I am very unbalanced this morning at the news that ‘In Pursuit of Balance’ (IPOB) is going to Houston, and not Dallas, on its Texas tour. The organizers have tried to rebalance the situation by vaguely promising that Dallas is on the circuit next year, but it doesn’t quite make up for the sleight. I am especially galled by the fact that I was the one who told them they needed to change their silly name.
You see, IPOB is not a competitor of IHOP. Rather, it is a group, founded by sommelier/winemaker Rajat Parr and Jasmine Hirsch (of Hirch Vineyards), of Pinot Noir and Chardonnay producers who emphasize ‘ balance, restraint and site-specificity’ and who were chosen, not by themselves, but from a rigorous blind tasting by a panel of wine experts, including Jon Bonne, wine editor of the San Francisco Chronicle. The group has been covered in the Wall Street Journal, the Washington Post and Food + Wine Magazine, as well as elsewhere. They are controversial as well as revered, as you might expect in a world where wine style is such a central facet of wine character.
On March 30 at The Parador a public walk-around tasting runs from 6 to 9pm, with 31 IPOB member wineries pouring their Chardonnays and Pinot Noirs, and 9 top Texas restaurants serving small bites. Wineries include Littorai, Au Bon Climat, Failla, Mount Eden, Matthiasson, Hirsch, Hanzell and many others. A great collection of the old guard pinot wineries, and the hottest up and coming producers. The restaurants represented are:
Backstreet Café
laV Restaurant & Wine Bar
FT33
Mark’s
Pappas
Pass & Provisions
Pax Americana
Sonoma Wine Bar
Underbelly
Complete details are here. Sign up quickly as a sellout is a certainty. Oh, and tell them they need to change their name.
I am always barely balanced. 😉