We’ve had our share of red Riojas, but a white Rioja. Whaaaa? Crispy, grapefruity, and scallions. Not grassy. I hate grassy. $10.99 at WineStyles. Sent from Bruno’s darkbrown iPhone

It happened again. Toros bravos on the highways of España. Just outside of Segovia near the town of El Espinar on the AP-6 Highway, seven toros escaped from a nearby finca. The bulls made their way to the road and charged passing vehicles. This sort of thing seems to be happening more and more. A couple of weeks back, a truck over turned and allowed 21 bulls to escape. Eight of those bulls were shot by the Guardia Civil. Today, the Guardia Civil thought it out a little better, corralled the animals and called nearby help with experience to remove the toros, thus avoiding the backlash they received for shooting the bulls a couple of weeks ago. Here’s an “eye witness” video, but I couldn’t spot any toros. Can you? Vídeo: ATLAS
 

Last week I received an email on my iPhone from Robert and it gave me a great idea. It was a quick picture of the latest wine he had tried with a brief review. So thanx to Robert’s email, I’m starting and inviting all DBB’s friends to join in and text or email a quick foto and brief review of the latest vino you’ve tasted and enjoyed or spat out. I know I’ll be contributing. So with that, DBB presents The iPhone Wine Club:

“A merlot?!?! Enjoyed with bell peppers stuffed with hand made curried lamb and sauteed artichokes. Sent from my iPhone – Robert”

He did it again. José Tomás turned in another incredible performance in Málaga. Last year Tomás was thrashed by his animals by getting stepped on his face, and then by being tragged by his shirt collar and almost being gored in the back of his neck. The pictures were incredable. On Easter Sunday 3/23/08, José Tomás pushed his body to the limit. I will review later today.

By far the second part of the Feria de Fallas was more results oriented than the first. In the morning Novillada on the 15th, Damaso Gonzalez and Alejandro Esplá provided the Valencianos with a peek into the future with their exhibitions of temple and toreria. Later that day, El Juli put together two one ear performances with a petition for a second ear on his second. The following day on Sunday the 16th, El Cid cut an the only ear of the afternoon where Miguel Angel Perera failed to capitalize with the sword. On Monday the 17th, Enrique Ponce recaptured his beloved Valenica home crowd with two great faenas. The Talk of the feria took place on the last corrida of Fallas. Cayetano turned in what would have been a mediocre performance, but since Spain’s media darling has far reaching effect, he ended cutting 3 ears and successfully turning the Juez into a screaming little girl. His performance was not dominate or skillfull, but his smile won the crowd over and provided much debate about his genes vs. his skill.
 

Second corrida of 2008 and with the saying “sin toros, no hay fiesta” could not be far from the truth. Julio Aparicio, Morante de la Puebla and Miguel Ángel Perera struggled against the bad heard of animals from El Puerto de San Lorenzo. Aparicio was gored on the inside left thigh while killing the first of the afternoon. Morante could only muster some fine capework with his lot. Perera managed some saludos on the last of the day after a nice quite of Gaoneras.

From the world of strange headlines: Wine maker insures nose for £3.9m. Nigel Reynolds, Telegraph.co.uk — A Bordeaux wine maker has insured his nose for £3.9 million, the Lloyd’s of London insurance market said. A bespoke policy was created for Ilja Gort, the Dutch owner of Chateau de la Garde in Bordeaux, France, to cover the loss of his nose and sense of smell. Mr Gort, who produces Tulipe Wines, said his nose was his most important asset, as a good sense of smell was essential to guarantee the quality of his wines. While the tongue has only five areas of taste, the nose can distinguish millions of different scents, he added. “This certainly is an insurance policy not to be sniffed at,” said Jonathan Thomas, lead underwriter at Watkins Syndicate who co-insured the policy with Allianz Nederland. “The nose and sense of smell of a winemaker are as important as the fingers of a chef.”

The Feria de Fallas kicked off this year with great speculation not so much for the series of corridas and novilladas but more for the excpectation and anticipation of José Tomás’ return to Fallas on 03/13/08. Before the, not much happened less some inspired performances Matadors Uceda Leal, Serafin Marin and Miguel Abellán. Abellán received a punishing scattering about the arena by his but rose to give a valient effort. Novilleros Rubén Pinar and Valenciano José Manuel Más provided inspirational performances. Pinar cut an ear from each of his animals and did leave in hombros. By far the anticipated return of José Tomás over shadowed the rest of the feria. Tomás cut an ear from his first Núñez de Cuvillo toros after one aviso and on his second he was applauded after hearing two avisos. Valenciano Vicente Barrera had also cut an ear on the afternoon. On the 14th, the Montalvo toros proved to much for matadors Pepín Liria, Juan Bautista and Matías Tejela.

On Saturday March 15, 2008 a truck transporting twenty one toros bravos over turned on a rural road outside of the Spanish town of Puebla de Obando, Extremadura. All the toros escaped. Thirteen of the twenty one were eventually rounded up and enclosed in a near by pen on a farm outside of the small town on the Ex-100 (Cáceres-Badajoz) highway. The real drama occurred when over the course of two days the remaining eight toros threatened to invade the small town. After tending to the accident, the Guardia Civil set out to track down and capture the toros. The first toro however actually charged a Guardia Civil automobile and out of “self defense” the officer was force to shoot and kill the toro. The other toros were eventually tracked down and shot. The Guardia Civil was criticized for using deadly force, but they countered with public safety having taken precedence. Ignacio López Chaves the ganadero and owner of the escaped toros and uncle of Matador Domingo López Chaves reported regret for the loss of his animals and steep financial losses.

Not much happened in the first corrida of 2008 in Las Ventas. Toros from Los Recitales for Uceda Leal, Miguel Abellán and Frenchman Juan Bautista provided no play for the matadors. The only real highlight of the afternoon were Uceda Leal’s Naturales on the fourth bull of the day. He earned his second ovation for his efforts.

Last year it was then Sevilla F.C. and now Tottenham Hotspur Manager Juande Ramos who was hit and knocked out cold by a projectile bottle while playing at Real Betis’ Manuel Ruiz de Lopera stadium in Sevilla. Saturday 3/15/08 while visiting Real Betis, Athletic Bilbao’s keeper Armando was hit in the eye by another bottle from the stands. Real Betis fans immediately detained the non-season ticket holder and turned him over police. As he was escorted away, fellow Real Betis fans could be seen taking punches and slaps at the guilty outcast. Did I mention I’m a Betis fan. I recycle though.
   

With four days left, I realized this is gonna be a tough St. Patrick’s Day. Here’s the story. I gave up coffee and my wife gave up alcohol for lent. Put those together and what you have is an Irish Coffee-less St. Patty’s Day. Having realized this, I clicked on a Fine Living link I received via email and was appalled (inna a wine snob kinda way) at what I saw. The link provided me with what appeared to be a video of an Irish Coffee recipe. OMG. Whipped Creme out of a can! You gotta understand, I’ve been a connoisseur of Irish Coffees for 20 plus years. I’ve made my pilgrimage to the The Buena Vista Cafe in San Francisco, home of the first Irish Coffee made in the U.S.. If you haven’t been, you should. So I did what every mild mannered web surfer would do, I went to YouTube. I found this excellent video (below) of Irish Coffees being made at the Buena Vista. Oh man I can taste it now. Well maybe not now. I gotta wait until after Easter. Enjoy.

The Stephan Higgins film, The Matador made its World Premiere last night at the Southwest by Southwest Film Festival (SXSW) in Austin, Texas. Initial reviews have been positive including fellow socio of Mundo Taurino and noted PBS film critic Jeffrey Lyons. Lyons, an avid aficionado and Ordoñez apologist declares the film “a thrilling look at Spain’s most passionate art,”. A less byist opinion was published today by Kim Voynar in the indieWIRE: Voyner says, “I thought I’d find “The Matador” a challenge to watch, … The bullfights are hard to watch; seeing the bulls stabbed repeatedly until they’re weakened and bleeding, so the matador can move in for the killing thrust with a sword, isn’t easy to watch. However, I did gain a new perspective on the idea of bullfighting when one of the subjects noted that animals are bred to be killed for food all the time, and slaughtered in meat factories, and that at least in bullfighting the animals have a chance to fight for their lives.” At least she’s honest. Most media folk who have a opinion not in favor of Bullfights let that opinion cloud their judgement for creative work. Overall I feel its a positive review on a negative PC subject. Can’t wait for the DVD.

Tragic news in the wine world from Down Under. South Australia Winery Collapse. Sky News, Australia. Friday March 7, 2008. A young winery worker is in hospital and nine others have been treated for minor injuries and shock, after a disastrous workplace accident at McLaren Vale in South Australia. A crusher and 14 rotor fermenters came crashing down at the Wirra Wirra Winery on Thursday afternoon. ‘I just heard like a bomb had gone off. A series of little bombs,’ said witness Alan Mahony. A young cellar hand was briefly trapped in the wreck of steel and was later taken to hospital in a serious condition. Several other workers managed to get away in time. Paramedic Nicola Franklin said ‘I think everyone was extremely lucky in this situation but they’re all still very shaken by it all.’ Health and Safety Investigators were on the scene quickly, while engineers might still be required to help determine why the concrete slab supporting the massive framework collapsed. Half a million litres of the winery’s 2008 harvest is gone. The accident couldn’t have come at a worse time, in the peak vintage period. For now, the winery’s been shut down.

A small video of Morante de la Puebla’s performance in Palacio Vistalegre in Madrid, España. As described in the previous post, Morante performed with Mexican “El Pana” who turned in a hack job whereas Morante extracted all he could with his lot of Toros. He did however cut an ear from the sobrero.

As predicted, El Pana embarrassed himself in Madrid’s Palacio Vistalegre. Overshadowed by a fine performance from Morante de la Puebla, El Pana exported his own brand of toreo on crack to the unappreciated Madrid crowd. Arriving late, smoking a cigar, donning a sarape instead of a Capote de Paseo and ill fated circus antics in the ring might go over good in Mexican Plazas, but Pana’s bag of tricks brought on a eventual bronca with the bored and offended Spanish crowd. By contrast, Morante turned in an artistic effort highlighted by his Veronicas and Chicuelinas with the big cape and fine work with the muleta on his lot of animals. On the sobrero and last bull of the afternoon, Morante cut an ear marking a successful return to Spanish ring for the maestro from Puebla del Rio. The following are samples of the reaction to Pana’s performance from the Spanish press:
Diariocritico: “Y también, en mezcolanza con el anterior, se oreó un olor nauseabundo con el toreo bufo del otro. Naturalmente, Rodolfo Rodríguez ‘ElPana’, un veteranísimo mexicano desconocido por estos lares que suerte tuvo de que los espectadores se lo tomaron a rechifla y prefirieran divertirse con su heterodoxia y destoreo, peor, mucho que el de ‘El Cordobés’, en un lote que tuvo mejor comportamiento y posibilidades que el de Morante.”
El Pais: “Lo de El Pana es México en estado puro trasladado al toreo. Todas las virtudes y fallas de este pueblo parecen encarnarse en él. Su toreo es un continuo y dinámico diálogo con el toro, salpicado del variadísimo repertorio con muleta y capote del que gustan los toreros mexicanos. Y en medio de ellos un natural, como un tesoro, un estatuario quieto, quieto, o una serie de derechazos suaves como una caricia, como los que le dispensó al quinto de la tarde, un toro serio y boyante al que le hizo cosas muy bellas, pero masacró con el estoque.”
La Razon: “El Pana se marcó el paseíllo con el puro en la mano: se saltó a la torera la ley de prohibido fumar en recintos cerrados. En cambio, no llegó a encajar con la afición. Más periférico que profundo, más adornos que realidad.”