Taking a break from writing up Italian wineries for a book project to report on an interesting wine from last weekend, Domaine La Tour Vieille’s “Memorie (d’automnes)” from Collioure in the Pyrénées-Orientales in southwestern France. Lovely stuff. And what an evocative name.

I believe it’s a blend of grenache blanc and genache gris that’s made in a manner similar to Sherry or perhaps vin jaune (Old wooden vats! Flor!), and here it is at once saline and bone-dry, yet with the sweetness of dried apricots and sultanas. The golden-orange color is also quite pretty to look at, reminiscent of, well, autumn.

Kermit Lynch imports this wine, at least on the west coast, so it is available. In San Francisco it’s available at Arlequin Wine Merchant for around $25.

And here’s some newish music, “Islands” from The xx. I think this is someone’s fan video, but I could be wrong. Lovely song though.

We San Franciscans love our wine. And we love our kinky sex. Apparently, we also like to combine the two.

From SFist comes word of the Wine & Rope tasting at local gallery, Femina Potens. And what are they tasting? Why zinfandel of course!

Go here to read more.

I might add that the crew over at SFist is taking a rather, well, sexualized view of wine lately. Besides revealing the bondage qualities inherent to big, bad, dirty zinfandel, they’ve portrayed chardonnay (of the California extraction) as the drink of whores.

The local internets were afluttler last week with word of a new addition to San Francisco’s growing street food scene, this time in Hayes Valley. Two factors converged to make this opening a particularly exciting one: 1) Most of the street food action is taking place downtown or in the Mission, so for a new venture to open in Hayes Valley, well, that’s exciting news; and 2) it’s a ramen truck!

(Above: People waiting, and waiting some more, for their bowls of ramen. On a side note, when a truck or business or whatever displays all those social media tags, Twitter, Facebook, etc, does that mean they’re sponsored to do so?)

San Francisco’s ramen scene is lacking. Sure, there are options but we’ve got nothing on New York when it comes to ramen. And why is that? There’s a fairly large Japanese presence here, and god knows there’s enough sushi options to keep people sated in their quests for the perfect serving of uni.

(Above: the menu. We had shoyu and miso.)

Anyway, Shirohige Ramen-Ya’s truck idea is a good one but I’m sorry to report that the ramen isn’t quite there. It’s not bad, but there’s not enough broth for one thing, and the bowls of noodles just lack balance. Which again, might be an issue with the broth, an element that seems to be essential for pulling all the ingredients together. Combined with the obnoxiously long waits — a problem the guys in the truck (who, it must be said, were friendly and polite) attributed to their water supply. That right there is a major flaw, one that hopefully gets worked out rather quickly. Part of the appeal of ordering a steaming bowl of noodles and sliced pork from a street vendor is that it’s, well, served up fast.

Time for a little Music Friday. David McDuff, whose wine geekdom is perhaps only exceeded by his music geekdom, recently recapped Meeting People is Easy, a 1999 documentary filmed during Radiohead’s sprawling worldwide tour in support of OK Computer. I don’t really go in for these types of films (really, why bother after this one?), but I do love Radiohead. David rightly points to the disconnect and alienation in Meeting People is Easy which, no matter how successfully or not it’s portrayed here, is certainly a recurring theme with Radiohead’s music, something they really tackle in Kid A and Amnesiac.

Here’s a stop-motion fan video (quite good too) that I found via At Ease Web. The song is ‘Wolf at the Door’, taken from Hail to the Thief.

And here’s a video for a more recent song, ‘Weird Fishes/Arpeggi’. More disconnect, yadda yadda, but I’m really posting this because it’s got some great San Francisco footage. Look, there’s the Pork Store! And Amoeba! Then there’s a trip to Japan to, well, attend a Radiohead concert.

It’s been quiet of late around here at Spume HQ and it’s likely to remain so for another few weeks. In addition to the full-time work, I’ve got a hefty freelance assignment so there’s little time for blogging. Stay tuned in early 2010 for more posts. Meantime, of course, thanks for reading.

Like many bloggers or other new media junkies, I’m just a little obsessed with checking at my stats counter. Looking at the terms and phrases people use to navigate the internet can be enlightening, entertaining and, well, rather creepy. Below, a snapshot of yesterday’s and today’s (thus far) searches that brought people here.

Oh, internet. You’re so special.

>>

These are terms people used to find your blog.

Today

Yesterday

A friend forwarded me this email, which might just be the work of Nigerian email scammers. Evidently the turmoil in the financial world — and perhaps an increased awareness of both personal finances and email scams — has forced the scammers into a new game. Either that, or this whole wine fraud thing is really getting out of hand.

Wow, who knew the international wine trade could be so much fun?

And remember, kids: Be careful when playing with the internet. Watch those credit card numbers. And POS machines (for routing purposes?).

God bless him…

> From: Tim Mccarron
> Date: October 2, 2009 5:36:05 PM PDT
> Subject: Wine Booking.
> Reply-To:
>
> Hello,
>
> I want to make the reservation for 10 guests who are coming to your country for a meeting of private meeting.The group would need your wine services in your place,from 27th to 30th October of 2009.The Guests are 10 in number and we want to make a deposit of $3,000 USD in advance before their arrival. All the checks and balances will be made with you the 30th of October 2009.
>
> 1) you have a POS machine to charge credit cards?
>
> Contact me please back with your answer. God bless him.
>
> Regards,
>
> Mr. Tim McCarron.
>
> Mobile: xxxxxxx*

*Note: Phone number removed just to keep y’all from getting in trouble.

… The local art supply shop, Flax, is advertising mask-making andface painting tutorials — just in time for Halloween! And who doesn’t love spooky saturdays?

Apologies to Chicago, but the windiest city in this country has got to be San Francisco. Sure, our famous blankets of fog get all the glory, but it’s the wind doing all the work. Try riding a bike in the afternoon here and you’ll soon be cursing the headwind.

So via Alice Feiring comes this awesome almost-real-time wind monitoring service.

Here’s a screen shot:

You may or may not think this is useful, but I’m looking forward to testing it out before another ride. Sort of like using the internet to check the surf or something … Good times for weather and map geeks!

Via Burrito Justice*, easily one of the top local San Francisco blogs, comes Mother Mother, a rockin’ group from Vancouver. Infectious, poppy rock with solid songwriting. And did I mention harmonies? Harmonies! Sort of a New Pornographers meets the Pixies kind of thing.

Mother Mother has two albums out, and you can stream them both at the band’s website, here.

Here’s a video for “Oh My Heart”, the catchy title track of Mother Mother’s second and most recent album.

*Burrito Justice is also an excellent forum to indulge your inner map geek. Check out this post (and the subsequent ones too) about the new BART system map.