Apr 1, 2008
So it happened again. I won another poker tournament. This time I was not up against a final player who appeared more interested in his vodka than the game. Rather, I was up against a player who had recently made it to the final two tables of the World Series of Poker. This was the second hold’em tournament I’ve won in the last six I’ve entered, including a 7th place finish also. Upon winning a good friend suggested I needed…
Mar 26, 2008
In a recent story in the San Jose Mercury News, Laurie Daniel explored a topic that remains very important to winemakers and wine geeks: The degree to which Pinot Noir currently does or is capable of exhibiting regionality in its character. Interestingly, the extent to which this issue is important to non-geeks seems to me to extend only as far as the occasional comments by casual wine drinkers that they "like California Pinot more than French" or believe "Oregon Pinot…
Feb 29, 2008
Today is really a bonus, isn’t it? I mean, is today an extra day? Are we living on granted time today it being Leap Day and all? I really can’t figure it out. From what I understand, today—FEB 29—is added to the calender because we, as a people, choose to use poor mathematics in mapping out our calender. Today is like that little "R2" that that 1st graders use when learning division: Today accounts for the "remainder minutes" that are…
Feb 16, 2008
In today’s SF Chronicle Janet Fletcher relates a wonderful tradition that occurs in the German Allgauer Alps. Apparently every fall there is a festival celebrating the cows’ return from the mountains where they’ve spent their time since spring feeding on the mountain grasses. These cows are the source of the milk that is made into the region’s Hirtenkase or "Herdsman Cheese". According to Janet, on September 18 the people of the region line the streets and watch the cows come…
Feb 5, 2008
OK…more than likely we are all buying up 2005 California Pinots because they have largely all hit the market. At least those of us who enjoy experimenting with CA Pinot are looking to this vintage. Being a guy who appreciates statistics and being further a guy who understands that the Wine Spectator is an important trend setter for quality considerations, I decided to take a look at what the Wine Spectator has had to say about CA Pinots from the…