Fermentation: The Daily Wine Blog

A Moral Failure

I'm at a loss to understand how one can commit the moral failure of demanding that while a 20 year old be allowed (encouraged!) to stand toe to toe with another man and attempt to kill him for his country, he not be allowed to sip Pinot Nor.

This is the position of MADD, AKA "Morally Absent Day after Day" "Mothers Against Drunk Driving".

It's about time: A group of college presidents are asking that our nation re-evaluate our 21 year-old drinking age. I'm not sure exactly what motivates them to take this brave, but nearly suicidal, position. However, I'm willing to bet it has something to do with the fact that in addition to trying to control binge drinking on campus, they are also required to police binge drinkers on campus. If common sense ruled, these colleges would have more time to spend explaining why binge drinking isn't such a great idea.

I have to be honest, my position on the drinking age is affected not one iota by fears that if it is lowered to where it should be, 18 years old, more drinkers might die in car accident. It doesn't even enter my equation. I'm much more concerned that the 21 year-old drinking age probably does more to extend a childhood mentality among those that should be expected to act like adults.

See, here's the thing. If the 21 year-old drinking age reduces drunk driving, as MADD insists and some studies show, then wouldn't a 35 year-old drinking age reduce drunk driving even more? What in the world is stopping MADD from advocating a 35 year-old drinking age? What is it that makes an 18 year old too immature to be trusted with a Cabernet, but mature enough to shoot an Iraqi in the face with a large caliber side arm? I'm just not sure I can pinpoint that difference.

I wonder if Laura Dean-Mooney, national president of MADD knows the answer to that question? She apparently is possessed of a great deal of information. Why just the other day she declared unequivocally about the colleges to which the brave administrators advocating discussion belong that, "It's very clear the 21-year-old drinking age will not be enforced at those campuses."

I certainly hope she's right.

John McCardell, a former president of Middlebury College in Vermont and a member of the college presidents calling themselves the Amethyst Group said, "It is a law (the 21 year old drinking age) that the people at whom it is directed believe is unjust and unfair and discriminatory."

How is it that a group of 18, 19 and 20 year-olds could have so much more common sense than the president of MADD?

It strikes me that if we are really going to take MADD's advise and treat adults like children in the area of drinking alcohol, we really should be intellectually honest and go all the way by prohibiting anyone under 21 from entering the military, voting, or, when they break the law, trying them as adults. The 21 year-old drinking age is a moral failure by the United States. Not the only one, to be sure. But one that should be taken note of.

Wine Writer Gone Wild

Have you ever noticed that big time wine writers and wine reviewers rarely make fun of themselves and their profession, despite the fact that when you back up and really observe what reviewers do, it's kind of funny: The lengths they go to inoculate themselves from bias, the formality, the special glasses, the palate cleansers. All the things that go into tasting, rating and reviewing wine has to be kind of absurd for someone on the outside looking in.

But the potential for real comedy lies in wine writer making fun of his profession for an audience of wine geeks and wine professionals. The potential for inside jokes is just truly great.

We finally have a wine writer willing to do just this, and I take pride that I may have somehow done something to inspire it. But what makes it work is that he's among the best and most experienced wine reviewers.

You can find Steve Heimoff's send up of wine reviewers HERE (click on the link...it'll get you to the video)

I'm particularly fond of Steve's send up of the notion of bagging wine and tasting it blind.

It doesn't really take much bravery on Steve's part to pull off this video. His place in the wine reviewing world is safe. He has no ladders to climb. As the Wine Enthusiast Magazine's West Coast Editor and as one of the folks with the most experience reviewing wine for a consumer audience in America, the Wine Enthusiast has a real prize on their hands with Steve.

Steve's video reminds us that those of us in the Wine Industry and those who are close to it often suspend our incredulity in order to get our work done. Let's face it, despite the talent of someone like Steve or the other top wine reviewers in America, and despite the talent of America's many fine tuned palates, we aren't doing brain surgery. We aren't fighting fires. We aren't saving lives. We aren't educating the next generation. We are talking about wine.

Whether you appreciate Steve Heimoff's parody of himself (and others), you have to give him kudos for saying what often goes unsaid 

Comedy in Pennsylvania

There has been a lot written of late about Pennsylvania's need to come into compliance with Granholm v. Heald by addressing the issue of Direct Shipping. But none of the commentaries and articles have been quite as good, quite as pointed and quite as funny as that published by the WillDo blog at the Philadelphia Weekly.

"In the beginning, God created man and the ethyl alcohol molecule. Later, man discovered the ethyl alcohol molecule was psychoactive. In other words, he discovered how to get drunk."

This isn't exactly a ringing endorsement for wine, but the article does get better. It's not parody. It's not satire. It's just good old fashioned ridicule.

Currently legislation under consideration would have direct shipments of wine from out-of-state wineries required to be sent to state stores, not directly to residents' homes. Of course the latter makes too much sense. But as the writer of this article notes:

"The state once banned out-of-state wineries from shipping directly to consumers in Pennsylvania, because that makes sense."

At this point, the entire direct shipping debate, no matter where it occurs, no matter what policies are under consideration, has almost become a parody of itself. Where states are shutting down shipping by retailers or where restrictions are placed on shipment, it's almost as though lawmakers and those whispering in their ear are trying to figure out exactly how silly they can sound, how funny they can look, how badly they can screw the consumer, and how many lawsuits they can spawn.

The sponsor of the current bill has actually said that he wants to put a limit on the number of out-of-state wineries that could ship by providing that only those wineries that make 80,000 gallons of wine or less would be eligible to ship wine. This means any winery producing more than 34,000 cases per year would be excluded. That's not the real problem. The real problem is that in justifying the production limit in protectionist terms, violate the U.S. Constitution's Commerce clause.

I personally don't think the legislation will pass this year and will have to be brought back up next year. No one likes it. Pennsylvania wineries oppose it, Pennsylvania consumers oppose it, Pennsylvania wholesalers oppose it, Pennsylvania state store employees oppose it and, based on the column in WillDo, God probably opposes it too.

The Recently Passed Holiday

Yesterday was an Official Holiday in the Wark home.

Yesterday was "Fruits Of The Land Day"; our family's annual and formal recognition of just how lucky and blessed we are to live in a place that delivers such an amazing array of really good eating and drinking. Though we haven't petitioned the state or federal government to officially recognize this holiday, it's not out of the question. But for now, we celebrate this important day by taking our annual tour around West Sonoma County looking for REALLY YUMMY THINGS to take home and feast on.

If the only thing that fell into the Fruits Of the Land category in Sonoma was our diversity of vineyards and wines, we'd still be in good shape celebrating this unique holiday. But there is so much more.

We start by heading west to Sebastapol where we go straight to the orchards (the one's that are left) and grab our box of Gravenstein apples. These are the most wonderful apples, perfect for eating and even better for pie making. You can still find orchards in West Sonoma that have a little stand set up that allows you to pick up a box of just plucked Gravensteins and move on. Traveling the rest of the day with the aroma of these apples wafting around the car is wonderful torture.

We then head toward the ocean. Along the way we stop at places along the road that make products from their own plantings such as Kozlowski Farms where we stock up and the most ridiculously good jams, sauces and other condiments that seem perfectly suited to satisfy the most decadent whims we possess. They won't last long. We'll be done with the pumpkin butter, blackberry jam, chipotle-blackberry sauce and and apple butter by the end summer.

We like to stop in Duncan Mills where a collection of funky stores have replaced whatever industry originally spawned this little community along the Russian River and just a short ride from the Pacific. While the family looks through the boutiques, I head over to the wine shop that specializes in West Sonoma wines. I have to pick up one wine. It's the law and a requirement of the Fruits of the Land Holiday. This year I chose the 2007 Rochioli Sauvignon Blanc. It used to be my favorite SB, but haven't had it in three or four vintages.

Just past Jenner, where the Russian River meets the Pacific there always sits a little truck on the side of the road where a little man sells little packages of just-smoked wild pacific salmon. It has a sweet, smoky flavor, is beautifully oily and spells us until we get to our lunch spot.

By this time we are ready to drive down to Bodega Bay where the Sandpiper awaits us. This restaurant sits well off the main highway and down by the bay. It's a bit of a dive. But here you can get outstanding claim chowder, fried local oysters, wonderful fish and chips made with locally caught fish and you don't have to pay the prices of the tourist restaurants further down the road on the south side of Bodega Bay.

We fill up  at the Sandpiper because we'll need our energy to decide exactly which flavors of salt water taffy we are going to pick up at the candy-striped salt water taffy store down the road. Once that task is over, Cliff walking and beach roaming is next. There's nothing like filling up on deep fried fish and salt water taffy then finding a perfectly sloped rock upon which to rests your ass and watch the ocean while the splash of the waves throws mist up on you and the sun hits your face.

I need this rest because the real work of the annual Fruits of the Land tour is next. We are off to find wild blackberries. We never know where we'll find just the right patch. We'll drive our applely-smelling car all over the west-Sonoma backroads looking for an accessible black berry patch. The patch can't be on the main roads because you get blackberries that taste of car exhaust. Usually we find just the right patch down a side road and encroaching just enough on someone property to make us work a little faster gathering our bowls of berries because we always have in the back of our mind that some shotgun wielding berry lover will come out of their house and start shooting in protection of their berries.

The final devotional that attends to the Fruits of the Land Holiday happens when we arrive home. Still in our berry stained clothes, we make PIE! Apple and Blackberry.

We peel, wash, kneed, mix and cook. By around 8pm we have in front of us beautiful pies, still warm, that we feast on while appreciating the fruits of our lands.

Sonoma County is pretty special place.

Napa Valley In Decline?

Well, the gauntlet was certainly thrown down today.

Is the "Napa Valley" Brand in decline? Is it faltering in the face of increased competition. Is it possible that the marketing powerhouse that is Napa Valley Cabernet hasn't kept up with the competition?

Bill Ryan, a columnist at the Napa Valley Register, essentially told his readers (those in the wine industry), either change your marketing ways or see the demise of Napa Valley as the premier wine region in the New World. It was, to say the least, a call to arms.

Here's the gist:

"we cannot grow and sell $15 wines here. So, we have to more vigorously market our super-premium cabs. It’s becoming clear that we aren’t able to compete in the growth sectors of wine lists. We must improve the way we encourage, receive and treat wine enthusiasts who still want to visit Napa Valley. As dedicated enthusiasts, they can help us get our wines placed on wine lists. Time is short; let them go to the many other, sexier wine regions in the New World and risk never getting them back. Remember, we owned that category back in the ‘80s; there weren’t any other luxury wine destinations in the New World. Presently, we rank far down the list."

What Ryan is noting is the obvious. There are a lot more games in town for wine lovers. it used to be that if you wanted to drink the elite, but not hit up Bordeaux or Burgundy, you gravitated toward Napa. But now, look around: Central Coast Pinot, RRV Pinot, WA Reds, Oregon Pinots, Argentina Malbecs, Aussi Extract Bombs, British Columbian beauties, New Zealand Pinots, Spanish Cults, Austrian GV's, Israeli wines, Lodi Zins, Anderson Valley wines....It's endless. It's not that these places didn't make wines before, it's that they weren't very visible and often weren't imported to the U.S in much volume. Now they are. Add to that the increased availability of direct shipping and many of these wines are as available as any Napa Cabs.

Ryan concludes with his call to arms:

"Next steps call for a sea change in our approach to the only business we have that will keep us employed, keep our hospitals open and the school bells ringing. We need to come together, agree to engage experts to chart a path and agree to the spending required to reestablish Napa County as the super-premium wine region in the New World. This is the classic case of “damned if you don’t.”

He wants more marketing, and marketing not aimed at pointing out that Napa is home to "Cult" wines since "Cult" doesn't necessarily only apply to a Napa-made wine. Ryan suggests Napa Valley better step up its marketing efforts now, particularly with its best customers,  and explain to them exactly why they can't live without Napa Valley wines.

If it were me, the first place I'd start my new marketing efforts is inside the Napa Valley itself. Captive audiences right there in your back yard. Is there a way to speak to these folks more effectively? I wonder how visitors feel about paying $15 to taste a few ounces of wine? That's just my first thought.

Napa Valley already does a tremendous amount of marketing that works toward maintaining the "Napa Valley" brand as the height of prestige and quality in American wine. The region is literal adult playground (assuming you can afford entry into the sand box).

I rather like these desperate calls to arms. They make people think and evaluate their position in the world. They cause controversy that ferrets out the stakeholders and identifies where they stand.

I'll be looking forward to seeing the response that Mr. Ryan's column gets. 

Good Old Fashioned Mexican Common Sense

Janice Fuhrman reports via Decanter that a proposal to create an appellation system for Mexico's major wine production regions has not been embraced by the very folks the system would effect: the winemakers.

What's interesting about the story is that it suggests the proposal would  actually create regulations for HOW wine can be made under the appellation system, an approach that takes its cues from European appellation system, rather than from the nearby American appellation system that merely attempts to identify the unique characteristics of a defined area.

I've had a variety of Mexican wines over the years and have been very pleasantly surprised nearly every time. My surprise at the quality is probably an indication of my own prejudice than anything else. However, I do know this:

If the Mexicans want to severely hinder the development of their wine industry then they should definitely adopt a European approach to Appellations.

Unlike the American system, the European approach to appellation maintenance stresses regulating which grapes may be used if the bottling is allowed to carry the name of the appellation. In addition, appellation rules often determine exactly how the wine can be made. This is an incredibly conservative approach meant to protect very old  observations and experiences with grapegrowing in a region. Does anyone really believe that only Chardonnay and Pinot noir can produce great wine in Burgundy? Is it really possible that great tasting wine from Bordeaux can only be produced by using Cabernet Sauvignon, Cabernet Franc, Petit Verdot, Malbec and Merlot?

On the other hand, were the Mexicans to adopt a form of the American AVA system where a region is simply recognized for it's unique climatic, geographic and (perhaps) soil properties and where wines made from grapes grown entirely within the boundaries of the appellation can carry the name of the appellation, then the Mexican wineries would have something else and something to interesting to hang their hat upon.

However, would recommend that if the American approach is considered that some special care be taken:

--Keep the size of the appellations as small as possible to preserve the integrity of the idea that specific climate and soil characteristics make a difference in a wine

--Avoid the temptation to create larger appellations that encompass smaller appellations and thereby strip both the large and small appellations of any meaning.

--Create rules that demand 100% of the grapes in a wine come from a specific appellation in order to use the appellation on their label.

--Hire Wark Communications to spread the word of the uniqueness and potential of these new Mexican appellations (this part is not absolutely necessary to be part of the rules and regulations of a Mexican appellation system.)

I'm not too worried that the Mexicans will jump in feet first to a European model for appellations. Their winemakers appear to understand its liabilities:

"We are still in the first steps of our wine industry,' said Hugo D'Acosta, leader of the Guadalupe Valley Vintners Association and winemaker for top labels including Casa de Piedra and Paralelo. 'You should not say how wine should be made when we are still exploring. If DOs were instituted, we would lose freedoms at this most important time of our wine industry."

The Time Has Come

The whole point of the implementation of the 3 tier system of alcohol that was put in place after Prohibition ended was to assure that no sector of the alcohol industry amassed so much power that it could control the other parts of the industry. The idea was to disperse power within the industry by separating the producer from the retailer/restaurant by putting the wholesalers in the middle.

That plan has failed.

Today's news that Southern Wine & Spirits has merged with Glazers Wholesale to create the most powerful entity ever to emerge in the American alcohol industry demonstrates that the three tier system has failed in its original mission. The current utility of the state-mandated three tier system is limited, at best.

This single company will, in some state, have the power to decide what brands consumers may have the privilege of purchasing. They will have the power to decide which outlets or restaurants may sell these brands. And, they will have this power for one reason: The government grants it to them.

If the residents of the state actually got something of value from this highly unusual grant of power to a particular sector of an industry, it might be worth considering keeping the system in place. Yet in the 38 states where this new "Southern/Glazer" company operates, the company is charged literally nothing for the power they are granted by these states. Neither are any of the other wholesalers who's profits are guaranteed by the same politicians that take their money.

They don't pay additional taxes. They are not required to promote wide consumer access to goods. They are not required to fund anything of benefit to the state. Instead, they are granted absolute protection from competition. And yet the people get nothing in return.

Worse, the wholesale tier has become the epitome of what the three tier system was supposed to protect against: near complete control by one sector of the alcohol industry.

There is no question about it. The time has come for each state to investigate whatever remaining utility there is in the state-mandated three tier system and to implement radical change.

Just A Warning

Who recalls this year's Supreme Court decision titled "Rowe V. New Hampshire Motor Transport Association?

Let me remind you of its substance. The Supreme Court ruled that a state may not require an interstate transportation company to get a signature at the place of delivery. By doing so the state would be engaging in the regulation of interstate commerce, a privilege reserve to the Federal Government, not the states. The case involved the home delivery of cigarettes.

Since the decision came down, some people involved in the wine shipping battles have pointed to this decision as a way of trying to scare the bejesus out of state legislators, telling them, "you have no ability to demand that delivery drivers such as Fed EX and UPS obtain signatures at the door when delivering alcohol...You'd better just ban wine shipping  all together!"

When this argument is brought up it's pretty easy to knock it down. You simply remind those concerned that the case did not in any way examine the issue of wine shipment, that the 21st Amendment gives the states extraordinarily wide latitude in how they regulate the distribution of alcohol, and that there has yet to be any common carrier or seller of wine that has demanded that no signature be obtain at the door.

Unless the fear mongers are extraordinarily immune to the consequences of embarrassing themselves, they'll usually back off at this point.

But what happens when a federal judge adopts the absurd reading of the Rowe decision to conclude that states may not require a signature upon delivery of alcohol?

That's exactly what happened in one of the most interesting federal decisions having to do with wine and wine shipping to come down in a long time.

In the case of Baude v. Heath, decided in the 7th Circuit court of appeals, a panel of judges including the immensely respected Judge Easterbrook and Judge Posner, 1) determined that a state may require a face to face transaction before wine can be shipped, 2) struck down an Indiana's law that prohibited any entity that had a wholesalers licenses from shipping to consumers.

The first determination is unfortunate and probably a result of the plaintiffs not developing a sufficient record showing that on-line age verification is indeed reliable. the second determination was identified by the panel of Judges as being in place for one reason: protect wholesalers.

But in the course of writing their opinion, this little nugget appeared: "But we know from Rowe v. Motor Transport Ass'n, that states can not require interstate carriers to verify the recipients age."

This is stunning misreading of the Rowe case and frankly I'm surprised this panel of Judges made such a frivolous mistake. It seems particularly odd that this mistake would creep into their opinion given how correct their reading was of the interplay of the commerce clause and the 21st Amendment. In another part of the decision they wrote: “Once a state allows any direct shipment, it has agreed that the wholesaler may be bypassed.”

I'm not sure what the impact will be of the 7th Circuit court's complete misreading of the Rowe decision. However, I do know that parties to lawsuits pick out these kinds of words to support their cases. Legislators too will be told that an appeals court has confirmed that states may not constitutionally require drivers to get signatures. This, though completely incorrect, could find a life of its own.

Just a warning.

What If...

Between 2005 and 2008, there has been a 20% drop in the number of people who say they most often drink wine over beer and spirits.

Between 2005 and 2008 there has been a 27% drop in the number of 30 to 49 year olds that say they most often drink wine over beer and spirits.

...All according to a recent Gallup poll.

Why are fewer Americans, particularly those in the 30 to 50 year old group, finding reason to choose wine less often? First, let's look at the trends.

It's hard not to notice that something happened in 2004 and 2005 to disrupt a fairly consistent trend of around 33-34 percent of Americans choosing wine over other alcohols. That spike you see in 2005, particularly when compared to what came before and what has come after, appears to be an anomaly. It would be nice to know what caused it.

In 2004 Sideways came out in the theaters, it was a hit, and it clearly spurred the discovery of Pinot Noir among your average drinker. Were the 2005 numbers in the Gallup Poll the "Sideways Effect"? Consider something else. In 2005 we got the Supreme Court decision on direct shipping, again bringing wine in to the view of more Americans. In addition, during this time, the mid 00s, we were getting consistent news about wine's health benefits, culminating in the mice study concerning the fat burning effects of Resevrotrol.

Perhaps these things account for the strange jump in those who, in 2005, said they choose wine over other other drinks.

What's even more interesting is the near 10% drop between 2007 and 2008 in the number of Americans that say they choose wine over other alcohol drinks. I'd be willing to bet this is economy related. Note a similar drop between 1999 and 2000, the last time we began to move into a recession. And note that at that same time beer saw an increase in the number of people who choose it first, just as it has in 2008.

Wine obviously remains the a fair economy splurge for a certain percentage of drinkers who appear to give it up when finances get a little tight. This also means that the trend that set in around 2000 that had beer drinkers at consistent 42% and wine drinkers at a consistent 32-34% is probably still in place when adjusted for recessionary forces.

Of course this leads to the question that has always been asked by the wine industry. What can be done to move more people into wine drinking naturally, rather than count on increased wine drinking only during momentary media attention. As I think I've said before, I'm pretty sure this is accomplished by creating sustained attention for wine from pop culture icons, institutions and entities.

So here's something to consider.

The wine industry in CA does not fund a marketing institution. The Wine Institute and Family Winemakers of California deal with regulatory issues, not marketing issues. What would be the difference in the number of people who choose wine over beer if there had been in place for the past 15 years a well funded institution dedicated to promoting CA wines (or just wine in general) nationwide???

Would the Gallup Chart now look like this:

Gimme That Snickers Syrah!!

I hope I'll be forgiven, in this case, of trying to figure out what utility an "Electronic Tongue" able to identify a wine and it's chemical make up has for my own life and career. As it turns out, I can already identify what's in a wine pretty much by looking at the label on the wine. So what's in it for me, a lowly wine PR dude and wine drinker?

To be sure, I understand what the scientists find exciting about this and Dr.Ebeler from UC Davis states it nicely: "One of the most interesting aspects is the ability to predict sugar, acid and alcohol content using sensors that are not specifically sensitive to these components."

Further, I  understand what those 8 or 9 people in the world willing to pay a million dollars for an ancient bottle of wine see as this e-Nose's utility. And yes, it will be nice to have a simply,  cheap way to determine the identity of a wine (or its fraudulent nature) if you happen to trade in wines that tend to be counterfeited regularly.

But what about me? Will I need a portable e-Tongue in my life?

I'm not sure yet. I do know I would not want one if it could not use it to identify the different varieties in a blended wine. I had an email conversation with one of the e-Tongue project's researchers, Celiea Jimenez, to determine if the e-Tongue was capable of doing this. In short, they aren't sure. Damn!

So, while I can't quite find any particular utility for the e-Tongue as currently configured, that's not to say I'm some sort of Vinious Luddite. Because here's the devise I really want: A portable machine that can interpret a uniquely coded, e-mailable file that is a digital representation of the aroma of a specific wine and produce that wine's unique aroma for me to examine through my own nose. I want an e-Nose! And damn the consequences!!

What consequences? Well, first, consider the utility to someone like me. I estimate that over the last 20 years I've sent or arranged to be sent more than 3,000 bottles of wine out to writers and reporters and bloggers as media samples. That cost my clients a lot, it cost our planet a lot, and it's not fun to do as far as projects go. What if I could just email Robert Parker, Jim Laube, Eric Asimov, Tyler Colman, Dr. Debs, and others an electronic sample of my client's new wine??? They could sit at their desk and quickly evaluate the aromatic qualities not just of my clients' wines, but of hundreds of wines at a sitting.

And consider the marketing potential of an e-Nose. I imagine the same e-Nose Aroma Synthesizer sitting in grocery stores across the country (except in TN) where customers choose the wine they are considering purchasing, pushing a button, then pushing their nose into a tube to inhale the glorious aromas of a 2007 New Zealand Sauvignon Blanc ("Mmmmm Gooseberry and Cat Pee!!!!", said the shopper.).

The problem, or consequences, of course is that easy and cheap delivery of aroma would lead to the necessity felt by many marketers and producers to exaggerate their product's aroma...to make it stand out beyond the other typical wines that consumers would inevitably, once they start sniffing synthetic aromas 20 at a time, come to find incredibly similar.

This compulsion to stand out would inevitably lead producers to offer "Chocolate Merlot", Cranberry Chardonnay, "Calvin Klein Cabernet" and "Snickers Syrah". And is that so bad?

The Intellectual & Wine

As I think I've said before, I'm a big fan of lists. I like looking at rankings and sets. I like the context it delivers, whether I agree with the rankings or don't.

Among the most interesting and thought-provoking lists I've seen in quite some time was Foreign Policy Prospect's 2008 List of the World’s Top 100 Public Intellectuals. The list contained no one with a focus on wine, but it was a fascinating glimpse into what the world of the Public Intellectual is made up of in 2008. And it got me thinking. What would a list of American Public Wine Intellectuals look like?

In 1999, MIT Professor, Novelist and Essayist Alan Lightman gave a talk at an MIT Communications Forum entitled "The Role of the Public Intellectual" in which he outlined his definition of what a "public intellectual" is and offered three levels of this species.

A public intellectual is, Lightman said, "often a trained in a particular discipline, such as linguistics, biology, history, economics, literary criticism, and who is on the faculty of a college or university. When such a person decides to write and speak to a larger audience than their professional colleagues, he or she becomes a "public intellectual."

I disagree only slightly with this definition, but probably only to be able to legitimately create my own list of Public Wine Intellectuals. I don't think it necessary to for the Public Intellectual to hail from a college or university. However, a "public intellectual" must be talking in a broader context than just their area of specialty and their audience needs to be relatively substantial. That said, Lightman's three levels of Public Intellectual include:

Level I: Speaking and writing for the public exclusively about your discipline.

Level II: Speaking and writing about your discipline and how it relates to the social, cultural, and political world around it.

Level III: By invitation only. The intellectual has become elevated to a symbol, a person that stands for something far larger than the discipline from which he or she originated.

If we imagine such a thing as an American Public Wine Intellectual, then it should be clear that there are far more Level 1's than Level 2's than there are Level 3's. So, what would be a working definition of a Public Wine Intellectual? I'm working with this one:

In individual who thinks deeply about, or engages deeply in, the area of wine and who, through their communication to others in, around and interested in the industry, have provided new and unique insights that have implications far outside their area of expertise.

Following is one list of folks who I would consider important American Public Wine Intellectuals. I can guarantee it is not complete and I can guarantee it is missing some who obviously should be included. But, I think it is an intriguing start.

Dr. Orley Ashenfelter
Professor of Economics, Princeton
President, American Association of Wine Economists
Editor, Journal of Wine Economics
Dr. Ashenfelter first burst into the consciousness of wine drinkers across the globe when in the early 1990s when he published the controversial findings of his study that concluded the quality of a vintage in Europe can be traced directly to weather and that quality is correlated to priced of older vintages. Today, Dr. Ashenfelter directs the only sustained effort at quantifying the business of wine via his presidency of the American Association of Wine Economists and his editorship of its Journal of Wine Economics that has become a rich source of research on everything from market dynamics to the impact of global warming on the wine industry.

Dan Berger
Columnist, Publisher of Vintage Experiences
Very few writers have ever written with such depth on the subject of wine and over a longer period of time than Dan Berger. In his own Vintage Experiences newsletter and in other specialty publications he has delved deeply into the most controversial of subjects, often offering a contrarien perspective. That perspective bleeds into his columns that have appeared in daily papers and popular wine magazines. His writings and ideas on alcohol levels, the 100 point system, wine judging and the importance of understanding wine in the context of food have influenced numerous professionals in the wine industry.

Dr. Linda Bisson
Professor of Viticulture and Enology, University of California, Davis
In nearly every field of inquiry the study of genetics is changing perspectives and opening new paths toward a better understanding how things work in our world and even how they can work better. Dr. Bisson is driving this field of inquiry where the wine industry is concerned in her position at the University of California, Davis' Department of Enology and Viticulture. Dr. Bisson has stated that, "Knowledge drives the future of winemaking." Dr. Bisson is a regular speaker at conferences that concern the science and business of making wine and is in the course of influencing the minds that will one day take her place in uncovering the knowledge that will define the wine industry's future.

Roger Dial
Publisher, AppellationAmerica.com
No one in the recent past has done more to make the case for American wine. Not Californian wine or Oregon wine or Washington wines, but for the tapestry of wines that hail from across the continent and from every state in the USA. As publisher of AppellationAmerica.com, Dial has set the tone for this expansive view of wine in America through his series of provocative essays pleading and arguing that wine lovers should look beyond the common if they want to experience something authentic. His devotion to this endeavor led him to create one of the most impressive stable of writers who fan out across the country reporting on Chardonnay from Massachusetts, Riesling from Utah and Viognier from Virginia

Paul Dolan
Partner, Mendocino Wine Company
Paul Dolan is the leading advocate for sustainable viticulture in the United States. While he is hardly the only person in the industry calling for a revolution in the way grapes are grown and wine is made that can lesson its impact on the environment, he is surely among the most respected and most vocal. His book, "True To Our Roots: Fermenting a Business Revolution" was a clarion call to the industry to open its mind to the impact we have on the industry and how to make sustainability profitable. Dolan, now managing the Mendocino Wine Company after leaving Fetzer Vineyard, remains a leading voice in the wine industry and is effecting change with that voice and through example.

Paul Draper
CEO, Ridge Vineyards
Paul Draper is the Dean of the American wine industry. And not by default. Acting as a spokesperson for American terroir and natural winemaking, he has traveled the world and brought American wines with him. His status as a Public Wine Intellectual derives from the authority with which he can and often does speak about what great American wine is. He has also been one of the most important advocates for single vineyard Zinfandel both in words and in the deeds he carries out at Ridge Vineyards.

Alice Feiring
Author
There's nothing that says a Public Wine Intellectual can't be a passionate partisan. Alice Feiring is a passionate partisan for the idea that fine wine is honest and natural wine. An accomplished writer on things hedonistic, Feiring's recent "The Battle for Wine & Love: Or, How I Saved the World From Parkerization" is a love letter to her preferred wines masked as an investigation into how standardization and technology have ripped the soul from wine and threatens to do even worse. There is the quality of a crusade to Feiring's work, to which readers have been treated in numerous magazines and newspapers. Though her subject matter is nearly always wine, the philosophy of authenticity that she paints over her subject matter is easily appreciated by readers focused on other topics.

Tracy Genesen
Partner, Kirkland & Ellis LLP
Tracy Genesen is the most important legal advocate behind the revolution of direct to consumer shipping of wine. As Legal Director of the Coalition for Free Trade, she was largely responsible for crafting the legal strategy and arguments that resulted in the landmark "Granholm v. Heald Supreme Court case in 2005. Through this effort, through her ongoing work on behalf of Free Trade advocates, and through her presentations at conferences across the country, Genesen has become the legal mastermind behind a movement likely to be seen in years to come as a fundamental turning point in wine marketing in America.

Randall Grahm
Owner, Bonny Doon Vineyards, Pacific Rim Winemakers
America's original wine enfant terrible—who wields a mighty pen. No winery newsletter ever written did more to demonstrate that wine and thoughts on wine could could take a place next to seemingly larger, more philosophical and spiritual ideas until Randall Grahm's newsletter showed up. The iconoclast winemaker who did as much as anyone to convince Americans that Syrah, Grenache and Viognier were varieties they needed to embrace, was among the original popularizers in America of the idea of Terroir and has taken opportunity after opportunity to explain his vision of needing to commune with nature to affect authentic wine.

Steve Heimoff
West Coast Editor, Wine Enthusiast
Through is work as columnist and West Coast Editor of Wine Enthusiast Magazine and witnessed in his recent books, "A Wine Journey Along the Russian River" and "New Classic Winemakers of California", Heimoff has become the best sort of apologist for the California wine industry—the kind that can at once see and communicate its bottled poetry and the poets that produce it, and on the other hand give the industry professionals and consumers who read his work the gift of the brutal honest truth. Steve's thoughtful commentary on the California wine industry seems always to deliver a subtext of advocacy if not for simple balance then for truthfulness in our view of wine and the business of wine.

Anthony Kennedy
Associate Justice, United States Supreme Court
As far as I know, Justice Kennedy has issued but one piece of commentary on wine. However, that commentary, the opinion in the 2005 Granholm v. Heald Supreme Court decision, ranks as a remarkable investigation into the nexus of Law, America's Prohibitionist tendencies and our country's commitment to free trade. The opinion, as most do, had a profound impact on both the wine industry and wine consumers and will continue to likely for decades. But it's the text itself that is the real contribution. It teaches that while federalism creates the structural foundation for our democratic values, this commitment must be balanced against the need to maintain one economic union.

Matt Kramer
Author; Columnist, Wine Spectator
Matt Kramer is America's most lucid wine writer. No one has, and with only two books, so thoroughly and elegantly communicated the heights and valleys of Terroir in the United States. Kramer's strength lies in his ability to examine an idea (the idea that a place makes the wine) and flesh it out entirely, from all angles, without falling into the too easy trap of being a cheerleader. Kramer is a pure wine writer and not a wine reviewer, despite his position as columnist at America's leading magazine of wine reviews, the Wine Spectator. This distinction, I think, has provided him with the freedom to honestly communicate his ideas and explorations into wine, rather than to retreat ultimately into the boredom of product evaluation.

Kermit Lynch
Importer, Retailer, Author, Singer
Can a raconteur with an ear for music who sells wine be a Public Intellectual? Kermit Lynch certainly proves it can be. The Berkeley-based, long time importer and retailer, more than anyone else, has delved deep into the seemingly minute topic of "discovery" via his beautiful newsletters and his influential "Adventures on the Wine Route." By emphasizing the joy of discovery as it is related to wine, Lynch has and continues to inspire industry folk and wine lovers to take off their blinders and try something different. This message has inspired others to also pick up the torch in the name of "viva la difference". One can also argue that Lynch's wonderful, down to earth, evocative stories found in his newsletter have also inspired others to take take up the same storytelling approach in their attempts at wine writing.

Jancis Robinson
Author, Columnist
She is not American, but we make an exception because her influence in America has been tremendous. Robinson has been an outspoken advocate for balance in wine and often a foil to Robert Parker and others who profess a love for strength and power in wine. Hers is a as much a dedication to tradition, history and modesty in wine as it is anything else. This comes through in the Oxford Companion to Wine, the finest reference on wine ever published and that was edited by the Brit. She is in many ways an outspoken defender of the faith who has gone about her task with great eloquence in the face of resistance.

Charles Sullivan
Historian
Others could be characterized as historians of wine in America. Certainly Paul Lukacs and James Gabler come to mind. But Sullivan is by far the most accomplished chronicler of the history of wine in California. His "Zinfandel: A History of the Grape and its Wine" and his "A Companion to California Wine" set him apart from the typical chronicler of wine. Sullivan is California wine's academic who's work will form the basis for future academic surveys of American wine and winemaking.

Hoorah!

This year it was a vineyard not more than a quarter mile as the crow flies from where I live that appears to have been given the distinction of being the first to be picked during the 2008 North Coast Harvest. Hunter Vineyards, just down the road from me on Arnold Drive in Sonoma Valley had their grapes removed from the vines on August 1st. The grapes will go to Gloria Ferrer Winery just down the road where they will be transformed into a luscious sparkling wine.

It's a relatively early start to the 2008 crush due largely to a lack of rain in the spring, a series of significant hot spells and a reduced crop size. Not all these Pinot grapes that were picked will go to Gloria Ferrer's winery a few miles away. The Hunter Farms Vineyard for years supplied grapes to one of the smaller and lesser known sparkling wine producers in California: Robert Hunter Winery. Their sparkling wine always appealed to me but it has become more and more difficult to find on shelves. The vineyard is planted to more than just Pinot Noir and in fact includes Chardonnay, Cabernet Sauvignon, Merlot, Petite Verdot, Malbec, and Cabernet Franc on its 42 acres.

This area of Sonoma Valley, in and around Glen Ellen, is the narrowest part of the long valley that runs roughly 17 miles from Santa Rosa's outskirts in the North to the town of Sonoma in the South. It's called the "banana belt". Climatically it's a unique part of the Valley. In the summer it tends to be warmer than areas north and south of it and in the winter it tends to be colder than areas north and south of it. In addition, we appear here to get slightly less rain than other areas of the valley. All this would explain why Hunter Farms would be the first to pick their sparkling wine grapes.

So, the 2008 harvest is officially underway. Hoorah! It will be relatively smaller than past years, but still it will last until late October. When the grapes start coming in fast and furious around mid September it can be a lot of fun to visit the wineries and watch truck roll in, see the grapes dumped into the crushers, follow the courses the bees take and smell the smells. I recommend it.

A New Mutiny

Another new beverage magazine has been introduced and this new one has something of the flare that Wine X exuded. Mutineer Magazine is produced out of Southern California and looks to appeal to a younger drinker with more on their mind that terroir and mailing lists. Like the now retired Wine X, MM strikes a rebel pose and is looking to unmask wine and other adult beverages.

MM comes with a pretty substantial on-line presence to augment the bi-monthly publication schedule. A blog that is very nicely written and interesting inhabits their website along with teasers of what's in the magazine, profiles of their staff and a discussion forum.

"By taking our content and putting in into the context of a relatable ideas, the Mutineer Magazine will revolutionize the way wine and other libations are presented to young adults and readers in general. The beverage content is presented within the context of other subjects more familiar to the mainstream including music, film, fashion, and modern popular culture."

This was the approach taken by Wine X Magazine, a publication I believe had substantial impact on the wine industry—though not so much on the wine drinker. MM will start distributing to youngsters on the west coast for a cost of $10 per year and spread out from there. Let's hope they spread far and wide.

Vichyssoise and the Art of Spin

Yesterday I made one of my favorite summertime meals, one I've not executed in a very long time: Vichyssoise and Crostini with roasted garlic, goat cheese and parsley.

I set down the meal on the table, called the family to supper, sat down, watched my son dig into the Vichyssoise and then heard him declare:

"What is this?"

"Vichyssoise!," I responded.

His retort: "Isn't it just cold soup?"

And there I realized that I had inadvertently raised a boy who is likely to lead a life unaffected by the very work his father engages in: Spin and PR.

I wonder how many people out there upon reading or hearing a description like this—"rustic, bold, intense bottling with dark berry notes, licorice and cocoa flavors and hints of pencil lead"—want to respond as my boy did: "Isn't it just Wine?"?

Too many for my taste I'm guessing.

It's probably a good thing that I've raised a boy who at 14 can see through words and get to the heart of the matter. However I was a little concerned with his follow up:

"Can we heat it up?"

"Yes," I told him. "But then it won't be Vichyssoise".

"That's OK." he said.

Saving Deceit...and the Problem With Blogs

If you meet enough people in your lifetime you eventually come to the conclusion that there is a scale upon which all people can be placed with "Tossers" at one end of the scale and "Savers" at the opposite end.

Extreme Tossers are the least sentimental among us. They toss stuff out readily, surround themselves with only minimal reminders of who they are, never kept a scrapbook in their life, and can't figure out why anyone would save that picture of Aunt Ruth grinning beside them at their 10th birthday.

Savers, on the other hand, can't imagine under what conditions they would ever toss that faded picture of toothy Aunt Ruth. They also keep old magazines, old catchers mitts, every bill they've ever received and even old answering machine tapes. You've got neat and organized Savers and messy disorganized Savers.

I'm somewhere in between. I hardly am an extreme saver, but I do like to keep artifacts that have what I think is substantial meaning. And that's why I can't figure out whether to keep or delete a comment that showed up on this blog in THIS post.

The comment, posted by someone at a Gmail e-mail account and calling themselves "Tom" reads like this:

" Is this the same Chateau Montelena from the new movie Bottle Shock? My wife and I happened to catch the movie at the Maui film festival when we were on vacation and I think it's about Montelena's first sucessful vintage? The one that beat out the French in the 70s to win the Judgement of Paris, right? The movie was great...sort of like Sidways, but more about the wine. I can't believe the French bought it back...how ironic! I guess it just goes to show how far California wines have come....check out the trailer if you're interested in wine. www.botthleshockthemovie.com"

When it was posted I glanced at it and moved on. Another comment on Fermentation. Then Fred Koeppel of "Bigger Than Your Head" alerted me and his other readers to the fact that it was a fake comment; that similar comments have been showing up across the Net and on blogs. Someone promoting the movie Bottle Shock is placing these kind of fake comments on blogs and forums across the Internet.

I can't figure out whether to delete this fake, commercial-inspired comment on my blog or delete it. Here's the problem: The comment is an artifact that represents a central element of a tool, The Internet, that we all use. It represents the inherent untrustworthy nature of the Internet where content is not controlled by a group who's reputation is based on the trustworthiness of the information they present. It is an example of why blogs do not and should not receive the same kind of reputation for trustworthiness that Old World, pulp-based newspapers and magazines thrived upon and still do in large measure.

"It's only a comment!" I know this. But even the most trivial things can drive home the point.

The Internet has exploded with websites and services that provide reviews, recommendations and opinions that more and more people are going to first to make decisions. How many of the reviews on Amazon and Yelp and TripAdvisor are fake, generated by folks that have an interest in the product or service under consideration? How many of the reviews at Cellar Tracker or Snooth or other similar sites are inadvertently filled with fake comments? How many people are completely fooled and influenced by this most unfortunate kind of trash?

This is the difference, by the way, between blogs and publications like The Wine Spectator, Wine & Spirits, Wine Enthusiast, Connoisseurs Guide to California Wine and The Grapevine. These publications are edited closely by a team of people with experience. Blogs are, generally, not.

I think I'm going to keep this fake post (with a slight alteration). I'll save it despite my natural tendency to want to delete its type and despite my place on the scale that places me nearer the Tossers. I think I want to be reminded that this blogging space that I love being in and that I think is fundamentally changing the way wine is presented to the world is a tool that readers can't entirely trust.

For what it's worth, I got curious about the fake comment and made an effort to track down the person or (more likely) the firm responsible for the rash of fake comments on Bottle Shock that are now showing up on the net. If I discover the source I'll do my duty and update this post with what I find.

 

New School - Old School

The new issue of Wine & Spirits Magazine is a fantastic read. The entire issue focuses on mavericks, revolutionaries and agents of change in wine (and food...for example, I learned that Goat is "in" and Pork Bellies are "out"...who knew!!)

I've long thought that Wine & Spirits Magazine is setting the bar high for the rest of the traditional wine magazines and this is the issue to discover what I'm talking about. It was nice to see Wine 2.0 well represented, particularly in the story on "Innovations in Wine Retail" by Tyler Colman. And there's a fine interview with Gary Vaynerchuk (Gary is just south of "mainstream" in the world of wine, which means, if I know Gary, that he'll be needing to move outside of the world of wine and introduce himself to the wide world of the American Mainstream soon).

What was really most enjoyable about this issue is the celebration of what's new, rather than a celebration of what's hot. Big Difference and the Wine & Spirits folks nailed it. The profiles of America's Best New Wineries was particularly enlightening. You'll find lots of new faces there, even if you are a wine geek that usually knows it all.

All that said, here's my challenge to Wine & Spirits Magazine. You've cataloged what's new and brilliant and innovative. Good. Now, how about cataloging those Old School Wineries and wine people and wine companies that, though perhaps under the radar for not being new and flashy, nevertheless continue to deliver the goods.

My criteria is the winery or wine company must be at least 30 years in the business and not owned by a corporate entity and not making more than 70,000 cases of wine.

I was talking with just such a winery today. They definitely fly under the radar, yet they've been flying for over 30 years. It's a family owned place. When I left the meeting I started thinking about all the "old school" wineries that don't necessarily get the attention that new ones do or that cult wineries do or that the big, huge wineries do. Yet, these Old Schoolers have been doing it for a very long time.

You'll find most of them in Napa, Sonoma, Livermore and the foothills. But they are out there. The cool thing about profiling them is that they will be "new" to many who themselves are new to wine.

Go check out the new Fall Issue of Wine & Spirits Magazine. It's on the newsstands now. It's outstanding. Then, send me the name of your favorite Old School winery or wine company.

Gratefulness

Have you ever sat down and started to tick off those people who have been instrumental to your career? Stopped and given some thought to who those folks are who actually made you  substantially better at what you do? I could do this, and it would make for an interesting post, if not an interesting personal inventory of my own gratefulness.

One of the folks on that list is Judd Wallenbrock, the President of Michel-Schlumberger in Sonoma County's Dry Creek Valley. Judd is much smarter than I am. Much! He's deliberative. One of the things that stuck with me from having worked with Judd is the importance of surveying the landscape before talking action. I can be impulsive, so this was a valuable lesson.

It turns out that Judd has recently finished his own survey—a survey of the world and utility of blogs. Further, it is clear that Judd has determined the Blog is something of value to Michel-Schlumberger and this has led to the creation of  BENCHLAND BLOG, a new blog written by the Michel-Schlumberger team.

(Judd has also joined the world of TWITTER, it seems)

I love Winery-written blogs. That is, I love to read really well done winery blogs because I'm fascinated by the ways in which a commercial enterprise goes about using a informal communications vehicle like a blog to reach out to consumers and friends. It's easy to suggest that a winery-run blog isn't much different than the old paper newsletters we used to write, design, print and deliver to mailing list members. But it is different. it is much easier to layer "personality" over the winery in a blog than it is a newsletter. Anyone who even contemplates publishing a blog and doing it well knows this from the get go and as such the reader should recognize that how the personality of a commercial venture is rolled out is likely given considerable thought by the blog owner. The big question for the reader is this: Am I reading something authentic or something contrived.

Judd Wallenbrock is at heart a marketer with a history of working at the highest levels in organizations such as with Mondavi, De Loach, Inertia Beverage Group, Roshambo, not to mention his own brand, Humanitas. And through all this work in marketing one thing about Judd has always struck me: In the battle between Authenticity and Contrivance, Judd always falls on the side of authenticity.

This is why Michel-Schlumberger's Benchland Blog is likely to turn out to be among the better winery blogs on the net.

The first few posts at Benchland Blog have naturally been about the Michel-Schlumberger estate in Dry Creek Valley—their organic farming, the terroir, their Valley, etc.  But if you read them closely, you'll see that the posts are not just about "what we do" at Michel-Schlumberger. The not-so-subtle subtext of these first posts by the Michel-Schlumberger team amounts to, "Good God, how luck am I to work at this place in this part of the world (giggle giddily!)."

I'm not sure this is the sort of "look how lucky I am" message I'd want to send from my winery blog. It smacks of "I'm luckier than Yoooouuu Aaarre!!". And to their credit, the folks at Michel-Schlumberger who write the blog don't communicate this blatantly. What's delightful however is that these folks are clearly so enamored with their place in the world that this gratefulness seems to animate every single post to this point.  It's an Authentic Giddiness. And I like it.

I think you are going to like it too. Bookmark the Benchland Blog. Follow Judd on Twitter. Make him a friend at Open Wine Consortium. 

On Wine Politics & New Voices

I finally had a chance to give serious face time to Tyler (Dr. Vino) Colman's newest book: WINE POLITICS: How Governments, Environmentalists, Mobsters, and Critics Influence the Wines We Drink. A book of this sort is so long overdue and I had been looking forward to it with such great anticipation that I nearly wet my pants when it finally arrived at my door.

I cracked it open somewhere over Nevada on my way to the National Conference of State Legislatures where a panel of industry folks moderated by Senator Sanchez from New Mexico was gong to discuss the impact of the Supreme Court decision, Granholm v. Heald. Apropos, no?

Here's the thing: If you write about wine and don't know the political history of the drink, you owe it to yourself and your readers to read this. If you are a lawmaker at the state level and deal with alcohol issues, you owe it to yourself and your constituents to read this book. If you are a wine lover and find yourself frustrated by the various laws that seem contrived to keep you from enjoying wine then you need to read this book.

What I was most interested in discovering was how an even handed treatment of the subject of wine politics would look and read like. I don't deal in evenhandedness when I approach and work in this area. I've seen enough to know that it accomplishes nothing to give those who work the system the benefit of the doubt. But Colman, in tackling this subject, is obligated to be evenhanded. And he pulls it off quite nicely.

The very first chapter asks, "What is Wine Politics". The answer Tyler provides is telling and explains the need for such a book:

"battles over the politics of wine are more often fought on the ground—sometimes literally. Where are the lines of the best growing zones drawn? Will society stigmatize wine or praise it? How can consumers buy their favorite wines or discover new ones? Is wine 'made in the vineyard,' as the industry likes to claim, or is it made in the lab and tested on focus groups for its consumer appeal? At stake in these battles are not only the livelihood of those in the industry but also the prestige and the profits of an industry whose sales reach $25 billion in the United States alone."

After offering a brief history of wine in France and the United States in Chapter two we move on to the meat of the book, an examination of critical issues in the wine industry that play out in a political framework: Appellations & Quality, American coalitions for and against wine, who dictates tastes and styles of wine, and the politics of environmentalism and wine and where they meet.

Naturally, I was most interested in how Colman dealt with the issue of direct shipment of wine, an issue that has been among the most public of political wine battles in America for the past 20 years. This discussion falls into the chapter appropriately named, "Baptists and Bootleggers". The term is a reference on the one hand to the odd coalition that supported Prohibition and on the other hand to the more recent coalition of  social conservatives often driven by religious imperatives and alcohol wholesalers that demand economic protection, both of whom have no interest in, and are willing to work furiously against, allowing consumers alternative channels to access the diverse and growing number of wines available in the country beyond the sacred three-tier system.

It would have been all to easy for a lesser writer to indulge in demonization in this chapter. It would have been very easy to write unflattering things about the nasty, disingenuous and heavy handed actions of American alcohol wholesalers' attempts to screw wine consumers and game the political system for their own economic benefit. Tyler will have none of this.

Rather, he simply lets the story of direct shipping and its political battles play out in his pages in a fairly matter of fact way.  Tyler's reporting on how the direct shipping battles progress goes just deep enough so that we are told how and when giant wholesaler Southern Wine & Spirits first asked in response to direct shipment of wine, "Is there any way to stop this". On the other hand, his explanations of the politics of direct shipping do not descend into esoterica, a real possibility where this subject is concerned.

Every state politician in America should at least be made to read the "Baptists and Bootleggers" chapter in this book. It provides a simple and straightforward answer to the question I think too many of them have, but don't know the answer to, when confronted with alcohol-related legislation: "Why is this a big deal and why are consumers jamming my phone lines over a bottle of wine?"

Tyler's book is foundational in the sense that it provides an excellent though not overwrought introduction to the critical issues that surround wine politics and the business of wine. Anyone in the business who does not know this stuff now has a resource where it is all laid out. Those wine lovers who have delved so deeply into the world of wine that they need context to satisfy their mind will also find great value in "Wine Politics".

On Tyler Colman, let me say this: If he chooses to, Tyler could make a very long career out of reporting on wine, educating both wine lovers and the industry, and writing more books on all manner of subjects revolving around wine. This is not an easy thing to do, which is my round about way of saying Tyler Coleman is among the leading pens of a new, younger generation of wine writers who will, hopefully, take those of us who grew into wine with the old guard of writers into our old age happily satisfied with the state of American wine writing and reporting.

"Wine Politics: How Governments, Environmentalists, Mobsters and Critics Influence the Wines We Drink"
By Tyler Colman
University of California Press
2008

Reason & Superstition

I've always enjoyed taking in a good battle between reason and superstition. They've been going on regularly now for quite some time, dating at least since Francis Bacon threw down the gauntlet with "Novum Organum" in 1620.

The battles seem never ending and that's just fine with me since they provide loads of entertainment value, particularly when the waring parties find themselves at the end of their arguments and, surprise, the opposition is not convinced. And even as we sit back and watch the world views flail at each other, we need to be prepared to be enlightened.

Today, we get to see these battles played out in diatribes issued forth in service of Intelligent Design or natural selection, in the occasional news story on psychotic mothers and fathers wed to the faith of Christian Science and the death of their children, in ancient battles between peoples who claim god gave them the land, and in rancid and acrimonious debates over life, death, sex and birth.

I recently came across a writer of fiction who trades in explorations of the intricacies and absurdities of the battle between reason and superstition. James Morrow is hard to nail down. His early work appeared mainly in Fantasy and Science Fiction magazines, but this seemed only the case because the focus of his short stories had no better place to appear, not because they were stories of ray guns, alien worlds or nanotechnology run amok.

His most recent novels, "The Philosopher's Apprentice" and "The Last Witchfinder" are both satire and social commentary wrapped up inside the ongoing Reason V. Superstition war. And they are terrific books. However, it's his collection of short stories, "Bible Stories for Adults", that truly makes one laugh out loud as well as feel a pinch of embarrassment for the ugly truths of western civilization we all must live with...and a bit too comfortably at that.

But here's the point: Having delved into Morrow extensively of late, I'm left thinking about where wine works itself into the battle between superstition and reason; where the myths we winos carry with us are too easily allowed to slide around reason and keep moving.

I think they number in the many...

...that quality in wine is definable and objective
...that terroir comes from the soil
...that wine can be judged with a number assigned by a single person and have meaning
...that the "great wines of the world" are few and far between

...just to begin with.

It strikes me that these and other such issues provoke in winos similar battles that can be described as reason v. superstition. Happily for us wine lovers, the outcome of our disagreement over these and other thorny issues rarely if ever lead to burnings at the stake, volatile school board elections, putting children's lives at stake or losses in personal autonomy. Instead, they merely lead to another glass of wine and maybe a blog post or two.

Buying Back Into Quality

Napa's Chateau Montelena Sold to Bordeaux's Cos d'Estournel

"This is the ultimate recognition, that the French are now buying these great California wineries," said Jon Fredrikson, a wine industry consultant and publisher of the Gomberg-Fredrikson report"

"It's just evidence of the growing respect for what is being done in America with wine."—Vic Motto

California's winemaking prowess matched that of France and the rest of the world years ago. I wonder if this sale isn't a matter of the French trying to buy back into the quality game?