I’ll be “slumming it” at the Meadowood in Napa  Valley this week, taking part in the 2011 Professional Wine Writers Symposium as a panelist and generally trying to figure out how I got so lucky that I can have opportunity to eat foie gras five times in one week.

What’s that sound…? I think I hear my arteries clogging…  graaaaeeeeeeekkkk…..

Anyway, among the attendees at last year’s Wine Writers Symposium were folks from the magazine Sommelier Journal, with which I’ve had a bit of a love affair (that’s a figurative love affair with the magazine, people, and not a literal love affair with any of the people producing the magazine…) for the past few years.  I was contacted last week by Sommelier Journal’s Business Manager Phil Vogels (an all-around nice guy and semi-frequent commenter here on 1WD), who let me know that SJ was recently honored with some (well-deserved) Eddy Awards.

To celebrate, the Sommelier Journal folks are offering 1WD readers free on-line (HTML and PDF formats) access to their January 31, 2011 issue for a limited time.  Just head over to http://www.sommelierjournal.com/view/view.aspx and start reading! Punch in username info@sommelierjournal.comand password sneakpeek if prompted for access.

If  you like what you see, SJ now has an online-only subscription option available for $39 a year.  Just sayin’…

Cheers!

1WineDude.com readers are no strangers to Sommelier Journal, the wine mag with which I started a bit of a wine-geeky-info-love-affair back in 2008 (I’m a subscriber). You may also recall that last year I took SJ to task (tongue firmly in cheek, of course) for their Top Wine Releases of 2009 (as chosen by wine personalities and pros invited to contribute to the list, choosing wines that were particularly memorable to them from those that they tasted during the year).

As many of you may also know, I’m a fan of that recap approach.  But while I loved the selections and the manner in which they were solicited, I wasn’t a fan of the price tags to be found in the list – last year’s round-up had an average bottle price of $97.18.

Sommelier Journal’s Business Manager, Phil Vogels is a nice guy and a (semi) frequent contributor to the comments here on 1WD, and pointed out in the discussion that followed my critique that the average price was mathematically skewed by a small number of very pricey wines – and that the majority of the wines were actually quite affordable:

“You’d be hard-pressed to break down the list in a way that didn’t have under $30 as the highest category…”

Well, the 2010 edition has hit the shelves as part of Sommelier Journal’s December 15, 2010 issue.  How does the new list fare in these belt-tightening times?…

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A few tidbits to end the week on some hopeful notes:

Palate Press Kicks Ass for Haiti Relief

Mad props are due to on-line wine e-zine Palate Press for their efforts (mostly spearheaded by yeoman David Honig, its Publisher) to raise money for the Red Cross’ Haiti Relief & Development activities. 

David organized a stellar wine auction catalog that leveraged the generosity of dozens of wine producers and wine industry stalwarts.  The result was well over $10,000 raised in donations to the Red Cross for the people of Haiti.  David’s work was nothing short of amazing and he’s really shown what the wine blogging world is capable of when it’s determined and focused. 

THANK YOU DAVID!

In a similar vein, the wine world is also reaching out to help Chile take care of its own after the recent earthquake there impacted not just wine production, but also affected the lives of many of Chile’s winery workers and their families…

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In its December 2009 issue, the fine wine industry mag Sommelier Journal decided to take an interesting and unique angle on the ‘year end wine recap.’

Instead of compiling a year-end best-of list, Editor David Vogels asked a hand-selected group (consisting primarily of wine directors, sommeliers and other wine pros) to contribute what they thought to be the most memorable wine they’d tasted in 2009.  The only restrictions: the wine had to be available in the U.S., and the contributor shouldn’t be commercially representing the wine in any way.

It’s a novel and very entertaining way to recap another year in vino.  The result is presented in the December issue as a 40 selection wine list (along with tasting notes), divvied into Sparkling, White, Rose, Red, and Dessert categories.

The prices of the chosen wines tells us some interesting things about how wine pros view the wine world.  The average price of a wine on that list?

$97.18.

Holy crap!..

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