2005 Syrah Le Pousseur

Verutti’s enterprise butts up against Ben Lomond Market. Why is it that when a major store moves into a neighborhood, some of the existing merchants disappear and yet others thrive? Merchandising, service, and relationships built over many years, provide the answer. Clever merchandisers know how to make the moment work for them. The Veruttis have been in the spirits trade for more than 40 years in the area, including in Capitola. It will be interesting to see how the Veruttis and other established wine merchants in Capitola hold up against the behemoths known as BevMo and Whole Foods. I urge everybody to “think global but shop local” thereby keeping 45 cents of every dollar spent circulating in this community.

I estimated there were at least 20 to 30 Santa Cruz Mountain Wines in Verutti’s Ben Lomond store. Kudos. And why not? Verutti sits in the solar plexus of the Santa Cruz Mountains winegrowing region.

I apologize for lifting copy direct from the back label, but when the script is written by Bonny Doon Winery owner Randall Grahm, it’s more like quoting good prose. Grahm is part Charles Baudelaire and part Timothy Leary. Listen to what he says about this Syrah: “… la syrah, the French say, employing the feminine article. Just goes to show how profoundly it runs their urbanity. Their savoir du monde. True syrah (‘typique’ the French say) is deeply and elementally feminine, no matter what the show-offy, unctuously unguented (careful of that oil slick) Muscle Beach shiraz-mongers might claim.” Unctuously unguented? Grahm has the same skill with words that he has with wine. If you read this label, you will then have to buy the wine; and if you read this before you drink it, you will look for things you never thought of before. His website says, among other things, that this wine has a bouquet of “bacon fat.” As an experiment, I fried up a rasher of Jimmy Dean thick cut hickory smoked bacon and put my nose over the frying pan, and sure enough, the unmistakable aroma of syrah wine. Amazing.

A winemaker is first and foremost an artist. He knows how to use chemistry just like a painter knows how to use paints. It is that idiosyncratic, epiphany-like flashing that goes off in the artist’s soul that makes for an inspired end product. Otherwise we could all get a set of paints and brushes and become little Monets; likewise with some grapes, we could become little ºs, making great Rhone-style wines in our bathtubs.

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Comments (1)

Freelance writer-dining columnist-Aptos Times

Paul, I've been following your articles and must say, this one is among the best. I still remember the time you visited our winery, Roudon-Smith, in the hills of Scotts Valley, so many years ago. Thanks for your support of our local wineries.

June Smith, retired and loving it.

June Smith , August 11, 2008

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