Archive for the ‘Natural Wine’ Category
With the In Pursuit of Balance organization shuttered and the American wine world now completely unbalanced again, it occurs that there is room and need for new organizations to form within the wine industry. My candidates for new organizations follow: 1. Association For the Advancement of Wine Forgers (AFAWF) Anyone who followed the recent controversy concerning the Baghera Auction in Geneva and the alleged forged bottles that Don Cornwell identified simply by looking at the pictures of the bottles in…
With regard to “Natural Wines”, what’s wrong with this sentence: “Along with eschewing additives, natural wines are small-batch, made using traditional equipment and fermented using the wild yeasts that occur naturally in the winery, contributing to the terroir of the finished product.” All correct answers (there are more than one) receive a Huzzah!
As I warned some years ago, “Natural Wine” is having its moments. Everywhere you look journalists, vintners, somms and tavern keepers are extolling the virtues of this undefined product. I’ve made something of a habit of pointing out that these champions of this marketing phrase prefer rhetoric over honesty or precision when they discuss their favorite new phrase/product. And though pointing out the deceit of these Natural Wine Champions has probably no impact whatsoever on the fraud that they perpetuate,…
Ideology infects everything. Starting with politics, of course, but ideology and the personal philosophies and world views that inform ideology are seen in the wine industry too. By “ideology” I mean a philosophy of how the world works or ought to work and, more specifically, how that worldview impacts one’s view of man other subjects and topics. I think it’s rare these days for one’s ideology to place them in the middle as a moderate. More often than not a…
Early this morning while Henry George and I were enjoying a bottle of milk and a cup of coffee, respectively, we watched a talking head on CNN discuss presidential candidate Donald Trump. The head said this: “Trump is often careless with the truth and makes sweeping statements that have no basis in fact, but he is being bold and people like that.” Henry George heard that, looked at me, furrowed his brow and went back to his bottle. I thought…
