Baseline Everything
Rites of Spring
The gradually warming months are a call to simplicity. You shed layers. Shorts and a t-shirt make an outfit; a handful of garden tomatoes and cheese make a meal. I find myself wanting nothing more than to live as much of my life outside as possible. Give me an outdoor shower, a small table on the veranda for writing with my shirt off, and a way to cook food.
To that end I’ve been window shopping Gozney ovens on Facebook marketplace, having watched too many videos of dudes using woodfire ovens to cook all sorts of things outside. If you have recommendations here, let me know in the comments.
The words I’m currently circling have lent this article its title, “Baseline Everything.” An idea inspired by a recent newsletter from Foster Huntington who wrote about his project to strip down his camper van to the minimum, only adding what was absolutely necessary. An idea that found me at the right time. Life is so easily overcomplicated. A perfect answer to the modern condition of pointless complexity and over-consumption: Baseline everything.
Wine
Sonoma is little more than an hour away from my front door. It’s a special place for me and my wife. Wine country, any wine country really, is her happy place. She grew up across the street from a winery and the view from the front porch offered up scores of vines winding their way over the hillsides.
We’re members at Scribe Winery, and each season I look forward to my shipment and the letter it includes diving deeply into Scribe’s thinking behind the wines. I know one of the brothers who founded the winery from high school, and it’s been cool to support the project and watch their growth from afar. Every spring or summer my wife and I always plot out a time to visit and lose an afternoon at the winery and on its sublimely idyllic grounds.
But beyond the vibes Scribe is a great encapsulation of what I’ve come to appreciate about wine, namely from reading the late Sir Roger Scruton. The idea wine speaks to a sense of place and is deeply rooted in its culture, traditions, people, and quite literally the terrain (terroir if you indulge the vinos of the world).
This doesn’t mean I walk around talking about how a wine tastes like ripe blackberries or fresh cut grass. Refreshingly, Scruton didn’t enjoy the way wine enthusiasts bleat on with their obscure palate references. Rather it’s the idea the great wines could only exist in specific places. It’s the opposite of the world being flat or homogenous; it’s grounded.
The family operating Scribe genuinely believes in being stewards of the land and the stories its historic property has to tell through its unique terrain. A sense of place and physical reality, an idea I keep coming back to with this writing project.
“…with my nose rubbing the nose of Trotanoy I was coming face to face with a vineyard. There in the glass was the soil of a place and in that soil was a soul.”
-Sir Roger Scruton, I Drink Therefore I Am
Menswear
It’s fair to say I’ve become enchanted with Ghiaia Cashmere this year. Their website is a treat to scroll through and draw inspiration from due to the simple but elegant ways the brand puts together its looks, not to mention the vintage watches and other assorted ephemera. Then there’s the founder Davide Baroncini.
If you’re reading this newsletter, you most likely already have all the clothes you really need. Could things be improved around the edges? Possibly, or at least that’s what keeps us menswear hobbyists going. But I’m sorely tempted to just set a budget and buy a piece or two from Ghiaia each year and call it good.
With some vintage 501s, a trusty chambray, and these Ghiaia boots, sweater, and worksheet, you can cover a lot of bases with just a few garments.
Cooking
Speaking of simple and good things, I can’t get over how well Shiitake mushrooms pair with eggs. I’ve been making this multiple times each week for our breakfast.
Just dice up some organic Shiitake. Brown them a bit with some butter and olive oil. I like to add and Herbes de Provence. Mix in your eggs and grate some high quality cheese directly into the mixture.
For the mushrooms I’m a big fan of Far West Fungi from Santa Cruz, if you’re in Northern California.
April Writings
-Nate
Love the thinking around wine, and think it translates to almost everything. Consciously or not, I’ve shifted my consumption more and more to the local level — clothes made here (USA, or ideally, New England), with natural materials, food grown or raised or hunted here, community built here. I give myself the exception for books (and substack) — can’t allow myself to turn into a barbarian! — but otherwise, I find it’s best, truly, to stay rooted in place.