 Pontifications
and Opinions |
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We
have very simple criteria when tasting wine
- What
does it taste like now, what do we think it will
taste like in the future (and how long do we think
it will take to get there), what food do we want to
drink it with and, most importantly, do we like it?
We pledge never to seriously use the words
"hedonistic", "unctuous" or "gobs." If we do,
please let us know and we will promptly drown the
brain cells from whence those words came.
Do
we buy all our own wines and then taste them double
blind? What, are
you stupid? We work for a living, so therefore we're as
opportunistic as hyenas catching a whiff of a ripe water buffalo
carcass rotting under the hot Sarangeti sun. On the plus side,
we'll let you know if there is something that may call our notes
into question, i.e. a well known burgundy house buying us a barrel
of Pinot at the Hospice d' Beaune auction and then us reviewing
said Burgundy house's wines. All tasting
notes are combined unless you see our initials. JD Here
in the San Fransisco Bay Area, there are a
ton of good, great, awesome restaurants. Given
that, the food damned well better be worth the
price. California is the land of BYOB (for those of
you who do not live in the state, it doesn't come
close to making up for the earthquakes, fires or
floods, so don't even THINK about moving here). As
such, we normally bring our own. A restaurant staff
must handle this with class and not turn up its
nose like a bottle of Topolos was just spilled on
the floor. Corkage (a whole topic of conversation
on its own) should also be reasonable and the
glassware should be serviceable, even though we
often bring our own glassware. What can we say?
We're geeks. The best
compliments we received was from Spiedini in Walnut Creek. The
wait-staff there told us "for most people going out to dinner
is something to do before doing something else, for you guys the
going-out-for-dinner is what you do". JD "The Vintner's Art" Hugh Johnson and James Halliday: Here's the real nuts and bolts of winemaking, presented by someone with experience and expertise (Halliday) and put together by a skilled writer and observer who really knows the world of wine (Johnson). The team dissects the sort of choices that winemakers have, lays out the consequences and trade-offs, and clears away some of the intellectual garbage strewn about by famous idiot critics, lifestyle magazines, and wine-shop cowboys. It's not a textbook for someone who wants to make wine, but a terrific guide for the wine-drinker who wants to understand HOW it's made and what the jargon really means. Highly recommended. "The Wines of the Rhône" John Livingstone-Learmonth: The Third Edition is the one book to have on the Rhône if you're only having one. L-L's strength is accurate and detailed accounts of vineyards, growers, and grapes. If you want to be held by the hand and told what to buy, this will not satisfy you. But it will give you a good overall knowledge of what the various Rhône appellations are all about and a good overall sense of what leading producers (both large and small) do in the vineyard and the winery. Though the tasting notes are well done, they're a bit musty now (the book was written in '92)- it's time to get a new edition out, Johnny-boy. Highly Recommended. "Rhône Renaissance" Remington Norman: Are you a back-of-the-baseball-card sorta guy/gal? You've come to the right place - Norman has meticulous data on holdings, soil, vinifications, varieties, geography... the contour maps with vineyard outlines are alone worth the price of the book. He spends most of his pages on France, but does great coverage of Australia and California, too. The tasting notes in the back of the book are from Mars. Recommended. "Burgundy"
Anthony Hanson: The good news is that Hanson's book is very comprehensive
(growers, holdings,
and other ultra-geeky stuff you have to know about when you're navigating
the arcane world of
Burgundy) and detailed. The bad news is that he spends a lot of ink
bashing other writers, is sloppy in
disclosing his business connections with many of the domaines he writes
about, and seems to have an inordinate
lack of skepticism regarding controversial vineyard practices. His wine
preferences are often
mysterious to me- I can't think of anyone else, for example, who considers
Michel Niellon a mediocre
producer. Hanson's style is Veddy-Genteel Member of the Wine Trade Upper
Class. I haven't spent enough time with Remington Norman's book yet,
but it looks like a better bet than Hanson if you're just buying one.
Mildly Recommended. "Making Sense of Burgundy" Matt Kramer: If you want to know about Burgundy vineyards and holdings on an Encyclopedia of Baseball level, Kramer delivers a fine data set. He also delivers crisp writing, a profound love of the wines of the region, and argues forcefully for signature-free winemaking. I find it curious, then, that he loves Leroy and Dujac, two excellent producers with VERY strong winemaking styles. Ah well, hobgoblin of small minds, that. Recommended. "Vintage: The
Story of Wine" Hugh Johnson: Elegantly crafted prose by the King
of the Veddy-Genteel
Member of the Wine Trade Upper Class style. Johnson writes compellingly
about the interaction
of the history of wine with culture and politics. Superbly researched
with a fascinating eye for
detail, a piece of scholarship which is real brain candy. "On Wine", "Vineyard Tales" Gerald Asher: Mr. Asher is an exemplar of my number one rule for wine writers- write well and interestingly. These two books have the same concept and structure; they're collections of essays, each of which focuses on a single region or a highly unifying theme. His prose style seems to be that of a Veddy-Genteel yadda-yadda-yadda turned slightly naughty, the latter being more pronounced in his California essays. I can live with that. Highly Recommended. "Adventures on the Wine Route" Kermit Lynch: Start out with the understanding that this book is a PR piece for Lynch's retail and importing business. OK, now leave that aside; Lynch writes an authentically passionate book about people and wines of Europe he loves. The character studies are priceless. As someone who has made these same journeys (albeit for education rather than direct commerce), I can tell you that he captures the real truths of these experiences. But one has to be tolerant of the streaks of Berkeley Culture that run through so much of this and not take his judgements on winemaking practices as conclusive or even objective. One of the best books on wine I've ever read. Highly Recommended. "The Right Wine" Tom Maresca: Just in case you're even geekier about wine-food pairings than the TheStupids are. If you take this book on a superficial level, you'll do well; Maresca gets through the basic points of different ways that wine-food matches can work. There's enough meat here to make a nice article in "Gourmet". There's enough filler to make up 344 pages. But at least it's well-written, if somewhat neurotic, filler. Mildly Recommended. "The Vines of San Lorenzo" Edward Steinberg: If you're into Barbaresco, or any Italian wine for that matter, then this is a book you need to own. Narrowly focused, the wine tells about the making of the '89 Gaja "San Lorenzo" Barbaresco. Along the way, it also tells you about the man, Angelo Gaja, who raised the bar on the Italian wine making scene and his quest to make great Barbaresco. It also introduces you to the farmers, winemakers, coopers and cellar rats who actually get the wine from the vineyard to the bottle. Recommended. "Yquem" Richard Olney: The great Sauterne and one of the great Bordeaux. This book is visually beautiful and full of the history behind the wine. As with "The Vines of San Lorenzo," the book also talks about the soil, the climate and, just as important, the people who actually make the wine. Historical menus from dinners past to food matches and a review of the vintages of Yquem back to 1753. The recipes could be better written but, after all, this is a wine book. Mildly recommended. "Wine Snobbery" Andrew Barr: Barr reminds us in this book that the wine business is a business. Whether it's wineries pumping up something ordinary into something "special", the hype machine of the wine press, or the pretensions of collecters, no balloon escapes Barr's pinpricks. One can take issue with some of his indignation or some of the conclusions, but overall he does a better job of consumer advocacy than any of the self-styled vinous Ralph Naders. Recommended "The Wild Bunch" Patrick Matthews: This is an entertaining run through wacky, weird, and idiosynchratic wines, winemakers, and wine philosophy. Don't expect even-handedness here; Matthews advocacy for his agendas is as forceful and direct as some of the wines he writes about. The sections on Jean-Paul Brun (a terrific winemaker in Beaujolais) alone are worth the price of the book. Highly Recommended
There are a bunch of valid styles of cooking. For example, there's the Important Fine Artist approach. We've got a friend who's great at that- her meals always have a huge number of ingredients, take days to prepare with lots of fussy steps, are assembled to produce visual "Wow!" reactions, and actually taste quite good. One expects to be served things like "Roasted haunch of New Zealand hare, wrapped with pancetta and preserved kumquat zest, resting on a bed of hand-carved orzo risotto flecked with rum-soaked currants, with a garnish of deep-fried sage chiffonade, and napped with a tomato, roasted red pepper, mustard, saffron, and long-simmered garlic reduction sauce, with a side of julienned flat beans and celeriac arranged in the shape of the Armenian National Seal." One doesn't know whether to eat or genuflect. Was it Mendelssohn that was accused of, "Too many notes!"? Another approach is the Ethnic Purist. Every cuisine outside of The Original Cuisine is garbage, suitable only for the dog. The food needs to be EXACTLY made the way it is in its native land, using EXACTLY the proper cookware, otherwise it's prostitution. We have some sympathy for The Purist, but draw the line at things like a vindaloo infested with native insects or only eating Santa Fe cuisine when the fat used is rendered from the spinal cord of a local wild goat. It's CRAZY not to adapt local ingredients into imported cuisines. Authenticity is a fine thing in its place. Literally. Even worse is the Health Nazi. There are many species within this genus, and they often overlap: Vegans (hey, you don't like it here, go back to your native star), Fat Haters, MSG Milquetoasts, Frankenfood Fearers, and the latest craze of nutbags who are afraid to heat their food much past body temperature. The one saving grace is the most numerous Health Nazi species, vegetarians, is mainly composed of individuals who hate good food in the first place, so we needn't consider them here. Nor anywhere else, for that matter. The Stupid approach is simple and catholic. We like a large variety of food styles, but keep coming back to those dishes which, regardless of origin, are simple in concept and flavor, highlighting the quality of the ingedients. A tomato salad should taste like wonderfully ripe tomatoes. A pizza should be uncluttered and direct (and preferably baked in a wood-burning oven). The height of fine eating is something like a hunk of superb Reggiano parmesan drizzled with a hundred-year-old balsamic, or some home-made pappardelle dressed with butter and shaved truffles, or some just-picked snap peas quickly stir-fried with just a hint of soy sauce and sesame oil. Though we have recipes here, our absolute favorite stuff is the kind where you don't need one, it's so simple.
None at all: that's really my first choice. The day of the magazine is over- stick a fork in it, it's done. The very best information is on the Net. You can get more pertinent, more honest, more diverse, more accurate, more timely, and more useful information on-line than in any print magazine in existence. You can also get unmitigated crap, so caveat lector.
My favorite on-line site is Robin Garr's "Wine Lover's Page", where you'll find pertinent articles and reviews, heavily slanted toward real-world wines and wine-food pairing. There's also a lively and diverse forum and discussion group. Robin grinds fewer axes than any other writer I know of, and Eric Stauffer does a great job with the software and coding end. They're nice enough to host this site. MarkSquires.Com is a site recently acquired by the Robert Parker empire. If you want the very latest on what Robert Parker thinks and want to be surrounded by other people who want the very latest on what Robert Parker thinks, you have found your place. And if you pony up $100, Robert Parker will tell you the latest on what he thinks so that you can tell everyone else who wants the latest on what Robert Parker thinks what's the latest on what Robert Parker thinks. A new entry is Arthur Johnson's Wine-People . Arthur is another drinking buddy and one hell of a writer. His views on wine make a fine counterbalance to ours (i.e., we disagree a lot!). David Rosengarten does wine reviews for the "Food Network" web site. He's got great, um, taste. Don't miss these. He's not only a great cooking teacher, he's a great wine reviewer. In-jokes, in-groups, in-fighting. Wine Therapy is the nightmare of the 'Net. It's the place to go to find out the lastest info on the weirdest wines of the world, from picpoul to poulsard. It's hosted by The Doghead, the single most hated person by wine geeks on the Internet. I love the guy. Ah, importer sites. Most importers have 'em. Joe Dressner, the son of famed importer Louis Dressner, has a satellite site. You should read it before taking your meds, when it will make the most sense. And drink Louis's wines- We haven't liked all of them, but we've liked most of them, and none of the wines with Lou's name on the back have ever been boring. A nice hobby site with superbly-done format, graphics, and layout is The Gang of Pour. They're also good friends of The Stupids- our esthetic in wine is pretty different, but they know how to throw a party! In my top echelon of Fun'n'Witty is Chris Coad and Lisa Allen's The Compleat Wine Geek. "Waiting for Callahan" is the funniest piece of in-group writing I've ever seen. The Brits have some serious sites of their own. We really like Jamie Goode, and we really like his site The Wine Anorak. We have some fundamental disagreements (and many more agreements), but his presentation is always intelligent, clear, and devoid of cheap debating tricks. Right there, that puts him ahead of most wine writers.
The Print Prostitutes - Life gets sad if you want your reading in bathroom format. But the print magazines have their uses. Wine Spectator is the most popular. And no wonder, it's almost a parody of Lifestyles of the Rich and Famous. Imagine a wine magazine whose cover feature is Hawaii! If you enjoy image, daahling, crave reviews of $500 a day hotel rooms, love seeing pictures of fat dermatologist tuxedo etouffé sporting the latest trophies (including their siliconed second wife), crave the latest scoop on what this month's trophies are, and can tolerate superficial and often inaccurate wine writing, this is your place. You'll also find lots of pretty pictures and lots of ads for expensive cars, cigars, jewelry, perfume, designer clothes... The one bright light is Harvey Steiman's recipe and wine articles. The Wine Advocate is the other end of the trophy race. No fancy graphics, very little "lifestyle" coverage. More often quoted and discussed than actually read, this magazine is probably most useful if you're in the market for Bordeaux futures - that's clearly Robert Parker's forte. I have trouble taking the rest of it seriously. Dan Berger's Vintage Experiences is a weekly newsletter. The strength here is his coverage of California, which he does with high journalistic standards and a great knowledge of the area. The sheynig that Dan hocks is for lesser known wines and varieties, not a bad thing. He's also one of the best writers on Australia - he turned us on to Charles Melton two years before any other reviews appeared. The European stuff is more uneven. Dan's background as a sports writer shows up in his exceptionally clear prose style. Wine Enthusiast is a magazine that seems to really want to be Wine Spectator- they didn't even bother to scrape off the serial numbers. If anything, their wine reviews are even worse. You gotta give them points for THAT accomplishment. Update: WE has undergone some profound changes since we wrote the above. It's in better editorial hands but it still is, it must be said, a strongly lifestyle-oriented magazine. That said, the tasting panel has been replaced with a group that is certainly less martian in taste than the previous bunch. The articles are getting better and there's actually one or two good columnists. Burghound is the definitive source for information on (guess what?) Burgundy. Allen Meadows threw himself into Burgundy a few years ago and hasn't let up. If you're into Burgundy, he's the best. We've only seen one issue of The Fine Wine Review, but what we saw looked meticulous. Claude Kolm writes well, observes well, and has a good perspective. We don't always agree with him, but we always respect his opinions and his work for their honesty. |
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