Cosmetic injections for guys / When repeated, cry in Matthew 27 / Abstract Expressionist Rauschenberg / John who directed "Tarzan, the Ape Man" / Nairobi-to-Johannesburg dir. / Grp. recognizing international titleholders in 18 different weight classes

Constructor: Andy Kravis

Relative difficulty: reasonably easy (4:04, difficulty not found)

THEME: none

Word of the Day: SPATLESE (27D: German wine made from late-harvest grapes) —

Spätlese (literal meaning: "late harvest"; plural form is Spätlesen) is a German wine term for a wine from fully ripe grapes, the lightest of the late harvest wines. Spätlese is a riper category than Kabinett in the Prädikatswein category of the German wine classification and is the lowest level of Prädikatswein in Austria, where Kabinett is classified in another way. In both cases, Spätlese is below Auslese in terms of ripeness. The grapes are picked at least seven days after normal harvest, so they are riper and have a higher sugar content. Because of the weather, waiting to pick the grapes later carries a risk of the crop being ruined by rain. However, in warm years and from good sites much of the harvest will reach Spätlese level. 

The wines may be either sweet or dry; it is a level of ripeness that particularly suits rich dry wines from Riesling, Weißer Burgunder, and Grauer Burgunder grapes for example, as at Auslese levels the alcohol levels may become very high in a dry wine leaving the wine unbalanced, making wines with at least some residual sweetness preferable to most palates. However, most German wines are traditionally dry, and the amount of sugar is not the only factor balancing a wine. Dry German wines can be very balanced, and usually get higher rates from German wine journalists than a comparable wine with more sugar. 

Many Spätlese wines will age well, especially those made from the Riesling grape. (wikipedia)

• • •

A bit about me first: I'm Christopher Adams, and I'm a prolific solver and constructor of crossword puzzles. Most of my puzzles are at my own site, but a few have made it to dead tree media, including last Thursday's LAT and next Tuesday's NYT. A lot of my philosophy as a constructor comes from my feelings as a solver, but some it also comes from advice from veteran constructors, including one Andy Kravis, whose puzzle I'm EXCITED to be blogging today.

Full disclosure: when Rex offered to let me blog this Saturday, I already knew it was going to be an Andy Kravis puzzle. In fact, Andy had even told me ahead of time that he thought I'd like it, and that he had a good feeling about my time on this puzzle. And he was correct on both counts.

Looking over the grid post-solve, I was reminded of this article I came across recently, in that there were quite a few clues near the beginning that I latched onto from having seen (in some form) and remembered. ROTE, appropriately, but also WAR ACE, ATARI, HERS, EXE, NOSE. That cleared out most of the top middle and fed nicely into the center stagger stack, where the first two answers (the wonderful AVA DUVERNAY and E-CIGARETTES) dropped in nicely.

Possibly the only thing stopping me from going much faster was the third answer in that stack (Mr. Television, by another name). I dropped in MILTON BERLE first, and then UNCLE MILTON, and only finally, near the end, fixed it to MILTIE. That error, coupled with the always vague Roman numeral clue at 43A (Late sixth-century year), as well as a wine (SPATLESE) and country music artist (ERNIE Ford) I didn't know, made for a corner that was slightly more difficult than the rest of the puzzle. I suspect some solvers might be naticked at the crossing of SPATLESE and ERNIE; I guessed that square, but I also figured the E looked more right, and SPATLESE vaguely rang a bell somewhere.

reminded of this by 19A: Crane arm (JIB)

But that's just one corner, and there's much to ADMIRE here besides the aforementioned stagger stack. BROTOX filled itself in from crosses, but it elicited a nice chuckle from me. ROLLED R, especially with the clue (Churro ingredient?), brought back memories of high school Spanish (which was, unfortunately, taught by a Brazilian).  Similarly, GRANOLA (Bar food?) had a nice punny clue. I do wish ARCHRIVAL had been clued with respect to the Yankees and Red Sox, who I gather kicked off a series Friday, but other long entries, like REMARRIED and CONSTANTINE, had fun facts for clues, and I enjoyed learning a little something while I solved.

Perhaps the only thing that took away from this was the shorter fill when considered IN ALL. On the whole, I tend to be very particular about fill in my puzzles, and this puzzle does very well for the most part. No one entry sticks out; however, while solving, I did notice a glut of NSA FAA NBA ORS SSW WBO DXC: mostly abbreviations and things that feel like that. But it was mostly spread out, and the entire puzzle was clean and smooth, so no harm overall.

Yours in puzzling, Christopher Adams, Court Jester of CrossWorld

[Follow Rex Parker on Twitter and Facebook]