Future of the HSC

It is oft said that all good things must come to an end, though it is probably also true for the bad and the mostly middle neutral ground things as well, and though the HSC is not ending, per se, it is coming to a change. This brings to mind another saying, that being that the only constant is change, but rather than fill this post up with lots and lots of other colloquial sayings, I’ll stop now…I think. I may think of another really good or appropriate one, so no absolute promises.

This series started as a companion series to the then-activity of my wife and myself of enjoying bottle(s) of wine whilst watching movies at night, kicking back and relaxing on the weekends, and was in mind to be a regular series on a website (along with various other writings of mine) she was creating. That particular website was not especially long-lived, but as I had not seen a lot of other blogs attempting to do what this one was – or other wine blogs in general, aside from some primarily focused on reviews – I decided to keep the train rolling with this one. I had intended to hard cap it at 50 wines and have some Q & A pieces along the way.

Fast forward to now and there are 60+ entries posted out of a total of 70-ish on the main list. Some of those others will not make it onto these postings because they are no longer produced, some because they are Chardonnays, which I do not drink regularly, and those entries that are there do not come in bottles with screw tops, which makes them kind of useless to keep around for cooking, and some that I’ve not been able to locate again. The main list itself has not been updated in nearly a year and that is generally due to cessation in actively pursuing it, a downturn that has been in place for a while and is largely due to a shift in my wife’s diet and interest in wine.

While I’m generally ol’ Irongut himself (also feel free to check out my hot sauce blog now, if you’re interested, or my many, many Yelp reviews), she is not and perhaps the tannins, perhaps some other element, were not getting along well with her system. This generally means she slowed on being a participant then eventually dropped out entirely, leaving it to me. As I’m not generally too much of a regular solo flying wine guy, that slowed the activity on this front to a crawl. She has since re-joined the activity, but part of the function of the list has been to get some reliables. Having quite a number of those, we also spent a lot of time simply enjoying various titles.

There is also the thought that I was meaning to stop this entirely at 50, as I thought the column had achieved to do already what it had set out to do (laid out in the first couple of posts). While I think there is value in having a ready list at hand, at least as a starting point, for the more budget conscious who want to get into the wine game and just get a good bottle for not a lot of green, if that can’t be done in a list of 50 names, there are bigger problems working than I can solve with this list. It is for that reason that I’m not going to pull it down or anything, but it also sort of slows the incentive to keep adding to it somewhat.

Most finally, more than a few titles on this list have gone over the $20 mark. While I’m not super-strict on that actual part of it, I feel if I extend it to $25, I might as well go $30 and if $30, then why not $40 and the escalation misses the point entirely of why I started this. $20 is a single bill and part of the reason that people kind of miss a lot of great wines is they get hung up on the crazy price points. To put it another way, if you’re just starting out and you throw in on an $80 bottle of something that turns out to be shit, where are you then going to go from there?

I like doing these pieces and I’m very big on the spirit of experimentalism. I definitely like digging in and trying new stuff, be it foods, restaurants, hot sauces, beers, whiskeys, liquors, kombuchas or wines, but the thought of slugging down a bottle of something less than desirable because I can’t stand to waste it is somewhat of a joykill and tempers things, naturally, and also why this is not a review column (though if someone out there somewhere wants to pay me to do that, I will start a new column and go up and down the aisles, reviewing every selection). There is also the fact that I have fully caught up and everything I was able to find and write a piece for has now been posted. Without further additions, it would be hard to write/post further pieces, of course.

So, bottom line, updates will be coming a lot slower to this column (even more seldom than the every other month it's been for the last year and change), but it’s not going away. I hope you have enjoyed what you’ve seen so far and found it to be of use. I thank you all for reading.

Issue LXIII: Field Recordings Fiction Edition

 Field Recordings Fiction [Blend] Edition

It is the very end of 2018 as I write this. I always try to write these in advance, for posting at a later time and this is the first in a very long time. Indeed, I got curious and looked and it has been over a full calendar year since I added a new wine to the HSC list. Part of that is because I was enjoying various entries on the list, but mostly it was because the list is fairly narrow and specific and I’d gone through many, many entries that could have conceivably fit and found many of them wanting. Obviously, that changes today.

I had never heard of Field Recordings, which almost sounds like music should be involved somehow. I checked and it does not appear to be the case, at least that I can find. Naturally, being a writer and all, I was drawn to the very austere labeling, which largely just features the word “Fiction.” The pull, in fact, was so strong that out of a case lot of various entries to try, I could not bring myself to wait and tried it first...

Clearly, my penchant for Blends can tend to dominate and perhaps I’ve long passed the point of diminishing returns, but when I am rewarded, such as with this one, the majesty remains fully intact. Here, we have a blend of 7 different wines, with the majority being Zinfandel, followed next by Syrah. The other big, bold baddy, Cabernet Sauvignon, is present in there as well, so this thing comes packing a punch. It is evidently sourced from multiple vineyards, so the intent seems to be a best of all possible worlds thing and I’d say they came pretty close.

This is a very accessible wine, outstanding right out of the gate and, dare I say it, even refreshing. The taste is an exquisite balance of those large tannin-heavy hitters, along with enough astringency to cut it just enough to make it a delight. It is unquestionably a dark wine, of course, but doesn’t drink like anything heavy. It is far from light, but does retain a nice smoothness throughout. I got strong berry, with just a light dash, here and there, of cherry cola, as there did seem to be a bit of effervescence to this.

All in all, this is definitely my favorite wine of 2018 and for the price point, this is an outstanding value. This, then, make it a Standard.