Blame it on Rioja

One of these days I will use the word “summer” as a verb, and at the end of that sentence will be someplace–Shelter Island, the Catskills, Andalucia–that conjures up lazy afternoons and high-end seasonal foodstuffs, but until that day comes, I make it a point to compile a list of cool outdoor summer activities that take place in the city, which is where I’ll be summering this year.

Two of the season’s best outdoor events involve film and food, are both just a stone’s throw from the East River, and began last week: Socrates Sculpture Park’s Wednesday night Outdoor Cinema Series and The Brooklyn Bridge Park Conservancy’s Thursday night Movies with a View,a few miles downriver.

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A friend of mine who, like me, has grappled with the lures and snares of cigarette addiction over the years, told me recently that a long period of non smoking once ended quite abruptly after viewing “Dont Look Back,” D.A. Pennebaker’s black-and-white mini-chronicle of Bob Dylan’s 1965 UK tour, in which our star is seen smoking pretty much at all times.

I thought about this while reading “Music ‘Can Enhance Wine Taste,’” a BBC News report of a university study on wine and music, which found that “people rated the change in taste by up to 60% depending on the melody heard.

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Dutch Angle/Spanish Wine: (From left) ADM, photographer Nigel Barker, and Rebeca Gomez of Rioja’s Consejo Regulador, New York City, Wednesday, December 5, 2007. Photo: Kendyl Wright.

While admittedly not an avid television watcher, I’d be lying if I said it wasn’t pretty damn cool to lead a Rioja tasting a few weeks ago at the studios of photographer Nigel Barker, a judge on the CW Network’s America’s Next Top Model.

Mr. Barker is a professed fan of Rioja and of pretty much all things Spanish, having lived in Spain for many years with his family, and he struck up a friendship with Vibrant Rioja’s Kendyl Wright during September’s Fashion Week, for which Rioja was the official wine. In the event, Kendyl arranged for a tasting at the photographer’s studio in the Meatpacking District in early December and asked me to lead it.

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One of the season’s chichiest wine events, the annual New York Wine Experience, spills out onto the carpeted terraces of the Marriott Marquis tomorrow night, inaugurating a three-day extravaganza of oenophilic excess set to the dulcet tones of Lite FM.

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David Moreno takes justifiable pride in the success of his bodega in Badarán, a small village in La Rioja Alta not far from the storied monasteries at Yuso and Suso. When I met him last year, he told me that 14,000 visitors had come through the doors of his Bordelais chateaux-inspired winery in 2005, that transactions at the bodega itself account for a considerable portion of his total sales, and that “we never close.” Demand for his Wine Club–in which members purchase wine by the barrel and pay regular visits to the vaulted underground cellar to enjoy their wine with friends and family amid its soul-soothing calm and flattering light–has never been higher. Moreno exudes the quietly triumphant air of someone who has created something quite lovely from scratch, and that’s pretty much what happened.

He makes a typically broad spectrum of wines, from Blanco Joven to High Expression (called Vobiscum), and I was quite taken by his 2002 Seleccion de la Familia Crianza, aged in a combination of French and American oak, so much so that I took a bottle home with me, since his wine does not yet have American representation.

But the highlight of our afternoon visit came at the end. Fond of working alone late at night, Moreno’s daughter Gemma told us during lunch, David passes the time singing local folk tunes called jotas, a song form that falls somewhere between medieval English ballads and early-19th-century German song cycles a la Schumann and Schubert.

After a little gentle coaxing on our part, Moreno agreed to sing for us. For twenty minutes or so, no one said a word, and the only sound in the cavernous underground space was Moreno’s earnest and unwavering baritone, creating in short order an unforgettable experience bordering on the magical.

(Photo courtesy Jose Guerra)

Chanterelle Master Sommelier Roger Dagorn, whose knowledge of and passion for wine place him at his profession’s highest echelons, recently told me, “Look, Adrian, for all of wine’s importance in our lives, we still have to remember that the wine we serve here is essentially a condiment to David’s food,” referring to Chanterelle Chef David Waltuck, recent recipient of a James Beard Foundation Award for top chef in New York City.

The perfect accompaniment. A seamless harmony. An ideal complement. These were the scenarios going through my head after work last night, a cold pint of German pilsner working its restorative magic after a long and busy shift. But I wasn’t thinking about food and wine.

No, I was thinking of Emmylou Harris, roots country goddess with the voice of an angel. I own a bunch of her solo work–I particularly like Red Dirt Girl and her version of Townes Van Zandt’s “Pancho and Lefty” on Luxury Liner–but it’s in her collaborative work where she really shines, and it’s what I listen to most often, those songs that just couldn’t possibly be the same without her.

Wine can be great on its own; but match it with a set of flavors in a dish–that’s where the fireworks can happen. It’s the same with certain singers, too. Just as some grape varieties are quite literally made for food (Pinot Noir, Nebbiolo, and Tempranillo), certain singers add the perfect contrapuntal note to the “main course.” Some, like Emmylou, can even steal the show.

With a touch that’s ethereally light at the higher end of her register (as in Lucinda Williams’ “Greenville”) and harmonically grounding, even haunting, at the lower end (as in Steve Earle’s “Taneytown,” Emmylou Harris sends otherwise terrific songs into the stratosphere. When you think about it, she’s made essential contributions to some of American popular music’s finest moments, ever. We all owe the late, great Gram Parsons a huge debt for finding her in a Washington, D.C., and giving her to us.

I went through my collection and made a selection of what I think are the best songs that feature Emmylou Harris as a guest vocal. By no means exhaustive, they are all nevertheless stellar vocal achievements, equal parts emotionally transporting and utterly heartrending:

“Taneytown,” with Steve Earle, from El Corazon (1997) - impossible to hear these two voices sing ” ‘Boy, you look like hell,’ is all she said” and not get chills.

“A Song for You,” with Gram Parsons, from G.P. (1973) - Parsons is patron saint of country rock (or “Cosmic American Music,” as he called it) and had a shaky tenor capable of breaking your heart with lyrics as simple as “Oh, my land is like a wild goose.” But just listen to the last chorus, accompanied by Emmylou, and we’re on another plane: “Take me down to your dance floor. I won’t mind the people when they stare.”

“Oh My Sweet Carolina,” with Ryan Adams, from Heartbreaker (2000) - The first truly great album of the 21st century, and still one of the decade’s finest, Heartbreaker, I suspect, will still be in my permanent rotation twenty years from now. On this track, again in the last chorus, check out how exquisitely Emmylou shapes the word, “sweet” before “disposition.” Again, chills.

“Greenville,” with Lucinda Williams, from Car Wheels on a Gravel Road (1998) - I cannot exaggerate the brillance of this album, a lifetime of love, pain, sex, and resilience distilled into a single album. In this song, Emmylou’s finest moment comes at the end, with the refrain, “Oh, to rave about you.”

“One More Cup of Coffee,” with Bob Dylan, from Desire (1976)

“She’s Leaving Me Because She Really Wants To” with Lyle Lovett, from “Joshua Judges Ruth” (1992)

“We Are Nowhere, and It’s Now” with Bright Eyes, from I’m Wide Awake, It’s Morning (2005) - “How could you forget your yellow bird?”

Click here to check out my iTunes playlist, which features all but one.

A friend working on a screenplay, uninitiated in the music of Bob Dylan, recently asked me for recommendations on what she do to change all that, and I wrote back saying that I have been waiting my whole life for someone to ask me that question.So, to test my theory that people passionate about wine are usually also passionate about music, and in the ecumenical spirit pioneered by Neal Martin over at www.winejournal.com, I decided to post my response to Ally here at BIOR. (more…)