“The chicken perico taco from Taqueria Los Pericos.”
“Dolsot bibimbap at Sesame.”
“Pizza My Heart chicken pizza is my daily go-to.”
“Tacos Moreno and La Hacienda are pretty top for me.”
“Chinese food, Mexican food, Thai food, too!”
There is something about immersing oneself in saltwater for extended periods of time and dodging walls of waves that lends to some deep thinking about life and our place in the world.
Surfing has recently produced some excellent works of nonfiction that have little to do with stoned-out surfer stereotypes. Last year’s Pulitzer Prize for autobiography went to William Finnegan for Barbarian Days: A Surfing Life. Steve Kotler’s West of Jesus: Surfing, Science and the Origins of Belief is a fine book on the intersection of surfing and spirituality. And I’ll add Jaimal Yogis’ new memoir, All Our Waves Are Water: Stumbling Toward Enlightenment and the Perfect Ride, to the mix.
Yogis, a San Francisco–based author, wrote the book as a follow-up to Saltwater Buddha, a coming-of-age story that blends surfing and spiritual seeking. All Our Waves picks up where he left off, and chronicles Yogis’ multidisciplinary spiritual quests and more earthbound struggles of career, friendship and starting a family. Yogis’ spiritual and physical journeys take him to the Himalayas, Jerusalem, a Washington Heights friary, Puerto Escondido, Mexico, and the cold water of San Francisco’s Ocean Beach.
Yogis sprinkles the book with quotable quotes that connect with the here and now: “God is a circle whose center is everywhere and circumference nowhere” (Voltaire); “Without going into the ocean, it is impossible to find precious, priceless pearls” (Vimalakirti Sutra); and my favorite and most apt to this book, “You are not a drop in the ocean. You are the entire ocean in a drop” (Rumi). Buddhism is the guiding light, and the book and Yogis offers a practical tour of Buddhist philosophy.
The subtext of All Our Waves is not surfing, but the search for the universal and the divine in whatever form she/he/it takes. “The word ‘spiritual’ can be a bit confusing,” Yogis says. “In Zen and other non-dual schools of spirituality like Vedanta yoga, everything is considered spiritual, even the most mundane tasks like washing dishes. So surfing is just one of the things I do because I love to do it.”
What Westerners are more likely to think of as “spiritual” also finds its place in that context: “Because I practice meditation and am interested in what you might call spiritual or philosophical questions—why are we here, how do we realize our potential, how do we reduce suffering—the sea becomes another place to practice.”
With equal doses of humor, self-deprecation and well-rendered storytelling, Yogis does a great job making these heady themes accessible and entertaining through personal experiences.
In the toxic fumes that characterizes American political and cultural discourse of late, All Our Waves Are Water is a lungful of fresh air and a poignant reminder of the wider world beyond the glow of the TV screen. Yogis is a sharp and insightful writer who has the good sense to temper his spiritual pursuits with a healthy dose of humility and humanity.
Jaimal Yogis will discuss Our Waves are Water at Bookshop Santa Cruz on Friday, July 14 at 7 p.m., at Bookshop Santa Cruz, 1520 Pacific Ave., Santa Cruz. Free.
As county public works employees scramble to repair CEMEX’s broken water line, Davenport residents are hoping the water keeps flowing. The snafu forced the Davenport Sanitation District—and the 100 households it counts as customers—to switch from San Vicente Creek, its normal source, to nearby Mill Creek.
“We expect, and we hope, that the lines will be repaired before Mill Creek runs out and before water has to be trucked in,” says District 1 County Supervisor Ryan Coonerty.
CEMEX, a multibillion-dollar company, is trying to avoid footing the estimated $220,000 bill, and the county legally isn’t allowed to cover the cost, prompting concern that the expense could eventually fall to the people of Davenport, a federally recognized low-income community home to many farmworkers and retirees. Paying nearly $4,000 a year, they already have some of the highest water and sanitation bills in the state.
Coonerty won’t say if county staff are pursuing legal action, but stresses they’ll “use every avenue” they can.
Andy Schiffrin, an analyst for Coonerty, says the situation’s a little complicated because, technically, it isn’t 100 percent clear who owns the pipe infrastructure—or the water rights, for that matter—and is therefore responsible for the problem. The odd thing, though, is that CEMEX claims to own both, and has been trying to sell those rights for millions of dollars. If the district owned the infrastructure, it could have gotten FEMA money for the repairs, since the breaks happened during this winter’s torrential storms, says Schiffrin, a former Santa Cruz water commissioner. “Normally the water purveyor has the rights to the water and owns the infrastructure, so this is an unusual situation,” he says.
Another looming question is what to make of CEMEX’s complicated relationship with Davenport, which formed at the same time as the plant more than 100 years ago. The plant changed hands a few times, but 30-year resident Ann Parker remembers the thick, soot-like grey dust—coating her car, roof and clothesline. She recalls the chromium 6 scare and the constant noise, too, from the factory and trucks. “When they backed up, they would go, ‘beep, beep, beep.’ They were running all over the place,” she says.
But CEMEX also made generous donations every year to Davenport’s Pacific Elementary, and it still leases land for the town’s fire station at $1 a year. County Fire Chief Ian Larkin says his department’s always had “a great relationship” with the Mexico-based company.
More recently, though, CEMEX was at the center of controversy locally for its reluctance to comply with a Coastal Commission order to halt unpermitted sand mining near Marina—the last coastal mine in the state. It finally reached an agreement last month to wrap that up in three years.
In Davenport these days, they’ve almost become “an absentee landlord,” says county spokesperson Jason Hoppin. Still, the county’s economic development leaders are studying options to reuse the site—a pivot that would presumably involve CEMEX selling its land. Multi-year partnerships and collaborations created a reliable working relationship.
What will it mean for future efforts if the foundation comes crumbling down? JACOB PIERCE
Who says summer camp is just for kids?
A new series of workshops tackling issues like militarization, racism and poverty is targeting anyone and everyone, ages 15 and up. Militarism may not seem like any everyday issue for some people, but Drew Glover, programs coordinator for the Resource Center for Nonviolence, believes local law enforcement has shown signs trending toward increased militarization—like when Santa Cruz Police participated in a Department of Homeland Security raid in February, with officers showing up in armored vehicles and busting down doors, as flash bangs went off and a helicopter circled the skies.
Glover, who plans on running for Santa Cruz City Council again in 2018, says sometimes the best way for anyone who feels disenfranchised to take action is through nonviolent protest. Summer Nonviolence Camp runs from July 27-31, and Glover says 20 spots are still available. It isn’t so much an outdoor experience as a crash course in social justice. CALVIN MEN
Visit RCVN.org for more information.
It’s not exactly the Bard, but the 2017 season of Santa Cruz Shakespeare gets off to a ripping start with The 39 Steps. Based on an adventure novel by John Buchan, famously made into Alfred Hitchcock’s classic 1935 chase thriller movie, the story gets another makeover in director Paul Mullins’ uproarious production—long on sly wit, short on logic, and absolutely irresistible.
This 2005 stage adaptation by English playwright Patrick Barlow is an exercise in comic audacity. All the parts are played by a cast of four—three men and one woman—in a variety of costumes, accents, and disguises. Barlow takes his inspiration mostly from the movie (especially in the ’30s period setting), and nudge-nudge, wink-wink references to Hitchcock and his oeuvre pop up throughout. You don’t have to know the film to enjoy the play, but those familiar with the Hitchcock version will get a special kick out of the sheer chutzpah of this interpretation.
At its center is Richard Hannay (Brian Smolin), a bored young man puttering around his London flat one evening who decides to distract himself by “doing something mindless and utterly useless—I’ll go to the theater!” It’s the first step on the road to disaster. At a music hall performance by a mentalist called Mr. Memory (Allen Gilmore) and his partner/handler (Mike Ryan), Hannay meets Annabella (Grace Rao), a sexy dame with a ripe German accent, who begs to come home with him.
In short order, the mystery woman is dead in his flat. The police suspect him, the sinister men who were following her are now following him, and Hannay is on the run. All he knows is she was trying to convey secret information about an international spy ring to a colleague in the wilds of Scotland, so he grabs a map and takes the train north, hoping to sort it all out before the police can arrest him for murder.
But who cares about the plot? All the fun is in the playing. Smolin, who won hearts and cracked funny bones in the title role of The Liar a couple of seasons back, plays only one character, and his Hannay anchors the show with his determination to be a good sport, his insinuating double-takes, and his acrobatic dexterity. (It’s a riot when he limbo-slides out of an armchair from under a dead body.) The subtle ways he preens while running in place onstage as police bulletins describe him in ever more flattering terms is also very funny.
Rao is also terrific as the three principal women—Annabella, the femme fatale, Pamela, an innocent Scottish lass married to a parsimonious old farmer, and Margaret, an angry blonde who winds up handcuffed to Hannay in his trek across the Scottish moors. She and Smolin get a lot of comic mileage out of those cuffs, trying to go over, no, under, no, around a wooden style out in the country, or traversing a bog — played by Ryan.
Ryan and Gilmore (their parts are called Clown 1 and Clown 2), play everybody else, and they’re both hilarious. Gilmore is especially memorable as the ferociously self-abnegating farmer saying grace, or an ancient staffer at a political rally attempting to set up a podium. Ryan brings down the house in the rally scene as an elderly speaker with a miniscule voice. A lot of the biggest laughs come from the Clowns missing their cues, or struggling to change costumes fast enough—like their virtuoso duet on a train platform, playing three parts simultaneously by feverishly switching hats.
Scenic designers Annie Smart and Justine Law’s rolling staircase set cleverly adapts to every locale, from music hall to train station to manor house. Special kudos are due to properties designer/master M Woods for transforming objects like crates, chairs, and a ladder into a train, a car, a railroad trestle, and the Scottish Highlands. (One door frame on wheels is particularly ingenious.) B. Modern’s period costumes are deft and impeccable.
Clearly, everyone involved in this production is having a high old time, and the audience can’t help but be swept along.
The Santa Cruz Shakespeare production of ‘The 39 Steps’ plays through Sept. 3 at the Audrey Stanley Grove in DeLaveaga Park. For ticket info, call 460-6399, or visit santacruzshakespeare.org/tickets.
The best live music for the week of July 12, 2017
THURSDAY 7/13
COUNTRY-ROCK
Calico is generally thought of as being a printed cotton fabric or a multi-colored animal. Calico the Band, on the other hand, is short for California Country—and this band delivers. With a Los Angeles-by-way-of-Bakersfield sound that draws from the Byrds, Joni Mitchell, Buffalo Springfield and even Fleetwood Mac, this duo, comprising Kirsten Proffit and Manda Mosher, crafts harmony-rich, catchy tunes that feel familiar and fresh. And by tipping a hat to the state’s rich country tradition, the women take the modern Southern California country-rock movement to exciting places. CJ
INFO: 7:30 p.m. Don Quixote’s, 6275 Hwy. 9, Felton. $10. 335-2800.
THURSDAY 7/13
ROCK
It’s hard to pin down any one genre in the music of local six-piece Pan Dulce. The band’s CD Baby page uses words like “ska,” “reggae,” “funk rock,” “party music,” and “Lana Del Rey.” It’s all true, even the bit about melancholy dream-pop à la Del Rey. It’s a true blending of normally ill-fitted ingredients whipped together to create something that you can dance and cry along to with equal intensity. The group headlines Moe’s Alley with Sacramento reggae band Zuhg, and San Jose cumbia band Corazón Salvaje. AARON CARNES
INFO: 8:30 p.m. Moe’s Alley, 1535 Commercial Way, Santa Cruz. $7/adv, $10/door. 479-1854.
FRIDAY 7/14
REGGAE
Since her 2008 debut, The Strong One, Etana (Swahili for “the strong one”) has become one of the biggest female vocals in reggae music. Born outside of Kingston, Jamaica in August Town, Etana moved to South Florida with her family when she was nine. During her college years, she began experimenting with music and found her voice soon after. As an adult, she moved back to Jamaica, where she was picked up by VP Records, the world’s largest distributor of reggae music. Nine years later, with four albums under her belt, Etana’s powerfully sultry voice continues to deliver irie praise to the hearts of audiences worldwide. MAT WEIR
INFO: 9 p.m. Moe’s Alley, 1535 Commercial Way, Santa Cruz. $15/adv, $20/door. 479-1854.
FRIDAY 7/14
REGGAE
THOMAS MAPFUMO
In Jamaica, roots reggae is a powerful tool, the voice of the oppressed. It’s precisely for this reason that the music has lasted so long, and spread far beyond its home country. The rebellious spirit of giving voice to the voiceless has stayed with the music, as is the case with Thomas Mapfumo, a Zimbabwe artist who has mixed the Jamaican grooves with the traditional mbira music he grew up with. He uses the music as a vehicle for civil rights advocacy for the people of Zimbabwe. He’s been making powerful protest music since the late ’70s. Nowadays, he lives in exile and uses music to comment on global corruption in government. AC
INFO: 7:30 p.m. Kuumbwa Jazz Center, 320 Cedar St., Santa Cruz. $25/adv, $30/door. 427-2227.
SATURDAY 7/15
COUNTRY
Playing a mix of original songs and country classics, Jesse Daniel and the Slow Learners embodies the punk rock ethos, jamming out what they want, when they want. You might even hear a country-fried cover of your favorite punk classic wedged in-between Haggard or Jennings. Daniel released his debut solo EP, American Unknown, in December 2016, which features the singer/songwriter playing all of the recorded instruments. This weekend’s show is a benefit for True North Tattoo, with a raffle for participants to win prizes like gift certificates for new ink. MW
INFO: 9 p.m. Crepe Place, 1134 Soquel Ave., Santa Cruz. $10. 429-6994.
SATURDAY 7/15
ROOTS/BLUES
A self-described “junkbox blues” duo, Hillstomp is like no other band I can think of—unless you go back to the good ol’ days of Doo Rag, with its upturned cardboard boxes and vocals run through vacuum parts. Hillstomp takes a similar approach, with drummer John Johnson playing buckets, a barbecue lid and various cans, while slide guitarist Henry Christian wails away on his six-string, crafting dirty, raw, irresistible blues riffs that bring the junkbox sound home. On Saturday, Johnson and Christian are joined by local roots outfit the Naked Bootleggers and others for what promises to be a rafter-rattling affair. CJ
INFO: 7:30 p.m. Don Quixote’s, 6275 Hwy. 9, Felton. $10/adv, $15/door. 335-2800.
MONDAY 7/17
JAZZ VOCALS
A throwback to the golden age of jazz vocals, Jane Monheit is one of the great voices of our time. Known for a pitch-perfect delivery that spans styles with ease, Monheit breathes new life into standards and pulls back into the spotlight a genre that once epitomized pop music. For the “Ella Fitzgerald Songbook Sessions,” Monheit pays tribute to one of the defining artists of all time, and honors one of her own primary influences. As Monheit puts it, “What I really got from Ella is her warmth, her charm, the joy she puts in her music. Ella showed us that it can be about total joy.” CJ
INFO: 7 p.m. Kuumbwa Jazz, 320-2 Cedar St., Santa Cruz. $35/adv, $45/door. 427-2227.
MONDAY 7/17
ROCK
One of the best bands—with one of the best names—in current rock music returns to the Catalyst after seven long, excruciating years. Led by Jesse Hughes and Josh Homme of Queens of the Stone Age fame, the Eagles of Death Metal is a non-stop rock ’n’ roll party band that delights audiences with tongue-in-cheek songs and onstage antics. More recently, the Eagles gained media attention when they were playing the Le Bataclan in Paris on November 13, 2015, during the horrific terrorist attacks that took place there. The band recently revisited the attacks and documented their return to Paris in the Colin Hanks documentary, Eagles of Death Metal: Nos Amis (Our Friends). MW
INFO: 9 p.m. Catalyst, 1011 Pacific Ave., Santa Cruz. $25. 429-4135.
TUESDAY 7/18
SKA-PUNK
Remember when Reel Big Fish were on MTV with a tongue-in-cheek ska-punk hit single about a band selling out by signing a major record deal? So many things in that sentence sound about as old as “pagers” and “TV Guide,” and yet Reel Big Fish’s popularity hasn’t waned. Earlier this year, Thrillist ran an article positing that ska was “coming back,” citing Reel Big Fish’s success as proof. What they didn’t understand is that the smart-alecky Orange County ska-punk ensemble has spent the last two decades packing clubs around the world with eager skanking kids on an annual basis. They’re not back. They haven’t gone anywhere. AC
INFO: 6 p.m. Catalyst, 1011 Pacific Ave., Santa Cruz. $28/adv, $30/door. 429-4135.
BAND OF HEATHENS
Rock band out of Austin. Wednesday at Catalyst
POSSESSED BY PAUL JAMES
One-man folk band. Thursday at Lillie Aeske
HENRY CHADWICK
Santa Cruz-based indie rocker. Friday at Crepe Place
CHRIS CAIN
Jazz-tinged blues. Sunday at Moe’s Alley
CLAUDIA VILLELA QUINTET
Brazilian-born singer, composer and pianist. Monday at Don Quixote’s
An emerging star in the jazz world, pianist Ben Rosenblum has been accused of possessing the “hands of a diamond cutter” and “caressing [music] with the reverence it merits.” High praise for an artist still in his early 20s, but Rosenblum has a long history with music—and jazz in particular. Born and raised in New York City, and a graduate of the Juilliard School, he received numerous awards for his compositions and musicianship before he was even out of his teens. Rosenblum’s current trio includes Monterey-raised Bay Area star Kanoa Mendenhall on bass and New York City’s Ben Zweig on drums.
INFO: 7 p.m. Thursday, Aug. 3. Kuumbwa Jazz, 320-2 Cedar St., Santa Cruz. $20/adv, $25/door. 427-2227. WANT TO GO? Go to santacruz.com/giveaways before 11 a.m. on Wednesday, July 26 to find out how you could win a pair of tickets to the show.
Patrick Maguire can’t remember a time in his life when he wasn’t surrounded by music. He’s one of 33 first cousins—30 of them, he says, play music. This is true of his parents, uncles and aunts as well. Family jams were not uncommon. He was inspired by the talent and broad-ranging musical interests of his family members.
“My mother has a voice like Alison Krauss. She has stage fright, so she never really took it on to do it professionally,” Maguire says. “She exposed me to everything from bluegrass to oldies to blues to rock ’n’ roll.”
Originally from Maine, and then living in Colorado as a sales executive, Maguire decided to move to Santa Cruz in 2012 to pursue his dreams as a musician. While he’d been playing his whole life, it wasn’t until 2010, at the age of 30, that he wrote his first song. He wanted more.
“The goal and the dream has always been to play music, and it was one I didn’t think was going to happen throughout my 20s,” Maguire says. “It’s been nothing but amazing so far. It’s really been just learn on the fly.”
A big reason he chose this as his new home in the first place was because two of his musical cousins—Joe and Brian Gibeault—live here and play in local rock ’n’ roll outfit Thanks Buddy. He started with covers, and it’s only been this year that he’s pursued a solo career as a singer-songwriter. He’s been featured on KPIG, headlined Moe’s Alley, and is now playing a show at Don Quixote’s. Santa Cruz, it seems, has been very receptive to his intoxicating blend of Americana and laid-back folk music and sweet soul.
INFO: 7:30 p.m. Saturday, July 15. Don Quixote’s, 6275 Hwy. 9, Felton. $10/adv, $15/door. 335-2800.
Calling all uppity women! If you’re looking for a role model on how to defy the rules and live the life you choose, look no further than Gertrude Bell. Born into a genteel English Victorian family, she carved out her own destiny as historian, traveler, mountain-climber, archeologist, map-maker, author, intelligence operator, and renowned expert on the peoples and politics of the area we now call the Middle East. In her day—the turn of the last century, through World War I and its aftermath—she was known as “the female Lawrence of Arabia.”
The story of Gertrude Lowthian Bell is told in fascinating terms in Letters From Baghdad. Co-directed by Sabine Krayenbuhl and Zeva Oelbaum, this documentary relies on a lifetime of letters and journal entries in which Bell tells her own story as she lived it, with her own words spoken by the film’s co-producer, Tilda Swinton. The filmmakers also present a treasure trove of Bell’s own photographs, snapped during her adventures to exotic locales like the Alps, Tehran, Babylon, Damascus, and Constantinople (among many other places).
In addition to Bell’s personal photographs, the filmmakers use lots of newsreel footage from the era, along with still photos of Bell and her circle. These were mostly British politicians and governors stationed in the area (many of them refer to Bell as their “right-hand man”), among whom Bell established a reputation for her vast experience with the peoples, cultures, and even the language of “Arabia”—and with whom she helped shape the political realities of the region after WWI and the collapse of the Ottoman Empire.
Bell emerges as a strong-minded woman constantly tilting against convention and expectation. After taking a First in History in her class at Oxford, she’s shipped off to “the East” by her stepmother, in hopes that exposure to foreign society “might help to get rid of her Oxford-y manner.” (Actors portraying Bell’s various friends, family, and colleagues, filmed in black-and-white, are “interviewed” on screen, speaking words written about Bell by those who knew her.)
After a broken engagement and much more travel, Bell writes a book about Syria, expressing her opposition to the Ottoman Empire. Determined to “penetrate Arabia” by making maps and studying artifacts, Bell lands in Cairo in 1915, working in Intelligence with T. E. Lawrence and archeologist David Hogarth. She was “a wonderful person,” to quote Lawrence in one of the faux interviews. “Not very much like a woman,” he adds. Finding much more common ground with the men in the British diplomatic and political circles she moves in than with their wives, Bell writes to her father back home about how she would have liked the convenience of a wife to keep house for her.
Valued for her extensive knowledge of “inter-tribal relationships,” Bell’s influence reaches its zenith when she’s enlisted to help divide postwar “Arabia” between the British, the French, and the Turks. As explained in the film’s prologue, “The stage was set a century ago for the wars and sectarianism now tearing apart the Middle East.” It becomes Bell’s dubious task to go against four thousand years of history and tradition to try to draw Iraq on a map as a new “political state.”
Ultimately, Bell is disillusioned by the failure after the war to establish an autonomous Arabian state of Mesopotamia; instead, Britain chooses to continue its occupation of the region. (They don’t call themselves conquerors, but “liberators”—and, boy, does that sound familiar.) The Brits’ general cluelessness about governing the region, coupled with their relentless profiteering, is further complicated by the presence of Standard Oil, rearing its reptilian head in collusion with disgruntled Arab rebels in hopes of wresting away oil rights for the U.S.
The thorny issue of how to govern Iraq (and who has the right to do it) continues to play out on the world stage. Letters From Baghdad does not presume to offer any solutions. But it does offer an impressive portrait of a singular woman of her own—or any other—time.
LETTERS FROM BAGHDAD
*** (out of four)
Featuring the voice of Tilda Swinton. A documentary by Zeva Oelbaum and Sabine Krayenbuhl. A Vitagraph Films release. Not rated. 95 minutes.
If a Santa Cruz native and second-generation Italian tells me with absolute conviction that he knows where to get the best calamari in town, it’s in my best interest to at least check it out.
Which is how I find myself sitting at a plastic table at Aldo’s on the west side of the Santa Cruz Harbor, watching the July sun glint off of dozens of gleaming hulls, the marine layer hardly a whisper at the edge of a bluebird sky. My beer is cold, the server is charming, and I occasionally make eye contact with a sea lion shyly swimming between the boats.
While the iconic restaurant at the harbor mouth is being remodeled and the seawall underneath it repaired, Aldo’s continues to host guests just 500 meters north of the original location on an outdoor waterfront lawn between B and D docks. Just steps from the water, there really isn’t a bad seat on the patio. And after a thorough investigation, I can assure you that they definitely know their way around a plate of fried squid.
Calamari, like pizza, burgers and other comfort foods, is a dish that has a tendency to stoke passionate and unresolvable arguments about its ideal preparation. You may disagree, but I want plenty of tentacles. I want an ample amount of crunchy batter to coat tender, never-rubbery squid without sliding off. I will alternate between the cocktail and the tartar sauce, and if you don’t like lemon, then you might as well get your own plate.
And I have to say, my friend was right. The calamari at Aldo’s is some of the best I’ve had in Santa Cruz in the decade that I’ve lived here. Given this historic family’s reputation, I can’t say that I’m at all surprised. Knowing that these squid were caught in the bay, while most other seafood available by the water is shipped from other locales, makes the experience that much more satisfying. But honestly, although I may have been drawn to this feature by the main attraction—the “best calamari in Santa Cruz”—as I look out on the peaceful harbor, a sunburn beginning to pink the back of my neck as I fantasize what I would call the sailboat I’ll one day own, a lot has to be said for the supporting cast.
After a few attempts to meet up with Garrett Bowlus of Albatross Ridge, I finally got to his tasting room in Carmel. My old school friend from England, Una, was staying for a couple of weeks, and I always love to take house guests wine tasting to show off the exceptional wines of Santa Cruz and Monterey counties.
Albatross Ridge is named after winemaker Garrett’s great-grandfather William Hawley Bowlus’ Albatross gliders, which he used to fly off the ridgetops of Monterey’s coast back in the 1930s. Albatross Ridge’s impressive labels depict a glider and a figure touching a wing—in a tribute, I’m sure, to famed engineer William Hawley Bowlus, whose pioneering sailplanes are now in the Smithsonian.
I took a bottle of Albatross Ridge Rosé Pinot Noir ($40) to one of my favorite places to dine, Imura Japanese Restaurant in Watsonville, as I felt it would pair well with their delicious sushi and sashimi. We had young family guests staying with us from Omaha, Nebraska, and they were drawn to the meat dishes offered by Imura.
After a round of Japanese sake, served in delightful little cups, our attentive server Shanice cracked open the sparkling Rosé, which comes with delightful tart fruit flavors and lots of fizz—a splendid pairing with all of the mouthwatering sushi we ordered. The bottle comes with an easy-off beer-cap top.
“Produced in limited quantities using the méthode ancestrale, our sparkling Pétillant Naturel Rosé is sourced from just seven distinct rows of Pinot Noir at our estate,” says winemaker Garrett Bowlus. And this estate just happens to be in an ideal spot—on a steep and rocky Carmel Valley ridge overlooking the Pacific Ocean and Carmel Bay.
The Albatross Ridge tasting room is on Mission Street between Ocean and 7th avenues, Carmel-by-the-Sea. Open daily from 1 p.m. Visit albatrossridge.com for more info.
The next Passport day, when many wineries are open to the public for a complimentary tasting—providing you have a Passport from the Santa Cruz Mountains Winegrowers Association—is Saturday, July 15. Check the website at scmwa.com for more information on Passport events. Passports can also be purchased at wineries.
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