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Toad Hollow Amplexus Crémant (NV) Brut Sparkling Wine, Limoux, France

Crémant style sparkling wines are inherently lighter and dryer than traditional Champagnes. Toad Hollow’s Amplexus spent two additional years in the bottle on the yeast which accomplishes just that and makes it quite the smooth Prince.

A very pale candlelight tinted liquid with fine tiny bubbles yields a nose of rich yeasty bread dough, citrus and pear. As this effervescence spills over the tongue, creamy luscious Crème Brule dominates, roasted cashews with ripe pear, and lemon zest with just the impression of sweetness and sensual mouth feel. A lovely balanced finish of yeasty buttered toast provides a perfect afterglow.

Risqué found this to absolutely unbeatable at this price, and very easy to sip and enjoy… flute, after flute, after flute! Share this with your favorite Prince (or Toad) and focus on the flute… after flute… after flute!

12.5% Alcohol ($15)

Wine comes in at the mouth

And love comes in at the eye;

That’s all we shall know for truth

Before we grow old and die.

I lift the glass to my mouth,

I look at, and I sigh.

— William Butler Yeats (1865-1939)

La Crema 2006 Pinot Noir, Sonoma Coast

Risqué relishes “la crèma de la vida” (the cream of life)… the finer things… all that is delightful and delicious, luscious and languid, sensuous and sublime. That is exactly what this 100% Pinot Noir, aged in 100% toasted French Oak, delivers.

This glittering dark raspberry liquid is perfumed with mouthwatering dark ripe cherries, dark cocoa, spicy clove and delicious licorice. The mouth is filled with more luxurious summer cherries, ripe wild briar fruits, English toffee, pekoe tea and slivers of orange zest tempered with earthy woody notes. A sensuous plump mouth feel is supported with silky tannins and balanced acidy all mellowing into a lovely soft fruit strewn finish.

Succumb to “La Crema” and saturate your yearnings with what Risqué desires… “la crèma de la vida”.

Alcohol 13.9% ($20)

Kali Hart Vineyard 2006 Chardonnay, Monterey County

Don’t you love sur lies… anything on the “dregs” has to be amazing… especially if they spent four months on it!!!!

The youngest of the Talbott children… has a lovely light sparkling and brilliant straw color. Up the olfactory!… this medium bodied liquid issues fragrant star jasmine and lush, delicious tropical fruit and tangerines. The palate is gushing with acidic lemons, ripe tropical pineapple, luscious guava, more tangy tangerine, tart nectarine and balanced with delicious oaky soft vanilla and a mineral finish with more delicious citrus.

Risqué’s heart throbs for more HART!, Kali Hart that is… especially at an even more adorable price!!

14.2% Alcohol ($11)

Dennis Dean - Photographer

Risqué has in fact been known to occasionally tug on the fruit of the vine and gaze intently at magnificently chiseled men. Risqué can’t help but feel that the “objet d’arte” in the photograph looks as if he would rather have someone else plucking his grapes. Risqué would love to play dress-up as the laborer at harvest time.

As grapes are the fruit of the gods, Dennis Dean is truly a cornucopia of talent among photographers. In “Male Nude with Grapes” he captures the plausible beauty of the lusty male physique. Internationally known, Dennis Dean uses dramatic contrast lighting and the watchful fascination of the subject to cause the spectator to intently focus on the fruit of the vine, the cluster of grapes. All of Dennis’ photography incites a provocative perspective and can be seen at DennisDean.com. Besides being the Creative Director of Window Media’s 411 Magazine, Express News and additional métier, Dennis Dean is not so bad on Risqué’s eyes himself.

Risqué says “life is too short so pluck grapes when ever the moment arises!!!”

Risqué was in Phoenix, Arizona for a visit with one of his luscious lushes doing the Wine Bar tour in Phoenix and Scottsdale and had the delicious fortune of finding a diaphanous and sophisticated Bistro… Cheuvront. Risqué and lushes noshed on their delicious Sizzled Gnocchi in Sage Brown Butter, the Salad Caprese with Oven Roasted Tomato Confit and Basil. Risqué luxuriated in the Certified Angus Fillet, Medium Rare, of Course, with Roasted Garlic and Balsamic Demi Glace. His lushes dined on the succulent Parmesan Crusted Chicken Breast accompanied by Ricotta Gnocchi and Wilted Arugula and Lemon Caper Buerre Blanc Sauce. But the wine… a regular favorite…

2002 Cain Five…a delicious Napa Cuvee in the Bordeaux style of Cabernet Sauvignon, Cabernet Franc, Merlot, Malbec, and Petit Verdot. This enticing beauty is smooth, round, full-bodied and exactly the way Risqué likes it… quite firm. It seduces with a nose of succulent plums and a noticeable note of mineral. It initiates your tongue with mocha and vanilla and yields to rich cassis balanced against silky tannins and reclines into a seemingly never ending finish… ASTOUNDING!

Next time, when in Phoenix darling lushes… find a way to be diaphanously sumptuous and slip into Cheuvront for some deliciousness.

14.7% Alcohol ($125)

2004 Domaine Jomain Puligny-Montrachet

The warmth of Palm Springs always leaves Risqué looking to shed at least most of his clothes and lavish his parched throat with the lighter and crisper styles of the milk of Bacchus. While hunting through the racks of a favorite wine shop grabbing anything that might offer relief and grasping a few bottles of this Puligny-Montrachet. Loving Burgundy’s whites Risqué had high expectations and was not disappointed!

This is a delightful Burgundian Chardonnay that has a very light golden color with glints of green. The aromas are of a fine light minerality yet fragrant with bergamot. In the mouth, it is nicely balanced with a delightful acidity adding to the crisp green apple on the front with luscious pear, wild honey and a lingering finish of wet river stones.

The warm PS evening meandered and so did Risqué through both bottles which provided the sought respite.

Alcohol: 13% ($40)

Edmé Bouchardon (French, 1698–1762)

Fauns have always piqued the imagination of Risqué and particularly this blatantly homoerotic Hunk-o-Chunk, Block-o-Beefcake, Stud-o-Stone…

Fauns or as the Ancient Greeks referred to them in their mythology, Satyrs, half human and half goat creatures whose devotion was to the god of wine, Dionysus (Bacchus). Throughout the history of art these mischievous and raucous creatures can be seen drinking and cavorting with men and usually in a perpetual state of arousal… disappointedly, unlike our favorite sleeping faun.

The life sized sculpture is Edmé Bouchardon’s (French, 1698–1762) marble copy, gracing the Louvre in Paris, of the original ancient Hellenistic Barberini Faun, now in the Glyptothek museum in Munich. Little is known about its origin or creator as the statue was found in the 1620’s at the Castel Sant’Angelo in Rome. The piece was submitted for restoration in 1628 and had been severely damaged, missing parts of both hands, legs and feet. Historical documents note that in 537AD during the siege of Rome, statues that had adorned the Castel (previously Hadrian’s Mausoleum) were thrown down on the invading Goths and given the location of it’s discovery it is presumed that this was the origin of the damage.

The uniqueness of this ancient work is in its overt sexuality… as the faun lies upon a panther skin on the rocks with his legs slung deliberately open drawing the admirer’s attention into its sexual embrace.

Risqué most specifically adores the silent but unmistakable expression of ecstasy, forever captured on the face of his beautiful fantasy faun.

Yalumba 2005 M/G/S “Hand Picked” Barossa, Australia

The color… rich dark maroon with flashes of ruby!! The nose… the first sniff brings nosegays of violets and then moves to one of Chef’s gastronomic masterpieces, a wonderful double crusted pie buldging with fresh Blackberries, a layer of thickened Cream and just a little Cinnamon for spice. In the mouth… at first a bit tight but concentrated… sturdy with Mourvedre… juicy with Grenache… and sexed with Shiraz.

An hour after Risqué first opened and tasted this it had mellowed into a wonderfully balanced Rhone-esque blend of blueberries and cream with dried dates, leather, spice and a lovely subtle finish of mushrooms and wet stones. Make sure and buy at least two bottles… hopefully you’ll be more patient with the second.

14.5% Alcohol ($30)