, it IS absolute in their minds.
The crime here is most consumers won’t give much consideration to wines scoring less than 90, so Steiman’s original score of 88 probably hurt de Pez’s sales in the US, but now a couple years later he scores it a 90 and says he might start drinking Bordeaux again because of it. Wine critic scoring is 100% subjective and not at all precise, and when those imprecise scores are around critical break points, like 90, then it can have considerable impact on sales.
This just in!
Made voice contact with the Architecture and Fine Arts Departments at Portland State University, two in one day. They are interested. Spoke about expectations and timelines and touched briefly on what the University can and cannot do on private property. The most exciting part was when I was told, “I think this is something we can do.” Which is HUGE, as that means we will continue the conversation. It of course is yet to be seen how it might all play out, but the big thing is there is movement. And interest. In fact, I sent my Architecture Professor contact some more info (directions, etc.) so he can go visit the hilltop directly. Yoohoooo!
All the Difference posts are about those people (and ideas) who dared to step off the busy highway and to follow one less worn for wear. Away from the crowds, these individuals walk to their own beat, with unexpected and singular results that may not always be for everyone, but that, my guess, was never the point.
****
It was 1835. With little more than 50 years past the boot given to the British in our War of Independence, and only 20 years out of boot #2 from the War of 1812, a young America heard a newborn’s cry. Running with the unrestrained speed of a people newly cut loose, the fledgling country already was at a number of crossroads from all its people and ideas on the move. Abolitionists, Expansionists, Industrialists, Feminists, Capitalists, Unionists. Iron horses would soon replace the flesh and bones type, and water and its heated sibling, steam, would forever change the nation through cogs and gears, tracks and wheels. World blights and the eternal dream of a better life would provide cheap labor and transform a young nation from a backwoods land to a backwoods land with potential. It was a time when people’s optimism was as immense as the land they sought to tame. And their challenge and rejection of the legitimacy of another voice speaking for them left them ripe for their own. They would find it in this baby born in a small town on the fringe of the American frontier: Samuel Clemens.
HIGHLIGHTS: Moving on to School of Architecture. Wasco County Chat. Lotto. More Rammed Earth Thinking. Pricing. Fan Holds Strong. Still Serious: To Do List.
COUNTDOWN: 38 WEEKS
Short and sweet and still not yet back on a Sunday posting schedule. Sorry again. Week five of The Little House On the Hilltop (TLHOTH) project is over; here’s what’s happened:
You’d think it’d be the waiting. All this waiting. At first it was to find the right land. Then it was to do the dance so the wheat farmer (Old Wise All) would sell us it. Which did turn out shorter than expected, but a dance and wait game nonetheless. The wait to find water. How deep would we have to drill? How much would there be? Would we even find any? Then the waiting for the deer fence to be dug, the mainline to be set in, the 3-phase to be brought in, the plants to arrive.
Reading a fairly recent WS blog by James Laube about winemakers with style reminded me of what Scott has been saying since ’45:
“I don’t make wine for anyone except me.”
“Wait. Woah. Hold on, Hoss,”
I’d say to him.
“How the hell are we supposed to sell wine you only make for yourself?!”
Even before planting the vineyard we had talked about not catering to the critic’s palate, and for sure not rushing after or trying to predict the wine flavour of the day. That wasn’t the point of any of this. But to hear Scott put it out there on the table so, well, matter-of-factly (or egoistically, depending on how one feels AT THE TIME), I was taken aback, made a little nervous.
HIGHLIGHTS: Rural Living in Wasco County: Who to Call. Time to Get Serious: To Do List.
COUNTDOWN: 39 WEEKS
Almost back on a Sunday posting schedule and now into Week Four of The Little House On the Hilltop (TLHOTH) project, let me share what’s happened.
Live The Life
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