Mar 25, 2005
Today I’ll take my mother home from the hospital she has been in since having a stroke a little over two weeks ago. So, today is a good day. A very good day. You think about a lot of different things when you see a parent lying in a hospital bed. Priorities come to mind. The debt we owe to those that offer us unconditional love. These are things that really ought to come to mind as a matter of…
Mar 3, 2005
Both at the Caveman Blog and over at Basic Juice there are short discussions of the "Vin Nature" movement…which as I understand is a movement among winemakers and viticulturists and wine lovers that extols the virtues of wines that accurately reflect their terroir. Those discussions are a nice lead in to some more thinking I’ve been doing on the notion of "Terroir" What I’ve been pondering in particular is this: While "terroir" is almost always referred to as a product…
Feb 24, 2005
Many years ago I fired off a letter the editor of the Wine Spectator. The letter was aimed at Spectator columnist Matt Kramer. It was a not so subtle attack on what I recall was his contention that one day, when California vintners got it right, only one or two varietals would be planted in the States’ appellations (Cab in Napa, Pinot and Chard in Russian River, Zin and Sauvignon Blanc in Dry Creek, etc.). I called Mr. Kramer a…
Jan 17, 2005
So, according to a study, consumers can’t tell the difference between wines closed with screwcaps or natural cork. Apparently, consumers blinding tasted the same wine, but with different closures. No difference. Well, isn’t that the point those using screwcaps are making? Isn’t their use of screwcaps considered acceptable because the screwcap doesn’t affect the wine? I wonder if any of the wines the consumers in this study sampled were corked? I don’t think so. If any were, consumers would surely…
Dec 23, 2004
We are in fact in the midst of a wine boomlet. There are a number of things impressive about this little boom too. The first is that it comes not during the greatest of economic times. Things aren’t terrible, but it sure isn’t 1999. Much of the consumption boom comes from the availability of lower prices wine for sure. However, the most impressive element of the boomlet is the involvement of the Millenials. According to research, Millenials drinkers are defined…