If anyone ever needed a reminder after the film "Sideways" of just how intensely influential pulp culture is on the world of wine, you need only look at the WineBusiness.com report of of a Survey taken on consumer recognition of wine regions. You can download a presentation of the Survey's findings HERE. To cut to the chase, when 3000 respondents were ask to name the one word that came to mind when prompted with the name of a wine producing…

A very close friend of mine confided in me yesterday that the primary thing he loves about wine is not its taste, not its connection to place nor the buzz it delivers. Rather, he said, it is the the "immortal quality" of wine that draws him to the beverage. Now, this gentleman is a relatively young man who has seen both his parents, a step parent, a wife and his only sibling die. I wasn't surprised with his confession. By…

Bloggerview #24 Who: Steve HeimoffBlog: SteveHeimoff.comWhere: http://www.steveheimoff.com This bloggerview of Steve Heimoff comes at a particularly appropriate time. Steve began his blog, entitled "SteveHeimoff.com" almost exactly a year ago. Though I don't know the extent of his readership, I suspect it is in the top 20 of all wine blogs on the internet. And that shouldn't come as a surprise, largely because of his background in wine writing. My affinity for Steve results from a number of factors. One of…

It doesn't happen often, but I think we ought to acknowledge the permissiveness of the 3:00pm Cocktail. We all work, in one way or another. We all earn a living. We all make ourselves available to those who grant us the recommendation of their business. That means being clear headed and functional at 3pm in the afternoon—because we work on their behalf, in their office or are at their beck and call. And that's how it should be. So, to…

It's a fact of politics that when an issue is first raised and first discussed, proponents and opponents will make every argument they can think of in their favor. But as the process moves forward and the issue is discussed more intensely, all pretense of supporters and opponents tend to fall away and are replaced by arguments based in pure self interest. Tennessee and wine sales in grocery store is a perfect example."Here we go again. If it happens it's…