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We mustn't begrudge successful rock musicians their gentlemanly hobbies. As with all gentry who didn't amass their fortunes by working too terribly hard, they're tasked with developing pursuits suitable to their stations not otherwise deleterious to society at large. So I find nothing unseemly about Lars Ulrich's art collection, Charlie Watts' horse farm or Dandy Warhols frontman Courtney Taylor-Taylor's new wine. If anything, by contracting with an Italian grape-grower to provide Chateau Taylor-Taylor's Bocca d'Avolo (roughly translated, "grandfather mouth") blend of two ancient but largely unknown Sicilian grapes, Nero d'Avola and Grillo, Taylor-Taylor shows some humility. He certainly does compared with Tool's Maynard James Keenan, who used his "Stinkfist" proceeds to create a vineyard in Arizona's high country and then helped a friend make a documentary about his "struggle." Taylor-Taylor's humble goal was to create an Old World red that pairs well with spicy food. Chateau Taylor-Taylor, available through wineaccess.com for $22.98 (plus an exorbitant shipping charge), may serve that purpose. It's surprisingly pungent in the glass, smelling strongly of overripe plums, with palpable alcohol heat that makes sense given its youth. But the wine seems totally disembodied from its giant nose: thin, light on flavor with just a hint of what our tasters could only pinpoint as "fruit salad." It starts out delicate then fades fast. Odd, but perhaps it makes sense with spicy food. Take it to a restaurant with a reasonable corkage policy; Mr. Taylor-Taylor can probably make a recommendation.
WWeek 2015