Jul 6, 2015
Maybe it’s bad reporting. Maybe it’s just a matter of click-bating. Maybe its just a case of someone throwing a ball through a window then running away. No matter what it is, a story claiming that “beer is a better drink to serve with food” breaks one of my cardinal rules: if you are going to make a bold statement, at least make the slightest effort to back it up with reasoning. As explained in the Telegraph and at Drinks…
Jul 1, 2015
This is the question: HOW DO WE CHANGES IS THIS OVERALL “FEELING” THAT WINE IS INTIMIDATING, BUT BEER ISN’T? At least this is the way it was put by Larry Schaffer, owner of Tercero Winery, commenting in this post about “craft wine”. In fact, this is the same question that I’ve heard asked ever since I got in the wine business nearly 25 years ago. In fact, that wine is intimidating has been among the most important concerns to the…
Jun 16, 2015
Matt Kramer’s latest book (really not more than a long, concise, finely argued essay) is subversive. While at once a bare knuckled take down of the now well established “flavor-descriptor-as-tasting-note” mode of wine review, True Taste: The Seven Essential Wine Words is also a manifesto for the return to values, judgment and discernment in both wine writing and wine reviewing. And it is a book that every wine writer, every wine industry participant and every true wine aficionado needs to read…
May 29, 2015
As is so very often the case, the New York Times has provided its readers with something fascinating and a story of wine that demands we wine lovers question how we understand wine. In this case, The Times has provided a portrait of a very distinct vision of what California wine either ought to or can be. The focus of the recent “The Wrath of Grapes” begins with a focus on Rajat Parr, a sommelier and winery owner and one…
Nov 19, 2014
There is a good case to be made that when comparing the French Appellation d’Origine Controlee (AOC) system with the American Viticultural Area (AVA) system, it is the American system of delineating grape growing regions that is far more invested in the theory of terroir than the French AOC system. This point concerning the relative commitment to terroir has been driven home to me while doing some work with the Petaluma Gap Winegrowers Alliance, which is currently in the…