Oct 13, 2006
Boy, have I ever gained respect over the past few days for those folks who write reviews of wines in wine magaznes and newsletters. I’ve been working on a rush job for a wine catalog. Much of the writing entails describing wines. The thing is, every wine needing a description comes with a maximum word count that I can use. In many cases that word count is no more than 17 words!! This is a very difficult task. It would…
Oct 12, 2006
I think it was Christopher Hitchens who said, and I paraphrase, "Assertions offered with no evidence can be dismissed without evidence." I was thinking about this, and other things, as I read this amazing comment from Michel Rolland, the French wine consultant who was recently profiled by Eric Asimov in the NY Times:Eric: I mention Clos du Val and Corison, two Napa Valley producers whose wines adhere to a less upfront, more austere style Rolland: “Are they as successful in…
Oct 4, 2006
There’s a new wine sheriff in town and his name is Blair Campbell. Blair is the newish wine writer for the East Bay Express. I’m not sure how I missed what can only be labeled a most audacious rant in which he takes to task those phonies who read the Wine Spectator or make any time for wines that cost more than $10. It’s pretty impressive. To be fair, this original article of Campbell’s, "Ashamed of That Cheap Wine You’re…
Oct 3, 2006
What’s the difference between a wine that is alternately rated 4 of 5-Stars, 16 of 20 points and 88 of 100 points? The answer is: many things. I bring this up after spending time with the Ratings Conversion Chart created by The World of Fine Wine Magazine, a British Quarterly Publication that take on wine in a high brow, intelligent, in-depth manner and has gone out and recruited what is certainly one of the most impressive collection of mainly European…
Sep 12, 2006
W. R. Tish has had the second half of his long article on America’s glossy wine magazines published by Wines & Vines magazine, a trade publication. No one will miss the irony that Tish delivers has he rates the glossies on a 100 Point scale. I won’t give away the outcome of Tish’s exercise in critiquing the critics other than to say that Wine & Spirits Magazine comes out looking good in his estimation. Tish focuses on three publications: The…