Oct 31, 2019
Let me start by inviting anyone to try to paint me as a misogynist; to make the case that I’ve worked to protect the “patriarchy”; to argue that my perspective and my work and my writings have diminished the role of women in the wine industry. With that invitation issued, please someone tell me why I’m wrong to read the following and think to myself, what a bunch of crap: “What is the impact of mostly white men occupying these…
Oct 23, 2019
Pew Reseach tells us that the United States is rapidly on its way to becoming a minority Christian country. My question is what does this mean for alcohol consumption and for wine in particular? First the research. Since 2007 those professing to be Christians here in the United States collapsed from 77% to 65%. This is a fall off of massive proportions. Meanwhile, in the same time period, those who claim no religious affiliation have risen from 17% to 25%….
Sep 27, 2019
I’m not a fan of President Donald Trump. It’s concerning to me that he is the first president in my lifetime that I’m positive I could do a better job of running the country. But I’m also not a fan of petty wastefulness. And that is exactly what the attempt to revoke the liquor license at the President’s Washington, DC hotel amounts to. The claim was that President Trump’s liquor license at the Trump Washington, DC Hotel should be revoked…
Sep 9, 2019
Have you ever noticed that the best writing about wine isn’t really about wine? The New Yorker’s Troy Patterson Jr. is proof. His most recent critique of a niche culture comes at the expense of Orange Wine, “distinguished by what are conventionally considered imperfections: astringency, bracing bitterness, earthy funk.” Ouch! This is not the conclusion of, but rather a sidebar to, Patterson’s article entitled, “How the Orange-Wine Fad Became an Irresistible Assault on Pleasure” in the latest issue of the…
Sep 3, 2019
There is a political spectrum within the alcohol industry. However, it’s not much like the ideological extremes of American political culture. The American polity is divided; polarized in a way I can’t recall before. It’s as though the electorate will root for their team, no matter how absurd or radical the deeds, desires or words attributed to the leadership of their tribe. The middle of the American political spectrum is a wasteland—a bowed middle and top-heavy on the ends. While…