Updated April 22
Sorry, folks, lots of ground to cover today. We’ll start with sports because I was away from the blog for a couple of weeks while covering the Texas Children’s Houston Open (that would be Houston’s PGA Tour golf tournament for you non sports folks) and the Fayez Sarofim & Co. U. S. Men’s Clay Court Championship. (Right, tennis.) In short, both proved to be extraordinary.
The final round of the golf sort of summed up for me why I squandered my life going to ball games, etc. (It wasn’t for the big bucks, to be sure.) We woke up Sunday morning with five men tied for the lead, four of them guys I really hadn’t heard of before Sunday morning, and Scottie Schleffer, the former Texas Longhorn who’s the world’s best golfer and who was trying to win his third consecutive Tour start. Had he prevailed at Memorial Park, he would have won four in a row because, after he left Houston, he went to Augusta, Ga., and won a second friggin’ Masters.
But, in H-town, Scottie blinked. The German Stefan Jaeger, ranked 43rd on the same leader board that Scheffler is the runaway No. 1, didn’t and therefore claimed his first-ever PGA title. Hey, that’s why we play the games and the tournaments. Nothing is pre-ordained on the field, in the arena, or on the course. On any given Sunday . . .
Except on the LPGA Tour? Nelly Korda did what Scottie couldn’t do, extending her Tour-record tying win streak to five events with a dramatic closing round of her own Sunday in the Chevron Championship at Carlton Woods.
Meanwhile, at River Oaks, arguably the best man — because he was the No. 1 seed — won, never mind that said best man is all of 21 years old and had never prevailed on red dirt anywhere. Kid’s name is Ben Shelton (pictured below). Remember it. He’s special. The Rivers Oaks final was special, too, pitting two Black American men in an ATP Tour final for the first time ever. And it happened at a venue that that has a somewhat murky racial past.
I’ve been blessed to to have covered tennis at that gorgeous venue for 48 years now, and my first tournament in 1977 came only two years after Arthur Ashe made his first and last appearance on the grounds. There’s probably no one left alive who really knows the truth, but the indisputable fact is this: Ashe didn’t play in Houston until seven years after he had won the U. S. Open. Some will tell you he wasn’t invited because of the color of his skin. Others will say he didn’t think he would feel welcome because of the color of his skin and rejected the club’s overtures for that reason.
Anyway, Shelton’s three-set victory over Frances Tiafoe, the 2023 champion, was a near-classic between two gifted, immensely athletic players who also understand life’s bigger picture better than most jocks I’ve met. Note that Tiafoe hadn’t been the first Black to conquer the Stadium Court at River Oaks. That distinction belongs to Bryan Shelton, Ben’s dad, who won the River Oaks International in 1992, and was back on site this spring as Ben’s coach.
It’s important to add that both Shelton and Tiafoe insisted they have never been treated better anywhere on the ATP circuit than at River Oaks. All credit to the current members and, of course, to tournament director Bronwyn Greer and her right-hand person, Haley Wallace. Real pros, those two. Cool stories any way you slice them. Let’s raise a glass to Jaeger and both Sheltons. May many more titles follow!
And kudos to the Texans for landing Stefon Diggs, a huge addition on several levels. An elite receiver by any measure, he’s is going to be very good for young C. J. Stroud. And, yes, vice-versa.
As for the Astros . . . Da hell! Say it ain’t so, Joe. We should be worried, very worried, especially with the bullpen in collective free-fall mode. Two years ago, in route to winning a second World Series, they hadn’t lost their 16th game until May 23. Even last season’s so-so start — 11-10 through April 22 — seems red-hot by comparison. They’ll have to go 84-56 the rest of the way just to equal their so-so 90-72 finish in 2023.
Now, back to wine . . .
The day before I left for France I attended a tasting of Portuguese products, where I encountered an old friend . . . in a bottle. Anybody remember the Mateus Rose? Full disclosure: That was my go-to wine as a teenager with a fake ID in El Paso. I probably hadn’t tasted the stuff in more than 50 years and I would have expected it to be sickly sweet, given my, shall we say, unrefined taste back in those days.
Nope. The Mateus was a bit on the sweet side but not overly so. It was bright and fresh and, at under 10 bucks a bottle, a for-real bargain. Winemaker Diogo Sepulveda calls his wine, which has always been non-vintage and is a blend of baga, rufete, tinta barroca and touriga franca, “very appealing with a bright hue. On the whole, it is a fresh and seductive wine with fine and intense bouquet and all the joviality of young wines. In the mouth, it is a well balanced and tempting wine, brilliantly complemented by a soft and slightly fizzy finish.”
I liked the Mateus so much I made it a point to taste every Portuguese pink wine at the event, and there wasn’t a disappointing one in the bunch. Unfortunately, most of the others didn’t have distributors. Or such a lustrous history.
And, speaking of old friends, I made it point to catch up with two of the human kind on my third day in France, Domaine de Mourchon founder Walter McKinlay and Wendy Heineken Gobbi, who, with her French husband Jean-Marc Gobbi, owns the Château Saint Pierre de Mejans winery in the Luberon. Both have strong Houston ties because McKinlay began doing business in our fair city in the 1960s — North Sea oil shipping — and Heineken Gobbi grew up in Kingwood.
The Mourchon and Mejans wines, brought to Texas by my buddy Douglas Skopp’s Dionysus Imports, offer remarkable quality and value, not to say consistency. (Four of my current favorites are pictured below.) That has a lot to do with the face that McKinlay’s winemaker Sebastian Magnouac has been in the cellar near Seguret in the Southern Rhone Valley since the turn of the century, while Mejans’ Brice Doan de Champassak is celebrating his 27th year, having long preceded the Gobbis who bought the winery from Brice’s family only a few years back.
But both guys are still thinking outside the box and have recently released new reds into the market, although not yet the Texas market. I haven’t tasted either but intend to in the very near future.
Walter and Ronnie are living pretty much full-time in London now — his mobility ain’t what it used to be, but, then, who’s is? — so daughter Kate is running the business side at Mourchon. She has turned her parents’ hilltop villa, with a perfect view of Mont Ventoux to the east, into a rental residence that couldn’t be more perfectly situation for touring the Southern Rhone Valley. Ditto the ancient castle and neighboring mas at Mejans for taking in the many wonders of Provence.
Go to http://vrbo.com/france to book the former (http://domainedemourchon.com) and http://airbnb.com to book the latter (http://saintpierredemejans.com). Gorgeous destinations both, and only about an hour apart.
H-town happenings
Wine and Live Art Dinner: 6:30 p.m. Thursday, April 25, at Potente. $250.
Butcher’s Wine-Pairing Dinner: 6:30 p.m. Friday, April 26, at Central Market. $100. http://eventbrite.com http://eventbrite.com
Kemah Boardwalk Spring Wine Fest : 2 p.m. Saturday, April 27. $59.95. http://eventbrite.com
Derby Wine Fest: 2:30 p.m. Saturday, May 4, at Brenner’s on the Bayou. $150.00. http://eventbrite.com
Wine Dinner with a four-year vertical of Serca reds from Argentina: 6 p.m. Thursday, May 9, at the Aktins House. $105. http://eventbrite.com rom $105.00
Wine Lovers Run Houston: 7:30 a.m. Saturday, May 11, at Eleanor Tinsley Park. $35. http://eventbrite.com
Revana Wine Dinner: 6 p.m. Thursday, May 16, at La Griglia. $250. http://eventbrite.com
Wagyu and Wine Night: 6 p.m. Thursday, May 16, at R-C Ranch. $100. http://eventbrite.com
Six-Course Dinner and SERCA Wines Pairing with Chef Kristin Qassom: 6 p.m. Friday, May 17, at SERCA Wines. $195. http://eventbrite.com
Bazaar Food and Wine Festival: 5 p.m. Saturday, May 18, at Sugar Land Town Square. $150. http://eventbrite.com
Instagram: http://@sportywineguy
Facebook: Dale Robertson
Podcast: Sporty Wine Guy, wherever you get your podcasts. That’s me with my sidekick Jeremy Parzen above. Expect a new one sometime this week, or next. Hey, we’re busy blokes!
Friends of mine to follow
Sandra Crittenden: http://winelifehousthon.com
Russ Kane: http://vintagetexas.com
Jeffrey Kralik: http://drunkencyclist.com
Katrina Rene: http://thecorkscrewconcie
The Sporty Wine Guy 