Bought this at Nancy’s Wine for Food in New York (wine is certainly cheaper in the US). Medium to deep yellow-gold appearance; nice apricot-honey nose with floral hints. Medium body with good acidity; stone fruit and nice sweetness but a little one-dimensional. Good length.
New York
We had a wonderful trip to New York City. Although I was enthusiastic beforehand, I have to say that many of my assumptions were turned upside-down. Yes, the Big Apple is a bustling town, but the stress level appears to be surprisingly low; and it seems to be a city very much content with itself (and for many good reasons — see below), which from my experience is in sharp contrast with Vancouver. Following are a few notes about some of the highlights.
(I have some pictures which I may post later, but for the most part you will find those at the sites linked to below to be superior.)
Performances
I was very happy with the diversity and quality of these live events.
August: Osage County at the Music Box Theatre on Broadway. Our first day in the city: a brilliant play, and a great performance; we bought the script.
Terence Blanchard at the Jazz Standard. One of the real high points in a trip full of them. His band — Brice Winston, tenor saxophone; Fabian Almazan, piano; Derrick Hodge, bass; Kendrick Scott, drums — was amazing. Most of the compositions were from Blanchard’s CD A Tale of God’s Will (A Requiem for Katrina), which we picked up at the club.
The Mind’s Eye: Oliver Sacks interviewed by Robert Krulwich of NPR. Didn’t know about this event until we were in the city, but managed to pick up tickets via craigslist. I’ve always loved his books — I recently read Musicophilia: Tales of Music and the Brain — and the interview was in much the same casual story format, though one of the main cases examined was Sacks himself; he has recently lost vision in one eye. A lovely and learned and fascinating person.
The Late Show with David Letterman (Monday, June 2 show, taped that afternoon), with guests Adam Sandler, Indy 500 winner Scott Dixon, and Donna Summer. I watched Late Night with David Letterman way back when I worked at Cooper’s during high school. It was a lot of fun to be part of the studio audience. Paul Shaffer‘s band, which performed a couple of tunes before the taping started, is even better than it sounds on television.
American Ballet Theatre Twyla Tharp World Premiere: Rabbit and Rogue. The New York Times review was scathing, but it is all relative; a great company, and it was amazing just to be at the Metropolitan Opera House: what a room!
Museums
If — when — I get back to the city, I think I am going to spend most of my time at these museums.
Metropolitan Museum of Art. Absolutely, unbelievably, overwhelmingly overwhelming and astonishing. One could spend an entire holiday, if not lifetime, in this building’s 1.5 million square feet. Just the artifacts from ancient Egypt (one of my boyhood obsesssions) number 36,000! I had to race through Greek and Roman art, modern art, and musical instruments, among many others. Also amazing was The Cloisters, the medieval art department in northern Manhattan. Your day pass covers both, which is a bit pointless, particularly considering the travel time between the buildings. Bought the guide, which barely skims the surface of the place. I don’t think the fascination of these museums can be overstated.
MoMA: the building is great, and just seeing Vincent van Gogh’s The Starry Night is worth the price of admission, but all of the painting and sculpture galleries are fabulous. The architecture and design galleries were also great, and a few notable current exhibits included Multiplex: Directions in Art, 1970 to Now, George Lois: The Esquire Covers, and Bernd and Hilla Becher: Landscape/Typology.
Museum of Natural History. Memories of this museum have perhaps been overshadowed by some of the others attended later in the trip, but it is an amazing compendium of permanent exhibits and special installations (Water: H2O = Life) on the natural world. The planetarium isn’t significantly different from H.R. Macmillan, and the IMAX film (Sea Monsters: A Prehistoric Adventure Movie) was lame; best to focus on the museum exhibits here.
Guggenheim Museum. Unfortunately, there was an exterior restoration underway, so a major part of Frank Lloyd Wright‘s building was not visible. The exhibit was Cai Guo-Qiang‘s I Want to Believe, which in its early stages up the interior ramp of the building was disappointing (Head On wolves; Inopportune: Stage One cars). But I loved his gunpowder paintings and New York Rent Collection Courtyard.
Sights
Much of the standard stuff: Empire State Building; walk across the Brooklyn Bridge; Circle Lines semi-circle tour; Rockerfeller Center; Ground Zero (disappointing that there was a $15 charge for the visitor’s centre, which we skipped).
Highlights were the United Nations tour (I hadn’t known previously about the decolonization organization) and Central Park, particularly the Pond, Bow Bridge, and the Mall. Strawberry Fields brought back memories of that day in December 1980; we stayed just a block from The Dakota.
Restaurants
Almost incomprehensibly, Vancouver has no vegan restaurants, and no vegetarian restaurants that aren’t flaky and/or cafeteria-like (Greens and Gourmet) and/or just plain dirty (Cafe Deux Soleil) and/or with rotten service or food (The Naam). (Also, why is there an apparent fear of seitan in Vancouver?) So, it was a treat to be in a more enlightened city, and we spent way too much eating out; we went to some of these restaurants multiple times: Candle 79 (our favourite) and Candle Café, Blossom and Café Blossom (where we had our sole brush with greatness: Isabella Rosselini), Hangawi, Gobo, Angelica Kitchen. Honourable mention: H and H Bagels.
Other
Visited a number of neighbourhoods around the city: Greenwich Village (East Village, West Village), Soho, Chelsea (galleries), Flatiron, Midtown, Upper West Side (where we stayed at 33 West 71st Street), Upper East Side, and a brief walk around Harlem. I could probably live in any of them.
Didn’t do much shopping, but made pilgrimmages to Moo Shoes and the Apple Store Fifth Avenue. Also had a drink with old internet buddy and popular music fan extraordinaire Shirish Huprikar, who first introduced me to Wilco and Joe Henry.
Blasted Church Hatfield’s Fuse 2006
This is a blend of Optima, Pinot Gris, Gewürztraminer, Ehrenfelser, and Riesling. See spec sheet (PDF). Pale, clear silver-gold. A real Okanagan nose: apple, peach, and a hint of sagebrush. Not quite dry on the palette, with a nice complexity, lime and Riesling dominating. I don’t drink many blends, but this is very good. See Blasted Church.
Domaine Bernard Defaix Chablis 1er Cru, Côte de Lechet 2005
Clear medium gold. Lemon-mineral nose with a hint of vanilla. Fairly light body, good acidity, straightforward Chardonnay with citrus and green fruit qualities. See domaine Bernard Defaix . About $35 at Kitsilano Wine Cellar.
Selbach 2005 Riesling Spätlese
Clear medium lemon-gold, with a light sweet fruit nose. Honey-apple with slate and slight stone fruit notes and good acidity. A pleasure to drink: straightforward with a nice steel-green fruit finish.
Selbach-Oster 2006 Riesling Kabinett
Medium clear lemon-gold appearance. Sweet citrus and mineral on the nose with the floral-petrol quality typical of the varietal. High acidity on the palette; a nice bite balanced by medium honey-pineapple sweetness. A little one-dimensional, but quite drinkable. See Weingut Selbach-Oster. $34 at Kitsilano Wine Cellar.
Zilliken 2002 Ockfener Bockstein Riesling Kabinett
Clear medium gold. Nice straightforward petrol-honey nose with a hint of apricot. Medium body, medium sweetness, light stone fruit notes with slight steely qualities, easy on the palette. Finishes a little disappointingly with an earthy-prune quality.
2007 Joie “A Noble Blendâ€
This is a blend of Gewürztraminer, Pinot Blanc, Kerner, Pinot Gris and Ehrenfelser. Pale lemon-gold appearance, with a hint of green. Nose is light and clean, refreshing citrus-pineapple with a hint of sweetness. Medium body off-dry on the palette with good acidity. Complex Okanagan peach and green apple flavours with tropical fruit notes. Very good! Another winner from Joie Wines. About $27 at Kitsilano Wine Cellar.
Qupé 2006 Bien Nacido Cuvée
Pale lemon-gold appearance. Medium nose with fruit and spice qualities, nicely balanced citrus-apple vanilla. Medium body with strong acidity on the palette, strong sense of citrus fruit with floral qualities and tasteful oaking. Very good. See Qupé Wine Cellars. $28 at Marquis Wine Cellars.
Burrowing Owl Chardonnay 2006
Clear, medium lemon-gold appearance. Significant clover-vanilla oak tones on the nose, with green fruit or grapefruit and a hint of earthiness. Medium body dry with good acidity; oak tones balanced with pepper/mushroom qualities. A bit of a harshness that develops through good length. I lined up to buy this wine; not quite sure why. Burrowing Owl Estate Winery.