Oct 29, 2008
This story out of England plays like a bad National Lampoon movie, but it is instructive too, as well as funny. First and foremost, who wants to go to college at Cambridge. Apparently for years it was the policy of the St. John's College Dining Hall that students were allowed a bottle of wine each at supper. Now how civilized is this? Damn civilized, if you ask me and very English. century would do. They started a However, it appears…
Oct 28, 2008
This has been a good year for Tyler Colman, the first Wine Blogger to go mainstream. Earlier in the year he saw published, and has since gained a great deal of publicity for, "Wine Politics"—— a book about its title that I loved. On November 11th, Tyler will begin swimming in the deep end of the mainstream wine media with the publishing of: "A Year of Wine: Perfect Pairings, Great Buys and What to Sip for Each Season". This…
Oct 26, 2008
Alice Feirng is an anti-establishmentarian that believes beauty is extracted from order. This puts her at odds with American wine and probably modernity too. And yet this strange and compelling perspective also gave her open entry directly into the hearts of the audience I watched her address yesterday. Last night, in the grand, old tank room of Sonoma's venerable Sebastiani Vineyards, with lights dimmed and candles lit, Ms. Feiring held court in front of a crowd that was decidedly modern:…
Oct 20, 2008
This weekend I took one of my twice annual trips though the pages of the Esquire Magazine, AKA the Steve McQueen Guidebook. I check out Esquire a couple times a year just to make sure I'm still in the neighborhood of Hip, if not not a homeowner. In addition to learning the proper shape of ice and that anal sex is not a proper topic for small talk, I did come across something clever and amusing: "A Brief History of…
Oct 16, 2008
In the wine industry we have something called, ironically, a COLA: Certificate of Label Approval. It’s issued by the Feds for every label that is in the American Market. There are thousands labels sent to the TTB for approval each year. The TTB issues guidelines as to what is allowed and not allowed on a label for an alcoholic beverage, how large certain type must be, etc. There is a fascinating and insightful new blow that monitors the labels that…