Hair Today...

I WANT TO tell you about a lady called Marimar Torres. She makes wine that somehow captures the strength in the beautiful, almost legendarily stoic faces of Spanish women. No indecisive Brigitte Jones! She is sister to Miguel, an icon chiselled into the proverbial South West facing golden slopes of wine's heritage. Marimar makes an eponymous Pinot Noir in California's cooler 'Russian River' AVA which is ripe, sensual, exciting and striking. The '02 is a stave or two over-eagerly oaked, but just underneath, all-embracing with its warm raspberry coulis sentiments.

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I do not generally have much affection for walking wine franchise, Oz Clarke. He is what I term a 'cholestasaurus'. However I did encounter a quote he penned which made sense (albeit more specifically aimed at fat-walleted gastro-tourists):

'In Margaux, I want to tread the warm, well-drained gravel outcrops... I want to see the Andes water gushing down off the mountains into the fertile vineyards of Chile's Maipo Valley. I want to feel the howling mists chill me to the bone in California's Carneros, and then feel the warm winds of New Zealand's Marlbrough tugging at my hair. I want it all to make sense.'

Seriously good sentiments, if only he had any hair...