Mar 17, 2006
"Every year is a vintage year in California!" This was the marketing cry among CA vintners for years. And for the most part it was true. And it’s even truer today when you consider the technology that vintners bring to bear on a tank of wine that might not be quite perfect. Mike Steinberger has a terrific article on Slate about the silliness and the opportunity that results from some peoples’ and critics’ focus on vintage quality and vintage variation….
Mar 16, 2006
I was thumbing through wine magazines looking for inspiration for wording to describe a couple wines that need describing in promotional materials and I started wondering: What is it like and what mind set over takes a person who writes reviews for a living? Imagine having to write review after review after review of different wines. It can’t be easy. How many ways are there to describe a wine? Well, I came across this review in one publication and I…
Mar 13, 2006
You’ve done it. You’re first vintage is about to be released. Sure it’s only one wine, but it’s one good wine and you’ve worked your rear off and spent a lot of time and coin on making it. You’re a vintner. All you have to do now is sell it. The question is: Do you send your wine out to the media for review and critiques? Randy Sloan, Napa Cabernet producer and owner of Match Vineyards, as well as proprietor…
Feb 24, 2006
Frank Prial, the venerable and former head wine writer for the New York Times, has an article running about the Internet that takes on the issue of Cliches in wine writing. To take his poke at the ever overused phrases that populate the wine writing genre he channels "Mr. Arbuthnot", the persnickety creation of Frank Sullivan who wrote for the New Yorker in the 1930s. As Mr. Prial explains, the creation of the cliche expert Mr. Arbuthnot was done to…
Feb 21, 2006
I think it’s fair to say that Pinot Noir is the most exciting area of winemaking in California today. The Pinot Noir category is churning up new producers. Newer Pinot producing regions are strutting their stuff. And, various styles of Pinot Noir are lining the shelves, one next to the other, from the more elegantly styled to the blockbuster powerhouses. It’s really a time of great experimentation and change when it comes to Pinot. This is why it’s so exciting…