VINOGRAPHY: a wine blog

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Don Cornwell, The Fine Wine Bidder's Hero

Don Cornwell may well be a wine fraudster's worst nightmare -- a highly motivated, highly educated, and extremely experienced collector who is tired of seeing people pay outrageous sums for fake wine and of auction houses that seem to have no qualms about selling it to them. Cornwell has been collecting burgundy for more than three decades. But he's not just a wealthy lawyer with a taste for Pinot Noir. By night he's the owner and editor of the Oxidized Burgundies Wiki Site, which is building a community database of experiences with prematurely oxidized white burgundies. And by day he... continue reading

Posted by: Alder on February 7, 2012 3:10 PM

Filed under: Ramblings and Rants

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La Paulee 2012 Burgundy Tasting: February 22-25, San Francisco

Every budding wine lover faces what can often seem like a daunting mountain to climb. There are so many wines in the world to learn about and experience, it's not hard to feel overwhelmed. It's also quite common to feel a certain sense of frustration, the kind characterized by an ambition that far outstrips our own means to fulfill it. Many of the wines that passionate wine lovers wish they could taste are simply out of reach -- too rare, too popular, and too expensive. When I was first starting out in my journey down the roads of wine, the... continue reading

Posted by: Alder on February 6, 2012 10:57 AM

Filed under: Food Activities , Wine Activities

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The Best Zinfandels of California: Tasting at ZAP 2012

You can always count on the ZAP Zinfandel festival in San Francisco to draw a crowd, no matter what the economy is doing. The fact that things are picking up, both for business, and specifically in the wine world, meant for a very lively event last week. The big news was a new venue for this traditionally mobbed tasting, that most attendees seemed to love, myself included. While the arrangement of vintners left something to be desired (tables were supposed to be alphabetical, but it was more like alphabet soup than a line from A to Z), everything else about... continue reading

Posted by: Alder on February 4, 2012 10:32 AM

Filed under: Red Wine , Wine Activities , Wine Reviews

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Vinography Images: Bright Zinfandel

Bright Zinfandel ALEXANDER VALLEY, CA: A brightly backlit zinfandel grape leaf turns vivid red in Autumn in Sonoma County. I've got Zinfandel on the brain this week thanks to the ZAP festival. INSTRUCTIONS: Download this image by right-clicking on the image and selecting "save link as" or "save target as" and then select the desired location on your computer to save the image. Mac users can also just click the image to open the full size view and drag that to their desktops. To set the image as your desktop wallpaper, Mac users should follow these instructions, while PC... continue reading

Posted by: Alder on February 3, 2012 10:47 PM

Filed under: Vinography Images

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Social Media and the Wine Industry: A New Era

Ordinary wine consumers may want to skip this post. On occasion I write purely for the wine industry, and today I'd like to address the role of social media in the wine industry. Whenever I write these kinds of things, I like to remind people that by day I run a company called HYDRANT that gets paid a lot of money to help big brands be extremely successful marketing, selling, and engaging with their customers online. In short, what follows below isn't just random opinion. Let's be clear, first, what I mean by social media, a phrase that has become... continue reading

Posted by: Alder on February 2, 2012 11:14 PM

Filed under: Ramblings and Rants

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2012 Dark & Delicious Petite Sirah Tasting: February 17, Alameda

I've referred to it in the past as "the beast." Possessing tannins that need to be tamed through intelligent winemaking, Petite Sirah can truly be a monster of a wine. One of the least-well-known red grape varieties that are commonly grown in California, it does not command legions of rabid followers like those who attended last week's ZAP Zinfandel festival, or the loyal drinkers of Cabernet, or even those who swear by Syrah, from which it takes its misleading name. In the right hands, however, Petite Sirah can be a stunning wine -- deep, resonant, and rich. Petite Sirah has... continue reading

Posted by: Alder on February 1, 2012 10:00 PM

Filed under: Wine Activities

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The Essence of Wine: Vanilla

Image © 2012 Leigh Beisch Sprung from the legendary blood of forbidden lovers suffering the wrath of a father king, slender jungle orchids climb skyward, their fruit bearing heavenly scents. The Aztecs demanded tlilxochitl, this black gold, in tribute after conquering the tribes who first unlocked vanilla's secrets. As intense as it is ethereal, vanilla possesses a singular, breathtaking purity of aroma. Barrels imbue wine with much of the vanilla we taste. Their singed oak can offer up an echo of flowers in ancient forests, or deeper notes of caramel and butterscotch. Sometimes floating above the wine's fruit, sometimes wrapped... continue reading

Posted by: Alder on January 31, 2012 10:24 PM

Filed under: The Essence of Wine

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Australia as a Lesson on Currency and the Wine Industry

Some of the big news last week in the wine world had to do with the shifting buying habits of our friends Down Under. Thanks to the vagaries of the international currency markets, the Australian Dollar has appreciated greatly against the Euro, and for the first time since the Euro was launched, stuff from Europe is pretty cheap in Australia. So, what does a wine loving country like Australia (they consume about three times as much wine per capita as America) do when imports get cheap? They stop buying Australian wine all the time and they start buying imported wine.... continue reading

Posted by: Alder on January 30, 2012 8:54 PM

Filed under: Ramblings and Rants , Wine News

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2006 Peay Vineyards Roussane/Marsanne Blend, Sonoma Coast

As a wine reviewer who gets paid next to nothing for his work, I have the luxury of only reviewing wines that I think are worth writing about. I've got no deadlines, no quotas to fill, and no obligation to anyone. All of which means that it's always a great pleasure to say nice things about a wine or wines that I enjoy. But this is perhaps the most pleasurable kind of review I write. The review of a winery whose wines I can safely say are all spectacularly good -- so good that I will simply buy any wine... continue reading

Posted by: Alder on January 28, 2012 4:52 PM

Filed under: Boutique Wines , Older Vintages , White Wine , Wine Reviews

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2012 SF Chronicle Wine Competition Public Tasting: February 18, San Francisco

If there is one public wine tasting event that rivals San Francisco's yearly ZAP Zinfandel tasting for sheer size and chaos, it could only be the annual SF Chronicle Wine Competition Tasting. Every year this competition is judged by more than 60 wine professionals, in which they award medals to their top choices from among over 5,000 wines from all across America. This competition has grown over the last ten years to be the largest competitive tasting of American wines in the world. The judges hand out hundreds of medals and awards. Those awards are released to the public, and... continue reading

Posted by: Alder on January 28, 2012 3:43 PM

Filed under: Wine Activities

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Vinography Images: Moon Over Sonoma

Moon Over Sonoma SONOMA COUNTY, CA: A full moon rises over an oak tree in Alexander Valley. INSTRUCTIONS: Download this image by right-clicking on the image and selecting "save link as" or "save target as" and then select the desired location on your computer to save the image. Mac users can also just click the image to open the full size view and drag that to their desktops. To set the image as your desktop wallpaper, Mac users should follow these instructions, while PC users should follow these. PRINTS: Fine art prints of this image and others are available... continue reading

Posted by: Alder on January 27, 2012 10:11 PM

Filed under: Vinography Images

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Gallo and Constellation Screwed by U.S. Tort Law

I'm sure I'm going to catch hell for this post from any number of quarters, but it needs to be said. Big wine companies are favorite punching bags for wine lovers that would never buy their products. Sometime's there's a good reason for this, like when they throw their weight around in the marketplace in ways that aren't exactly good for the industry. The bigger the company, the bigger the mistakes they can make as well. When they make mistakes, sometimes these companies can be hung out to dry simply because they have deep pockets. And that's exactly what seems... continue reading

Posted by: Alder on January 24, 2012 1:51 PM

Filed under: Ramblings and Rants , Wine News

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The States of Wine Shipping

'It will cost the economy thousands of jobs.' 'It will reduce tax revenues and destroy retailers.' 'It will result in an epidemic of teen drunk driving.' These were but a few of the vociferous arguments made on 5 January against a bill introduced to the New Jersey state legislature that merely proposed to allow New Jersey state wineries (of which there are now more than 40) to ship their wines to state residents, just like wineries in the neighbouring state of New York. The individuals offering these arguments were primarily representatives of the state's liquor wholesalers, who purportedly spent more... continue reading

Posted by: Alder on January 24, 2012 8:43 AM

Filed under: Ramblings and Rants

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The Essence of Wine: Honey

Image © 2012 Leigh Beisch Sunshine, gathered from flowers by tiny apian efforts, forged into ambrosia that tasted of immortality to the Greeks and Egyptians. The alchemy of honey seems no less marvelous even to those that have braved the swarm to witness its creation. Like honey, wine serves to transmute the world's most basic elements into a form seductive and irresistible. When wines taste of honey they seem to taste of sunlight itself, a brightness that coats the mouth with a satin warmth and gently tugs at the heart like a summer breeze. The scents of honey wafting from... continue reading

Posted by: Alder on January 23, 2012 9:53 PM

Filed under: The Essence of Wine

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Book Review: Wine Wars by Mike Veseth

Review by Tim Patterson. A big part of wine's allure is that it is so many different things: a source of alcohol, a source of pleasure, a gateway for entry into the mystical, the erotic, the enlightened, the divine, the silly, and sometimes the idiotic. But for thousands of years, it has also been a commodity--and that's where this book comes in. Worrying about wine as a commodity seems uninspiring, even tawdry, compared, say, to worrying about the distinctive terroir of some patch of dirt in Alsace. But without the buying and selling, we'd all be home winemakers, wine production... continue reading

Posted by: Tim on January 21, 2012 1:56 PM

Filed under: Book Reviews

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Vinography Images: The Mustard

The Mustard RUSSIAN RIVER VALLEY, CA: Flowering mustard growing between the grapevines signals the beginning of spring as seen in Healdsburg, Sonoma County, California. INSTRUCTIONS: Download this image by right-clicking on the image and selecting "save link as" or "save target as" and then select the desired location on your computer to save the image. Mac users can also just click the image to open the full size view and drag that to their desktops. To set the image as your desktop wallpaper, Mac users should follow these instructions, while PC users should follow these. PRINTS: Fine art prints... continue reading

Posted by: Alder on January 20, 2012 8:53 PM

Filed under: Vinography Images

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2008 Alta Maria Vineyards Pinot Noir, Santa Maria Valley

If I were doing now what I thought I would probably do with my life as a sophomore in college, I would be a photographer living in a tent or an old VW Bus somewhere, splitting my time between rock climbing and taking pictures of stuff that most people wouldn't give a second glance. This wouldn't necessarily be a bad thing, but I offer it as proof of how little sense I had of what path my life would take. James Ontiveros, on the other hand, was spending his sophomore year at Cal Poly, San Luis Obispo going to classes... continue reading

Posted by: Alder on January 19, 2012 11:17 PM

Filed under: Boutique Wines , Red Wine , Wine Reviews

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The Essence of Wine: Earth

Image © 2012 Leigh Beisch Earth. The first of the elements that the ancients held as the basis for all life. The source of all our sustenance. Wine has always been inextricably linked to the dirt, the root of terroir. That wine can sometimes taste or smell of earth should come as no surprise. Like walking through the spongy loam of a dark wet forest, scents of soil and mushroom, dust and mud often resonate with a dark bass note underneath other flavors and aromas. Flavors of earth are often borne on the textures of tannin, as if the very... continue reading

Posted by: Alder on January 17, 2012 10:23 PM

Filed under: The Essence of Wine

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Introducing The Essence of Wine

Many facets of wine contribute to its allure and mystery. But foremost among wine's most magical qualities must be the remarkable landscape of flavor and aroma to be found in the glass. That mere grape juice, given time and the workings of the microscopic kingdom, can yield flavors beyond description has doubtless played a central role in making wine mankind's most historically sacred fluid, beyond our own lifeblood. With eyes closed, a glass of wine can transport us not only to climes far removed, but also through time. These journeys are provoked by flavor. Our deep sense memories are drawn... continue reading

Posted by: Alder on January 17, 2012 10:22 PM

Filed under: The Essence of Wine

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Reflections on 8 Years of Wine Blogging

Eight years ago, I decided that instead of giving my friends the same advice over and over again about my favorite wines and restaurants, I would start a blog -- both so that I would have someplace to send them, and so that I could learn about what a blog was and how it worked. And that, as they say, was the first day of the rest of my life. I've been writing about wine almost every day since then, pausing only to go on my honeymoon, hang out with my new baby girl, and go fishing in Alaska this... continue reading

Posted by: Alder on January 14, 2012 11:41 PM

Filed under: Ramblings and Rants

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