Fermentation: The Daily Wine Blog

Bloggerview #18: BrooklynGuy's Wine & Food Blog

Bloggerview #18
Who: Neil From Brooklyn
Blog: BrooklynGuy's Wine Blog
Where: http://brooklynguyloveswine.blogspot.com/

Neil's BrooklynGuy's Wine & Food Blog always struck me as the prototypical wine blog. What's you've got here is someone relating their every day experience with wine. You are discovering what they discover. Tasting what they taste. But...This Guy really does do it so damn well, in large part because his writing is so filled with an authentic voice that it's very difficult to simply dismiss as another wine blog. The posts tend to be long. Anybody who has spent any time at Fermentation will know I'm not opposed to long posts. But as a reader, the article needs to be compelling for me to following down the page. I never fail to follow The BrooklynGuy's words down the page.

1.  When did you begin blogging and why?
I started in September of 2006. I was reading a lot about wine in my down time and I wanted to learn more about the wines of the Loire Valley and Burgundy, but I wasn’t seeing a whole lot about those areas in blogs. I remember thinking “maybe I could write about those wines,” but I didn’t, because who am I to write about wine? I found myself wanting to participate in Wine Blogging Wednesday, and that was the final push for me to start my own blog.

2. In two sentences describe the focus of your wine blog.
My blog focuses on my experiences as I learn about wine and I try to make it as personal as I can by including whatever details are (and sometimes are not) appropriate from my life. I drink more French wine than anything else, and I try to identify and recommend good wines at various price points.

3. What sets your wine blog apart from the pack?
I wrote and rewrote the answer to this question like 6 times, literally. I wrote about how I am a systems thinker and I try to bring that to the blog. About how I care about healthy food and unprocessed wine. About how my blog is better as a marathon and not as a sprint. About the lighter style of red wines that I prefer. And then I realized this: what really sets it apart is the same set of contradictions that define me in real life. I take things very seriously but I make fun of myself and of everything else if I can. I’m respectful but I’m also a real smart-ass. I believe in the establishment but I also think it can go get bent. I cry at the movies and generally am a real softie, but I can scrap with the big boys if I have to. I love the idea of luxurious dining at fine restaurants but I hate shaving and prefer messy clothes. I feel confident about what I know but I love to ask questions and to learn. I’m not into standing on a soapbox but I believe strongly in eating and drinking healthy, and I’ll tell you so every chance that I get. This stuff shows up in my blog somehow – I hope.

4. How would you characterize the growth in your readership since beginning your blog?
Slow growth for a while, but then Eric Asimov included me on his blogroll and things picked up. Then stayed level for a while, until for some reason things picked up again last summer, and after a few notable bloggers mentioned my blog in their Fermentation Bloggerviews, things picked up even more. But you know what - high readership isn’t my goal. I didn’t start blogging with the fantasy of having lots of people watch me. My goal is to learn, and to interact with other people who also care very much about learning about wine. If other people find this interesting and want to follow along and interact with me, I welcome that.

5. Do you accept samples for review?
Yes but only if I get to write or not write whatever I want regarding the wine.

6. What kind of wine rating/review system do you use and why?
I don’t use ratings on my blog. If I did I would be suggesting that I have the breadth of tasting experience to rate a wine among its peers, and I most often do not. And in the very few instances that I actually do have that experience, I prefer to tell whatever story I have with the wine, and let that speak for itself. There are plenty of other places to go for ratings.

7. How do you fit the maintenance of your wine blog into your daily schedule?
I run my own business out of a home office. The boss inside of me is usually pretty cool about allotting a little time each day to the blog.

8. Have you utilized any particular techniques to successfully market your blog?
Nope. I’ve done nothing other than actually writing the thing.

9. In your view how, if at all, is blogging different than traditional wine writing for print?
I don’t read much traditional wine writing for print except for NY Times tasting panel articles, so I cannot say for sure, but blogging is different in that it should offer an assessment of wine that is completely free from any outside interests of any kind. Wine writing in traditional print is like any other job – you have to maintain relationships with people in order to be successful. That probably precludes people from writing negative reviews.

10. Which other wine blogs do you read regularly?
I look at lots of blogs regularly, including all of the usual suspects. But the ones I read most carefully, the ones that most inform my learning about wine include The Pour, Alice Feiring, Rockss and Fruit, McDuff’s Food and Wine Trail, Wine Terroirs, and The Wine Doctor (not a blog, exactly, but close enough). Everyday reads also include Doktor Weingolb, Joes Wine Journal, Fork and Bottle (also not a blog exactly, but close enough) and Lenndevours as I’ve become friendly with the authors over time and I like to see what they’re up to each day.

11. Do you believe wine blogs have made any marked impact on the wine industry or wine culture?
No one who I drink wine with cares about Parker scores, or any other scores for that matter. The scores are important, but mostly because they help retailers sell wine to people who do not have the time or inclination to actually think about wine. Maybe bloggers are speaking to the rest of us.

12. Vacation: Paris or the Caribbean?
Is this some sort of joke?!? Paris, bien sur.

13. Pet: Dog or Cat?
Dogs are like big California Cabernet, always wagging their tails and slobbering everywhere. Cats are more like Chambolle-Musigny, soft, regal, mysterious, and far more complicated. And you can’t herd cats. I prefer cats.   

14. Airplane Reading: New Yorker or People?
C’mon, gimme a break. The New Yorker.

15. Car: Prius or BMW?   
Walk

16. Chablis or California Chardonnay?
Is this some sort of joke?!? Chablis. But lately I’m more into the wines of the Mâconnais.

17. Describe what you would have at your last meal?
It wouldn’t matter what I eat, as long as my wife and daughter are with me. But hopefully there would be some oysters involved, some interesting charcuterie, a simple soup made with home made stock, good bread and cheese, and lots of wine. And ice cream.

18. What is Heaven Like?
People on the subway hold onto their chicken bones and newspapers and put them in the garbage instead of dumping them on the floor of the train, and they turn their headphones down so I don’t have to listen to their music with them. Not high-minded enough for you? I’m a non-practicing reform Jew – what do I know from heaven?

19. If you could invite 4 people dead or alive to your fantasy dinner party, who would they be and who would you have bring the wine?
First of all, when I have a dinner party, I like to pick the wine. I would invite Ghandi, Martin Luther King Jr, Mother Theresa, and César Chávez. Just kidding! I am not one of those people who imagines having dinner with other famous people. Maybe I would invite Alice Waters over, and President Bush too, and we could shop and cook together, and hopefully the Prez would have an epiphany and devote the rest of his term and then his life to making sure America’s children have healthy and fresh food to eat in school.

20. What advice would you give to someone considering starting a wine blog?
I will quote Alice Feiring here “Have a point of view other than what you drank last night.” 

1997 Whatever....

"most Americans were satisfied with the system as it is except for a small, very vocal segment who say they can’t get their bottle of 1997 whatever.”

Count me in as part of that small, vocal segment of folks who really do love the "1997 Whatever". What a great wine that was, huh! I'd loved it's fruity component of So What. And who can forget that wine's firm and crisp Too Bad. And the wine was legendary for it's long, smoky Nevermind.

The wine that all vocal wine drinkers will be looking for today, the 1997 Whatever, is the creation of Craig Wolf of the Wine & Spirits Wholesalers Association. Mr. Wolf made note of this very hard to fine legend of a wine in a New York Times article by Eric Asimov. In the article Mr. Wolf pull off a pretty neat trick as he responds to the movement to open up direct shipping laws: He very capably denigrates both consumers and wine producers in once sentence. That's not easy to do...you have to work at it.

The implication of his "small, very vocal segment" is that these wine lovers, the ones that purchase LOTS and LOTS of wine from retailers, restaurants and wineries, really don't matter to him and the wholesalers he represents. And I can understand that. It's awful difficult to really pay attention to this big spending, influential, but small, group of wine lovers when your main concerns is making sure 15 year-old Lisa Schoolgirl isn't ordering 1997 Whatever on her laptop while hiding under her bed covers at night (a trick that is always followed by her faking sickness the next day so she can stay home from school and convince the delivery person that, yes, she really is 21 years old even though she lost her drivers license. Craig Wolf is worried about this group not getting wine, as well as worrying that the small, vocal segment of adults don't get their 1997 Whatever. He's a busy guy.

But Mr. Wolf also finds a way to denigrate the producer. "Eh...it's just 1997 Whatever". I suspect the owners of Chateau Whatever work pretty hard to make and sell their elusive bottling that Craig has now made famous. In fact, I'll bet the VP of Marketing at Chateau Whatever spends a GREAT DEAL of time begging his few distributors across the country to PLEASE sell the wine they said you would!! Who knows, maybe the folks at Chateau Whatever decided to drop their wholesalers and start selling their wine direct to retailers and to consumers. After all, why give away margin to a distributor who is so willing to denigrate your wine and wines of other small producers right there in the NEW YORK TIMES!!!!

If you ever wanted a pure explanation of how the wholesaler community views fine wine lovers and producers of fine wines in America, all you need to do is re-read Craig Wolf's statement today in the New York Times. Make no mistake. He knew he was talking to the NEW YORK TIMES. He knew he was talking to a reporter who's article would be read by millions including the vast majority of the winemaking community and the fine wine drinkers in the United States. He chose his words carefully. So let me remind everyone what he carefully chose to say about wine drinkers and fine wine producers:

"most Americans were satisfied with the system as it is except for a small, very vocal segment who say they can’t get their bottle of 1997 whatever."
Craig Wolf, Wine & Spirits Wholesalers Association

The Next Wine Movie (trailer included)

One of the two forthcoming films about the 1976 Paris Tasting, Bottle Shock, has made its debut at the Sundance Film festival. Below is the official trailer for the film. There are initial reviews of the film out too. Not many of them are terrific

FROM VARIETY: "A peculiar demand placed on the cast, from Farina in Paris to Pine, Rodriguez, Taylor and Pullman in Napa (and Rickman in both locales), is credibly reacting when tasting vintages, sending the visual clue that a great wine is at hand. Rickman plays the snob to human scale and never to exaggeration, while Miller lets Pine and Pullman go overboard with unevenly calibrated perfs. Taylor and Rodriguez, despite one ridiculous love scene, pull off big-screen charm. Production is slick on a budget (though using Napa spots as a location substitute for France is an obvious flub), and plenty of visuals serve as little more than commercials for California wine country."

FROM CINEMABLEND: " Is there room in the world for yet another movie about wine?  If the movie is Bottle Shock… then nope. Director Randol Miller has assembled an amazing and talented cast, but he uses them on a disjointed script which never seems to find its focus."

FROM FILM.COM: "With the runaway success of Sideways you just know the general public is ripe for a good wine movie. Even better, the concept here (at first blush) is even better than Sideways and the filmmakers have gotten Alan Rickman involved too. So how did things go so terribly wrong? Well, they violated rule No. 1 of storytelling: they forgot what story they were trying to tell."

FROM PHILLY.COM: "Director and co-screenwriter Randall Miller insisted in a phone interview that Bottle Shock is "as close to the truth as possible."

 

In that case, the screenplay from June that I read must have undergone major surgery before shooting started in August. Even so, big chunks of truth apparently have been jettisoned for wider cinematic appeal, and an invented love triangle has been added."

I for one plan to withhold judgment until I see "BottleShock". What I do know is that one more film about wine is nothing but good for the wine industry in general. 

Wynton Marsalis & The Traditions of Wine

It occurred to me as I watched Wynton Marsalis' Lincoln Center Jazz Orchestra offer a musical history of Duke Ellington's ballads that there is a distinct lack of exploration into wine's history and traditions here in America. Is this because there is no interest in such a thing, because there is no money in it or because there is very little tradition and history of American winemaking to warrant the effort?

Marsalis will certainly go down as one of this era's most important and most accomplished jazz musicians. But when his story is told, it will be his devotion to educating the masses on Jazz history and the traditions of jazz that mark him as among the most generous jazz musicians that ever lived. Marsalis brings a 14 piece orchestra across the country. Though the leader of this remarkable group, Marsalis is in no way the focal point of the group. Instead, he generously gives the spotlight to all the other members. More importantly, between each piece, Marsalis delivers short tales about the song just played and the next on the docket, providing the audience with something of an historical context for the evening's playbook. It is a wonderful experience for anyone with a curiosity about jazz traditions and history.

Does anyone care about the history and traditions of American wine?

Is anyone inclined to make a career, or even a practice, of celebrating the traditions and history of American wine? We have Copia in Napa Valley, but this not so much an organized effort to communicate the history of American wine as it is a celebration of culinary pursuits in general.

What might a celebration of American wine and its traditions look like? What could possibly be said?

-There is a distinct ethnic character to the history of wine in America that tells the story of what was brought to America with the Italian, German, French, English and Portuguese immigrants. In fact, some have pointed out that the various field blends planted throughout California can be separated out by the ethnicity of those who planted them; that is to say,  an Italian field blend would be different than a German field blend

-Social policy in America clearly could be explored through wine by looking at the response to Prohibition by winemakers across the country.

-The westward movement could be explored by looking at how vineyards moved across the country

-There are of course a number of individuals helped move forward the wine industry in America who are fascinating folks.

It's not as though there is nothing of substance and interest to look at when considering the history and traditions of American wine. I simply suspect there is no interest in making this effort by those that could do it well and little interest to boot by Americans in general in learning about the history and traditions of wine. There is, in short, no call for an evangelist for American wine.

This will change. But I think it will be a couple decades before there is room in American's minds and the kind of market to support an effort to educate and celebrate. I'm hoping I'm around to see this turn of events.

A Graphic Display of Wine

Logos!

Over the years we've done more than our fair share at Wark Communications. We're pretty good at it. The real key to creating a good logo is to understand perfectly the idea that a simple image is supposed to convey and who you are primarily going to be communicating to with the logo.

Why do I note this?

Well, your chance to prove your Wine-Related-Logo-Creation-Skills are upon you.

The venerable Wine Blogging Wednesday folks are having a logo design contest that will result in a new logo for the group. We don't know what the prizes might be yet, but consider it a challenge any good, self respecting, graphically inclined wine lover might want to pick up and run with.

To get you started, here are my "Thinking Tips" for your approach to logo creation:

1. Determine the top two ideas associated with the thing the logo will represent

2. Before you begin creating, play a series of word association games (words represent ideas)

3. Know how the logo will be used (will it be reduced in size in places, will be primarily in a 72dpi format)

4. Try to stay away from think fonts when creating an logo to be used on the Internet

5. The logo should have a color and black and white format

6. Try to present variations (The name spelled out, just the initials, black and white, color, vertical, horizontal)

I've never participated in Wine Blogging Wednesday because I don't review wines. However, I follow its results religiously as do numerous other folks. I also consider Wine Blogging Wednesday one of the most successful Internet-based group wine efforts every.

NOW....GO LOGO!!

Bloggerview #17: Thomas Pellechia

BLOGGERVIEW #17
Who: Thomas Pellechia
Blog: Vino Fictions
Where: http://www.vinofictions.blogspot.com/


This man produces some of the most lucid, well-written and well-informed wine content on the web. The bonus is that he's terribly opinionated. Thomas Pellechia has a background born for blogging. Winemaker, writer, wine salesperson. It's all there. His blog, VINOFICTION, is somewhat subversive to the cult of wine due mainly to Thomas' somewhat skeptical and cynical nature. Yet what you can count on is a very unique perspective on the issues that swirl about the wine industry. VINO FICTIONS is one of the few wine blogs That I actually place in browser's tool bar, making it always accessible immediately. That's precious real estate. But VINO FICTIONS deserves it.

1. When did you begin blogging and why?

I started the blog at the beginning of 2007. I got sick of the stuff I was reading on the wine forum sites. Too many people think opinions are facts and way too many people don't know the difference between the objective and the subjective. Plus,  the same subjects keep going around those sites, and the same misinformation, too, or maybe it's disinformation!

When it occurred to me that some forum moderators are gaming the participants, I decided to create my own outlet.

2. In two sentences describe the focus of your wine blog.
My aim is to impart information about wine and the wine industry. I know, that's only one sentence, but that's what happens to a columnist--be concise.

3. What sets your wine blog apart from the pack?
I don't know. I only hope that I am meeting my goal to impart information. I do think that I offer a unique background among the bloggers; it includes commercial winemaking, owning and operating a winery, working as a distributor sales rep, owning and operating a wine retail shop, and a wine and food writing career.

The fact that I haven't the time to blog daily, gives me more time to think about what it is I want to say. I craft my entries as if they were going to be paid for, by a real editor. I try hard to make the entries readable, and maybe even lucidly thought out.

4. How would you characterize the growth in your readership since beginning your blog?
I started with zero readers and I ended the first year averaging 6,000 hits a month. I have no idea if that means success, mediocrity or failure, but I characterize it as growth, especially since the numbers increased each month in 2007.

5. Do you accept sample for review?
We had this discussion on your blog a few weeks back. Right now, the wines that I talk about on my blog I buy at retail. Not that I don't accept samples--just that I'd rather be up front over who's paying for the wines that I talk about. Having said that, I must have pissed people off, because samples have diminished over the past year but, sadly, inane press releases have increased!

6. What kind of wine rating/review system do you use and why?
The only time I rate wine is when I serve as a judge at a competition. Then, the rating is technical and usually under the Amerine/UC Davis 20-point scale. Of course, to evaluate technically, one should have had at least some technical training.

Rating wine in a subjective realm makes no sense to me--anyone, trained or not, can do it. Over my lifetime, I've tasted many highly critically acclaimed and rated wines that  either failed or squeaked through a technical evaluation.

To me, the worse part about ratings is that the general consumer seems to think the numbers indicate a technical measure of quality, when of course that's not true. And I don't buy the disingenuous statements of critics who say that their descriptions are more important than the numbers they assign. If so, then why assign numbers at all?  The answer is that in the numbers game, there's an implication that a wine critic is the arbiter of subjective perfection, and whether they are gaming the geek or really believe they are the arbiters of perfection, I find each concept distasteful.

I've never understood the notion of "calibrating" my palate to someone else's and then tying a number to it. To me, the exploration is the fun part--my exploration, not someone else's. In truth,  I'm uncomfortable telling people what I subjectively like or dislike about a wine. I don't know why anyone should care what I like or don't like.

7. How do you fit the maintenance of your wine blog into your daily schedule?
I'm a writer, so I sit at the computer all day. When I take a break from whatever it is I am working on, I check my email, my blog, and other blogs, etc.

8. Have you utilized any particular techniques to successfully market your blog?
Nothing specific. My name stays out there thanks to the three newspaper columns that I write, my magazine articles, my two books (I'm writing a third), and posting on blogs and other wine sites. It helps that I usually speak my mind. Anyone dumb enough to do that will definitely get free publicity, whether it's good or bad.

9. In your view how, if at all, is blogging different than traditional wine writing for print?
Well, a blogger works on his or her own schedule. Although I am my toughest editor, there's no editor to answer to as a blogger, no deadline, no subject forced on the blogger, as well as no length and pace requirement--of course, there's no pay either...The other thing great about blogs is that people have a voice and we don't have to listen to only the self-ordained arbiters of taste.

10. Which other wine blogs do you read regularly?
Well, let's see, there's that one called Fermentation and then Rockss and Fruit, Bigger Than Your Head, Good Grape, Diary of a Picky Eater, Wineanorak, The Wine Guy, Vinography, Asimov's blog, and some I can't think of right now. I don't post on all of them because I just don't have that much time.

11. Do you believe wine blogs have made any marked impact on the wine industry or wine culture?
Truth is, I've never thought about it. I hope that we have. I hope we are better than the wine forum sites simply because we are each speaking from an individual perspective instead of hosting what often turns out to be a free-for-all pissing contest. I also hope we are making a positive impact on the wonderful world of communication.

12. Vacation: Paris or the Caribbean?
My blood and my sentiments are definitely geared toward the Mediterranean.  Both my parents were Italian, and I grew up in an insular Italian community in Brooklyn.
Having said that, I do love Paris and Trieste.

13. Pet: Dog or Cat?
My wife and I play host to a handsome black, large standard poodle named Henry, who thinks he's smarter than I just because he can type better. Our cat recently died and hasn't been replaced.

14. Airplane Reading: New Yorker or People?
The New Yorker, it's just about the only magazine that I read these days, although their fiction editor needs to know that the short stories are beginning to sound the same to me and the poems generally suck!

15. Car: Prius or BMW?
We own a Honda Civic Hybrid and a Subaru Outback. The Honda is for the frequent drives to New York City (300 miles one way) and the Subaru is to navigate our home turf--the Finger Lakes region.

16. Chablis or California Chardonnay?
Chablis, so long as it is in the steely, minerally style.

17. Describe what you would have at your last meal?
This is the toughest question of all. I'm a food as well as wine loony, and my taste in each is spectacularly (for me) eclectic. I know that after choosing anything, I will wonder why I hadn't chosen something else. But if I really had to choose I might go for the following:

Start with cannelini bean (is that spelled right?) and escarole in broth with carrots, shallots, garlic and a touch of grated Grana Padano cheese.
The wine: a Friulian Pinot Bianco.

Soft shell crabs, lightly sauteed in butter, garlic and lemon, with a touch of cayenne, served with Portuguese style thin sliced fried potatoes.
The wine: a clean Chablis or maybe a Sancerre, but if the cayenne is too much, maybe a pink wine.

Arugula and Swiss chard with slices of sweet red pepper and oil cured Moroccan black olives, sprinkled with balsamic fig vinegar.
The wine: a Finger Lakes semi-dry or a German Auslese Riesling.

Espresso cheese cake.
The wine: Madeira Bual.

18. What is Heaven Like?
No deadlines, no responsibilities, no bureaucrats, no snow, and no insecure, wealthy wine geeks!

19. If you could invite 4 people dead or alive to your fantasy dinner party, who would they be and who would you have bring the wine?
I've had this idea for years that I have yet to act on. I want to invite a group of people to dinner who have little or nothing in common; then, start the conversation and see what happens. With that in mind, my guests would be: William James, Dorothy Parker, Oprah Winfrey, and Bill Clinton. I'll cook and I'll bring the wine, thank you very much!

20. What advice would you give to someone considering starting a wine blog?
Get out of town. There isn't room for you and us. Seriously, a blogger, any writer, should find his or her voice and go with it, and always tell the truth as you know it. Also, it boosts credibility if you can spell.

Deconstructed Wine Reviews

So,  a certain percentage of those little advertisements we see on shelves of retailer outlets that we call "Shelf Talkers" are speaking with a forked tongue, according to the Washington Post.

This is not the first time this issue has come up. I recall a similar news story making the rounds a couple years ago.

In this case, the Washington post looked at 100 different shelf talkers and found that:

"Accuracy varied from shop to shop, but overall, 6 percent of the signs either advertised a score that was higher than the one the wine actually had received or invented a score for an unrated wine.Nineteen percent referred to a different vintage from that of the wine for sale. A vintage mismatch could be chalked up to sloppiness rather than deliberate misrepresentation, but it can be just as misleading. In our checks, the vintage available was usually unrated or had received a lower score, though there were occasions when the actual wine displayed had received a higher rating."

Before anyone extend this little bit of nastiness into a general discussion of the problem with the 100 point rating system it should be noted that just as much fraud could occur were there no such rating system.

That said, a 25% inaccuracy rate on in-store shelf talkers really has to be called a failure by any measure.

I've designed and had printed shelf talkers...more than I care to own up to. But I've never once put a score on them that the wine did not earn. That said, I have built shelf talkers that make use of the dreaded ELLIPSE (...)

Let me show you how that's done:

"Appealing...yellow apple, tropical fruit...Drink Now"

This is an "ellipsed" version of this review:

"85 Points—Simple yet appealing with yellow apple, tropical fruit and a touch of fruit cocktail. Drink now. Tasted twice with consistent notes"

Is this accurate? Yes. But barely. And this is not even the worst example of the use of an ellipse on a shelf talker or an advertisement. I'm proud to say I've not ever been convinced to go over the line.

However, this would be over the line...way over the line:

"The vineyard is a good one...Flavors of Blackberries and Cherries"

Unfortunately it could come from this review:

"82 Points—A troubling wine. The vineyard is a good one, but this Cab is hot and overly ripe, with stewed flavors of blackberries and cherries. There's a heaviness that doesn't work, especially at this price"

This is not a specific example of something I've seen before, but I have seen stuff just as bad.

The point of course is that an old review on a new wine might be bad, but it might not be the worst kind offense.

Sugar and the Mental Gymnastics of the Wine Drinker

I often wonder about the personal dynamics a person undergoes when their prejudices bump up against a reality that puts the lie to those prejudices. It turns out I find myself in just such a position. What I've found is that it's best to embrace one's convictions and let go of long held prejudices if peace of mind is one's goal.

The prejudice: Simple Palates and Novice Wine Drinkers Like their Wine Sweet. Experienced Palates and Dedicated Wine Lovers Like their Wines Dry.

The Reality: Ive discovered that of late, no matter when I'm in the mood for wine, I find myself reaching for something sweet. And not just a slightly sweet Zinfandel, but a really sweet ice wine or dessert wine; Sauternes, Late Harvest Zin, Semillon infected with Noble Rot. The list is long, but it's sweet.

I've found myself of late sipping Austrian Ice Wine and Sweet German Riesling as I go about my business in the office in the late afternoon. It is incredibly pleasant and has the additional bonus of usually being quite low in alcohol.

Yet on more than one occasion I've got this image of myself in my mind of an old lady sipping her afternoon sweet sherry. I don't particularly like that image, I think because it doesn't square with my long held opinion that I'm amongst the wine loving elite that drinks "serious" wine.

I wonder to what extent expectations of what it means to be a "wine drinker" weigh on those who may not consider themselves among the elite, but really do like their wine sweet. I wonder if these folks simply don't want to be associated with the "Sweet Palates" and Old Lady Sherry Drinkers and as a result turn to drinking beer or bourbon.

I've always viewed sweet wines not only as being for those who aren't "SERIOUS" wine drinkers but also as a "gateway wine" that can draw the uninitiated into the "Serious Wine Drinker" fold. In fact, whenever I open a sweet wine I make sure I give my kids a sip. My hope is they'll grow up with good thoughts about wine running around their head.

My solution to my own prejudicial contradictions is to embrace them. I will drink these damned sweet wines as much as I want and I'll do it with a smile on my face. And if anyone wants to call me less than serious about wine I can just as easily pour them a glass and dare them not to like it. Getting to this place in my mind actually took some mental gymnastics. But I got there with my self respect intact and with my superior attitude intact too.

I wonder however if that superior attitude that many serious wine drinkers have doesn't too often drift out into the world of would-be-wine-consumers and turn them off.

I think it must.

On to the next Ice Wine....

Provoking The Future of Wine Journalism

Of late (say the last 3 to 5 years) I noted something of slight detour in wine journalism. Rather than a dedication among wine journalists toward praising and congratulating wines as a rule, there is a slight move toward the secular and cynical when it comes to wine. But it's ever so slight and that's because among those who read most of the wine writings, there is not that much call for peering behind the color and taste of the wine.

Nevertheless, has anyone noticed the willingness among serious wine writers to question and closely consider what goes on in the world of wine and in the glass? We've always had those who place wine in a social and political context...at least one or two of them who write for a small audience. But today it seems more are willing to look at wine this way.

I'm not talking about reporting on scandal and society's underbelly, which often leaves me feeling a tad soiled upon reading this kind of story. I'm thinking about critiques of governing wine styles, open questioning of the critic's role in wine, the various business stories that count up the beans and the close investigations (usually in book form) of the "wine culture".

You don't write stories about  how a product is understood by people, critics and business unless unless that product has come to matter. Where that threshold is for how much a product or industry must matter to the public at large lies, I'm not sure. However, I do know we've crossed it when it comes to wine.

The Internet, with its blogs and chat rooms, will tend to cross that threshold more willingly than the traditional wine media if only because its members have less at stake and more concern to jump up and down shouting, "look at me!". In the last two weeks a variety of wine business stories broke out of the Internet and hit the traditional media. And in the recent past we've seen stories on how the character of wines have changed, why they should change back and what the international and globalist implications of wine might be.

I think the trend among the traditional wine media and the non-wine media is to continue to look for stories that have broader implications than just how a wine might be sumptuous or great to pair with lasagna, though this kind of writing will always rule the day.

I wonder if wineries have noticed this trend? And I wonder if their marketing and PR shops have noticed it too. If they haven't then there is the risk of acting as though no one is watching or as if very little matters to the public and media beyond what their wines taste like. That would be a mistake. But here's where the action and reaction comes in. We most certainly will see wine companies get into some tepid water now and again in the media. That will lead to wine companies being a bit more careful in how they act and speak. This will lead to the media peering in more closely. This will lead to even more searching journalism. This will lead to even more careful explanations by wineries of their company line.

This...in turn...offers opportunities to the winery that wants to gain attention by speaking honestly, forthrightly and provocatively...because it seems to me that wine writers, traditional and not-so-traditional are more frequently looking for "provocative."

Bloggerview #16: Jeff Lefevere

BLOGGERVIEW #16
Who: Jeff Lefevere
Blog: The Good Grape: A Wine Manifesto
Where: http://www.goodgrape.com

Jeff Lefevere's Blog, The Good Grape: A Wine Manifesto, is one of the GO TO sources of wine insight on the Internet. This is a man capable of taking complex technological, cultural and commercial ideas and interests and synthesizing them into something coherent and new and useful. That's hard work. The blog itself is beautiful to look at, which explains why he was awarded "Best Wine Blog Graphics" in the 2007 American Wine Blog Awards. What makes all this even more remarkable is that he is able to maintain a steady pace of blog entries. On top of this you'll see him delivering blog content to the Inertia's REthink Wine Blog, doing occasional podcasts over at WineCast as well as holding down a steady and important job at Inertia Beverage Group where he's striving to change the way wine is sold. How then to conclude an introduction to Jeff Lefevere? He's a man you should strive to know.

1. When did you begin blogging and why?
I started in January of 2006--a voice in the wilderness; writing as a creative outlet.  Wine was and is my main hobby and I wasn’t feeling creatively satisfied with my job at the time and blogging was a natural way for me to utilize my seldom used Journalism degree.  I had also pulled the plug on the possibility of opening a wine shop in Indianapolis and the agreement that I made with my wife was a free pass for time spent on the blog along with spending some completely discretionary money on a professional design for the site. 

2. In two sentences describe the focus of your wine blog.
Pragmatically idealistic, Good Grape is a wine blog and web site for wine enthusiasts, poets, artists, romantics, lovers, liberals and rock stars. Connoisseurs, collectors and the wine elite might be more comfortable elsewhere.

3. What sets your wine blog apart from the pack?
I take an op-ed or columnist style approach with much longer pieces then you generally see in a blog post—usually 600 – 1000 words.  I don’t necessarily take shots, but I definitely try to have an opinion in everything I write.  In terms of point of differentiation from others, I think my style of writing whereby I try to be accessible, but educational and in a thoughtful and creative manner separates Good Grape from the pack.  I also tend to focus on more marketing aspects of wine.  I’m not going to kill anybody with my in-depth knowledge of Bordeaux terroir, but I do think I have some insight on the industry from a consumer-facing perspective that is applicable to a wide audience.

As an example of how I think about my blog in terms of content, I recently read a USA Today article about the Scion car.  In this national newspaper was an article about how the Scion wasn’t going to market via traditional advertising, but they were going to do creative promotions to 17 – 34 year olds in urban environments.  This struck me because it was an inside out view of their marketing, in a general interest newspaper, on how they were going to approach hipsters in the city using non-traditional media.  That’s how I like to think of my blog and the way I write on things.  It’s the wine industry made transparent through my filter for a general audience with a natural curiosity.

4. How would you characterize the growth in your readership since beginning your blog?
Slow, but steady.  I grew in the beginning thanks to you pointing my site out on Fermentation and I received another big bump after the American Wine Blog awards.  I took another huge bump after Winebusiness.com highlighted the site.  It’s been very organic because my site isn’t everybody’s cup of tea, or glass of wine, so to speak.  I’ve been pretty steady at between 800 – 1400 people daily (I look at unique visitors, not hits) and I’d like to grow that to, perhaps, 3000 people a day this year.  In my mind, I want readers that subscribe to my feed.  I don’t care about showing up in a Google search from a random person.  Shameless plug:  If you read blogs in a feedreader and you don’t actively read Good Grape, please start today.  Now.  Thank you.

5. Do you accept sample for review?
I do.  And wine does occasionally show up on the doorstep.  I often wonder about the old newspaper guy that is tired of wine samples, but for me it is completely welcome—that does not, however, mean I review everything.  I’ve gotten some wacky schwag non-wine items sent to me unsolicited, as well.

6. What kind of wine rating/review system do you use and why?
I use an adapted Napa Valley College 25 point system that I then apply to the Wine blogosphere five star system.  I’ve found that this works the best for me because it allows me to empirically quantify my tasting notes (albeit on a subjective subject) which is good for the evolution of my palate and also lets any readers who are interested see what and how I tasted.  Plus, it offsets some of the deficiencies in the UC Davis 20 point scale.  If anybody is interested, they should check out the below link to a Wine Business Monthly article on the NVC format:
http://www.winebusiness.com/Html/MonthlyArticle.cfm?dataId=41491

Or, if anybody wants to email me, I can send them the source format for the tasting notes that I use and they can customize to their hearts content.

7. How do you fit the maintenance of your wine blog into your daily schedule?
Not very well.  I spend a lot of time blogging.  I tapered off in Nov. and Dec. and really realized how much enjoyable time and effort I spend on it.  I do it almost exclusively at night, instead of watching TV, but then, because I work out of a home office, I end up spending 14 hour days on the computer.

8. Have you utilized any particular techniques to successfully market your blog?
Not really.  I wish I had more time to work on this—it’s the classic dilemma of being too busy “working in my blog” and not being able to “work on my blog.”  Taking some shots across the bow with a controversial post helps occasionally, though.

9. In your view how, if at all, is blogging different from traditional wine writing for print?
Well, obviously the immediacy in the biggest thing.  I often times read the consumer magazines and see items that I wrote about, saw somebody else blog about or I read the press release when it first came out and by the time I see it in the magazine it’s old, old news.  In fact, in a lot of these news stories, the wine blogosphere has already thoroughly vetted the issue in the court of wine blogosphere public opinion and by the time you read it a second time in the magazine, the outcome to the news item is a self-evident truth.
The other thing is the legitimacy that wine blogger wine reviews are receiving as a proletariat counterpoint to the wine mags.  It is an interesting phenomenon that is only going to grow.  I came to that conclusion slowly, but I’ve definitely come around to a mental reconciliation of what I believe is the future of wine reviews and the number of people (bloggers) that will be influencers in this model.  The key is harnessing the bloggers together in some form that creates a collective legitimacy and transcends just Google searches--that is the hard part, though.

10. Which other wine blogs do you read regularly?
I keep track of 80 or 90 wine blogs, so I hit all of the good ones.  The two that have emerged over the course of the last year that I think are some of the best of the best are Rockss & Fruit by Lyle Fass and Dr. Debs at Good Wine Under $20.  They’ve already been featured on Bloggerviews, and both of them are clearly doing some darn fine blogging work to equal our industry titans—Fermentation, Vinography and Dr. Vino. Terry from Mondosopore also enchants me.  He doesn’t write about wine that much, at least not for being a wine blog, but the guy’s personality sparkles in his writing. 
In terms of an under the radar blog, I would recommend winecanine.com--I have to give a shout out to another Indianapolis wine blogger! Generally speaking, I think the wine blogosphere has gotten a lot more interesting in the last year.  Eric Asimov has a cabal of bloggers and a sphere of influence and I think Dr. Debs is doing the same thing with her Wine Book Club.  This is a good thing.

11. Do you believe wine blogs have made any marked impact on the wine industry or wine culture?
Absolutely!  Four things have really happened because of my blog that I think are incredible.  Mind you, two years ago, I was a technology sales and marketing guy in Indianapolis, IN that happened to like wine.  In that time, I have taken a job with a technology company in the wine industry based in Napa, CA.  I was nominated in the American Wine Blog awards for Best Overall Blog competing with Eric Asimov from the New York Times.  I received comments from Thomas Matthews, the Executive Editor from Wine Spectator on my blog and there is an icon and a blurb from my blog that has been in the front matter of Wine Business Monthly for the last two months.  To me, that’s incredible.  Let me remind you, I’m a wine enthusiast from Indianapolis, IN.   The power of blogging is amazing and is having a profound impact on both the industry and the culture of wine.

12. Vacation: Paris or the Caribbean?
It’s a vacation, right?  You’re supposed to relax and unwind?  For me that’s a beach, a book and a boat drink.

13. Pet: Dog or Cat?
Definitely a dog.  My wife and I are nutty dog people.  You know the wackos that leave their TV set on tuned to Animal Planet?  That's us.

14. Airplane Reading: New Yorker or People?
New Yorker.  I can’t stand the tabloids.  People please leave Britney alone.

15. Car: Prius or BMW?
Can I split the difference and say that I’d like to “Pimp my Ride” with a 1980’s Volvo 240 and put a bio-fuel engine in it?  It would belch vegetable oil on the highway and be decked out with XM satellite, DVD and GPS with some fine Corinthian leather.  Call it old school bohemian luxury, the perfect cross between a Prius and a BMW.

16. Chablis or California Chardonnay?
Chablis.  I used to say I didn’t mind a buttery chard, like them in fact, but that was before I drank a lot of un-oaked Chard.  Now, it is like licking a stick of butter to me. 

17. Describe what you would have at your last meal?
I’m from the Midwest and a pretty simple guy so it would have to be a Summer Harvest meal:
Caprese salad with fresh tomatoes from the garden or Farmer’s Market
T-bone steak on the grill cooked medium-rare
Corn on the cob (I’m from Indiana, people)
My Mom’s French fries
Coleslaw (I love coleslaw!)
Fresh steamed green beans studded with bacon
Macerated fresh peaches over vanilla ice cream
The wine would be Nebbiolo based Italian--either a Barbaresco or a Barolo with an Inniskillin Ice Wine for dessert

18. What is Heaven Like?
I think Henry Miller, Orson Welles and some of those other mid-20th century luminaries had it right by hanging out and living in Big Sur.  I’ve come closer to sensing God’s presence in Big Sur than in any church—and I went to Catholic school for 12 years.

19. If you could invite 4 people dead or alive to your fantasy dinner party, who would they be and who would you have bring the wine?
First, I would have to invite five people:  My Grandpa Lee, Lou Holtz, Michael Jordan, Frank Sinatra and Franklin Delano Roosevelt.  My Grandpa because I would want him to see what kind of man I grew up to be and I would want to spend just one more bit of time with him. Lou Holtz because he’s a personal hero (and former national championship winning coach at Notre Dame!). Michael Jordan to talk about how greatness doesn’t necessarily have to do with pure God-given ability and to talk about the shot he hit over Craig Ehlo to beat the Cav’s in an elimination game in the playoffs in 1989.  Frank Sinatra would pepper the conversation with stories of carousing with the Rat Pack. I’d want FDR to talk about the New Deal and how it changed the face of the country, with an impact that we still feel today.  Plus, Roosevelt and my Grandpa, a member of the Greatest Generation, could talk about old times.

20. What advice would you give to someone considering starting a wine blog?
Either read an absolute ton of everything or read absolutely nothing--be media obsessive or media abstinent.  I think blogs are best when they are a jambalaya of ideas formed in new ways from disparate parts, or completely original without outside influence.  I happen to fall into the media obsessive category, by the way.

You Just Got a Victory

Here's the good news...the REALLY good news:

A Texas judge has declared that a state may not discriminate against out-of-state retailers. This means, if a state let's its own retailers ship inside its state, it must allow out of state retailers to ship into their state.

The fact that this issue even had to be litigated in the first place should give you an idea of how screwed up American wine laws are. After all, the 2005 Granholm v. Heald Supreme Court decision declared:

"States may not enact laws that burden out-of-state producers or shippers simply to give a competitive advantage to in-state businesses"

But, when you have a the state-mandated monopolists who distribute wine being full scale against this and when they contribute millions upon millions of dollars to legislatures that make the laws, you get an idea how the lawmakers buy the argument that the Supreme Court decision did not apply to retailers. Silly, but sadly a reality.

That charade is done with. In fact, I suspect we'll have more judicial decision this year that simply confirm what this judge said.

However, the Texas Judge's very clear decision regarding retailers and shipping, he did get one thing wrong that will have to be addressed. Imagine the following:

1. Idaho wine store wants to sell wine to a Texan.
2. Idaho wine store must buy wine from Texas wholesaler.
3. Texas Wholesaler puts wine on truck and sends it up to Idaho.
4. Idaho wine store takes wine off truck.
5. Idaho wine store puts wine on a new truck and sends it back down to Texas wine lover.

Crazy? You bet.

But this scenario has a few other light hearted elements to it. First it's illegal both in Texas and in Idaho, not to mention nearly every other state I can think of. Second, the Judge in Texas actually said this is what is required.

.....I'll wait while you clean up that wine you just spit up on your nice white carpet.....

.....OK.

This rather odd part of the Texas Decision does raise some very interesting questions:

1. If a number of states put this rule into effect that retailers must by wine from wholesalers in the state to which they want to ship wine, does this mean that a national wholesale wine market has just been created because retailers will now be able to buy wine from wholesalers around the country—shopping for the best price, as it were? A corollary to this question is does this pretty much dismantle the traditional model of wine distribution that America's wholesalers have been spending a Gazillion Dollars to protect?

2. If there is now no longer a residency requirement in order to get a Texas retailers license, will California and New York and Illinois retailers begin talking more slowly and with longer syllables?

3. What happens if this requirement that out-of-state retailers buy their wine from a Texas wholesaler is completely unworkable, illegal and therefore a severe burden on Interstate Commerce?

There are in fact many other issues at hand with this part of the decision. Many of them are likely to be fleshed out in the 5th Circuit Court of Appeals.

But for now, if you are a supporter of fair trade, if you believe protectionism is poor public policy, if you believe that the consumer of wine should have legal access to the wines you want then you need to let me leave you with this very simple message:

You Just Got a Victory in Court.

Terroir's Reign

"While wandering the aisles of a Lithuanian supermarket recently..."

If you aren't willing to at least investigate a wine blog that begins a post like this then you really shouldn't be in the business of open minded wine inquiry.

It has been a while since I recommended a new wine blog. But Reign of Terroir, written by three highly educated wine lovers and educators, is well worth a recommendation if only for the intellectually rigor and thoughtfulness they put into their posts.

To-date, those posts are not many. ROT was begun late last years so it's just notw gaining speed. An early post identifies their purpose with the blog: "we will provide a wide variety of commentary on all things vinous. From International Terroirs and Travel to local Vineyards and Wineries, from Tasting Notes to Restaurant and Book Reviews, and much more, we will do our best to provide sober and useful information on the World of Wine."

And so they do. In fact the writers of this wine blog range widely in their interest. I was personally and finally taken with the blog upon reading a fairly long post about the royal history of the Bordeaux region that went on for five very long paragraph before wine or vines was ever mentioned. What impressed me was, as always, really good, entertaining context.

Reign of Terroir also includes a recent post on what is one of my favorite topics to consider on many levels: Terroir. This post, which includes in its title the mind whetting "Part 1", explores the various ways the idea of Terroir has been defined. Not an uncommon topic, but in the hands of a Reign of Terroir writer we find very insightful offerings and the lure of more to come. Outstanding.

Of course as I'm want to be, I find myself disappointed that more is not being written at ROT. It's the 16th of January and but 4 posts have been posted this year. That's not enough to satisfy me and my curiosity with this blog. Perhaps they'll step it up.

That said, I very much like this new wine blog. It has an intellectual rigor to it that is not common enough on blogs, yet each of the three contributors also writes with great style. The subjects of the posts are varied, yet always brought back to the point: what can we know and how can we better enjoy wine.

Who's Surprised??

If I had a dollar for every time I heard a person say "If you don't charge more for the wine they won't take it seriously" I'd have enough money to fund a research project on why people believe the more expensive it is the better is.

Of course no one does give me a dollar every time I hear such a thing so it's a damn good thing we have the folks over at the California Institute of Technology to do this research for us.

For some of you reading this the following will fall into the category of "duh, tell me something new": Research shows people get more pleasure from a wine when they know it costs more.

The research was carried out by Antonio Rangel and colleagues at California Institute of Technology. Basically they had subjects taste different wines and all the people new was the prices of the wines. However, in some cases less expensive wine was labeled as much more expensive than it really is and vice versa.

"They [researchers] asked 20 people to sample wine while undergoing functional MRIs of their brain activity. The subjects were told they were tasting five different Cabernet Sauvignons sold at different prices.

However, there were actually only three wines sampled, two being offered twice, marked with different prices.

A $90 wine was provided marked with its real price and again marked $10, while another was presented at its real price of $5 and also marked $45."

Folks liked the wines they were told were more expensive.

"Our results suggest that the brain might compute experienced pleasantness in a much more sophisticated manner that involves integrating the actual sensory properties of the substance being consumed with the expectations about how good it should be."

Ya think?

OK...so to those of us who know wine and the wine industry well this isn't much of a shocker, but it's nice to have scientific confirmation of what we already know. But how about this part of the research:

"On the other hand, when tasters didn't know any price comparisons, they rated the $5 wine as better than any of the others sampled."

Why would this be the case? Americans like sweet, smooth liquid and most certainly like their wine that way. That's why inexpensive wine, the kind most often bought, is smooth and sweet.

But here's my favorite part of the article that reported on this research:

"Next step: pain.

Rangel wants to see if people perceive pain differently, depending on their expectations. He hopes to administer mild electric shocks to subjects and measure their reaction when told a shock was going to be stronger or weaker."

Any Volunteers?

Dark & Delicious!

One of the very best wine events I went to in 2007 was "Dark & Delicious". Organized by PS, I Love You, an association of Petite Sirah producers, the event was absolutely killer. You just don't see that many Petite Sirah's in one room very often. Even better, there was copious amounts of great food paired with each Petite Sirah producers.

This was the event that taught Ginny, my wife, to LOVE Petite Sirah. Since then our collection of Petites has increased significantly simply to accommodate her new found appetite.

So it shouldn't be a surprise that for the first time, my wife demanded I blog about something. She demanded I blog about this:

Dark & Delicious 2008
36 wine companies and 20 food vendors will join forces, again
Friday February 8, 2008 ~ 6:00 p.m. to 9:00 p.m.
Palace of the Fine Arts, San Francisco
$50 per ticket

Some of the finest aged California wines I've ever had have been Petite Sirahs. A lot of people drink up Petite pretty quick when it's young because they love that hearty, juicy, peppery goodness that a young Petite Sirah delivers. I do the same thing. And God knows, so does Ginny. But I'll never forget a couple of Petite's from Foppiano's cellar that we poured at a press event back around 1996. It was a 1968 vintage and a vintage from the mid 70s. These were spectacular wines.

This is an event I'm almost certain to attend and cover for Fermentation. And it's not because I owe it to my lovely wife Ginny to go. It's not like I forced her (recently) to sit through a couple sets of hard be bop at Yoshis. It's because there's no other place in America where you can wrap you palate around so many Petite Sirah's in one setting.

If you want to wrap your palate around some great wines, Buy Tickets Here!

Freedom of the [wine] Press?...Mais, Non!

Does this bother you?

A French court has now determined that articles about wine must be considered "advertising" even if the article is not paid for in anyway.

You've not read that incorrectly.

Decanter is reporting that a French court has determined that a magazine article recommending four bottles of inexpensive Champagne was, according to the court, "intended to promote sales of alcoholic beverages in excersising a psychological effect on the reader that incited him or her to buy alcohol."

As a result, the court says, such articles must carry health warnings. WOW!!

Decanter reports the reaction of Dominic Ponsford, editor of UK-based industry journal, the Press Gazette:

"It's absolutely extraordinary. (YA THINK!!!) The central tenet of journalism in a western democracy is that journalists can publish the truth as they see it without the interference of the government or an outside body, within the boundaries of libel and copyright."

Ponsford is correct in every way...and yet, apparently wrong.

When the government gets in the business of proclaiming the right to add its own editorializing to media reports you know you've come a long way from the simple notion of "freedom of the press". The ugly thing is I can imagine the Marin Institute and the Center for Science in the Public Interest reading about this and attempting to make the same case here in America. That might be more of a comment on the radical nature and busibodiness of those organizations than it is about the state of American Journalism. But you can almost see those folks salivating right now.

That said, I'm a huge fan of France. Been there at least a dozen or more times. Married a French woman once. Will be taking my kids to France for the first time next year. But just how crazy have the French become? Such a ruling is so entirely subversive to the notion of press freedoms it's hard to fathom just exactly what was on the minds of the court. I've known for some time that serious anti-alcohol sentiments have been moving through that country, but are they so strong that the French are willing to so thoroughly discard their freedoms?

Subliminal Wine Reviews

There is a wildly subversive and subliminal quality to this story.

The Office of Champagne, USA has issued a press release exalting the fact that "Belgian Customs       authorities seized and destroyed a shipment of over 3,200 bottles of André       sparkling wine. The shipment was seized at the port of Anvers, Belgium,       on Tuesday."

The Gallo-produced products were seized and destroyed because the wine carries the terms “California       Champagne” and “André       Champagne Cellars”. Using the term "Champagne" on a wine not from the Champagne region is a violation of       export laws that protect the place names of wine       regions.

What's really interesting is that the press release comes with a link to a video of the Andre Sparkling Wine being destroyed. The video itself is perhaps the best subliminal statement about wine quality I've seen in ages. Toward the end you see the once sparkling liquid now browned by its exposure to shredded cardboard wine cases, glass, label paper, bins and who knows what else, being drained into bins from the container in which the wines were destroyed. The brown, ugly liquid can't be any good to drink, now can it? It OBVIOUSLY isn't champagne. In fact, is this what most American wine that tries to sparkle really looks like???

I'm a big supporter of this notion that integrity demands that place names ought to mean something. "Champagne" falls into that category. I'm unaware if Gallo had an exemption to the recently negotiated treaty concerning place names. Nor do I have any idea if this shipment had been in the pipeline for some time or if Gallo wanted to get away with something.

The point is that Gallo SHOULD be changing the label of Andre's so that it merely says "Sparkling Wine". It's not Champagne. It's wine that sparkles.

All That's Cheesy & Good in America

My pilgrimage to Murray's Cheese Shop in New York City was worth every minute it took to find a parking space in the vicinity. It was the one and only personal trek I made when in the city for two days last week. I can report back that Murray's is indeed a shrine to smelly goodness.

Besides wanting to see what a huge cheese counter looked like up close, I was mainly interested in learning more about the folks who worked behind this counter. I'm that way. Oftentimes I'm far more interested in the people behind the bar when I go wine tasting than I am in the wines. I tend to  make judgments about the wine or the winery based on the knowledge and presentation of those who pour me the wines. Same for cheese counters.

The Murray folks were unbelievably knowledgeable. And why would they not be? I suspect many of those behind the country are there simply to learn as much as they can about cheese, to master their perspective, in advance of moving into a career that is either focused on or centered in the world of cheese.

I'm absolutely convinced that the American consumers is at place in its relationship with cheese today where it was with wine in the early to mid 1980s: ready to fully embrace all the varieties the world offers, to pimp the amazing domestic versions that are emerging from all parts of the country, and set to pay what it takes to fully explore the world of cheese.

While Wisconsin has always been the "home" of American cheesemaking in Americans' minds for many decades, and though California cheese and dairy folks have made a strong attempt to associate this state with cheese, I think it can be said that no region has been handed the scepter of "THE" cheese region the way Napa held and still holds that designation in the area of wine. This is a very good thing.

The diversely located members of the Artisan cheesemaking community force Americans interested in the products and the craft to look far and wide and not concentrate on dairies and cheesemakers in any one location.

Many of America's finest artisan cheesemakers and others in the burgeoning cheese industry will be in Sonoma County March 7-10 for the Artisan Cheese Festival in the town of Petaluma.

The festival is being presented this way:

Friday Night Meet the Artisans Welcome Reception and Tasting

Saturday Seminars taught by renowned cheesemakers, experts, chefs and authors and starting with a special opening session led by Michael Krasny, host of KQED's Forum program

Festival Tent – new this year on Saturday and Sunday, featuring chef demonstrations, cheesemaking classes, cheese tastings, unique products and books

Saturday Night Artisan Gala Dinner – Luscious five-course dinner prepared by top Wine Country and Bay Area chefs, featuring artisan cheeses and pairings with specially selected boutique wines

Sunday Artisan Cheese Marketplace and Festival Tent – a day to sample and buy handcrafted products direct from the artisans

Monday Field Trips to artisan creameries

On top of this are a number of seminars to be held on various topics.

My most recent cheese discovery is Bobolink Dairy, a 200 acre New Jersey farm that produced a number of raw milk cheeses from grass fed cows. My good friends Robert and Michelle from New York sent these to  me  and I'm grateful.

The Amish Frolic is a light to medium intensity, semi-hard cheese produced from raw cows milk. The folks at iGourmet describe this cheese as "not for the timid" but I disagree. In fact, I think it's a perfect cheese for those just beginning to take their palates beyond the normal cheese experiences. Its creamy white center paste delivers an earthy/mushroomy flavor with nice hints of bacon.

Autumn Baudolino is a pungeant white paste, brie-like washed rind cheese that has a slightly sweet character, hints at a piquant element with truffle and earth character. It is a very nice cheese that I'd pair with something on the darker red side of the spectrum.

The Cave Aged Cheddar is crumbly and sweet without any cheddar-harshness yet creamily cheddary. It possesses no crystals. The finish on this pale white cheddar is very long and very satisfying. The kids will eat this but it will give the adults something perfectly interesting to contemplate and something very satisfying to pair with an ale.

The Good & The Bad

The issue of direct shipping brings out the best and the worst in folks, no doubt about that. But I also think the Direct Shipping issue is the kind of topic that can demonstrate the power of online media and the power of blogs.

First the good in people. Alder's post on the Wine.com Stings has resulted in a remarkably coherent and well thought out set of comments on the issue. I can tell you that people are reading them too. In the past few days I've been interviewed by upwards of 8 different media outlets on the issue and what it means for retailers in general and to direct shipping in particular. But I want to bring you back to this issue of bringing out the good. Consider the comment on Alder's Vinography by one Emily & Stephan of Winemonger.com. It's at the bottom  of the comments. If you want to see a comment on a blog that not only sets the issue in context, but also delivers an appropriate rebuke, is amazingly articulate and actually takes action by putting their money where their mouth is, theirs is the comment to read.

More than anything you have to congratulate Alder for having what is clearly one of the most involved and well spoken readership anywhere.

But then there is the Bad that this issue of direct shipping brings out. I simply must highlight a comment I received on the post just below this. It is in fact the kind of comment I like to see if only because I know they are reading Fermentation. But it also highlights what this issue of direct shipping can do to people who are personally engaged in the issue. "The Big Boys" had this to say:

The last thing this world needs is a presumptuous prick like you telling everyone else that a system thats worked great for 70 years is corrupt.

You think you've got this figured out don't you. If there weren't any wholesalers you and your faggy California vintners would be up shit creeke.

You think drinkers and your precious SWRA will win against distributors then think again. You don't stand a chance and it's not cause of few mllion doallars. Its because no one wants to buy 100 dollar bottles of wine ovr the Internet. And it's because states don't want kids ordering booze.

Why don't you take your shitty blog, your shitty SWRA and leave the work to the big boys."

The issue of Wine.com and its stings will eventually fade away and we will all be on to another topic and another conversation. But the fact that the issue was unwrapped by bloggers and blog readers and by those that comment on wine bulletin boards will be remembered by Wine.com, "The Big Boys" and all those in the media and the simple wine lovers that found introduction to the issue online.

 

$50,000,000

Some of the most important work I've done over the past year has been with the Specialty Wine Retailers Association where I began acting as executive director in January 2007. In that year I've had the chance to testify in a number of states on the issue of direct shipping, work with some amazingly talented folks and even bear the brunt of some of the wholesalers' more nasty and snide remarks.

However, a good deal of that time was spent staring at numbers. Everyone knew that America's wine wholesalers gained influence via their campaign contributions at the state level. But we never knew the extent of that largess. So I started looking...and looking...and looking.

All that looking resulted in the SWRA Report issued today called "Wholesale Protection" that breaks down the $50 Million dollars that American wholesalers and their associations have delivered to state politicians between 2000 and 2006.

The number is remarkable not only for its size but for the way in which it exceeds the amounts of money given to political campaigns by any other sector of the alcohol industry. In fact, in that time wholesalers have given more to politicians than all wineries, beer producers, spirit producers, restaurants and retailers—combined.

Many have suggested that these are amazing numbers but that there is no smoking gun. I suppose a "smoking gun" would be evidence of legislation in exchange for dollars. Of course, this has not been found and this sort of research could not find it.

However, consider that nearly every state has laws on the books that either protect wholesalers directly from competition or limit the access that consumers have to wine in a way that aids wholesalers bottom line.