Feb 13, 2008
Roger Clemons is testifying in front of Congress on steroids use in baseball. Barry Bonds is effectively out of baseball. My beloved San Francisco Giants are predicted to come in last place. But none of that matters… PITCHERS REPORT TO SPRING TRAINING TODAY!!! All is good in the world. Just as the coming of spring is the moment when hope takes over for vineyard owners who see a new growing season rapidly approaching, so too is the opening of baseball’s…
Feb 11, 2008
Ever been part of one of those jaw dropping wine moments when in the course of a single blind tasting of what are considered really top notch Pinots or Chards or Bordeaux, the night’s top wines are revealed and it’s the ringer, the $15.99 bottle of wine, that actually takes first place among the tasters? I just love those moments. I don’t know what they mean, but I do love them so for the sheer entertainment value. The best part,…
Feb 4, 2008
There’s a certain ritual that seems have played out somewhat consistently over the course of my adult life that began during my college years and continues to this day: The good friend arriving relatively late in the evening at your home for a stay and the subsequent (and immediate) kitchen table sit-down right then and there upon their arrival to catch up before any sleep is had. It’s not as though the immediate sit-down couldn’t wait until the morning when…
Jan 28, 2008
It occurred to me as I watched Wynton Marsalis’ Lincoln Center Jazz Orchestra offer a musical history of Duke Ellington’s ballads that there is a distinct lack of exploration into wine’s history and traditions here in America. Is this because there is no interest in such a thing, because there is no money in it or because there is very little tradition and history of American winemaking to warrant the effort? Marsalis will certainly go down as one of this…
Jan 21, 2008
Of late (say the last 3 to 5 years) I noted something of slight detour in wine journalism. Rather than a dedication among wine journalists toward praising and congratulating wines as a rule, there is a slight move toward the secular and cynical when it comes to wine. But it’s ever so slight and that’s because among those who read most of the wine writings, there is not that much call for peering behind the color and taste of the…