Fermentation: The Daily Wine Blog

The Passing of the American Wine Blog Awards

This is probably as good as time as any to make a little announcement.

This will be the last year I host the American Wine Blog Awards.

Upon their conclusion this year, I will pass ownership on to the OpenWine Consortium, which will both own the rights to them and be responsible for their administration if they choose to continue them.

It's not a matter of the American Wine Blog Awards being too difficult to administer. Nor it is a matter of them taking too much time to administer. It's a matter of my belief that they can be better administered and grow in significance and grow in purpose if they are administered by an organization like OpenWine Consortium.

If I'm correct, and I'm sure I am, then their beginnings here at FERMENTATION: The Daily Wine Blog can be seen as an incubation period; a period when they didn't necessarily grow, but had a chance to find their footing and survive. Outside FERMENTATION, at OpenWine Consortium, my hope is that the Awards will grow, develop and evolve into something more...and different.

Oily Fingers and the Demise of an Intellectual Paradigm

Word that the San Francisco Chronicle may close down if it can't find a buyer or lower its expenses considerably hit me like a ton of bricks. The news is emblematic of the general trend for daily newspapers in the face of increased competition from on-line information sources and the failing economy.

Still, being an avid consumer of media, the notion of the daily paper, pulp and all, going away strikes me as having considerable consequences for how we imbibers of information and news do our consuming.

The first consequence is textural. This may seem inconsequential, but for all my life there has been a deep connection between the feel of thin, inky, oily paper in my hands and learning about the world around me. The textural nature of the newsprint has been a contextual element of reading text that described the world. I've not developed any similar connection that is obvious to me when I read about the world from a computer screen or hand held devise. Does this matter?

The second consequence of the demise of the newspaper involves the way I (we?) consume news. When you hold open a newspaper and focus on an article about a flood in the Midwest that is positioned in the upper left part of page 2, your eyes can't escape the headlines that surround this story. So even as you read the story of the flood, your mind takes in vague hints of how that event is placed in context with the rest of the news. Below it is a story on a scandal in a metropolitan police department. The eye also notes on page three a long story on the the rise of a former city counsel member in a southern city to the status of Mayor. And below that there is a small story, relative to the flood story and the new mayor story, on a tourist who fended off an attack by muggers at a famous zoo.

When reading from a paper, the eye and mind multi-tasks even as you focus on the Flood story. It sees other stories. It evaluates the importance of those stories merely by the number of column inches they take up. It sees the size of the headline relative to the size of the headline over the story of the flood.

The mind isn't allowed to work this way when the same stories are presented on a computer screen. And this difference has consequences for how individuals and communities understand the world around them.

The demise of the daily newspaper and the way it lays out the world and the way it FEEL in your hands as you soak up the news of the world has been a significant and important and paradigmatic element in how we learn about our world...And it's going way

I'm thinking of the Wednesday Food & Wine section in the Santa Rosa Press Democrat. Holding the inky, smooth paper in my hand my eye goes to the reviews of Syrahs, but at the same time I note the story on a winemaker that sits next to another story on Paella. Doesn't this unconsciously form a manner of thought and ideas in my mind? And what of the advertisement at the bottom of this page for a Chocolate and Wine Tasting Even at the winery. I'm reading the reviews of Syrah...but my mind is associating these reviews with the rest of the features and ads on the page.

This intellectual and communicative dynamic is going away.

2009 American Wine Blog Award Finalists

I am very pleased to announce the finalists in the 2009 American Wine Blog Awards and that the voting is open.

CLICK HERE TO CAST YOUR VOTE IN SEVEN CATEGORIES.

The Finalists In Each Category Are:

BEST WRITING ON A WINE BLOG
IN VINO VERITAS
THE POUR
DR.VINO
VINOGRAPHY

BEST GRAPHICS & PRESENTATION ON A WINE BLOG
THE GOOD GRAPE
HOSEMASTER OF WINE
CHATEAU PETROGASM
WILMA'S WINE WORLD

BEST SINGLE-SUBJECT WINE BLOG
BESOTTED RAMBLINGS
LENNDEVOURS
GOOD WINE UNDER $20
NAPA VALLEY WINE BLOG

BEST WINERY BLOG
MICHEL-SCHLUMBERGER BENCHLAND BLOG
TABLAS CREEK VINEYARD BLOG
DRY CREEK VINEYARD'S WILMA'S WINE WORLD
BEDROCK WINE CO. BLOG

BEST BUSINESS/INDUSTRY WINE BLOG
WINERY WEBSITE REPORT
WINECAST
THE WINE COLLECTOR
RETHINK WINE BLOG

BEST WINE REVIEWS ON A BLOG
BIGGER THAN YOUR HEAD
GOOD WINE UNDER $20
WICKER PARKER
VINOGRAPHY

BEST OVERALL WINE BLOG
VINOGRAPHY
DR. VINO
THE POUR
LENNDEVOURS

These finalists were determined by panel of judges evaluating blogs nominated by the public. The winners are determined by a vote of the public (THAT'S YOU!) for 70% of the weighting and by a vote of the judges for 30% of the weighting.

VOTING ENDS ON MARCH 4TH AT 11:59PM

The American Wine Blog Awards are sponsored by Riedel Crystal, OpenWine Consortium, and Mutineer Magazine. These three sponsors have helped make these awards possible, have been very generous and deserve your attention.

NOW...GO VOTE!!
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Sponsored By:

The Pros & Cons of Shipping Wine to Illinois Consumers

On Friday, Illinois State Representative Julie Hamos (D) from Evanston introduced House Bill 2462. If it becomes law it will right a wrong.

In 2007 Illinois, which had allowed consumers to purchase wine from both out-of-state wineries AND retailers formalized their wine shipping laws via House Bill 429. The bill created a permit for out-of-state wineries that allowed them to ship wine to Illinois Consumers (VERY GOOD!!). However, at the same time, the bill prohibited out-of-state retailers to continue to ship wine to Illinois consumers (VERY BAD)!

It turns out that HB 429 was a pretty complicated bill. Not only did it deal with issues of shipping wine to consumers, but it also dealt with "Self Distribution", the term for wineries selling directly to retailers and restaurateurs without having to go through a middleman distributor. Only a very limited form of self distribution rights were left to wineries and what rights did remain were denied to medium and large sized wineries. Bottom line: Distributor Protection bought and paid for.

Representative Hamos' bill (HB 2462) is pure. It presents to Illinois lawmakers and citizens a single question: SHOULD ILLINOIS CONSUMERS BE ALLOWED TO BUY AND HAVE SHIPPED TO THEM WINE FROM OUT OF STATE WINE STORES, AUCTION HOUSES AND WINE CLUBS THAT ARE NOT CONNECTED TO WINERIES?

In order to answer that question responsibly, it's important to understand exactly what HB 2462 would do.

1. Create a permit that out-of-state retailers would buy $500 annually that gives them the right to ship wine directly to Illinois consumers

2. Retailers would pay sales tax to the state on every shipment of wine to consumers

3. Retailers would submit themselves to Illinois legal jurisdiction, meaning Illinois' attorney general could prosecute them in Illinois courtys if they broke Illinois law

4. Retailers would submit themselves to the jurisdiction of the Illinois Liquor Control Commission, meaning they could be audited by the ILCC

5. Retailers would be required to engage a company to get a signature of someone over 21 when the wine is delivered.

6. Retailers would be required to file reports with the state detailing the shipments that are made into the state.

The upshot of all these provisions would be the following:

1. Consumers would now have access to a huge portion of the wines now available in the U.S. market instead of just those that come from wineries that ship direct or the tiny percentage of wines Illinois distributors bring into the state and are left on the shelves for them to find. It means a huge increase in the number of imported wines and hard-to-find domestic wines that consumers will have access to.

2. Illinois, through the sales tax levied on the wines and the permit fees that are collected ,would be in a position to raise, conservatively, a half million dollars in revenue in the first full year the program is in place.

3. The state of Illinois would be in a much better position to track the amount of wine being distributed in its state just as the 21st amendment says it has the right to.

4. Illinois law enforcement officers would have a new way to prosecute out-of state shippers who break Illinois law in addition to the 21st Amendment Enforcement Act that gave them prosecutorial powers over out-of-state businesses when it was passed by congress in 2000.

5. Illinois, giving out-of-state retailers the same shipping rights as in-state retailers, would no longer be violating the Commerce Clause of the United States Constitution.

So what's the argument against HB 2462?

I can imagine some Illinois retailers will come right out and ask that the state deny its residents access to wines in order to "save jobs" in the retail sector. History, statistics and common sense deny this argument. In states that allowed retailers to ship in they found that overall in-state sales and tax revenue increased afterward.

Another objection to HB 2462 would be that increased opportunities for direct shipping of wine means increased opportunity for minors to obtain wine via direct shipment. The problem with this argument is that one has to ask why then it should be ok for in-state wineries, out-of-state wineries and in-state retailers to ship wine direct to Illinoisans. In other words, this will be a non starter of an objection.

Another objection to HB 2462 would be that it will open the flood gates to 1000s of retailers across the country to ship into Illinois and the Illinois Liquor Control Commission won't be able to handle it. This argument, however, flies in the face of experience. In every single state where both out-of-state retailers AND wineries are allow to ship, it is WINERIES that hold 80% to 85% of all shipping permits. This is obviously because nearly every winery in the U.S. (over 5,000) have direct shipping as a part of their sales strategy. However, only a very tiny minority of America's retailers even consider shipping direct.

Finally, It is likely that opponents of HB 2462 will argue that since retailers do not obtain a permit to operate from the federal government, like wineries do, they have no incentive not to break the law since if got doing so they can still operate, just not in Illinois. The problem with this argument, besides being pretty offensive, is very few businesses or individuals have the threat of losing a federal permit to operate or act as the deterrent to committing a crime...and yet the vast majority still don't commit any crimes.

In order for Illinois consumers to see their right to access wine returned to them and in order for retailers across the country to overcome the unconstitutional protectionist discrimination that has been foisted upon them, Illinois lawmakers will have to work through these issues laid out above. They'll have to address the positive and negative aspects of direct shipping as explained by its opponents and proponents. But most of all they should listen to their constituents, who have in the past overwhelmingly rejected the current prohibition on purchasing wine from out of state retailers.

46 On the Occasion of my 46th

In honor of the 46th anniversary of my birth, I present 46 things I want:

1. A time machine
2. A full vertical collection of all Stony Hill Chardonnays
3. A wine cellar with a couch in it
4. A doubling in Fermentation's readership
5. A national policy on wine direct shipment laws
6. A fig tree
7. A 1963 Warres port
8. A marching band playing happy birthday using wine glasses and spoons.
9. A new collection of heavy bottomed tumbler glasses
10. One week in Burgundy
11. One week in Mexico
12. Massive coverage of the winners of the American Wine Blog Awards
13. To Try a 100 year old Cognac
14. A seat with my name on it at the Campbell Apartment
15. Bliss
16. To see a regular wine column in the New Yorker
17. 10 acres and a long winding road.
18. A champagne dinner for two, in July, at night, in the middle of a vineyard
19. A new hound puppy.
20. A new hound puppy that can be trained to mix drinks.
21. To host a dinner party with Alice Feiring, Robert Parker, Randall Grahm, Steive Heimoff and Dan Berger
22. Making a living by just blogging (a good living)
23. A two hour televised debate on the utility of the 3-tier system
24. A gift of the URL: fermentation.com
25. The same linens they use at the Waldorf
26. A box of Butera Lonsdales
27. A couple cases of Roederer Estate
28. A huge turnout for the next Wine Bloggers Conference
29. Dinner with Gore Vidal—before it's too late.
30. An office with 4 TV screens built into the wall
31. My own wine brand to market and sell—"Fermentati"
32. The elimination of all ants within 1 mile of my home
33. A meal cooked for me by Michele Anna Jordan, Nancy Oakes and Elizabeth Falkner
34. A small, compact, antique bar that opens to reveal countless bourbons for my home
35. A regular byline in a print publication
36. A way to peruse 200 more blogs than I already do each day, but in the same amount of time
37. X-Ray Vision (to inspect older wines—get your minds out of the gutter‚
38. To attend the Wine Writers Symposium in 2010
39. To find my tickets to the April McCoy Tyner concert.
40. A massage
41. Enough Dry Rose to fill a tub
42. A cocktail named after me
43. Self Distribution in every state in the country
44. To sit in a barber chair and have my face shaved by a pro
45. My own tuxedo (42-short)
46. 46 more years.

Ready for That Slap Across the Face

If you've ever been to the Tadich Grill in San Francisco then you know the feeling of being enveloped in the crushing embrace of old school epicurean culture. You know that feeling of wading into a pool of hedonism soaked humanity of the rough and proper sort.

The 21 Club in New York, though probably more compelling to the swinging proper crowd, is also said to exude an old school crush of culinary and imbibiious delights.

Mention of these two bi-coastal icons in a Santa Rosa Press Democrat article got my blood racing today. A new restaurant opened in Santa Rosa, the article reports: Jack & Tony's Restaurant and Whiskey Bar. They describe the place thus:

"It is modeled after legendary restaurants like Tadich Grill in San Francisco and 21 Club in New York, with a whiskey list of more than 100 labels"

100 Whiskeys.

Now this idea will not appeal to everyone. But it appeals to this boy.100 Whiskeys for me to explore under one roof that is there to house aspirations inspired by Tadich Grill and the 21 Club? Maybe my own expectations will be dashed by poor service or the poorly made Manhattan or the crush of Trendys there to stake out a claim in a place they have no business sullying. But maybe a new and better way of living has arrived in my neck of the woods.

What gets my motor running is the thought of dark paneled walls. Leather lined stools. The firm upholstered chairs wrapped half moon around a solid wood table. The glint and sparkle of light reflected off of countless whiskeys, bourbons and ryes sitting on glass shelves behind the bar. The rough murmur of a contented crowd, some in coats, some in ties, some with a hint of cleavage to share.

This is the whiskey culture that appeals to me. But in the end, it all stems from the spirit itself.

Whiskey, Bourbon, Rye, Scotch, Brandy, Cognac, Armagnac. All different, but all the same really. They are the brown ones. They are the drinks that promote a slow attack at the glass. Sure, the occasional shot is called for, but why would one do such a thing with anything other than the lesser brown spirits that are better built for dribbling rather than imbibing. No, the brown spirits are there for us to savor, similar to the way we treat good wine, but, I think, with a bit more respect—for the power they wield.

And it is the power and the bite of these brown spirits that give them much of their appeal. While there are layers and gradations of bite in these different brown spirits due to their distillation and aging requirements, the bite is inescapable and what those of us who love these drinks often crave.

To truly really appreciate the whiskeys and brandys and scotches, you must be willing to embrace the bite they deliver. The bite of bourbon and whiskey is the equivalent of the soft slap across the face that comes when he's been a bit too fresh. Exhilarating.  Brandy, cognac and Armagnac are the equivalent of a passionate slap on the ass. You either have to be willing to appreciate it or not indulge at all.

So I'm hoping that Jack & Tony's Restaurant and Whiskey Bar, with their 100 Whiskeys, provides the proper environment where one can appreciate a good, passionate slap on the ass and all the while provide that soft chair where the blow can be cushioned and where the glint of brown bottles illuminates just the right, appreciative crowd.

Blogging and the Mutiny on $0.04 Per Day

Mutineer Magazine, the newish beverage pub that is actually printed on dead trees instead of floating in the ether, is a sponsor of the American Wine Blog Awards. They will as part of our agreement broadcast the news of wine blogging, the Wine Blog Awards, the Finalists and the winners as far as the eye can see—or at least as far as their are eyes to see there magazine.

The very, very good news not just for the American Wine Blog Awards but also for Mutineer Magazine and for the literate drinker everywhere, is that Mutineer has secured national distribution for its publication. This is pretty important. Outside of raising the money to begin a dead tree literary vehicle, getting that vehicle on the streets where it can be gawked at and actually read and caressed is probably the most difficult thing for a new magazine.

As I've said before, I pick up Mutineer and I see a mature, refined, more readable and more useful version on of Wine X, minus the limiting demographic emphasis. Darryl Robert's Wine X Magazine was in fact groundbreaking and influential. And it produced for Roberts a good deal of hate mail from wine traditionalists. I rather doubt that Mutineer Magazine has had to screen its emails for dusty particles the same way Roberts did.

Like Wine X, Mutineer is targeting a younger demographic and doing so with its choice of editorial, it's contemporary design, its less than stodgy tone and with its embrace of the online world. And yet behind Mutineer is Alan Kropf, a man with a resume: Alan studied with both the Court of Master Sommeliers and the Wine and Spirits Education Trust. He was the Sommelier at the Beverly Hills Hotel. Before Mutineeer he wrote for Sante, The Tasting Panel, and SommSelections. He has also spent time working in the wine program at Gordon Ramsay in West Hollywood. And while he edits and publishes Mutineer, he is also writing his first book and is a wine consultant to restaurants and collectors.

All this brings me back around to the American Wine Blog Awards. Mutineers is the right media sponsor for this third version of the Awards. Like the American Wine Blog Awards and wine blogs in general,  Mutineer Magazine is new, is sprinkling its wisdom across a landscape of recent converts to wine, is seeking to change the perception of what wine writing and what wine reading entails and is beginning to burst out across a larger landscape.

So here is what I NEED every reader of Fermentation to do: SUBSCRIBE TO MUTINEER MAGAZINE. (Yes, keep your subscriptions to the other wine and food pubs you get, too). But Subscribe to Mutineer to thank them for supporting wine blogging in a big way. Subscribe to Mutineer Magazine to support the evolution of wine writing and reporting. Subscribe to Mutineer Magazine to show them that Fermentation has at least a little influence. Subscribe to Mutineer Magazine to help make them profitable so we can have good stuff to read on planes, bus trips, and road trips where we are trapped in a car with someone who still isn't over being dumped by Sally Smith in 11th grade.

We are talking $15 a year for 6 issues. That's $2.50 an issue; $1.25 per month. $0.04  per day.

Riedel and the Wine Blog Awards

Nearly everyone I know who has taken the Riedel Taste Test remarks that out of the Riedel glasses wine tastes better or it is more expressive or it is more complex than when tasted out of other glasses. It's a remarkable set of statements when you think about. Same wine, different glasses, different taste experience.

Riedel has administered these comparison tastes tests probably 100s of times across the globe for wine professionals, restaurant servers and others. The consistent result has to lead one to conclude that wine tastes better when consumed out of a glass designed for the type of wine being drunk.

And yet the wine is the same, regardless of the glass that is delivering it into your mouth. And it is this fact that leads many people to poo poo the claims made by Riedel that the design of the delivery vehicle for the wine is essential to truly experiencing the wine.

The Riedel folks are very well aware of this disconnect that many people have expressed where their claims are concerned. It is for this reason that they have gone to great pains to explain in detail just exactly what they believe are the reasons for the difference a glass makes.

I encourage you to visit their website and read through their "Information Page" where they go to great lengths to explain themselves. In various "chapters" they discuss:

-How Glass Contents Determine Glass Shape
-The Details of Bouquet
-The Details of Taste
-The Scientific Background of Taste
-Taste/Olfactory Confusion
-The Modalities that Sense Food
-The Anatomy of Taste
-Genetic Variations Surrounding Taste
-"Supertasters"
-"Supertasters" and Alcohol
-The Tongue Map
-Effects of Temperature on Perceived Sweetness of Sucrose

The lengths to which Riedel has gone to explain the impact of proper glassware in fact goes beyond the requirements of marketing and into the realm of education.

Suffice to say, my respect for Riedel has been fairly impressive. But not just for their dedication to their craft. Riedel has gone out of their way to be sponsors at 1000s of wine events, donating likely millions of glasses over the years to professional and consumer tasting events.

Of course I became even more enamored with Riedel when they agreed to sponsor the 2009 American Wine Blog Awards. The Winner in each of seven categories will received a hand blown Crystal "Saint Emilion" Magnum (Pictured above) Decanter etched with the winner's  Name, Blog name, the name of the award, and the year of the award. It will serve as a beautiful trophy and memory.

...On Behalf of the People

The process by which rules, laws and regulations concerning alcohol sales and distribution are created is, of course, the very best argument for public financing of campaigns—or at least for drastic reform of campaign financing.This assumes, of course, that legislation ought to be enacted with the goal of serving the broad public interests. It also assumes that laying waste to the democratic process by means of one group of constituents flooding lawmakers with money isn't the best way to communicate the broad public interest.

The Mackinaw Center for Public Policy in Michigan makes this case in a second hand fashion in an article they've just posted detailing how, why and with what tools Michigan's Beer & Wine Wholesalers have taken complete control of all policy making concerning alcohol distribution and the administration of alcohol distribution in that state.

The lengthy articles written by Kenneth Braun takes us back to a series of 2005 articles in the Detroit free Press that detailed how a state-supported, supposedly "private" group called alcohol distributors used any means necessary to completely co-opt the legislative process. Put another way: these alcohol distributors deal in the trade of people, votes, power and money.

The new article goes on to describe how HB 6644, recently passed in Michigan under cover of darkness, went about hurting consumers and Michigan businesses, stiffed commerce, reduced tax revenue for the state and generally provided a clear reflection on the nature of money and corruption in state government.

There is a "money quote" from the Mackinaw Center article:

"And these donations are not trivial. MCFN analysis shows that the wholesalers ranked as one of the "top contributors" for 88 of the 148 lawmakers during the 2006 election cycle. Winning this election put them in position to vote on the bill to ban direct shipment. For 65 of them, the MB&WWA was one of their five largest single sources of campaign cash; 51 of them received $4,000 or more from the wholesalers' PAC and eight senators received equal to or in excess of $9,000."

This article, which will be expanded upon later by the Mackinaw Center, is recommended to anyone wondering whether campaign finance reform might be a good idea.

A Love Letter

My Dearest Readers:

I am still shocked to have found you and to have you in my life. I never really expected it, nor thought I deserved it. Your presence in my life is a gift that sustains me; an ongoing delight that I will always cherish.

I'll never forget the first time we met. Out of nowhere you appeared. And from the first time I noticed you I was in love. It was not one thing, not your equal love of wine, not your equal level of curiosity, not your quiet willingness to engage with me in intellectual pursuits, not even the delight you delivered to me by focusing your attention on me. My immediate love for you derived from the intimate connection that passed between us that allowed us both to immediately say honest things to each other.

You've been the integral element in my life now for more than four years. Not a day passes that I don't get up in the morning and think of you, then think of your warm embrace as I close my eyes at night. I think of you all the time. I constantly fear I can't give you the kind of delights you shower upon me, nor bestow on you the same attention and affection that you seem so easily to give me.

Even for the short times we've found ourselves apart over the past years those separations have been as though a piece of me, a vital piece, has been subtracted and I've been made less than whole. And yet, when I return, no matter my condition or disposition, there you are, waiting with another embrace, as though I never left.

And so my love for you grows. Your presence in my life expands. That part of me that is yours encompasses more of who I am. And this agrees with me in ways I fear I cannot fully express.

My great hope is that our lives will continue to co-mingle in even more important ways, that we will continue to share our mutual love of wine, truth, enlightenment, challenge and each other.

Happy Valentines Day.

Yours,

Tom....