I am gearing up for what looks to be a major few days of massive action, excitement, celebration, great wines, and hopefully victory! We’re kicking it off with a killer free tasting at Storyteller Wines in Portland on Friday night from 6-8. Here’s the lineup for the evening:

• Crémant de Bourgogne – Huber-Verdereau
• Mâcon-Prissé – Domaine Thibert
• Bourgogne Passetoutgrains – Taupenot-Merme
• Chambolle-Musigny – Anne & Hervé Sigaut
• Pommard Platiéres 1er Cru – Thierry Violot Guillemard
• La Paulée Pinot Noir - Scott Paul Wines

And more goodies are rumored to be on hand, including some Lucien Le Moine. Wear your Arsenal gear, so we can show those Chelsea-loving Storyteller people what the beautiful game is all about!

The Premiere League season for my beloved Arsenal all comes down to the match on Sunday morning against arch-rivals Chelsea. If we lose, our shot at the title is over. If we win, it’s game on. So please send any juju you have Arsenal’s way on Sunday morning. My mental health may also be at stake.

Speaking of juju – we are fired up for the Superbowl around here. I’m a big Saints fan, having lived in New Orleans for five years, and I’m married to one of the Crescent City’s all-time loveliest natives. Martha, Pirrie and I did a wacky victory dance all over the house after they beat the beat the Packers two weeks back – I can only imagine the eruption if they win it all. GEAUX SAINTS! (Interesting tidbit – Martha went the the same high school in N.O. as Peyton Manning, and her brother was the QB at the school before Peyton!)

Martha’s birthday is next Tuesday. As is the custom, she prefers a week-long celebration, so we’ll kick it off Friday night with some friends at home, then move it out to the winery on Saturday -where we will be in the tasting room and looking forward to seeing you from 1-5. Then it’s back to Portland to continue the party and root for Arsenal and them Saints.

Then we roll into the b-day itself, then our sold-out winemaker dinner with Laurelhurst Market on Thursday, and then into our amazing Lucien Le Moine tasting here in Carlton on Saturday the 13th (and then a sold-out Burgundy class that evening!) And then Valentine’s day. Other than that, it’s pretty mellow!

See you tomorrow night at Storyteller – come on by if you can!

It’s one of the four major days of the year for those of us whose lives revolve around Burgundy & Pinot Noir – the release of the new issue of Burghound, Allen Meadows’ quarterly journal reviewing thousands of wines and hundreds of producers.

Allen Meadows, the Burghound hard at work...

The 1st quarter issue, which always covers the reds of the Côte de Nuits, arrived on Sunday. In addition to the detailed reviews, it also offers the first look at Allen’s in-depth take on the vintage. Fascinating reading as always – specifically in his analysis of the 2008 vintage in Burgundy. The cumulative effect of multiple unusual factors resulted in the ’08 Burgs finishing their malos very very late, thus making them difficult to judge with the usual accuracy 14 months after harvest. I was in Burgundy last fall at the same time as Allen, and I can attest that many of the wines were still not through malo, or had just finished, making it quite hard to get a real read.

That said, I agree with Allen that the vintage as a whole is a bit more interesting than 2007, but it is even more variable. The highs are higher, the lows are a bit lower, and there are perhaps more misses in ’08 than ’07. Overall, the good wines from ’08 are indeed “Classic Burgundy” – the best of which are pure, fresh, elegant and very refined – a style I happen to enjoy greatly.

It will be a vintage to be very selective. That of course is my job, to select the best and bring them in for the U.S. market. Thus, it is heartening to see that Burghound has selected a number of our producers and their wines for special distiction. Domaine J-J Confuron once again received stellar scores, and had wines singled out in all three of Allen’s “best of the vintage” categories – “Top Value”, “Sweet Spot”, and “Don’t Miss”. Kudos to Alain & Sophie Meunier, the proprietors/vignerons at Confuron, for hitting the Burghound trifecta, as it were!

Also great to see that Anne & Hervé Sigaut, Jean-Marc Millot, and Taupenot-Merme all received scores as good or better than their lovely 2007s. It won’t be until late this year or early next before the 08s start to arrive here, but we are in for some nice treats then, to be sure. And Allen’s take on the hugely-buzzing 2009s? “Potentially Great”. But those are a long way off…

In the cellar at Buisson-Charles

Burghound also covered 2007 Oregon Pinot in this report, which he deemed “The good, the not-so-good, and the ugly.” I’d say he’s right-on. The better 2007s are indeed elegant, refined and delicious. The rest are varying degrees of not so refined and delicious. We were among the lucky ones in ’07, as the vintage favored our style over bigger, more heavily-extracted wines. The bottom line is – taste the wines! There will be plenty of Oregon ’07s for you to love, you’ve just got to taste ‘em for yourself.

It is also worth noting that David Schildknecht, who covers Burgundy for Robert Parker’s The Wine Advocate, has just released his reviews of Burgundy’s ’07 whites and ’06 reds. He lavished praise on the Buisson-Charles ’07s from Meursault (90 for the Meursault VV, and 93 for both the Goutte d’Or and Bouches-Chères 1er Crus – all of which are arriving here at the end of the month, btw.) On the red side he had great things to say about the Anne & Hervé Sigaut ’06s as well as the wines from Huber-Verdereau. Looking forward to his ’07 red coverage soon…

It’s always been my nature to just keep moving forward – I’ve never been one to look back from whence I came, nor to slow down and reflect. Occasionally in moments of clarity I realize that these avenues are not mutually exclusive – that I can in fact slow down, look back, and keep moving (though preferably not all at the same time…)

I talk very little about my 30 years in the music and radio business. I had several lifetimes’-worth of amazing times over those years, and absolutely loved it. I have so mentally moved on from those days that it seems like another lifetime altogether, but much of it remains close to the surface – or at least bubbles up from time to time. One of the great opportunities that came my way was the privilege to work with Michael Jackson.

It has taken a few months since his death, and last week’s DVD release of the amazing “This Is It” rehearsal footage, for it all to sink in. Only Elvis and The Beatles were ever at his level in terms of worldwide superstardom and cultural impact (and  of course Michael was obsessed with Elvis and The Beatles.) We are not likely to ever again see the complete entertainer that Michael was. At age 50, and not in shall we say robust health, he still looked the most captivating and compelling live performer one could ever imagine seeing. He was a genius on so many levels, and at the same time a strange, very very different human being. I, and I imagine history, will ultimately focus on the genius and his legacy of great songs and performances. Like nobody else on the planet, the guy just knew how to put on a show!

For a time I was the Sr. Director of National Promotion for Michael’s record company, Epic Records, and being part of the incredible world of Michael Jackson was nothing like anything I’ve ever experienced before or since. Just the pride and passion that we all took in knowing that we were working with the biggest artist in the world – it was an amazing feeling, and it permeated everything we did and drove us on to do more than we’d ever done before. It was just understood that Michael deserved, and in fact demanded it. It was an atmosphere of extreme pressure at times. It was never spoken, but we just knew that anything less than the best that had ever been achieved would be a failure. Pressure? What pressure…

I remember in excruciating detail the launch of Michael’s single “Black or White” in 1991. Never before in recorded history had every single major Top 40 radio station in America added the same record to each of their playlists in the same week. So, that became our goal. Somehow, we pulled it off. I will never forget getting the confirmation that the 214th out of 214 stations had indeed added the record on that Tuesday (for some bizarre reason, Tuesdays have always been the day radio stations report their new playlist additions for the week.) At any rate, it’s a record that still stands, as far as I know. The single went straight to #1 and stayed there for seven weeks. Though we didn’t know it at the time, this was probably the beginning of the end of his commercial peak.

I remember video (excuse me – “short films”) shoots where we did endless take after take after take – he was a total perfectionist, and always knew exactly what he wanted. He would never quit until he got exactly what he had in his mind. Sometimes it took a while for everyone else to understand exactly what that was – but no one ever seemed to get exasperated or impatient with him.

When I was the afternoon DJ on New York’s top-rated  WHTZ/Z-100 in the mid-1980s – “Thriller” was at its peak and Michael-mania ruled the world. He was in New York, staying at the Helmsley Palace – and I remember his manager Frank DiLeo calling us and offering us the sheets off of Michael’s bed to give away in a contest. Michael signed the sheets with a Sharpie, and Frank brought them over to the station. This drew perhaps the biggest reaction to a radio contest I’ve ever seen – it got more action than giving away $25,000 cash! What exactly did the winner do with the sheets, I have always wondered…

Ultimately, we are left with an amazing body of music that has touched millions of lives. In the end, he was and is an inspiration. The stirring tribute to Michael on last night’s Grammy Awards telecast inspired me once again, and led me to sit down and share a few memories. I am blessed to have been a tiny part of that world.

Portland doesn’t have it yet.  McMinnville, Oregon has it.  A year-round market that is.  Oh, I have my fingers crossed for this endeavor.  So many things going for it thus far.  It is in a charming setting, in a historic granary district, much like the one where we located our winery and tasting room.

The graphic design and e-marketing are well-done so there is talent on board.  Nice diversity of vendors.  I bought some cabbage (to serve alongside some black-eyed peas that I stashed in the freezer).  One dozen farm-fresh eggs (should have taken photos of those beautiful little quail eggs and speckled turkey eggs).  Mmmmm….still thinking about that apple pie, with its sweet flaky crust.  I had the last little bit of an individual pie ($5) last night, and dreaming of a custom-order of one of 20+ pies they can make.  I see a pie and pinot party coming on.  Jewelry, barbeque from the Valley’s best known rib-slayer, wine tasting from boutique producers, refurbished vintage furniture, locally raised meat, kid’s activities (we got free used children’s books last weekend).  I see from the website that they’ll have just-caught crab this weekend. See you there!