VINOGRAPHY: a wine blog
Wine and food adventures in San Francisco and around the world
~ Recently in Ramblings and Rants Category ~
Still Seats Left for the Sake Dinner at Manresa
Some of the best meals of my life have been from the kitchen of chef David Kinch at Manresa Restaurant in Los Gatos. I'd take half a tasting menu from him over anything at the French Laundry, any day of the week. Which is why I'm humbled at his continued interest in collaborating with me to provide an unparalleled dining and drinking experience for a few adventurous diners every once in a while. David and I both have an enduring love for Japanese cuisine. If you've ever eaten at Manresa you may have noticed this influence in Chef Kinch's cooking.... continue reading 
- Posted by: Alder on August 27, 2008 7:35 PM
- Filed under: Food Activities , Ramblings and Rants , Wine Activities
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Wine Spectator Restaurant Awards Exposed as a Total Farce
My colleague Jim Gordon who currently edits Wines & Vines magazine just pointed me to an article on their web site that made my jaw hit the table. Reporting from the recent meeting of the American Society for Wine Economists, writer Peter Mitham describes a presentation by researcher Robin Goldstein, who seems to have performed a sting operation on the Wine Spectator Restaurant Awards and exposed them as a total farce, as part of his ongoing investigations on the perceptions of value and quality in wine. In summary: 1. Researcher invents fake restaurant in Italy. 2. Researcher builds web site... continue reading
- Posted by: Alder on August 19, 2008 8:02 PM
- Filed under: Ramblings and Rants , Wine News
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When is The Right Time to Establish Wine Appellations?
The birth of a wine region is a fascinating thing to watch, and I'm sure an even more fascinating process to be a part of. Much of the wine that we drink comes from regions that have been established anywhere from decades to centuries ago, but the quest for great wine and great places to grow it (not to mention the changing whims of the global climate) means that there are always new frontiers when it comes to wine growing. All new wine regions begin the same -- with a pioneering spirit and a hell of a lot of determination.... continue reading
- Posted by: Alder on August 16, 2008 8:11 PM
- Filed under: Ramblings and Rants , Wine News
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My ISP Owes You an Apology
For the last 18 or so hours, and for some people it may still be so, Vinography has been deader than a doornail, thanks to a botched network upgrade by my hosting provider. I'm sorry for the inconvenience, and I thank you for your patience. This is only the third or fourth time Vinography has gone down in about 5 years, so while it's incredibly annoying, I'm trying to keep it in perspective. The irony of this downtime is that just two days ago I upgraded my Movable Type installation to the new release which dramatically improved the performance of... continue reading
- Posted by: Alder on August 16, 2008 3:28 PM
- Filed under: Ramblings and Rants
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Wine Competitions are One Big Racket
If I ever wanted to make a lot of money in the wine industry, I know just what I'd do. It wouldn't be starting a vineyard, or publishing a book, or making my own wine, or marketing someone else's. No if I wanted to make a pile of money, I'd simply organize a big wine competition. Such competitions and their gold medals are good for one thing and one thing only: making a pile of money for the people who organize them. I don't believe the do a bit of good for the wine industry as a whole, no matter... continue reading
- Posted by: Alder on August 10, 2008 10:03 PM
- Filed under: Ramblings and Rants
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Hear That? It's the Sound of a Billion Wine Corks Pulled in China.
It's no surprise that with the Olympics going on, all manner of news media have turned their eye on China. The wine media have taken this opportunity to explore and explicate the rapidly growing interest in wine that seems to have arisen in China in the last few years. Much of this coverage is quite superficial, but increasingly journalists are actually exploring China's wines, wine regions, and wine culture. Two recent articles are worth reading for their thoughtful commentary on China's burgeoning wine culture. The first, from the ever articulate Mike Steinberger at Slate, draws on his experience living in... continue reading
- Posted by: Alder on August 8, 2008 3:32 PM
- Filed under: Ramblings and Rants , Wine News
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Manresa Restaurant and Vinography Present: The Sake Dinner, September 10th, 2008
Those of you who have been hanging around these parts for some time know that on occasion I get together with my incredibly talented friend Chef David Kinch of Manresa Restaurant in Los Gatos, and we collaborate on a meal together. He cooks and I pick a bunch of wines that I think people might enjoy drinking while they eat what I maintain is the best cuisine in all of Northern California. It's been a while since we've done one of these dinners, but I'm pleased to announce a very unique event that we're simply calling The Sake Dinner. The... continue reading
- Posted by: Alder on August 7, 2008 9:26 AM
- Filed under: Ramblings and Rants
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The Shakespeare of Terroir
"Oh my God," Terry Theise says, walking over to me, the only guy in the room with a laptop, with a twinkle in his eye. "You're not going to actually write down what I say, are you? Please promise me one thing, that you won't keep track of how many F-Bombs I drop." And that is how I first met the guy whose writing and wines I have admired for several years, ever since I was first introduced to his portfolio and his writings by distributor Hiram Simon, who runs the well regarded WineWise & The Vienna Wine Company in... continue reading
- Posted by: Alder on August 4, 2008 11:15 PM
- Filed under: Ramblings and Rants
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Just When You Thought France Was Making Progress
No matter how bad you think you have it, there are other folks who have it worse than you. We American wine lovers like to bitch about what a royal pain it is to buy wine from out of state wineries and from internet merchants. In truth, it is a broken and corrupt system -- a perversion of the free market that enriches protectionist state governments and their wholesale lobbyists. But it's not as broken as France. Yes, this is another rant against the idiocy of the French government and their utterly astonishing tendency to ruin their own wine industry,... continue reading
- Posted by: Alder on July 31, 2008 11:23 PM
- Filed under: Ramblings and Rants , Wine Reviews
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How Simple Should Wine Get?
As an advocate for wine, I try to help people enjoy wine more (or for the first time) in whatever small way I can. I recommend what I think are interesting wines that range in price from $10 to several hundred, and I'm always consciously careful about explaining aspects of winemaking or the wine business to my readers whenever they seem relevant or necessary. At the same time, however, I strive desperately not to dumb down wine. It is a complex beast in some ways, and part of its beauty is in its complexity. This desire to avoid oversimplifying wine... continue reading
- Posted by: Alder on July 30, 2008 11:16 PM
- Filed under: Ramblings and Rants , Wine News
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Messages in a Bottle: Ode to the Blended Wine
Growing up in America cripples us wine lovers from the very start. Sure, we are born into the land of boundless opportunity, where the dreams and hard work of a vineyard worker can result in the ownership of a winery twenty years later. But unless our parents provide us with a very particular upbringing, we grow up thinking that wine isn't wine unless it has the name of the grape on the front of the label. America and its wine lovers have a varietal bias. There's nothing inherently wrong with an attraction to wines made from a single grape variety.... continue reading
- Posted by: Alder on July 23, 2008 11:12 PM
- Filed under: Messages In A Bottle , Ramblings and Rants
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Where Vinography Gets Read Around the World
I don't get a lot of reader requests for me to write specific articles here on Vinography, but a series of e-mail conversations with a reader today led to a request that I publish some information about where my other readers come from. This particular reader was in Hong Kong and was proud of being part of my international contingent of readers, but wondered where else around the world I get traffic from. Well, since you asked, I include below the list of the places that readers have come from in the last month, in order of descending traffic. For... continue reading
- Posted by: Alder on July 20, 2008 10:42 PM
- Filed under: Ramblings and Rants
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That Smoky 2008 Vintage: California Wine and Wildfires
There were a few weeks in June when the last place a wine lover would have wanted to be was the ordinarily idyllic Napa Valley. A thick haze of blue-gray smoke hung in the air, as if the San Francisco summer fog had crept north and picked up every bit of car exhaust along the way between the Golden Gate bridge and Oakville Crossroads. Unless you've been hiding under a rock lately, you'll know that here in California we're having an unprecedented fire season. Somewhere over 3000 blazes in just the first month of the summer, when in some years... continue reading
- Posted by: Alder on July 18, 2008 10:47 PM
- Filed under: Ramblings and Rants , Wine News
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Grand Jury Cru: Part Deux
I wrote a post over a year ago entitled Grand Jury Cru, which described the unfortunate plight of the wineries of St. Emilion in Bordeaux, who at the time had recently been told by a French court that the reclassification of the Chateaux (into Grand Cru, Premiere Cru, etc.) was null and void. At the time everyone, including myself, believed there would be a political resolution to the issue by the time the current vintage went into bottles. And indeed, the issue yo-yo'ed back and forth several more times as the French bureaucracy and the lobbying bodies tussled over the... continue reading
- Posted by: Alder on July 13, 2008 11:57 PM
- Filed under: Ramblings and Rants , Wine News
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Subjectivity, Aesthetics, and the Evaluation of Wine
If you'd rather drink your wine instead of intellectualizing about it, close your browser window now. However, if you're game for an occasional foray into philosophy, then let's talk about something I've been "arguing" about with one of my readers. The question at hand is whether subjective judgments have any place in proper wine criticism. To put it plainly, should wine critics evaluations of wine include notions of "enjoyment" or "personal preference" ? If you want to witness the origins of this discussion, you'll need to read the comment thread on my recent post about the Myth of the Monolithic... continue reading
- Posted by: Alder on July 11, 2008 11:56 PM
- Filed under: Ramblings and Rants
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Introducing the World's Best (FREE!) Wine Cellar Management Software
This constitutes the first and possibly the only time you will ever find me endorsing, recommending, and generally plugging a commercial product (that isn't a bottle of wine or sake) here on Vinography. There are two clear reasons for this. The first is that the product I am endorsing is free. The second is because I designed it. Those of you who know a little bit about me may be aware that by day I run an interactive design and strategy consulting firm called HYDRANT, which, among other things designs some of the best e-commerce and web applications in... continue reading
- Posted by: Alder on July 9, 2008 10:05 PM
- Filed under: Ramblings and Rants , Wine News
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Red Wine and Charred Meat Cure Leprosy
I'm sorry about that headline. I couldn't help myself. Everyone else is doing it. When I first started writing about wine several years ago, I thought one of the things I might do was to help my readers keep up with the health news surrounding wine, so I started posting little tidbits every time I saw a news item about the health benefits of wine. After about three weeks it was clear that unless I was planning on writing the Wine and Health Blog, there was just no way I could possibly cover it all. There's a new bit of... continue reading
- Posted by: Alder on July 7, 2008 11:33 PM
- Filed under: Ramblings and Rants , Wine News
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Into the Wilderness with Wine
The trunk contains a cooler. The cooler contains ten bottles of wine: three whites, two rosés, and five reds. In four hours I will be miles from nowhere. No cell phone coverage, no Internet access -- just the wife, the baby daughter, four days' supply of vino and a corkscrew. My oldest friend in the world is getting married outside of Yosemite this weekend and I'm a Bridesman, or whatever you might want to call it. I have three jobs over the next few days: get stuff done for the wedding, stand up there at the altar without looking like... continue reading
- Posted by: Alder on July 3, 2008 7:36 AM
- Filed under: Ramblings and Rants
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Sake Rice Matters: the Experts are Wrong.
By W. Blake Gray How much does the type of rice matter in sake? "Not much," most experts say. But I disagree, and one of my favorite breweries, Dewazakura from Yamagata prefecture, has made it possible to taste for yourself. Wine lovers may take it as a given that rice "varietals" matter. We all believe we can tell a Pinot Noir from a Cabernet Sauvignon without difficulty. So why wouldn't we be able to taste the difference between Yamada Nishiki and Gohyakumangoku? With sake, though, the brewing process has always been considered more important than the type of rice. The... continue reading
- Posted by: Blake on July 1, 2008 10:05 PM
- Filed under: Ramblings and Rants , Sake
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The Myth of the Monolithic Wine Palate
If you have more than a passing interest in wine, you've no doubt heard some form of this common complaint: wine critic Robert Parker's palate, with it's emphasis for 'hedonistic fruit bombs,' has ruined the wine world, because now everyone makes (unappealing/monstrous/one-dimensional/sweet/spoofulated/choose-your-adjective) wines that taste the same and have the singular goal of a high point score from Parker. I have long maintained that this "sky is falling" point of view (perhaps best typified by the irresponsible polemic, Mondovino) and in particular the demonization of Robert Parker's palate as monolithic represents a sort of irrational fanaticism with little basis in... continue reading
- Posted by: Alder on June 28, 2008 4:42 PM
- Filed under: Ramblings and Rants , Wine News
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Terroir vs. Pleasure in Wine
How many times have I told myself not to meddle in the world of terroir? Having (or starting) discussions about the traditionally French notion of how wines possess unmistakable signatures of their place of origin is not unlike having discussions about religion and sexual orientation: you need to take care who you have them with. But here I am again meddling in the "somewhereness" of wines, to borrow writer Matt Kramer's favorite shorthand for terroir. The question of the day is whether terroir includes the "bad" flavors as well as good -- and if it does, whether such flavors should... continue reading
- Posted by: Alder on June 18, 2008 9:19 PM
- Filed under: Ramblings and Rants , Wine News
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Blogging From Paradise: Day 2 at the Aspen Food and Wine Classic
Day two of Aspen's Food and Wine Classic was blessed with the same weather as the first. Crystalline blue skies, 75 degrees and sunny. I gave my second Napa's Next Superstars seminar to a nearly full auditorium at the Given Institute, and after hanging around to chat with some of the attendees about the wines, I was free. With all my seminars behind me I had the opportunity to finally explore the Classic as a spectator instead of a speaker. The first thing I did was head down to the Grand Tasting tent to get a few bites of food... continue reading
- Posted by: Alder on June 14, 2008 10:54 PM
- Filed under: Food Activities , Ramblings and Rants , Wine Activities
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Wine Blogging From Paradise: Day One of the Aspen Food & Wine Classic
I just finished my first day at the Aspen Food and Wine Classic, and my second day back in my home town for the first time in 14 years. It's been quite an honor to be asked to speak at this year's classic, but so far it has been an incredible pleasure and a deeply nostalgic experience. Returning to the little town where I grew up (most people don't think of Aspen as so small, but in my day there were about 9,000 permanent residents -- my high school class had 72 people in it) is a very surreal experience.... continue reading
- Posted by: Alder on June 13, 2008 10:15 PM
- Filed under: Food Activities , Ramblings and Rants , Wine Activities
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Ethiopian Wine: A New Frontier in Africa
I'm a sucker for pioneers. Especially those that strike out into the wilderness to try making great wine where no one has tried before. This is why I was positively tickled when I learned about people making wine in Thailand a few of years ago. My latest source of delight in this regard is Ethiopia, which frankly is a much more likely locale for winemaking than Thailand. Thanks to the famine in the 80's, most people's mental picture of Ethiopia looks like this: Photo by Calips96 But Ethiopia is far from a flat wasteland. In fact, it is incredibly mountainous.... continue reading
- Posted by: Alder on June 8, 2008 10:27 PM
- Filed under: Ramblings and Rants , Wine News
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France Makes Progress Towards Rational Wine Laws
I can't tell you how happy it makes me to write a piece acknowledging progress in France towards a rational approach to laws concerning wine production and marketing. It seems like every few months for the last couple of years, I have found myself with my head in my hands, bemoaning another setback for the French wine industry at the hands of ignorant, stubborn, and backwards politicians. I've written so many articles criticizing French policies that some of you have even written to complain that I have something against the country, despite my professed love for French wine. This past... continue reading
- Posted by: Alder on June 7, 2008 5:31 PM
- Filed under: Ramblings and Rants , Wine News
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The Flavors in Wine are Yours Alone
I do not need to tell you that I'm a geek of the first degree when it comes to wine, but you may not know that my interests in the minutiae of life extend beyond the wine world into lots of other areas. When it comes right down to it, I just love knowing how things work. And why. Which is why I absolutely fell for Harold McGee when I first encountered his book, On Food and Cooking: The Science and Lore of the Kitchen, which might as well have been titled: The Geeks Guide to the Kitchen. McGee took... continue reading
- Posted by: Alder on June 4, 2008 10:54 PM
- Filed under: Ramblings and Rants , Wine News
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What Happens to All Those Wine Samples?
When I first started writing Vinography, I'll admit, I had fantasies that one day, just maybe, someone would send me some free wine to review. At the time it was nearly inconceivable. Here I was, just a passionate wine lover, tapping away my thoughts in an unnoticed corner of the Internet. The idea that any winemaker could possibly even find my web site, let alone think it might be worth their while to send me a bottle wasn't an idea I entertained with any seriousness. Of course, one day I did get a box of wines, much to my surprise.... continue reading
- Posted by: Alder on June 1, 2008 11:10 PM
- Filed under: Ramblings and Rants
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