I taste a bunch-o-wine (technical term for more than most people). So each week, I share some of my wine reviews (mostly from samples) and tasting notes in a “mini-review” format.
 
They are meant to be quirky, fun, and (mostly) easily-digestible reviews of (mostly) currently available wines (click here for the skinny on how to read them), and are presented links to help you find them, so that you can try them out for yourself. Cheers!

• 2016 Larry Hyde Hyde Vineyard Estate Syrah (Carneros): A smooth – and fruity – character, who’s surprising in ways that are pretty much entirely good. $60 A-
• 2015 Clos du Val Hirondelle Vineyard Estate Cabernet Sauvignon (Stags Leap District): Basically, this is Cab that’s as big as life ina ll of the ways that you will either love or hate, depending on your tolerance for the mystique of The Valley. $120 A
• NV J Vineyards CA Cuvee (California): An invigorating stroll through apple and pear orchards, sunny day included. $27 B+
• 2016 Herzog Wine Cellars Late Harvest Orange Muscat (California): Irresistible, just like those chewy mandarin orange candies that it so successfully evokes. $20 B-
• 2016 Halter Ranch Vineyard Ancestor Estate Reserve (Paso Robles): Drop. Dead. Sexxxxxxyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyy! $60 A-
• 2014 Enrico Serafino Rose (Alta Langa): That crowd-pleasing, cherry-and-flowers alternative to Champers for your NYE festivities. $26 B+
• NV Palmer & Co Brut Reserve (Champagne): Dry, elegant, and someone got almost the entire bread loaf stuffed into that glass. $40 A-
• 2014 Hugel & Fils Pinot Gris Classic (Alsace): If this were any more on-point, it would be fired in the air as part of an archery contest. $17 B+
• 2012 Tenuta Carretta Barolo Vigneti in Cannubi (Barolo): Aiming for Old School, but delivering more like Ancient School. $75 B+
• 2015 Stemmari Hedonis Riserva Nero d’Avola (Sicilia): Hedonistic, nearly to a fault; but also authentic, nearly to a saving grace. $50 B+

So… several days ago, I published a minor screed on what I perceived as the grim future of wine writing, which ended up generating a good deal of discussion and more traffic than most people send here to actually read about wine itself… but anyway…

One of the best responses to my rant came via another blog (and yeah, I realize that bu writing about someone writing about me writing about wine is several orders of magnitude of meta), Dwight Furrow’s Edible Arts. Dwight is a PhD (Philosophy) and WSET Advanced and CSW, so I’m going to make the (extremely safe) assumption that he knows what he’s doing when it comes to stringing words together regarding how we as humans conceptualize our discourse on wine.

Dwight’s entire response is worth a read (and so it’s embedded below), but I wanted to highlight two quotes in particular:

“I think Tom [Wark] is right about [ more hopeful view of wine writing’s future ], not because some magical model of paid journalism will reappear—it won’t—but because people will continue to find wine is an object of love worth writing about.”

“We have a disturbing tendency in the U.S. of thinking that the only people who are competent and motivated to do X are people who are paid to do X. Writing and the arts are perhaps the best example of an activity where this assumption doesn’t hold.”

I love this response for several reasons, primarily because Dwight hits on what has made user-generated content such a potent force in today’s marketplace (and in modern discourse, in general). What I love most about it, however, is that it equates amateur content about wine with amateur content about everything since ever. That’s an important reminder, because we tend to forget that amateur content can be excellent, despite the fact that this has been true for a few hundred years. We are distracted by the fact that we can find both the lousy and the excellent amateur wine writing with equal amount of ease in our online world, and so we draw the incorrect conclusion that somehow there is more crap created these days relative to excellence than there has been in the past.

I still find the future of professional wine writing – in terms of making a living at it – very dark, indeed. But Dwight has rekindled a bit of hope in me that wine content in general is likely to remain strong for a good long time.

Cheers!

I taste a bunch-o-wine (technical term for more than most people). So each week, I share some of my wine reviews (mostly from samples) and tasting notes in a “mini-review” format.
 
They are meant to be quirky, fun, and (mostly) easily-digestible reviews of (mostly) currently available wines (click here for the skinny on how to read them), and are presented links to help you find them, so that you can try them out for yourself. Cheers!

• 2017 Susana Balbo Brioso White Blend (Valle de Uco): There’s pretty much nothing about this floral little number that isn’t tasty, or expressive. $24 B+
• 2016 Dominio del Plata BenMarco Expresivo (Mendoza): Herbs, violets, and more sexiness than Right Said Fred could have handled. $34 B+
• 2016 Bodegas Forjas del Salnes Leirana Finca Genoveva Albarino (Rias Baixas): Vibrant lemons, having a seaside vacation within spitting distance of the sea spray at a superb high-end resort.  $50 A-
• 2014 Atlantida Tintilla (Vino de la Tierra de Cadiz): Basically, a Parliament album; funky, bright, fun, and beautiful. $38 A-
• 2013 Elo Monastrell (Yecla): Chewy dark berries and blue flowers, approaching with very funky dance steps $35 B+
  
• 2016 BookCliff Vineyards Riesling (Grand Valley): Rich in its way, and politely, without being obnoxious about it. $14 B-
• 2017 Chateau Grand Traverse Dry Riesling (Old Mission Peninsula): It showed up with both flowers and more than enough energy for all of us. $13 B-
• 2016 Riverbench Estate Chardonnay (Santa Maria Valley): You’ll think that it’s a tad too buttery; and you’ll be totally wrong. $26 B+
• 2016 Tolosa Winery Estate Pinot Noir (Edna Valley): Leather clad sultry characters that are selling leather, then relaxing in leather chairs while putting on more leather. $68 A-
• 2014 Louis M. Martini Monte Rosso Vineyard Cabernet Sauvignon (Sonoma Valley): Flashback to the wine biz of the `90s, in all of the right ways. $90 A

We’ve finally (!) come to the end of my first go-round with the Monferrato Barbera folks over at MyNameIsBarbera.com. Hard to believe that initial Barbera gig has finished (though I may be working with the Piedmontese in other capacities in the new year – stay tuned).

In my final piece in the Barbera Moves series, I urge you to kind of ignore Barbera; temporarily, at least. To put that ostensibly odd stance in proper context, here’s a brief quote (and yeah, I am quoting myself):

Barbera is the “gateway drug” to the rest of Piedmont. Barbera is a bridge that starts an adventure into the history, land, people, and tastes that make up such compelling and unique wines as Ruchè, Grignolino, Albarossa.

from MyNameIsBarbera.com

Anyway… for the full farewell take, grab your whip, fedora, and sense of adventure, then head over to the MNiB site and start reading.

Cheers!