Archive for the ‘Wine Education’ Category
There’s very nifty golf course here in Napa called Chardonnay Golf Club. As you might imagine, there are LOTS of grapevines strewn about the property and it’s really a beautiful sight and beautiful set up. So, I’m out there playing the other day with a buddy. It’ about 11:30am and it’s 65 degrees outside. The sun is shinning. In fact, by 3pm the temperature will get up to about 71 degrees. It’s January. The dead of winter. Clearly, the Golf…
Is it possible to make a persuasive intellectual case for one style of wine being more delicious than a different style of wine, that also does not involve tasting the two different styles of wine? I’ve never thought this is possible for the simple reason that direct experience nearly always trumps reason when it comes to discovering aesthetic truth. However, if anyone can turn this trick it’s Paul Lukacs who takes a whack at it in his recent article at…
Recent events within the wine industry remind us that fraud can impact its participants and patrons. The question is where does or can the fraud lie in the world of wine? At the very least, certain areas deserve watching. 1. Counterfeit Wine If you are in the market for the most coveted wines, the First Growths of Bordeaux, or the Grand Cru of Burgundy, the recent “Kurniawan Affair” should inform you that it is a Buyer Beware marketplace. Your best…
If a Sonoma Pinot Noir tastes much more like a Burgundy Pinot Noir than it does a Sonoma County Zinfandel, isn’t this a very strong argument for making varietals the organizing idea behind wine? This is the question that occurred to me when I read Andrew Jefford’s article in Decanter that made the opposite case. Jeffords, who is a very clear-headed, succinct and thoughtful writer, gave us the money quote to his argument early in the article when he wrote…
This is the second in a series of posts on “Our Little Project” So, you need to learn about wine. How hard can it be? This was the attitude I took to my first position in the wine industry at a PR firm devoted to the beverage. It’s a beverage. It’s fermented. They make it in a variety of different countries. People drink it and like it. How much can there be to learn. Then I started opening the books….
