Pumpkin: The Great, The Okay, and The Bad

Tis the season for a plentiful supply of fall seasonals to be hitting the shelf. Here are my suggestions on which pumpkin brews to try and which to skip. I will score the beers on a 1 to 10 scale with a 10 being near perfection in a bottle, a 1 being a horrible atrocity, and a 5 being average for the style.

The Bruery Autumn Maple
Score - 9.0

I bet everyone else wishes they would have thought of yams as an alternative to pumpkins! This beer is a little on the sweet side, and definitely packs a punch at 10%.

Tasting notes:
Aroma of candied yams, a hint of cloves, vanilla and just a touch of some earthy nuttiness. Taste is medium bodied with flavors of sweet potatoes, pumpkin-y earthiness, some roasted nuts, brown sugar and vanilla. Finish is semi-sweet with a sweet potato, nutmeg, carmelized marshmallow and clove aftertaste. Not much maple syrup in the flavor but definitely in the aroma.

Elysian Night Owl Pumpkin Ale

Score - 8.5

A classically delicious pumpkin beer from a phenomenal local brewery.

Tasting notes:
Very true to veggie nose with a good dose of cinnamon, nutmeg, ginger, and an almost vegetal pumpkin hint. The palate is not nearly as sweet as the nose suggests, with a nice dose of hoppy spice to dry out the nutmeg, carmelized malt, ginger and pumpkin. All in all, I wanted a touch more malt in the body, but, in general, a very well done beer.

Dogfishhead Punkin Ale

Score - 6.5

Tasting notes:
This beer really let me down this year. There is a hint of allspice and nutmeg that persists throughout smelling and tasting, but the palate is nothing more than an overly spiced version of their Indian Brown.

Anheuser-Busch Jacks Pumpkin Spice

Score - 5.5

Tasting notes: This was actually better than I remember it being. That said, it is nothing spectacular, just thin and slightly sweet. It is a pretty unassuming beer, that you could certainly drink more than one of...........if you wanted to.

Coors Brewing Harvest Moon Pumpkin Ale

Score - 3.5

Tasting notes: I can't believe they call this a pumpkin beer! There is barely enough nutmeg, cinnamon, and brown sugar character to carry the nose, much less the palate. In all, it isn't a terrible beer, but the pumpkin aspect is nearly non-existant.

in the wooden arms of patrick

so i'm sitting here listening to the long-awaited sophmore album wooden arms by Patrick Watson. i have been a Watson fan since my first listen of closer to paradise a few years ago, and i have been waiting for another effort from him every day since.

arms' first song, "fireweed," grabbed me and tore my insides out. as i listened, it stuffed them back in and continued to toil around in there, with Watson's innocent yet ominous whispers. i had completely melted onto my living room carpet by the second time Watson sings the line, "where the fireweeds grow."

the second song, "tracey's waters," is not as equally gutting, but soulful to say the least. as i moved on to "beijing," i began to realize Watson was experimenting with some new sounds on this album. there was a lot of metal-banging. had he spent some time in the orient? africa? the streets of new jersey? either way, it didn't matter too much. he made it sound great.

onto the album's title track. now this is what i was used to hearing from Watson. sad, ghostly, haunting ballads that made me feel his despair in sleeping with someone whom he knows has no love for him. the piano makes me want to kill myself. Jeff Buckley is speaking from the grave in this song.

"traveling salesman" is one of those songs you may listen to 50 times before it hits you across the back of the head with its brilliance. strange harmonies, a shuffling gait, it hearkens back to "weight of the world" from paradise.

"big bird in a small cage" still hasn't really hit me. but then again, Patrick Watson is like pizza. you know how that goes.

"man like you" shows off Watson's countertenor, and is simple and haunting. "where the wild things are" builds like a crescendo and throws in all of the instruments he's learned to play since the last album; this song actually reminds me of an orchestra. what's brilliant about it is that it's all under Watson's composition.

the bonus track "hearts in the park" is a campy number that i imagine Watson wrote while smoking weed around a campfire after watching westerns and noirs all day. bonus tracks... now that we have itunes, they aren't really bonus anymore, are they?

The Other Whites of Italy Part One

All too often when we think of Italian wine the first ones that come to mind are the elegant and structured Sangioveses of Tuscany, the crisp and delicate Pinot Grigios of the north, or the bold and powerful Piedmontese reds from Barolo and Barbaresco. The sweet whites of Asti and the Prosecco's of the Tre Venezie seem to steal the remainder of attention to Italian whites. The Italians may be partly to blame, as they have a glut of grape varietals no one outside of Italy grows (damn them for being different!), and the label can often be confusing. Here are a few great Italian whites with some suggestions for each. As always you can find all of these wines at the Tacoma Boys in Puyallup.

Whites of the Piedmont

There are two significant whites from the Piedmont, if you exclude the wines from Asti [Moscato d' Asti and Asti (formerly called Asti Spumante)].

Arneis - Piedmontese for "little rascal", this grape lives up to its name as a notoriously difficult grape to grow. Virtually extinct as recent as the 70's (only two growers making a commercial wine from the grape), this grape has rebounded well. It is grown in two DOC areas in the Piedmont, Langhe and Roero. Arneis' tend to be very full bodied and carry a nice stone fruit and green apple as well as very bright acidity when done well. Look for:

Tre Donne Roero Arneis
Bruno Giacosa Roero Arneis

Cortese - You will rarely see this grape named on the wines for which it produces. Instead you will most often see them labeled Gavi, after the town from which nearly all of them are produced. Gavi's are one of my favorite food wines, as they are immensly versatile. They carry a steely dry and clean character while playing that line between a honeyed sweetness with fresh apricot and melon and amazing acidity. When well done, Gavi can be as remarkable a wine you encounter. Look for:

Tre Donne Donna Bianca Gavi
Pio Cesare Gavi

More to come in the next post including:
Campania, Tre Venezie whites not called Pinot Grigio, Umbria, and some others.

Three nice Red (wine) blends

Have always liked Townsend T3 but it's a bit hard to find since it's only sold to restaurants and caterers now. A great local place that has it on the shelf for $17 a bottle is the Rosewood Cafe near Proctor in Tacoma. An alternative (and more available) option from Townsend is Vortex Red.

Another reasonably priced red blend a buddy turned me on to is g3 by Goose Ridge Vineyards.

My most recent find is "the ghost of 413" from the Giant Wine Company. Pete's Wine Shop in Bellevue has it for about 13 bucks a bottle.

All of these taste like much bigger--and more expensive--reds.

Enjoy!