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?
Wine Columns for the Week of January 31, 2007
Certain issues of great public interest, say, hurricanes, internecine conflicts or celebrity bedroom secrets, can inspire jaded pen pushers to literary heights. But the Super Bowl, an event of such hopelessly irredeemable banality, seems doomed to bring out their worst -- especially as the journalists in question are a coterie of boozed-up and pun-happy wine writers. (Just take a look at what kitschy Christmas did to them...) It's all the more pleasant a surprise, then, that the best wine writing this week may well be found in just these football-themed stories. For one, Laurie Winer's tale of saving her family from Cheesy Bites and Crunch Wrap Supremes is the most entertaining and ardent LA Times food/wine feature for many a week. Over in the SF Chronicle, Christina Kelly patiently outlines wine pairing suggestions for nachos and buffalo wings. And if you've ever lost sleep over the age-old question of which bottle to crack open when someone's just "fumbled away a first down in the red zone," Paul Gregutt is your man.
Wine Columns for the Week of January 24, 2007
Vegan baked goods aside, it's hard to think of anything more abhorrent in the world of food and wine than a used spit bucket. In this week's Chronicle wine section, drinking from a spit bucket makes not one, but two, nauseating cameos. First comes a report of a San Anselmo wine club's tasting game where the loser's unspeakable punishment is to, yes, drink from the bucket. Then there's an interview with Sideways author Rex Pickett where he reveals the truth behind the movie's infamous bucket scene. I can do little else but quote his words verbatim:
It was a special tasting upstairs. It was high-end Cab. They weren't really spitting, they were dumping. Maybe a few had spit. You've got to understand, I was broke back then. I thought, "Wait a minute, there's a lot of good Cab in there." I picked it up and drank from it... I admit, I was a little drunk at this point. I think I said something like, "This is a great Meritage."
Have a great weekend...
Wine Columns for the Week of January 17, 2007
After the devastation suffered by Californian orange and lemon farmers this winter, it's ironic how many of this week's food columns are citrus-centered. Unfortunately for editors, the gods have very little sympathy for lead times. It's much harder to pin down a theme for the wine columns. (Maybe glibness of prose?) There are just as many European features (ausleses and first-growth Bordeaux) as ones set in the new world (Australian cabs and New Zealand pinot noir). And for every raving write-up of a "lush, fruity red", there's another devoted to "bracing, zippy" whites.
Paul Gregutt might have picked up on a trend with his compelling case for lower-alcohol vintages. But as it so happens, his pick of the week (a Gruner Veltliner) was roundly dismissed as so "5 minutes ago" by wine experts polled in the SF Chronicle. Cyrus wine director Jim Rollston's haughty put-down: "Gruner Veltliner is still a great wine, but it's had its moment." Ouch.