Lately, I’ve been reading lots of poetry. (Yes, I was a poetry major once upon a time.) And I just bought a new collection of poetry by William Carlos Williams. If you aren’t familiar with Williams, he is the doctor-poet who wrote “Red Wheelbarrow:” the short, overtly obscure item poem that describes a red wheelbarrow, blue rain, and white chickens. His poems are often a collection of disparate images that upon first glance seem to have no connection whatsoever.
One of my favorite poems of his is:
A Woman in Front of a Bank
The bank is a matter of columns,
like . convention,
unlike invention; but the pediments
sit there in the sun
.
to convince the doubting of
investments “solid
as rock” – upon which the world
stands, the world of finance,
.
the only world: Just there,
talking with another woman while
rocking a baby carriage
back and forth stands a woman in
.
a pink cotton dress, bare legged
and headed whose legs
are two columns to hold up
her face, like Lenin’s (her loosely
.
arranged hair profusely blond) or
Darwin’s and there you
have it:
a woman in front of bank.
.
.
It’s disjointed, romantic, and draws a wonderful comparison of a bank and a woman of all things. (The mashing together of dissimilar, distinct objects to explain reality reflects Williams interest in Cubism…yada, yada, yada)
Anyways, wines can sometimes take on this disjointed approach to great affect as well. (It seems like a stretch, I know, but follow me.)
These are my William Carlos Williams’ wines:
Landi Lacrima di Morro d’Alba - The nose is giant summer roses coupled with a deep, inky body and decent tannins that seems like it would completely clash but actually works beautifully.
Poggio di Bartolone Cerasuolo – On one end you have the grape, Frappato: a low tannin, minimal acid grape that normally tastes like light raspberries or strawberries. On the other end, you have Nero d’Avola: a barn-yardy, highly structured variety that underlies the bright, fruit notes of the Frappato. It’s an odd, amazing pairing.
Sant’Andrea Sogno – Probably the staff’s favorite bottle at the restaurant. Cesanese is a light-bodied earthy, strawberry grape native to Lazio, and Merlot is, well, Merlot. In this wine, you have all the body of a Merlot, but with overtones of dancing strawberries. Needless to say, it’s pretty cool.
The Wine Dude abides,
David
