Archive for the ‘Personal’ Category
It's clearly an attack on faith and conscience!! It has come to my attention that as part of implementing the mandates of the new federal health care law, I am required to provide health insurance to Wark Communications employees that cover, among other things, treatment of alcohol abuse. And yet, my conscience tells me that alcohol consumption is a good thing. My personal faith informs me that the consumption of alcohol on a daily basis is commanded as a means…
In 1991 "60 Minutes" reported on the "French Paradox", a study that showed that the French, who eat a diet higher in saturated fats, nonetheless had fewer instances of coronary heart disease. The high intake of wine was identified as a significant reason for this. The result: A huge increase in the consumption of red wine among Americans. It was a groundbreaking event akin to the Paris Tasting that put American wines on the map in the 1970s. Today, we…
"How do you possibly post to you blog so frequently and where do you get your ideas on what to write about?" The query was submitted by a newish wine blogger who called me and wanted to get some advice. What he didn't know was that when he asked the question, I found myself, and still find myself, with a severe case of writers blog. The irony didn't sit well with me. The idea of writers block is pretty foreign…
There is a plot of land in Sonoma Valley that is now empty. Vines once rooted themselves there. But they got too old and diseased. They no longer produced. They were pulled up. I drove by this plot not too long ago and was momentarily shocked to see it fallow and empty. Unproductive. But I remembered the vineyard well, but only as an old vineyard. I never saw it in its youth. I bet it was brilliant. I thought about…
These very short days that we find ourselves in now cast something of a pall over wine country. A dark or tinted light tends to predominate. It's quieter too it seems, though surely it really isn't. There is a loneliness to the vineyards this time of year. The carcass of the vine is exposed as the leaves fall and the shadows cast by the vines are often longer. Drive by or walk through the Napa vineyards on a day like…
