This special Halloween Horror episode was commisioned by our Produce-er,
! Did you know you could support the show and this Substack at the Produce-er level and commission your own episode? PLUS get a shout out in every episode!Well, you can.
And special spotlight shout out for Jessica’s Substack here:
Her writing is one of the few that I hold off until I have time to focus. I’ll open her latest and save it for that rare evening that I have 15-30 minutes to truly pay attention and soak in her prose storytelling. It’s that good.
Jessica chose the 2024 independent feature DEAD MAIL by directing duo Joe DeBose and Kyle McConoughy and starring Sterling Mason Jr., John Fleck, Tomas Boykin, Micki Jackson, and Susan Priver. Shot to appear like an unearthed indie gem from the 80’s while avoiding all sense of being “retro”, Dead Mail proved to be a unique, unexpected delight and a marvel of budget filmmaking in Los Angeles - it was all shot in the LA area, somehow!)
And we did something a bit different with this episode - Dallas and myself are in the same room! No remote recording! It was a new setup for us, and we’re a but stiff and awkward for the first 10 minutes, but get loose fairly quickly. We will definitely be trying this again for future eps, and learning from what didn’t work here, but we added lots of bells and whistles to the video this time, including the film’s trailer and a Riunite commercial from the 80’s!
Which bring us to the wines.
Dead Mail follows a synthesizer engineer trying to perfect new sounds that replicate woodwinds and other instruments. The soundtrack to the film is, fittingly, synth heavy. And as such, I looked to wine and music pairing studies to find the right pairing.1
From these studies, synth or piano heavy music tended to pair best with mineral-driven, earthy wines. Now in my book, the best “earthy” wines are Italian, and I wanted a red to match the somber tones and atmosphere of dread that permeates the film. So I just needed to find a mineral-driven Italian red.
ENTER:
Massimo Clerico Ca’ du Leria, Coste della Sesia Rosso 2020 (Lessona, Piemonte, Italy)
50% Nebbiolo, 30% Croatina, 20% Vespolina. Lessona is a very small region in the larger Piemonte - the region famous for Barolo and Barbaresco (both Nebbiolo-based wines.) There are only 23 hectares of vineyards in the whole of Lessona, and 4 of them are tended by Massimo Clerico, each its own parcel.
The “Vigna Leria” (Leria vineyard) is a parcel that sits on a steep slope immediately in front of the family home and the cellars. It is planted to a mix of Nebbiolo, Croatina and Vespolina- the Croatina adding additional fruitiness, the Vespolina spiciness, and both adding softer tannins than Nebbiolo is known for, creating an approachable wine without need for aging.
Sitting on an ancient seabed, the soils are very poor and porous which permit the vines to extend deeply into the soil. The result is a wine of intense minerality with a fresh, lively presence on the palate.
Red? Check. Italian style earthiness? Check. Minerality? Double check. This had the balance of heft and ease, intensity and lightness that paired perfectly.
BUT…
Then Dallas had to whip out a surprise.
He was thinking of pairing with a Lambrusco Grasparossa di Castelvetro - the smallest region in Modena province which tends to make sparkling Lambrusco that is dry, dark, and full-bodied.
Specifically, he wanted to pair it with Bellei Lambrusco Grasparossa di Castelvetro Pietrascura
But…
Then he had an idea. A facepalming, stupid idea.
Dead Mail took place in the 80’s. There was a Lambusco that was the Best-Selling import wine in America during that time, peaking in 1985 with 138 million bottles sold! A record that has yet to be beat, I believe.
It’s a wine that came with a jingle. A jingle to stand tall next to the jingles for Mentos and Riccola.
Yes, Dallas then bought and brought over a bottle of RIUNITE.
This was the very first time either of us had ever tried a Riunite.
You’ll have to watch (or listen) to the episode to see how it went. (It starts at 33:20)
Wine Trivia Question of the Week
Answer at the end of the episode above!
Believe it or not, unlike with wine and movies, there have been a number of controlled studies for pairing wine and music. In most studies, subjects would largely agree - in some cases unanimously - that certain wines tasted better when listening to certain music. Out of these case studies have rule-of-thumb guides, much like the rules-of-thumb when pairing wine with food.
