Archive for the ‘Culture and Wine’ Category
I’ve reported before how the mainstream (not blogs, not wine media) media tends to cover wine almost only when there is a prurient angle. Here’s another example. Yesterday ABC Radio News was reporting that a citizen of Utah who’s license plate read "Merlot" will have it revoked because "intoxicant words" are banned from vanity plates in that part of the United States. The owner of the plate has had it for ten years now, but recently someone anonymously informed the…
TOP TEN PLACES TO DRINK WINE ACCORDING TO FERMENTATION: THE DAILY WINE BLOG -In a 102 degree hot tub on a cool spring evening -At the edge of an old Petanque court watching old men play the game and smoke their Gauloise -In the skybox overlooking 3rd base -From a table at the cafe at the Piazza della Republica in Florence -Direct from the barrel in an underground aging cellar -From a tumbler, in a comfortable leather chair, watching Godfather…
Pests. They are the things that give grape growers fits. They tend to be insects, birds and even the occasional wild boar. However, you rarely here folks who grow grapes in CA, or nearly anywhere, make this complaint: "One of the pests that we have to contend with are baboons" All in the service of a good bottle of wine, I presume. Apparently baboons are big fans of ripe grapes. The folks worrying about Baboons are the Leakey family. Yes,…
Remember that agreement that was brought together last year between the U.S. and E.U. in which a variety of semi generic place names were finally declared off limits? This is the agreement that no longer allows most use of the following names for wine on an American label: BurgundyChablisChampagneChiantiClaretHautSauterneHockMadeiraMalagaMarsala MosellePortRhineSauterneSherryTokay. The idea is that if the wine you’ve made isn’t produced from grapes grown in Chablis, it shouldn’t be called "Chablis". Reasonable. However, I just got word that one of…
The measure of a person’s commitment to an idea must surely be the length to which they are willing to go to make their point. When a person is willing to go the distance, and do so with the kind of delicious satire that Darryl Roberts of Wine X Magazine does, you really have to step back and marvel at the brilliance. As we recently heard, Roberts shut down his subversive Wine X Magazine after years of publishing. In doing…
