February 2014 Answers.com Wine Articles Roundup (Snowmaggedon Edition)

After the most recent Snowmaggedon, which, if I’ve got my facts straight, is the 47th of the current Winter season, I can now tell you that I hate snow and ice. I think it’s only temporary, but I currently hate snow and ice with a fiery passion that rivals the hot intensity of the Earth’s molten core.

I hate snow as much as I hate the Dallas Cowboys. Ok, ok, you’re right, that’s extreme. Of course I hate the Dallas Cowboys more than I hate snow and ice (Go Steelers, etc., etc., etc.). I think.

Anyway… despite the number that snow shoveling has done to my poor degenerative-disk-laden back this past month, I did manage to maintain a sitting posture long enough to construct quite a few Wine.Answers.com articles for your wine-learning pleasure, including a few interviews with rock-star winemakers, a book review of what I consider to be a downright classic in the wine canon, and a comparison of some wine cellar monitoring tech that I put through the ringer…

First, let’s hit the books:

• I wax all poetic on both “The Finest Wines of Germany” by Stephan Reinhardt, which is a fantastic edition to an ongoing series that focuses on specific wine countries…
• …aaaannnnnd the second edition of Jamie Goode’s magnum opus, “The Science of Wine” (which also seems to get called “Wine Science” as well, confusing the hell out of me), which I think most wine peeps ought to now consider a modern classic (and the book Goode was born to write).

On the product review front, I put two wine cellar monitoring systems to the test in February:

• the Sensorist (which includes a geekily-handy in-bottle probe for measuring wine temperature in your storage)…
• aaaannnnnd the Elertus (which has an equally handy sensor for alerting you when your wine cooler/fridge door has been opened… those rotten kids!!!). The short version of the story is that the Sensorist is an almost-addictive pleasure to setup and use, while the Elertus is buggy as hell and to me seemed not quite ready for prime time. Both aren’t cheap, by the way.

Two grape varieties got deep dives this month:

• Sauvignon Blanc, about which I asked rock-star winemaker Merry Edwards to give us her insights…
• aaaannnnnd good ‘ol American standard Zinfandel, about which living legend Ravenswood and ZAP founder Joel Peterson enlightens us, and during which we find out that Zinfandel is neither American, nor is it actually called Zinfandel.

And just for fun:

• a highlight of five producers who are kicking ass along the Sonoma Coast,
• a review of one of the more elegant solutions to holding on to corks as keepsakes,
• aaaannnnnd (in homage to the Winter Olympics) a slideshow of sports heroes who have made the leap to wine producers.

Enjoy!