Keith Beavers

1.      What, in your opinion, is the most underrated and overrated Wine in the marketplace?

·         Some of the most underrated wines in the marketplace are the appellations of Languedoc-Roussillon. We are so close to really getting into it. But not there yet and these wines are awesome!

·         In the marketplace the most overrated wines are high-end California wines. Sure, the legacy and heritage is there and they taste great but the prices being asked?! What?! Not worth it in my opinion. $3500 on a wine list for 2005 Screaming Eagle is beyond my comprehension. As the Robot in Loat in Space says, “Does not compute.”

2.      What alcoholic drink do you most resemble?

·         Gonna have to say wine but specifically Syrah. But the original clone, man. I’m not like some carbon copy, brother. I’m like pepper and earth (I am an earth sign) with deep brambly fruit all wrapped around a mysterious core. Yeah man.

3.      After a hard days work, what drink do you kick back and relax with?

·         I must say it depends on my mood and the day of the week and the weather and what I have accomplished that day as well as Saturn’s position at any given time and the way my cats meow for food in the morning, who I’m hanging with as well as the temperature in the room accompanied with the people that surround me on the outer reaches of my perception but lately it’s been Bonny Doon’s Contra. Thank Randal! Bad ass blend. Terroir in America!

4.      Whats your earliest Wine memory?

·         As far as having wine in my life before I could understand it I remember whenever my mother did bills she had a bottle of Woodbridge Chardonnay on the table with a glass right next to the calculator. As I got older she moved to Linden Vineyards Hardscrabble Chardonnay…Phew, finally. Of course didn’t realize til later how AWESOME the wine is. As far as tasting, my earliest memory is of working at a beer and wine store in Maryland in 1997 at the height of the microbrew craze being forced to taste wine in the storage room out of plastic cups. The ones I remember the most had Ralph Steadman labels (Bonny Doon). I was so into beer at the time the wine never registered and to this day I don’t remember how it tasted. I was fired a week later for selling beer to a secret shopper.

5.      Briefly describe the best Restaurant experience you've recently.

·         It wasn’t really a restaurant but it was…but it wasn’t. In the Languedoc in a small town in the Picpoul De Pinet appellation we ate oysters, sea urchins, clams just caught and hosed off along with a spicy squid pie while slurping down bottle after bottle of Picpoul blanc. We sat with a view of the lagoon and stuffed ourselves on fresh seafood. I have never been full on seafood before. I also have never seen oyster that big before.

6.      What would be your desert island wine and food match?

·         A lifetime supply of Muscadet and whatever I could get from the sea.