Jul 17, 2006
As a rule we don’t like to make fun of people here a FERMENTATION…unless they deserve it. So in that spirit, the name attached to this email I was forewarded will be left out. That said, a winery forwarded me an email they got from a customer who has a very important inquiry. The message is short and to the point: "I would like to ask how you recommend opening the bottles that have a very heavy foil that I…
Jul 12, 2006
There was a time in my life when I was flat broke. I was studying History (“what are you going to do with that degree, young man?”) at University and everything I had went into books, supplies, rent and, usually, Cup O’Noodle Soup. Yet I still had back then an interest in wine that would lead me on occasion, when there was something leftover, to buy a bottle. And you drank it…no matter what. In fact, when you are as…
Jul 11, 2006
It’s all about Rose…Dry Rose. As far as I’m concerned, if you aren’t drinking predominantly Dry Rose between mid June and the end of September then you just are living right. It used to be that your choices in the category of Dry Rose were quite limited. Most of those available were made in mass quantities, were not that interesting and they probably had too much sugar in them. Sure, you had the Saintsbury’s and and others who make great…
Jul 5, 2006
Jason Walsh is a UK writer who, according to his blog "Design of the Nation", takes on issues of design, culture, politics and technology. I think that just about covers everything. Included in this bag of issues Mr. Walsh covers is, apparently, wine. In a post today, Walsh offers an interesting notion: That including varietal information on a wine label (Cabernet, Chardonnay, Merlot, etc) as most of the New World wines do, equates to dumbing down wine and allows consumers…
Jun 30, 2006
Can you spare 10 characters in your reviews of wine? That’s really all it would take, a measly 10 spaces in a wine review to add the alcohol level of the wine under consideration. And by adding this bit of information the consumer would be served mightily. I started thinking about this need for stating alcohol content in reviews upon reading Robert Parker’s reviews of Paul Hobbs wines on MSNBC.com. For example:"2003 Napa Valley Cabernet Sauvignon, 93 points. A dark…