A Siren Song and a Spanish Thanksgiving
So here I sit on the 11th of November thinking of my wine pairing suggestions for Thanksgiving. I swore to myself that I would not succumb to the holiday sirens that beg anyone who writes about wine to do the obligatory post about holiday food and wine pairings. But alas, I have surrendered!
Read more →Podcast 18 Drive time wine review – Value across the Andes
This week my palate has taken a trip south of the border, no not to Taco Bell, but to South America. What I found was great quality and value galore! Finding great value wines from South American is by no means anything new. Chile and Argentina have been producing some good value wines since the early 1990’s. Both countries have chosen an obscure Bordeaux variety to call their own.
I chose an example of each to try, come listen to our podcast to find out what I thought of these wines.
Read more →Podcast 17 A Swanson Song- The story of Chris Phelps
I had the fortunate pleasure of being invited to meet Chris Phelps, head winemaker for Swason Vinyards in Napa. So this past Monday I made my way up valley to Rutherford to meet Chris at the winery. What follows is a podcast of me recounting my encounter to JonM. This is like the hearsay of interviewing techniques, Chris Phelps tells ChrisO who then tells JonM. If you like it make sure and tell someone else.
Read more →The Season of Harvest – from someone who has nothing to do with it
It’s funny, you work for a winery and everyone imagines that you’re either literally making the wine or in charge of shaking hands with the public every single day. People who try to sell me advertising space, distributor trade reps, the guy who delivers the bottled water, my mother – all betray themselves in conversation as having absolutely no idea what I do all day. “Well you must be insanely busy now that harvest is on.” -anonymous sales person “True, I haven’t returned your unsolicited phone call, but its because I am authoring a wine club customer feedback survey, not because there is a whole bunch of Sauvignon Blanc being delivered today.” – a perhaps overly sassy Me.
Read more →Podcast 16 A visit to Smith-Madrone Winery
I, “the everyman’s wine snob”, had the very unique opportunity this last Saturday to visit Smith-Madrone Winery, located atop Spring Mountain in Napa Valley, California. It was an amazing experience and an absolute pleasure meeting both Stu and Charles Smith (owners), who share the responsibility for producing some of the most unique and exciting Rieslings and Cabernet Sauvignons that I have tasted, to date, from Napa Valley.
JonM the “wine snob’s everyman” and I hope you enjoy the podcast we put together about my experience at Smith-Madrone Winery.
Read more →Wine as Consumer Packaged Goods or how we sucked all the romance out
Commodity is not wine’s natural state. In fact, sometimes I don’t know how we (as in the wine industry) managed to get here from there. How we took something so inherently different and made it so the same. How in our mad-dash to lay a business plan and margin analysis over a vineyard, we overlooked what gives wine value in the first place. Forgot what makes it mysterious. Ignored what makes it special.
Read more →Happy Birthday Vintuba!
Well we have made through our first year of drinking, talking and blogging. And like any 22 year old (legal in all 50 states plus one) facing their future, we looked back at what we had accomplished, attempted, and abandoned and decided the website needed a bit of work. So got to work and created, [...]
Read more →The Qupe runneth over!
ChrisO the “Everyman’s wine snob” goes solo and reviews the 2007 Qupe Marsanne on camera.
Read more →DID YOU KNOW?
France’s Rhone Valley
The Rhone Valley in the South of France is split into two regions. With 95% of Rhone Valley wine coming from the Southern Region, it easy to overlook the fantastic Hermitage and Cote-Rotie wines of the Northern Region.
Read more →Its Grüner Veltliner Friday
TGIF Today is Grüner Veltliner Friday: Today I would like to talk to you about Grüner Veltliner, no it is not a new strain of flu or the latest socially transmitted disease, however I do want to warn you that once you have tried it you might become infected with the desire to drink it [...]
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