Archive for the ‘Personal’ Category
As I watched my new puppy happily and with no reservations gnaw on the first dried bull's penis ever presented to her, it occurred to me that perhaps I've gotten into a rut with my drinking of late and not taken advantage of the wide variety of options wine drinkers now posses. My drinking habits tend to flow between Manhattans, Old Fashioneds and, where wine is concerned, Pinot Noir, Riesling and Rhone or Rhone-style wines. This collection of drinks has…
What's the difference between Wine Country and New York City? The question isn't a set up for punchline. After spending a bit of time in New York again for the Vino 2011 Conference, I've been thinking about this question. Clearly there are many difference between, say, Napa Valley or Sonoma Valley and New York City. But I'm not thinking the key difference between New York City and Wine Country is the number of good Jewish delis, the number of taxis…
It's always a bit odd for me when I find myself securely in America, yet surrounded by a foreign language to the point of having english squeezed out of the picture. Of course one is accustomed to and expects this when traveling in another county where English is not the native language. And even in the Napa Valley, one occasionally gets caught in a passing cloud of French when walking down the streets of Saint Helena or Yountville. But eventually…
This time of year in Napa Valley the landscape is dominated by vines seemingly finished; denuded of leaves, browned and blackened by cold; heaving downward with the weight of the raining season on their canes; apparently dead and done. It's all a head fake toward a spiritual and physical reality that all creatures succumb to. But then the vines return to life in the spring…as though it all never happened. It's magic. Looking at vines this time of year in…
On the sixth anniversary of starting this blog, I see that I've produced 2,170 posts in those six years of blogging about wine, the wine industry, wine politics, wine public relations and marketing, and my affinity for bourbon. However, all those blog posts aren't what interest me today as I reflect on the past six years of writing under my own name for public consumption. What interests me is why I, and other wine bloggers, do it. Though difficult to…
