One week out

In January of 1955, "Life" magazine commissioned photographer Dennis Stock to do a visual biography on the life of actor James Dean. As part of the story, it included a trip to his childhood home of Fairmount, Indiana.

Dean decided to pose inside of a coffin for a series of shots, at the local department store in Fairmount.

hatˠu!

This address is on yak titʸu titʸu yak tiłhini (Northern Chumash, Obispeño) land and is closest to the place called elewexe (‘swordfish,’ Paso Robles, California, United States). This language is called tʔɨnɨsmuʔ tiłhinkʔtitʸu and is one of many varied Chumash dialects found along the coast of what is now called California. Some other aquatic creatures are tškaʔ, meaning fish, and pxatu, meaning whale.

auʔauʔ for participating!

Interested in getting your own Just Say Hello postcard? Postcard request instructions here.

Sources:

List of Indigenous Peoples in California on Wikipedia

Chumash Indian Languages on native-languages.org

YTT Northern Chumash Tribe Language Development

yakʔitʸutʸu resources with California Polytechnic State University San Luis Obispo

No, not a taxi. That's the wrong kind of cab. I'm talking about Cabernet Sauvignon. A Bordeaux grape that made it's way to America and is found to grow beautifully in California. Cab Sauv is the baby of Sauvignon Blanc and Cabernet Franc (both Bordeaux grapes). It's a big, bold, rich, fruity grape that offers high alcohol, high tannin and a full body. It pairs well with steak and also works as a cocktail wine. It's a great way to get into wine for beginners, and for more experience wine nerds it's a great varietal to collect and age. But I'm a little deep in the weeds. Let me slow it down...

Here's the quick story. I have been bartending since the day I turned 21. I had wanted to be a bartender since I was a kid and watched "Cocktail"...who didn't want to be Tom Cruise in that movie? Spinning bottles and making the girls smile and making a ton of money in the process. Who didn't want to move down to the islands and open a place called "Cocktails and Dreams"?

I worked at every bar I could. Dive bars, theater bars, restaurant bars, wine bars. I worked private events and catering events. Never did weddings. The opportunity just never arose. I also worked in a ton of restaurants and a server and a cook. I was a professional actor, which meant I was also a service industry professional. But it wouldn't become my career until around the year 2020. Some big cataclysmic event happened that sent my destiny in another direction. WINE!

But I think we need to start from the beginning.... Wine wasn't a big deal in my family. My aunt would drink Kendal Jackson, Turning Leaf, Franzia. And when I stole some I hated it. At the college parties when Boone's Farm and 2 Buck Chuck went around I understood it was swill and was only going to lead me to a severe hangover or upchucking and ruining the vibes.

When I started bartending, I was in this little dive bar in South Bend. My boss was an older woman who owned the place and I would pour her this awful white wine from a 1 liter bottle. That's all I really thought wine was. Just bitter grape juice with high ABV that I poured for people who had pour taste.

But there just had to be more to it! They wouldn't make movies like "Sideways" if wine wasn't a bigger deal. I had to keep exploring. I would go to the stores and try to find wine that I liked, but it felt like I reading another language. I mean...I was...but even the english words in wine culture seemed foreign and scary. I found a sweeter red wine that I managed to drink a couple bottles of, until I chugged one at a house party and turned the toilet bright purple. That was the end of that. I stuck with mixed drinks and beer for years after.

But then I moved to California and met a girl who would later become my wife. She grew up in a much different way than I did. She grew up in a well to do family, in California with a father who loved the wine world. My wife introduced me to wine by taking me to Temecula and Santa Barbara. I would go visit her parents with her and her dad would bring out bottles of California Cabs that were easy to drink. He wasn't looking to pair the bottle with food, it was a cocktail wine...and that's exactly what I was looking for.

I learned that I just needed to keep exploring the wine world. I still had no idea that I was going to dedicate my life to becoming a Somm. That wouldn't happen for another twelve to thirteen years. At this time I was just enjoying the fact that I was in California chasing my dreams and enjoying what I considered a sophisticated adult beverage. I was growing up and I was very proud to be around people who had more sophisticated pallets than I had.

As a budding sommelier, I don't drink as much California Cab as I used to. Southern Australia, Chile, Bordeaux, Washington state also offer some absolutely stunning expressions of Cab Sauv. But I still get together with my father-in-law and we pop open our favorite Paso Robles Cabs and share in the sense of nostalgia and comfort that these wines offer. He was truly the person who sent me on the path to love wine. He would deny this if you asked him, but it's true.

We went to Paso Robles and Santa Barbara multiple times. Each time I'd learn a little more. I'd watch some documentary, take James Suckling's Masterclass, read an issue of Wine Enthusiast. I was trying to understand this world. It would be a decade before I really got my sea legs and felt like I understood what the wine world was all about. (More on that later.)

I remember going to restaurants watching Bob pour over the wine book. I remember thinking, "Thank God he's doing this. I don't know what any of that means!" He was always trying to learn more about wine as well. The beauty of being a "professional wine guy" is that I am able to take us further down the rabbit hole than we thought we could go. The further down we go, the more fun it is. Having someone on the journey with you makes it all the more fun. My wife and mother-in-law enjoy the finer wines that come from it, though they seem to not be as excited about learning about malolactic fermentation and botrytis.

So, in closing, one question remains unanswered. What was the bottle that made me fall in love? What was that California Cab? It wasn't just one bottle. It was Soul Of A Lion from Dauo. I remember being up on Daou mountain, a light breeze blowing and the sun shining. A glass of the most beautiful Cabernet I had ever tasting resting in my hand standing with my future wife and father-in-law looking over the vines. "This feels like heaven."

Daniel Daou, founder of Daou, aimed to make the best Cabernet Sauvignon possible. He knew that he needed to find a place with the Calcareous Clay soils like Bordeaux. He found them in Paso Robles, CA where he became one of the first wine makers to bring and Cabernet Sauvignon clones. The result speaks for itself. If you ever get a chance to get a bottle, I recommend it. The feeling of that first sip is something I continue to chase. That chase used to be a hobby, but now it's my profession.