Newbie joins the fray

O

Oswaldo Costa

Oswaldo Costa
I live in Sao Paulo, Brazil, where interesting wines are few and far between. So I bring back mixed cases from frequent trips to New York and go with my girlfriend on occasional trips to wine producing regions that interest us. My memory is a sieve, so I write detailed trip reports (below is our most recent, to Piedmont, last month; it includes a fantastic visit to Cappellano; next week we're going to Colares, Madeira, Bairrada and Douro). I know some of you from other boards and have been watching from the sidelines, content to stay away from psychic harm, but so many threads are too hilarious, witty and informative to resist.


(must be converted to .pdf)
 
originally posted by Oswaldo Costa: I live in Sao Paulo, Brazil, where interesting wines are few and far between...
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One would hardly be able to tell from all the wines you post about! So I guess they must all be carefully 'imported' by you over the years...
 
The city where Walter Wanderley rose from obscurity to worldwide fame as the premier bossa nova organist of his time!!!

-Eden (his version of Mas Que Nada from "Brazil's Greatest Hits" remains the finest recording of that song, even better than the Sergio Mendes/Black Peas version from a couple of years ago)
 
Isn't anyone going to welcome this guy? Is it left to me?

Fuck you Oswaldo and all your offspring! Welcome to the best place on the internet to be buked and scorned for mysterious reasons or no reason at all.
 
Thanks, Ken, as the first to welcome me, you will always have a special place in my heart.

Rahsaan, the Chileans and Argentinians I buy locally are seldom interesting, so I bring back almost two cases every time I go to NY.

Joe, it's a pdf, so Steve nailed it. So I can't post my report. Tant pis, because it's tant piss.

Eden (what an awesome name), I played guitar for Sergio Mendes in the early 80s [he got me my green card, after which I promptly switched to banking (paid better)], so I take exception to what you wrote! Just kiddin'.

Thanks, Mark. Jonathan, my sole offspring sends you greetings. Loved the Jurassic exchange a few days ago. Thank god for (the real) Jim Miller.
 
Jonathan, I wasn't going to weigh in with the traditional welcome/invective until I found out where he stands on the Walter Wanderley question. Some people think that Wanderley's high point was when he was playing with the Quarteto Bossamba while others believe that he was never as good as he was when he recorded a bunch of records under the direction of Creed Taylor on Verve (and later on CTI).

Personally, I think the truth lies somewhere between the pared-down minimalism of the tracks recorded in Sao Paolo and the string-laden, swingin' bachelor pad grooves of the Verve years, but I feel it fair to give Oswaldo a forum to let us know how he feels about this important issue. The fact that he's played with Sergio Mendes adds gravitas to his point of view, and I can see why he might prefer Mendes' version of "Mas Que Nada" to Wanderley's; I'll just say that the former is the definitive recording (particularly Sergio M's original recording) of the song while the latter (Wanderley) is my favorite.

Why this entire question might ultimately be considered important (or maybe not) is that one's loyalty to a particular genre/style/era of Brasilian music could potentially foretell the tenor of that person's posts on the board. Being a jetsetting banker these days, or all I know he's firmly ensconced in the the Tropicalia school and believes that the bossa nova, Jobim, and Stan Getz are just a bunch of spoofed-up music created to serve as a sonic background aura for hipsters drinking Pouilly-Fuiss in fern bars (presaging the whole streaming jam-band background music in "natural wine-whateverthatis" movement by 3-4 decades). Likewise, maybe he loves modernista styles of wine from the places he visits, or maybe he's rooted so firmly in the fundamentalist/traditionalist POV that he cannot (or will not) taste good wine when it's not been made in the style he's sworn allegiance to. Me, I like Marcos Vall and Os Mutantes as much as the person on the stool next to me in the cybercaf, but I believe that there's something of value about hearing "The Girl From Ipanema" played really well on a Hammond or Farfisa, something that's just as valuable as singing along with a Bossacucanova CD at the top of your lungs in a Rambler convertible going 63 mph at 2 AM on a winter night drive across Nebraska.

-Eden (who enjoyed equally the 04 Guigal Hermitage Blanc, 99 Chave Hermitage Blanc, and 97 Qupe Marsanne the other evening)
 
Be sure to share your experiences in/with Colares. I'm curious how much wine is still being made and grown ungrafted in the sandy soils. Colares is one of those singular places/wines that I long to visit or at least get my hands on to try.

Cheers,

Kevin
 
originally posted by Oswaldo Costa:
I played guitar for Sergio Mendes in the early 80s.
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Oswaldo, I sense a disorderly gig in our distant future (Eden, LL that means you).
Now who's going to blackmail errr... persuade Lillie to dust off a bari?
 
Other newbies, this is how you do it. Deferential without being pathetic, non-American origin (make it up if you must), and a life history that includes a reference to Sergio Mendes.

Now fuck off.
 
Eden, I was into Creed Taylor for a while, but then the string-laden thing just got to be too much. The came Manfred Eicher, until that, too, got a bit tired. My dad was a Brazilian diplomat, so I didn't spend all that much time in Brazil growing up, so Wanderley fell into the same time warp/black hole as Bola Sete and Luis Bonf and a few others. And as an electric guitarist, I was too busy pining for the "other" (British and American rock n' roll) to pay as much attention as I should have to my own back yard. I was into Caetano Veloso and Gilberto Gil and Tropicalia, for sure, as well as Novos Baianos, Jorge Ben, Milton Nascimento and Chico Buarque, but Brazilian instrumentalists always seemed a bit crude compared to the level I was experiencing outside Brazil. And the more sophisticated harmonies of Jobim were a bit lost on me, with all those chords that were sublime for the melody but made improvising hell because they had already laid claim, it was said, to the best notes. I came to Sergio Mendes from the rock/fusion side because he wanted a more "modern" sound (ouch, you got me there) and I remember vividly sitting with him one day in his *********** listening to Every Breath You Take from The Police, which had just come out and zoomed to #1. Sergio was totally dismissive, saying something like "can you believe this elementary primitive garbage is a hit?" while I tred to explain to him that it was more about attitude and mood than the sorts of things he was conditioned to look for. He couldn't believe I was daring to disagree, but I thought that was part of my function.

Kevin, I'm particularly interested in ungrafted vines and in Colares I have a visit set up with Antonio Bernardino Paulo da Silva, one of the last producers there (apparently). David Lillie asked me to get info, etc. In Bairrada, I am going to see Luis Pato, who also has an ungrafted (but expensive) Baga. He has this neat picture on his site of grafted v. ungrafted which I'll try to upload here.

Pe_Franco_v_Pe_Enxertado.jpg
Don, shhh, I've so far managed to hide my past from David! We just talk about Saramago and, well, Nossiter.

Yixin, given your vituperative prolixities, I am deeply honored!
 
Nice to see you here, Oswaldo. Pay no attention to these fuckups. I appreciated your interest in my Mendoza/Chile notes earlier this year over at the Less Neurotic BBS.

Dave Erickson
 
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