Archive for the ‘Culture and Wine’ Category
Alder over at Vinography draws to our attention an very interesting article in the Sunday New York Times. The heart of the article poses the proposition that the Best Picture nominated Sideways has a character that may be an alcoholic. From there various wine and recovery types address the question from various perspectives. Alder suggests that the lack of discussion of this angle to the movie has to do with societal denial of alcohol’s place in our lives and culture….
A letter to the editor in today’s San Francisco Chronicle Wine Section hits on a conversation that comes up, oh, now and again: consumer distress over irrationally high prices of wine. This particular complaint comes from Alan in Berkeley. In response to an earlier article’s suggestion that one should just take the plunge when it comes to older California Cabs, Alan describes the experience as "taking a bath." He points to the 1974 Heitz "Martha’s Vineyard" as perfect example of…
Michael Stajer has an excellent rundown of a really crazy perspective on the Wine Shipping controversy. The source of the rather ludicrous assertions that Michael refers to come from one Reverend Mark Creech who claims, among other things: "Jesus would have never approved the actions of a bunch of greedy Internet wine retailers who were determined to distribute "strong drink" at the expense of the nation’s children." I presume Reverend Creech would say that Jesus instead would have approved…
How in the world does this happen?? A good looking woman may not be shown in an advertisement in France for Bordeaux because she’s "too sexy". The French courts, in league with the anti-alcohol nuts, determined that the ad showing Catherine Gachet, a mother and vintner, was simply too sexy to pass the stringent French laws governing how alcohol can be promoted. So, another picture of her was shot with the glass of wine just a bit further from her…
I don’t think it is any coincidence that those who have great interest in wine also tend to have a bit of the intellectual in them. To embrace the intricacies of wine so fully that you would be willing to ponder the meaning of terroir or the implications of what "greatness" means or even the virtue of hedonistic new world wines versus traditional terroir-driven wines, as wine lovers are want to do, you really do have to be a more…
