Few other consumer products, and particularly consumable consumer products, have spawned as many “accessories” as wine. If you have a wine lover on your gift list this holiday season, it’s pretty easy to satisfy them without ever digging into your cellar for a bottle. Yet with abundance, comes absurdity also. With all of the following Stupid Wine Gifts, what really interests me is the moment of conception. I would have wanted to be in room to hear those famous words,…
Wine Is not Art. I remain quite interested in the nature of wine and winemaking. Often this fascination of mine finds expression in the consideration of whether wine is art and winemakers artists. I was returned to this theme this weekend while watching the seventh of the ten episodes in Ken Burns' documentary "Jazz", which focuses on the emergence of Be-Bop in the late 1930s and early 1940s. There are a number of ways to define "Art". With the help…
Today marks the 78th anniversary of Repeal of Prohibition, the day the last state necessary ratified the 21st Amendment. It's certainly a day to mark and take account of. It is also, apparently, a day to celebrate absurdity. "Today’s [alcohol regulatory] system balances a competitive industry with local social standards and community desires. It is this system that fuels today’s robust and dynamic licensed beverage industry that creates access to market for start-up businesses."CRAIG PURSER, National Beer Wholesalers Association Craig…
What an interesting year in wine. Legal battles, political battles, movements rising, technology, new markets, and changes in the media led the news. Here are my top wine stories for 2011 A SMALL CRACK IN THE WALL: Initiative 1183 Takes Washington Out of the Booze Business and Into the 21st CenturyIt has been a long time since a state abandoned its control of the alcohol marketplace and turned it over to the private sector. Initiative 1183 in Washington State did…
There is an opinion (it's nearly a meme) that has been swirling around the wine industry for at least a couple decades now that needs to be put to rest. The best recitation I've read of this opinion was recently expressed in the comment section of my post on Robert Parker's Wine Advocate reviews of 2009 Pinot Noirs. The commenter wrote this: "Parker has outlasted his stay as the geru of wine and the alltime judge of all of them….
