Nov 17, 2008
I've realized over the years that I would not be a very good practicing Christian. Nor for that matter would I be a sterling example of a practicing Druid, Muslim, Pagan, Buddhist or any other ISM or IST. My problem comes in making the effort to embrace that which I cannot see. Faith, to specific. This isn't to say I don't touch the "Mystic" now and again. Rather, my own moments of embracing the Mystic happened to be almost always…
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:…
Sep 23, 2008
The disappointment of imperfection and dashed hopes can be the worst kind, particularly when your expectations were set inappropriately high. I’m not a big fan of dashed hopes and don’t often take take it well when shown this kind of disappointment can occur. Sometimes it happens in life, sometimes in wine. Among the most recent set of dashed hopes I’ve had to cope with was the disintegration of a set of wines I expected to find great joy from, but…
Sep 18, 2008
I’m a huge fan of Chateau Petrogasm, the wine review blog that uses one image as its review of wine. No words, no number, just one image. It’s a fascinating exercise. Each day I go the site with the goal of trying to interpret the meaning of the image attached to a wine. Sometimes it’s easy to understand what the reviewers want to tell us. Other times, I’m forced to apply my own meaning as any interpretation of the image…