Aging Process
I just want to add a footnote to the Jan. 18 story about new winemakers: “new’ being the definitive word. While the chardonnay and roses produced in the mountains above Santa Cruz may do justice to the domestic palate, I want to point out a denizen from my ancestors’ wine-producing region in southern Bavaria. If he or she should taste of what is produced hereabouts, there would be the response: “Der Wein ist zu jung!’
But that’s from a vintner whose family goes back nine or 10 generations in growing grapes. Most of the folks who walk into the tasting rooms of Ridge Vineyards or Vine Hill Cellars are from this area. They come with their taste buds set to experience the character and body that the wine pamphlets promise. And it works; they believe they are tasting the best, and they congratulate themselves for being discerning connoisseurs.
My great-grandfather didn’t use computerized formulas nor did he place electronic sensors on his grapevines. Emil Meyer didn’t work as a systems analyst for 20 years, then on a whim and a whirl decided he wanted to be fashionable and buy land to grow grapes. Emil Meyer brought the wine culture from the old country and produced superior reds and pinots from the Summit Road region. He shipped his fine wines worldwide.
The nuevo local vintners can apply all the wine-culture vocabulary to describe what they offer, but they cannot speed up time. Time and experience produce a truly authentic wine that doesn’t come in 10 or 20 years, then, presto!, we’re bottling stuff comparable to the old masters.
Theodore F. Meyer | Santa Cruz
Dreaming in 3-D
Your article on desktop manufacturing/3-D printing (“Magic Box,’ Cover story, March 21) caught me right where I live. The people suspicious about my warehouse operation think I’m doing pot, but I’m not. I’m making my own Reese’s Peanut Butter Cups by the thousands (all the wraps I get from China by the boatload) on my big machine that reads right off my cell phone. The only problem was finding Milton Hershey’s exact degree of sourness for the milk in the chocolate.
And I’ve got bigger plans: A big Mercedes and a Steinway concert grand. Later a yacht and palace. And I’d like to copy Scarlett Johansson, but I’d need her spit to make her image, so will have to find a napkin she’s left behind somewhere. In a couple years, when I’ve got a more sophisticated setup, I’m going to get some old DNA and try my hand at Helen of Troy and Marilyn Monroe. Getting set up may be costly, but with the right raw materials, I’ll never have to buy anything ever again. Why should I when I can make everything I want on my own?
Richard Lynde | Watsonville
