Pulling The Cork

In Case You Missed It - 10/02/09 Edition

If you're wondering why we are pink please click here.

Another week has passed and another heart stopping finish for my Fighting Irish.  I think I may be getting too old for these last minute and crazy finishes but a win is a wine...err...win!  We had a pretty eventful week at Pulling The Cork as we went pink for National Breast Cancer Awareness Month, finished up a great Taste & Talk with Cindy from Passaggio Wines and we had a great piece from Neile Wolfe. 

Let's take a look back at some other interesting things from around the wine blogosphere.

According to The Winery Web Site Report a great winery blog must be interesting, informative and useful.  Can't say I disagree!  Mike Duffy posts about an example from Tablas Creek. 

It is more common for me to bring my own wine from my cellar and pay corkage at a restaurant than to pay the ridiculous mark ups most restaurants charge for wine.  Sylvia Rector at the Detroit Free Press says that might be changing as restaurants are starting to lower prices on wine in response to customer buying patterns in light of tough economic times.  Too bad they will never get to retail level!

From Decanter - a very unusual find of some very rare wines came about by a complete fluke.  Ten bottles of Domaine de la Romanee Conti Richebourg 1969, magnums of 1964 Latour, a double magnum of Lafite 1960, Cockburn 1927, magnums of Sandeman 1935, a bottle of Roederer Cristal 1966 and a Jeroboam (4.5 litres) of Latour 1949 are a few of the treasures that have been discovered and are now on sale.

Steve Bachmann, CEO of Vinfolio, has another perspective on the state of the wine industry in these tough economic times.  Specifically he talks about high end California wine sales and he says that we are in for a period of price stabilization while California wine makers and wineries need to start looking to Asia to expand their business. 

If you haven't hung out at Supple Wine you're and idiot.  Ok, that was harsh...sorry!  Seriously, our good friend Mike Supple (@supplewine on Twitter) has an amazing site and this past week he had a great video on the reality and truth about cork as a wine closure.  He hung out at Willamette Valley Vineyards recently, shot some video and brings us the TRUTH about cork - the truth shall set you free!  Or at least make you feel better about cork as a closure...get ready to be educated!

Finally, as it is National Breast Cancer Awareness Month, we go back to July for this article from Wine Spectator's Jacob Gaffney on how wine may lessen the effects of radiation therapy in cancer patients. 

As always, thanks for hanging out at Pulling The Cork.  This coming week we have a special Breast Cancer Awareness Month Taste & Talk with Budge Brown of Cleavage Creek wines who lost his wife of 48 years to cancer and is doing something about it with his wine.  We will also have a couple wine reviews and an article or two. 

Wine Bloggers - We Don't Need No Stinkin' Badges!

By Neile Wolfe

One of the iconic exchanges in move history occurs in The Treasure of the Sierra Madre between treasure hunter Fred C. Dobbs (played by Humphrey Bogart) and Mexican bandit Gold Hat (played by character actor Alfonso Bedoya).  The exchange goes as follows.

Dobbs: “If you're the police where are your badges”
Gold Hat: “Badges? We ain't got no badges. We don't need no badges! I don't have to show you any stinkin' badges!”

This same basic exchange occurred recently between Matt Kramer of the Wine Spectatorand the wine blogsphere.  In the October 15, 2009 edition of the Wine Spectator, Kramer basically laid down the gauntlet when he asked the blogsphere to present their Bona fides.  The wine blogosphere collectively responded with the position that they don’t need to show Kramer "no stinkin’ Bona fides".

As in many endeavors, the tension between who has the authority to speak and who speaks with authority creates discord between disparate groups.  Matt Kramer has spent years reaching his level of expertise and rightly feels that he has earned the right to speak with authority.  His frustration at seeing individuals with less training (or in some cases, no training) de facto claiming the same authority is understandable.  However, the wine blogosphere reads the tasting notes in Wine Spectator and sees no special difference between their evaluation of a wine and the Wine Spectator’s evaluation, so they believe no functional difference exists. 

This issue of competency in tasting is addressed by Kramer.  He presents it as a straw man argument, which he then knocks down by stating that mere competency in tasting is not enough.  The problem for Kramer is that for almost all people who read wine tasting notes, mere competency is certainly enough.  For most of us, one informed tasting note is just as good as another informed tasting note.  In addition, the ability of the writer to recognize distinctions becomes unimportant if those distinctions are not reported, which they are not in basic wine reviews.  Basic wine reviews are the raison d’etre for the existence of the Wine Spectator.  Leave out the wine tasting notes in the back of the magazine and most of us stop subscribing. 

Kramer’s problem can be illuminated by an experience I had 30 years ago.  A local museum was hosting a lecture by a stained glass artist and I was invited to attend.  In the lecture the artist revealed that at one time he had been a painter, but had changed to stained glass.  During the Q&A the artist was asked why he had made the change.  His answer was something like this.  The size of the market for people who really understand modern painting is about 5,000 individuals world wide.  Everybody on some level really understands stained glass. 

Kramer has the same problem as the artist.  The world wide audience for individuals who could understand and put into context, based upon their own personal tasting experience, everything that Kramer might tell them about a wine is only a small fraction of the people who are interested in wine.  Since, no basic wine reviews on Wine Spectator go into that kind of depth all of Kramer’s accumulated knowledge becomes superfluous to the issue of a competent opinion.

In fact, the tasting notes by the Wine Spectator and the tasting notes by any number of tasters on CellarTracker are virtually indistinguishable.  Below are tasting notes from the Wine Spectator and CellarTracker on two different wines.  See if you can determine which review is from the Wine Spectator and which is from CellarTracker.

WINE A

Fresh, fragrant lemon-lime and citrus scents pick up subtle pear, fig and apple flavors that are sleek and refined. Gains richness on the finish, yet remains impeccably elegant. (93)

Cloudy yellow color. Tropical fruit nose. Tastes of melon, apple and pear. Well balanced. Some noticeable oak that with time will integrate very nicely. Long, elegant finish. (92)

WINE B

Showing lots of earthy cassis and cherry fruit on the nose, this has a subtle herbacous note that comes out more with air. The palate is medium bodied with plenty of acidity to go along with rich fruit, nice underlying structure, balance and length. Streamlined and tight at the moment. (89)

Aromas of plum and meat follow through to a full-bodied palate, with soft tannins and a fresh, clean finish. Merlot, Syrah and Sangiovese.  (88)

Kramer wants to reserve the authority to write tasting notes and make comments about wine to those who are “experts”.  However, as demonstrated above, informed tasting notes about wine do not require that level of expertise.  This is why the wine blogosphere and CellarTracker are going to continue to expand and gain readership, Kramer’s laments not withstanding.  

"You talkin' to me?" - Travis Bickle (played by Robert DeNiro) in Taxi Driver

So, Mr. Kramer, if “your talkin’ to me” it just won’t do much good.  What you and the informed part of the wine blogosphere are going to say about any particular wine is essentially the same.  And that is all that most people care about. 

THE WINES - WIne A used for comparison was the 2006 Aubert Chardonnay Ritchie Vineyard.  The first review listed was from the Wine Spectator by James Laube.  The second review was from CellarTracker by kstoddard.  The second wine used for comparison was the 2005 Ca' Marcanda (Gaja) Promis Toscana IGT.  In this case the first review was from CellarTracker by jdunnuck.  The second review was from the Wine Spectator by James Suckling

In Case You Missed It - 09/25/09 Edition

It was a great weekend.  Notre Dame showed some character and guts in getting a hard fought win over Purdue, I celebrated the Irish win with the 2004 Château Guiraud Sauternes (tasting notes to come), the weather was decent here in Michigan and Pulling The Cork was named #9 on Seattle Wine Examiners list of Top 10 Wine Blogs Worth Reading. 

Good times!

It's time to take our weekly look back at the week that was in wine. 

Joe over at 1 Wine Dude needs all of our help to Kick Alzheimer's Ass.  I am not usually one for kicking ass as a matter of principal (unless I have to) but in this case I am down for making an exception.  Check it out and, if you can, join in this ass kicking!

Super Vixen Nadia G (ok, I admit it, I am in love with Nadia G) over at Bitchin' Kitchen wants to help you out with getting your mate, spouse, friend with benefits etc. to lose some of that weight you're not so fond of. 

Mike Steinberger has an amazing synopsis on how the internet has democratized drinking with his post on Slate called We're All Wine Critics Now.  Really an outstanding read and important if you use the internet to gain information about wine, you read wine blogs, you read wine tweets or use any other form of social media for education and information on wine. 

Francesco Vigorito of The Ride Inside (@don_cheech on Twitter) is a good friend of PTC and an outstanding source on wine.  His blog hasn't been around that long but it is a wealth of information and entertainment.  A recent post calledBad Soil, Good Grapes is exceptional. 

Jo Diaz of Wine Blog wants to go to Portugal with you.  She is having a contest where you can win an all expenses paid wine trip to Portugal.  Hard to pass up at least giving that a try!

2009 is the vintage of the century!  Again, really?  Every year we hear this and it is starting to border on ridiculous.  It seems our good friend Jeff Miller of Artisan Family of Wines, risking being ostracized by his peers for saying what they all know, thinks differently about the 2009 vintage in California.  As always it is another piece of excellent writing and great insight from Jeff. 

As we look ahead to this week we will have a couple wine reviews, we will continue our Taste & Talk conversation with Cindy Cosco of Passaggio - including a video review of her Chardonnay, a few other interesting pieces and an announcement for the up coming month of October which is Breast Cancer Awareness Month.  We hope you'll come and hang out with us this week! 

Pulling The Cork Named #9 On Top 10 Wine Blogs To Read

So I was tooling around the internet on Saturday morning watching College Football Gameday and getting ready for the Notre Dame vs. Purdue game on Saturday night.  I jumped onto Twitter for a minute to see what was going on and I see that Ashlynkat (aka Amber Agne) who writes for the Seattle Wine Shop Examiner had tweeted out her list of Top 10 Wine Blogs To Read.  I thought, this is cool I am going to check out what she thinks.  Then I saw that our little old wine blog was her #9 wine blog worth reading.  Holy crap...That made my morning!  Here is a quick breakdown of her tweets announcing her top 10:

Finally I added to my Examiner resource page the Top 10 Wine Blogs worth reading. So hard to narrow it down to just 10! http://bit.ly/sARUp 

In picking my Top 10 Wine Blogs, I was focusing on those that would appeal to my target audience - Seattle wine shoppers http://bit.ly/sARUp 

 

Top 10 Wine Blogs to read http://bit.ly/sARUp #1 @drvino #2 @vinography #3 @1WineDude #4 @tomcwark #5 @enobytes #6 @AnotherWineBlog 

Top 10 Wine Blogs to read (cont) http://bit.ly/sARUp #7 Walla Walla Woman (@Catie) #8 Good Wine Under $20 (@drdebs)

Top 10 Wine Blogs to read (cont) http://bit.ly/sARUp #9 @PullingTheCork #10 @WriteforWine Again, very tough to narrow down to just 10

Any recognition such as this is wonderful but Amber is a trained sommelier and certified specialist of wine (CSW).  She has good wine chops which makes her recommendation of Pulling The Cork a real honor for us.  I became a fan of her writing when we first connected on Twitter a while ago and it is really cool to have someone whose writing we respect and enjoy say something nice about Pulling The Cork.  Thank you so much Amber!

Many of the blogs she recommends we read regularly and are included on our Friends of PTC blogroll in the right hand sidebar.  Since Amber listed the Twitter names and links to Twitter pages of her Top 10 and we know not all of our readers are using Twitter we decided to follow up on Amber's list and her recognition of PTC by listing the actual sites and links of her Top 10 from 1 - 10 below.

1. Dr. Vino
2. Vinography
3. 1 Wine Dude
4. Fermentation
5. Enobytes
6. Another Wine Blog
7. Wild Walla Walla Wine Woman
8. Good Wine Under $20
9. Pulling The Cork- Yeah!
10. Write For Wine

In Case You Missed It - 09/18/09 Edition

Time to get to the week that was in the wine blogosphere.  I decided to move In Case You MIssed It to Monday as a way to look back at the previous week in wine.  A friend kindly pointed out that posting it on Friday meant I might miss actual wine related posts and articles that go live on Friday so that, technically speaking, it wasn't really a full week in review.  I hang out with people who are smarter than me for that very reason.

Before we get started I will only casually mention that my Notre Dame Fighting Irish managed to win a way too close game against Michigan State this past weekend.  At the moment it looks like the Sisters of the Poor Orphanage team could move the ball up and down the field against the Irish defense but I have to believe John Tenuta will get that fixed...at least I keep telling myself that.

Here we go:

A really interesting piece from Josh Hermsmyer @pinotblogger on Brettanomyces (Brett) in white wine.  Josh is a smart guy and a bit geeky when it comes to these things but I happen to like wine geeky so go check it out...it's a good read.  After you're done with that be sure to check out our video Why You Might Smell Poop In Your Wine for our discussion on Brett in red wine.

More Trouble On The Horizon is yet another look at the economic challenges facing the wine industry from The Zinquisition.  There are blog posts and articles all over the internet to this very point and the recent Wine Spectator had an article on wine surplus as a result of the economy.  Here's hoping things get better soon.

Purple Teeth Diaries Erica Green (@eric_agreen on Twitter) gives us some great advice on how to order wine at a restaurant.  She is pretty smart except for the fact she is a Texas football fan! 

Fredric Koeppel over at Bigger Than Your Head has a good post called The Wild West of the Douro.  He talks about some of his travels in Portugal, the Duouro wine region and he reviews some interesting wines along the way.  A must read in my opinion.

WineDiverGirl (Lisa DeBruin or @winedivergirl on Twitter) hits it hard with a post on why social media needs to be personal and interactive lest you become a nuisance to those that wish to follow you and interact with you.  Sadly, many in the wine industry still have not figured this out. 

I love Bitchin' Kitchen (@bitchinkitchen) and, though this wasn't last week, I have to share their vintage video of the week from two weeks ago called One-Night-Stand Breakfast.  It is hilarious and sadly may hit home for some of us...err...some of you!

Jeff Miller (@ArtisanWines) over at Artisan Family of Wines has two posts asking whether or not expensive wines really do taste better (Part 1 and Part 2).  Jeff's blogs is one of the best blogs I have seen that is written by a wine maker.  His level of detail, interesting topics and desire to really educate his readers is unmatched and his blog is a must read. 

Coming up this week at Pulling The Cork:

The last in or How To Taste and Talk Wine Series, an article from a new contributor who you will meet shortly, the last review of one of Jeff Miller's wines from Artisan Family of Wines and we launch our second Taste & Talk series with Cindy Cosco, lab manager at Crushpad and owner/wine maker of Passaggio.  Hope you will come back to check those out!

Taste & Talk With Jeff Miller of Artisan Family of Wines - Part 3

Sorry for having been off the radar for a few days.  Seasonal allergies consumed me for the last 5 days or so and literally left me almost completely bed ridden.  It was awful!  Since moving from Michigan to Ohio I suddenly got allergies.  Something about the pollen or ragweed count here hits me hard - something I NEVER experienced in Ohio.  Not only did it leave me miserable it meant I couldn't drink or taste ANY wine.  Not so good when you write a wine blog! 

I did manage to get out of bed long enough to head to Ann Arbor and watch my Irish lose to Michigan on Saturday.  Just terrible!

Time to rejoin our conversation with Jeff Miller of Artisan Family of Wines in our Taste & Talk series.  To bring you up to speed Jeff gave us some background on Artisan Family of Wines and how he got into making wine in Part 1.  In Part 2 Jeff shared his winemaking philosophy, vineyard management approach and whether or not being a small boutique winery allows him to take more risks or forces him to play it a bit more safely.  We then tasted and reviewed two wines from Jeff and Artisan - the 2008 Red Côte Rosé and the 2005 Sly Dog Cellars Cabernet Sauvignon.

In today's excerpt from our conversation, Jeff talks about his blog, why he blogs and the current state of wine blogs in general.  This one is really interesting not only because we are a wine blog but Jeff is a wine maker who also blogs and his thoughts are rather interesting.  His blog is one of the most interesting and educational wine blogs I have come across and if you haven't checked it out yet you really need to.  The fourth and final excerpt from our conversation with Jeff will be this week and we hope to also post video tasting notes on two more wines from Artisan. 

Pour a glass and enjoy our conversation with Jeff.

Note:  This conversation was originally recorded at the beginning of August 2009 so Jeff's reference to misting occurs during that time, not in mid-September.

In Case You Missed It - 08/28/08 Edition

Starting today, and every Friday hereafter (unless something else really interesting catches our attention and motivates us to write about it), we will be posting In Case You Missed It.  Basically this is a quick look back at the week that was in the wine blogosphere and other online wine media through some of the more interesting things we read, watched or heard about. 

Don't think it needs more explanation than that so here we go...

From Supple Wine we are advised to Go Simple When Pairing Dessert.  Apparently it's not just about Sauternes but man do I love me some Sauternes.

Small Signs of Troubled Times in the Top Tier of Wine is a nice post from Vinography (Alder Yarrow @vinography on Twitter) on the economic difficulties facing the wine industry and is a nice compliment to our Pain In The Bottle post not long ago.

Ever wonder why you get a headache when you drink red wine?  So do doctors and chemists but they can't figure it out either.  la Jolla Mom (@lajollamom on Twitter) clues us in on some of the possible culprits of red wine headache.

Newbie wine blogger the Cellarmistress (@cellarmistress on Twitter)tells us all about her passion for Zinfandel.  We love it too...wonder if she has ever been Jackassed by Martinelli's awesome Zin?

Really love this piece by Lauren Buzzeo (@laurbuzz on Twitter) over at unreserved, a blog by Wine Enthusiast editors.  She questions, very effectively by the way, the notion of saving your great wine for special friends or special occasions.  We agree!  We think any time you open a great bottle IS the special occasion. 

Is social media only for the narcissistic?  Jennifer Van Grove shares an interesting survey and compelling data to make the case over at Mashable.

There you have it in case you missed it!  Over the weekend we will be working on shooting some video for What You Taste & How To Taste It - the fourth in our series on How To Taste & Talk Wine.  We will also be editing up an interview with a wine maker in California for a Taste & Talk episode, putting the finishing touches on an article or two and shooting a video tasting note or two.  Busy weekend ahead.

So what will you be Pulling The Cork on over the weekend - what will you be drinking? 

Oe-no-phile On The 2006 Can Blau Montsant

At Pulling The Cork we believe the best wine is the kind of wine you drink and the kind of wine you love.  Sure, we review, taste and talk about wines but we know everyone's palate is different and unique.  While we have tasted thousands of wines, and written tasting notes on most of them, getting multiple opinions and perspectives on a wine is key to a better and more comprehensive understanding of what the wine is all about.  It's not as good as tasting and drinking it yourself but it's a decent substitute if you can't.

Our good friend (and future cohort on another wine project) Ryan Reichert (from the wine blog oe-no-phile) recently tasted and talked about the 2006 Cellers Can Blau Montsant we reviewed a short time ago. 

We wanted to point you in the direction of his post so you can read his perspective on the same wine and consider it in context with our review back on July 10, 2009. 

We think reading many reviews of a wine from diverse tasters of various experience levels is a great way to get a pretty good understanding of the wine.  The best way, of course, is to taste and drink the wine yourself and drink wines of different varietals from many different places in the world.  That is the best way to train your palate and learn about wine. 

Taste, taste, taste!

Say Anything But Be Authentic Like Lloyd Dobler

Originally posted at www.bearingfruitconsulting.com.  It seemed to have some relevance to the wine blog community in terms of a discussion on authenticity in your blogs and writing.  Here it is. 

Maybe I didn't really know you. Maybe you were just a mirage. Maybe the world is full of food and sex and spectacle and we're all just hurling towards an apocalypse, in which case it's not your fault... ~ Lloyd Dobler

One of my favorite movies of all time is Say Anything and Lloyd Dobler, played by my favorite actor John Cusack, is my movie character hero.  Why?  Well there are many reasons but I love Lloyd because he is so transparent, honest and authentic.  He didn't hold back and he said what he meant.  That is just Lloyd.  Very few films have ever tried to be as smart, genuine, funny and authentic as Say Anything.  If you haven't seen it you really need to check it out.  It is genius!

There has been a lot of chatter in the blogosphere, social media world and the wine community on what it means to be authentic and have authenticity which got me thinking about Lloyd Dobler again.  With the explosion of social media it can often be a difficult chore to decide who you follow, put your trust into and whether or not those people behind the social media curtain really are who they appear to be.  If they aren't who they appear to be does that impact or change how valuable or important what they say and do is to you? 

This is especially true when it comes to wine reviews, wine information and general talk about wine.  It becomes a more relevent topic in light of the recent smack talk from wine critics against wine bloggers and some non-conference agenda chats about authenticity I heard about from people I know who attended the The Winebloggers Conference. 

The other day on recruitingblogs.com Maren Hogan organized a free for all discussion on authenticity and whether or not authenticity is even important.  In case you missed it, when I am not Pulling The Cork my daytime gig is as a recruiting strategy consultant.  It was lively and entertaining but I am not sure there was much consensus at the end of the day.  That is perfectly fine by the way as the mere "beating up" of ideas on this topic was well worth the investment of my time and I am sure the others who participated would agree. 

I don't claim to have this nailed down and I certainly don't believe I am completely firm yet on what it is to be authentic or demonstrate authenticity.  That doesn't even take into account the issue of whether or not authenticity is important.  That disclaimer aside I decided to offer some of my thoughts, which are still congealing, on this topic.

Sour Grapes? Wine Critics Smack Talking Wine Bloggers

I was a football player in high school and college and I always loved a little smack talk.  There is nothing like a little smack back and forth with opponents to ignite the competitive fire and mentally prepare for a Saturday afternoon battle.   

There has been some smack talk going on between wine critics and wine bloggers lately.  As a newbie wine blogger (but not new to blogging - I have a rather successful blog in the recruiting space) I wanted to offer a few thoughts and observations on the brou-ha-ha.  As a newbie my perspective is either unique or I haven't been around long enough to know what I am talking about.  You decide.   

First, some background for context.  Recent "smack" from wine critics Anthony Dias Blue and Robert Parker railing against wine bloggers has gotten plenty of attention and, to be honest, their "smack" has me a bit puzzled.  It's all well documented by Joe Roberts of 1WineDude here and here.  Joe provides meaningful, insightful and intelligent "smack" on the wine critics tantrums so do read it if you haven't already.  I am not going to regurgitate all the information here because you can read it but two quotes from Blue and Parker need to be placed here for a little context (bold added to highlight the smack). 

From Anthony Dias Blue

“And who are these bloggers anyway and, more important, what is their motivation? It would be comforting to find that they are altruistic wine lovers who see their purpose as bringing insight and valuable information to like-minded consumers. But the image that presents itself is of bitter, carping gadflies who, as they stare into their computer screens and contemplate their dreary day jobs, let their resentment and sense of personal failure take shape as vicious attacks on the established critical media.”

From Robert Parker

"When I was in the Rhône Valley in early September, several French newspapers came out with stories about the deplorable quality of the 2008 Bordeaux vintage. These pre-harvest reports resonated in other areas of the world press, as well as on those notorious blogs that can be authored by anybody who can string a noun and verb together, and by many who can’t.

“It did not take me long to realize that the 2008 vintage was dramatically better than I had expected… When you look at all the facts (not the rumor-mongering from irresponsible bloggers)

Here are my thoughts, the thoughts of a newbie wine blogger, if you care to know: