Kimberly
CCA Staff Gratitudes

Kimberly

I'm thankful for:  Friends

CCA Staff Gratitudes
Kimberly
Forged by Fire

In lieu of our normal monthly newsletter, given our home base in Northern California, we at Charles Communications Associates, representing wineries from our own backyard and around the world, dedicate this missive to those affected by the Northern California fires of October 2017

Forged by Fire
Friends
If You Can't Stand The Heat, Get Out of the ...

The Napa Valley has recently taken a lot of heat – both literally, due to the serious temperature spike that hit the valley earlier this month, as well as figuratively from those who think the aberrant fluctuation spelled doom for the entire region’s harvest.  The media has been eager to report this story, which we can all understand – what’s sexier than a potential climate change story about America’s most recognized wine region? Fortunately for the consumer, cooler heads prevail for those of us on the ground, and I wanted to share the perspective from someone who has been around the vineyard block.

If You Can't Stand The Heat, Get Out of the Cellar
Kimberly
10 Medium Intensity Questions With Faith ...

Meet Faith Armstrong, the winemaker behind Onward and Farmstrong wines. As refreshing as the Pétillant Naturel she makes of Malvasia Bianca, many of the words used to describe Faith's wine could be used to describe the winemaker herself. Honest, vibrant, unfiltered, true to her origins, bright, complex. 

10 Medium Intensity Questions With Faith Armstrong of Onward & Farmstrong wines
Hillary
Cooking with Cannabis

With that infamous hippie holiday around the corner, Charles Communications explores how Pot d'Huile has revolutionized the marijuana edibles market for both medicinal benefits and gastronomic delight.

Cooking with Cannabis

Wine Columns for the Week of March 14, 2007

From last week's wine columns comes a handy hint from Maximilian Riedel. He recommends drinking Diet Coke from a Pinot Noir glass. Apparently,

it shows less bubbles, and the pinot glass will enhance the aroma, tone down the sweetness and take away the saltiness and bitterness.

Just what taste that actually leaves behind in a glass of Coke is up for debate -- but a hot tip nonetheless from the implausibly suave 11th-generation scion of enological glassware.

There's little else of note other than Eric Asimov picking up where the WSJ left off on wine fraud and Jerry Shriver on wine tourism in New Zealand (technically from the week before last). Displaying just a touch of irreverence (nothing really, compared to Riedel's Coke confession), Wines of the Week are drawn almost exclusively from the Southern Hemisphere, with a sprinkling of Spanish and Greek selections.

Wine Columns for the Week of March 7, 2007

In what must count as one of the oddest career moves ever, Malcolm McLaren, notorious as the Sex Pistols' manager, actually began his working life as a trainee wine taster at George Sandeman. McLaren proves a fine writer too, contributing a gem to yesterday's NYT Magazine in which he paints a portrait of Blueface, his appallingly (and hilariously) misogynistic ex-general wine instructor. It's heady stuff: cheap Bordeaux are women in need of being put in their place, a young Burgundy from Morey-St.-Denis is a virgin ready for ravishing, and a particularly august Hermitage displays a "truly heroic, masculine body."

After such indelicate prose, all the week's other articles seem just a bit dry. There are myriad tributes to the late Gallo patriarch, as well as extensive coverage of New Zealand Pinot Noir in both the Seattle Times and SF Chronicle.

Over at the Atlanta Journal-Constitution, Gil Kulers argues that Two-Buck Chuck can beat a $175 bottle of Stag's Leap -- given the right company and context. He even displays an admirable magnanimity in admitting to enjoying a bottle of almond-flavored non-vintage sparkling wine.

What would old Blueface make of that?

Wine Columns for the Week of February 28, 2007

The notion of wine as a way of life is neither new nor especially profound, but many of this week's stories take the theme in interesting directions. Tara Q. Thomas details the grueling ordeal three men undergo in order to be named "America's Best Sommelier." Corie Brown, in a LA Times column newly christened "Oeno-file," writes poignantly about the disjunction between the beautiful dream and arduous reality of being a wine importer.

In the San Francisco Chronicle, Tim Teichgraeber has an article featuring Philippe Melka as a "mountain man" with a suitably big (and quite adorable) picture of him beside the fetching owner of Marston Family Vineyards. And finally, Paul Gregutt is so dazzled by Rob Griffin's devotion to winemaking for 30 years that he finds himself unreservedly recommending Griffin's entire lineup of wines.

Wine Columns for the Week of February 23, 2007

A very mixed case of wine stories this week. The Miami Herald recounts a brutal tale of sibling rivalry in Napa. Eric Asimov lauds "brawny, brooding" Châteauneuf-du-Papes. Ben Giliberti in the Washington Post asks whether biodynamic winemaking is a load of "doo-doo voodoo." Gils Kulers channels Three 6 Mafia. And back in San Francisco, a sly attorney procures "tequila master" status by somewhat duplicitous means...

Wine Columns for the Week of February 14, 2007

Love appeared in unexpected places last week. The expected deluge of Valentine's stories never materialized; instead, there were touching features like Eric Asimov's profile on the extraordinarily wine-besotted Park B. Smith. And despite an absolutely terrible pun ("Smart picks for a Gru-V Valentine's toast"), Paul Gregutt's heartfelt ode to grüner veltliner was actually quite a good read. Elsewhere, a Wall St Journal article make a convincing (if distinctly unromantic) case for the burgeoning popularity of rosé champagne as a study in successful wine marketing...

Wine Columns for the Week of February 7, 2007

What do you do when a doting but sadly unseemly stranger tries to get your attention by catching your eye? With Valentine's Day looming large -- and the frightful prospect of more stories pairing wine and love this Wednesday -- the only course of action is to avert your gaze. To be honest, it's difficult. There's something awfully compelling about the prose, most of which goes way beyond sappy, sounding florid enough to have been torn breathlessly from a supermarket romance novel:

To fan the flames of romance, nothing outdoes a great bottle of wine. While there are many possibilities, some wines seem to get the Valentine's Day message across with extra ardor. To that worthy end, consider the following amorous potions.

No, thanks.

Have a look instead at the quirkier stories that managed to scurry their way onto the pages. My favorite was penned by the inimitable Harold McGee in Wednesday's NYT. Who else would be audacious enough to invoke the stinkiness of his "grade-school pal’s mouse cage" in the same story as he talks about pyridines and 2-acetylpyrroline? And who but McGee would have the childlike curiousness to microwave amino acid supplements just so he could smell "mousy off-flavors" -- and then suggest you try it too?