Ornette Coleman

Last night’s Ornette Coleman concert was one of those rare experiences you could describe as profound. Just two years short of his 80th birthday his age showed as he slowly shuffled onto the stage, but that frailty did not show in his music. The 1 1/2 hour concert went from number to number almost without a break with no talking. Flanked by three basses, two electric and one acoustic, and his son Denardo on drums, Coleman punctuated their relentless rhythms with brilliant brush strokes of sound. It was demanding music and if you let your attention wander, if even for a second, you would find yourself desperately trying to catch up. While most of the music focused on Coleman’s current, Pulitzer prize winning album, Sound Grammar, a scattering of his earlier works also graced the evening. It seemed over as soon as it began as the time evaporated as you concentrated on the experience. As abruptly as Coleman’s music, the band suddenly put down their instruments, bowed and walked off the stage. As the crowd realized what was happening the applause became a roar and the musicians returned for an encore, after which Coleman slowly shuffled off the stage. The audience wanted more, but sensed it was too much to ask considering what they had already received and respectfully let Coleman take his leave. Genius deserves such respect.

At the end of the concert I was mentally spent from the intense concentration the music demanded. However, there is something about experiencing great art that is elevating and expands your mind. This was such an experience.

Ornette Coleman once said there was music before there was a word for it. Now I understand what he meant.

Wine Blog Wednesday #42 Wrap-up

Host Andrew Barrow of Spittoon has posted the wrap-up for the 42nd Edition of Wine Blog Wednesday. His challenging topic of describing an Italian red wine using only seven words produced over 50 entries from wine blogs around the world. The results are not only fun, but thought provoking.

Check out the entire list using this link. 

7 Little Words WBW #42

The task for this Wine Blog Wednesday seemed daunting to a wordy writer like me. This month's host Andrew Barrow at Spittoon proposed we comment on an Italian red wine using only seven words. At first I thought this difficult, but then, when I thought of my ultimate compliment for a wine, it suddenly became easy!

Barbera d’Alba, Marcarini, Ciabot Camerano, 2005

A wine I could drink every day.

Hot Restaurants

The food was fantastic as was the wine list. There were so many interesting wines to choose from that it was difficult to order. All was in place for a great wine evening and the Riedels on the table sparkled in anticipation of delights soon to pass from their lips to ours. The evening started with the sublime Champagne, Pierre Gimmonet, Blanc de blancs 1er Cru, Cuvée Gastronome, 2002, which is creamy, toasty and complex with a finish that just won't quit. It was paired with an assortment of pristine Puget Sound oysters and it was such a magical interplay that it only sharpened our palates for the wine and food yet to come.

The impending arrival of our next courses called for red wine and the Chénas, Vieilles Vignes de 1939, Pascal Aufranc, 2005 arrived at the table and was poured only to be met with tepid enthusiasm. That tepid response was caused by the temperature of the wine, not the wine itself. Once again a restaurant that was flying all the flags of a serious wine restaurant ignored one of the most basic requirement for serving a fine wine. Our Chénas had to be almost 75 degrees. What was an elegant, beautiful wine had been turned into a mushy, cooked hot alcoholic brew. We summoned an ice bucket and actually poured our glasses back into the bottle to try to save what we could of this wine, but, while the buckets chill dramatically improved the wine after ten minutes, putting a natural wine through this kind of roller coaster will not bring out the best in a wine.

Hot restaurants serving hot red wines is a ridiculously common occurrence. They spend and spend on the accoutrements of fine wine, but then ignore one of the basics of wine service: temperature.  Proper serving temperature for most red wines is in the 60's, not the 70's, and it's better to error on the side of cooler rather than warmer.  I am amazed how many times I've had a sommelier rave about this or that obscure producer only to pour a lukewarm wine into a glass that costs more than the wine. A restaurant that does not make the effort to serve their wines at the proper temperature cannot be considered to have a serious wine program. This also applies to their wine-by-the-glass programs where half-empty bottles languish on the back bar no matter the balmy ambient temperature.

America is the country where we serve red wines too warm and white wines too cold.

Something Like a War

 

There are few less likable people than Ty Cobb, yet he was beautiful on the baseball field. I was reminded of this photo upon my annual winter re-watching of Ken Burns’ Baseball. It is an amazing fact that this photo, taken about one hundred years ago, remains as one of the the finest baseball photos ever taken. It makes you wonder if today’s photographers or today’s players are the difference.

This is a perfect baseball photograph.

Mother Nature's Son

We think of wine as such a natural and beautiful thing. It’s an artisanal product that brings a connection to nature to all those that ponder and enjoy it. Wine is Mother Nature’s Son.

Unfortunately, only a few measly percentage points of total wine production has such idyllic origins. The vast majority of wines produced are soulless industrial products, which are appropriately sold and marketed by an equally heartless industrial system of distributors. This is the middle tier of the so called “three tier system. The executives of companies that mass produce these industrial wines and those that mass distribute them move from beverage industry to beverage industry seamlessly. It doesn’t matter if they’re producing or selling Coke, Rock Star, Budweiser, Gatorade or Rutherford Hill (all companies that they slip in and out of as they move up the ladder): boxes are boxes and their job is to move them. They accomplish their mission with ruthless efficiency.

It is these cool predators that control the means by which wines go from winemaker to consumer no matter the size of the production or quality of the wine. The billions of dollars they generate selling vodka, rum, tequila and mass wine brands fund one of the dirtier lobby groups out there, the W.S.W.A. They take their millions and buy politicians who deliver them legislation that gives them market franchises not unlike your local cable company enjoys and you know how well that goes.

As you might imagine, the needs of small wine producers and fine wine consumers are buried under this mountain of sleaze and political corruption as their small voices are not likely to be heard by politicians being wined/boozed and dined in sky boxes at big time sporting events.

The 2005 Supreme Court ruling that would supposedly finally allow small producers to ship directly to consumers throughout the nation was met with a great celebration by wineries. However, what seemed a blessing soon turned into a nightmare as state after state enacted restrictive legislation that finally made the situation even worse than the bad system it replaced. Funded primarily by liquor profits, large distributors and mass liquor/wine companies have used their muscle to make it more difficult than ever for some tiny winery up in the hills of California, Washington, Oregon or other state to ship a few cases a year to a consumer that loves their wine, but would find it impossible to buy in their own market. Mind you they could care less about such wines and wouldn’t bother to ever sell them, but their paranoia drives them to seek total control. As hard as it seems to believe, producers making millions of cases of wine and marketing them through ultra-sophisticated marketing systems perceive some guy with 5 acres of pinot noir, an old tractor and some used tanks in a run down barn picking his grapes in the rain and cold as some kind of threat that must be crushed.

Through all of this mess there has been only one clear voice out here trying to protect the interests of consumers and small producers. That voice belongs to Tom Wark, who exposes these issues through his blog Fermentation and as director of The Speciality Wine Retailers Association. Anyone craving access to the wines of small, passionate winemakers should visit these sites and sign up for the SWRA newsletter. Like the muckraking journalists of the past, Wark is exposing the political corruption and under the table money that is preventing you from buying the wines you want without having to wait for some distributor decide for you what you should be drinking.

Fine wine and food may be Mother Nature’s sons and daughters, but there is nothing about the system that gets wines from producer to the consumer that’s natural.

Worth Waiting For

Just over a year ago on a trip to Walla Walla, I made what I consider an essential stop on any trip to Eastern Washington and Oregon. That is the tasting room of Woodward Canyon, where I picked up a six bottles of their 2005 Columbia Valley Dry White Riesling. It was a wonderful wine fourteen months ago, but an additional year in bottle has elevated it beyond simply wonderful. A year ago it was brightly fruity, refreshing and a pleasure to drink. With the additional months in bottle it moved beyond pleasure into something that went from background to foreground, grabbing your attention and focusing your thoughts on every piece of data arriving from your taste buds. The bright fruit had evolved to a gripping minerality laced with those distinctive petroleum notes of maturing riesling all woven within a ripe white peach and racy Meyer lemon savory tart. We are now in Dungeness Crab season and it was an inspired match with some crabs brought into Newport just the day before.

What struck me the most is how the wine just grabbed my attention. It made me sit up and take notice. The mere tasting of it was not enough and each sip became more-and-more compelling. It is this demanding of your time and attention that defines great wine. I don’t think this is a level of nirvana that can be attained without aging a wine as young wines hide their real complexity under layers more obvious charms. If you can ignore it, it’s not great wine.

Super Bowl, Super Wine, Super Food

Having been on the run quite a bit lately, Super Bowl Sunday seemed to be a good day to stay home, get organized and pamper myself with a bit of food and wine. I decided to spend the day with one wine. That way I could really taste the difference time (both for the wine and me) and different foods would make on my perception of the wine.

Sunday morning in McMinnville Oregon is a quiet time. As I am a early riser, it is very quiet. The lone bookstore is the only outlet for The New York Times, which is a pleasure I indulge myself in for several hours every Sunday morning I can, but they don’t open until ten, which is a long time after I awake. However, that’s not a problem as they deliver the stack of papers on the sidewalk in front of the store early and all I do is slide my $5 bill though the crack in the door and slip my Times out of the stack. Then I make a quick stop at the wonderful Red Fox Bakery for an espresso (Illy), a decadently buttery pastry and a warm baguette to go. Then fortified by caffeine, sugar and butter I head for the grocery store to see what’s fresh.

Today’s plunder included a Oregon black truffle the size of a big cherry tomato, some organic eggs from a local farm and some naturally raised local lamb leg steaks from Anderson Ranches. Some wonderful things to pair with the bottle of the day: 2006 Morgon, Terres Dorées, Jean Paul Brun. Anyone who knows anything about wine knows that when you pull the cork on a bottle of Brun you are in for something special.

After three hours with my nose in newspapers and my ears on the Sunday morning political talk shows, a hunger pang sent me to the kitchen. I decided to braise the lamb, making a pasta sauce for a weekday dinner in the process. This is the recipe for the lamb:

• 2 lamb leg steaks
• 6 cloves garlic minced
• 1 onion diced
• 2 carrots diced
• 2 stalks celery diced
• 2 tablespoons chopped fresh rosemary
• 1 cup dry red wine
• 1 - 28 oz. can whole peeled tomatoes ( I recommend Muir Glen)
• Flour
• Salt and Pepper
• 4 tablespoons olive oil

Prepare the garlic, onion, carrots, celery and rosemary. Liberally salt and pepper the lamb steaks and thoroughly coat with the flour. Heat the olive oil in a deep sauté pan (use a pan with a cover) at medium high and when the oil is hot, brown the lamb steaks on both sides and remove to a plate. Reduce heat add all the chopped vegetables and herbs and cook, stirring often, for a few minutes. Add back the lamb and pour in the wine. Return the wine to a boil for one minute then add the canned tomatoes. Salt and pepper to taste. Mix well, cover, reduce heat to low and simmer for three hours, or until the meat is falling away from the bone. Reduce the sauce if too thin. Serve with a big scoop of polenta or mashed potatoes and a generous helping of sauce over each steak. Reserve remaining sauce for pasta on another night. Serves two.

That done for dinner and the Super Bowl, I addressed the hunger at hand and made lunch. The eggs, truffle and a bit of brie was all I needed to make a special omelet:

• 3 eggs (please try to find fresh eggs with yokes that are more red/orange than yellow)
• Several ounces ripe brie with the skin removed
• 1 black truffle
• Salt and pepper
• 3 tablespoons unsalted butter

Whip the eggs with a fork, salt and pepper to taste. Shave the truffle into the thinnest possible pieces. In a non-stick saucepan melt two tablespoons of the butter over medium heat, when melted add the truffle slices and cook for one minute and then remove to a plate. Add the remaining butter to the pan and add the eggs, pushing back from the edges and letting the uncooked eggs run under the set eggs. While still runny, add the truffles and brie to one half of the eggs then fold the other half over the top. Let cook briefly, not letting the omelet brown too much and slide onto a plate as soon as the brie starts to melt. You want the eggs to be barely cooked, not dry. Serve immediately with a tossed salad. Serves one.

Now for the wine of the day, 2006 Morgon, Terres Dorées, Jean-Paul Brun. This is a brilliant wine, bright and fresh, but not at all simple as it is compellingly complex from start to finish. At lunch it was stunning with the truffle omelette with an elegant character that did not overwhelm the eggs, but with touches of earthy complexity under the bright fruit that brought our the best in the truffle. The truffle also brought out the best in the wine. This was a great Sunday lunch. Some six hours later, with my weekend domestic duties behind me and the rich smell of the braised lamb filling the house, at the start of the third quarter I returned to the table and the bottle of Brun Morgon. Needless to say, this was a very different food and wine combination, but the Morgon did not miss a beat. While the omelet brought out the delicacy of the wine, the lamb seemed to bring out the power. Such is the beauty of fine Beaujolais. With the lamb the backbone of refined acidity combined with the richness of the fruit flavors to elevate the whole meal. What was most interesting about the Morgon is that it did not change a bit in the course of being open the whole day. While the food changed the experience of the wine, as I could tell when I tasted it on its own before both meals, the air had not changed the wine at all. This stability means that this wine will grow and expand for years to come.

The wines of Jean-Paul Brun remain undefeated, unlike the Patriots.

Wine Notes

Recent wines I’ve enjoyed:

• Anderson Valley Brut Sparkling Wine, Roederer Estate, 25th Anniversary, NV - I’ve had this very nice sparkling wine many times lately; several bottles at home and then one interesting experience at a wine bar. First for the wine bar experience; my local wine bar was offering both the NV Roederer Champagne Brut and the Anderson Valley Sparkling, but having had the Anderson Valley recently I, against my better judgement, ordered the Roederer Champagne. I say against my better judgment because few wines are more disappointing these days than big name Champagne. However, I took one sip and was blown away by the quality of the Roederer Brut. Not so fast, I soon found out the bartender had poured me a glass of the California Roederer by mistake. She quickly followed up with a glass of the real Champagne, which, as usual, was lackluster. The Anderson Valley Roederer continues to be an outstanding American sparkler and is clearly superior (and less expensive) then their Champagne.
• Champagne, Grand Cru 100%, Blanc de Blancs, Reserve Brut, Guy Charlemagne, Le Mesnil-sur-Oger, NV - High strung and very toasty, this is a delicious and complex Champagne that shows the best of chardonnay in Champagne. The aromatics are delicate, but not a bit shy with a steely froth that races across the palate, stopping just long enough for a compelling finish. Although I prefer the big Bouzy Champagnes, this is an excellent wine and a bargain at $46. This is a one of those Champagnes that can handle caviar.
• Riesling Kabinett, Selback-Oster, Mosel-Saar-Ruwer, 2006 - I enjoyed a bottle of this lovely wine over four days as an aperitif when I arrived home from work. I swear after four days in the refrigerator this wine hardly changed a bit. Such stability is a tribute both to their winemaking and winegrowing. Only perfect grapes can produce such harmony. Beautifully fragrant with honeysuckle and spices, it took effort to pull your nose out of the glass to take a sip. That sip delivered pure charm and seductive white peach and ripe pear flavors laced with tart citrus and a lovely touch of sweetness. No thought required here, just up-front delicious pleasure. Nice screw-cap, I’d drink this up young and fresh.
• Riesling, Alsace, Albert Boxler, 2004 - This is it, riesling right on the money. No-over-the-top, off-dry, high alcohol, quasi-dessert wine from Alsace here, but a big, rich wine that maintains respect for the variety and vineyard from which it came. On the fuller gold side of color with a rich nose touched with hints of figs laced with bright apricot with touches of crisp apple that continue into the complex layered flavors. It is rich and expansive on the pallet without becoming dull as it maintains a racy, crisp essence under its substantial girth. I enjoyed this thoroughly with some of my own crispy fried chicken.
• Monferatto Rosso, Braida IL Banciale’ di Giacomo Bologna, 2004 (60% barbera, 20% pinot nero, 10% cabernet sauvignon, 10% merlot) - Not so long ago I had a bottle of the most expensive wine Bologna produces, which I did not enjoy. Yet here is one of their least expensive wines and it was a delight. Earthy and fragrant with great complexity and balance, it was delicious with a very buttery mushroom risotto at Bice. Oddly enough, the cabernet and merlot hardly show in this wine as the backbone is all barbera and the aromatics and elegance all pinot nero. I really enjoyed this wine, which only really seemed to open with the last glass.
• Dolcetto d’Alba, Pra di Po, Germano Ettore, 2006 - This is simply a wonderful dolcetto that I intend to buy a few cases of as soon as possible. I recommend you do too before it’s gone. This wine is all about hedonistic pleasure over the next two years, although I doubt any bottle I have will make it that far. I salivate thinking about the beautiful bright wild dark cherry and blackberry fruit flavors and aromas intermingled with hints of black truffles, new leather, sage and lavender. All of this is held together by racy acidity and some silky tannins that bring all the fruit intensity into perfect harmony.
• Barbera d’Asti, Roberto Ferraris, 2006 - This is one of those stealth wines. It seems pleasant enough at first, but by the time you finish your second glass it has you hypnotized. What is amazing is no matter how long you leave it open it just seems to get better and better. I finished the last of a bottle that had been open for three days tonight and it was flat out wonderful. This is not a big wine, it is exceptionally balanced and the underlying complexity requires you to pay attention and introduce yourself before revealing everything. I’ve opened three bottles now and I would suggest decanting this wine for an hour before serving if, like me, you can’t resist drinking it. What this wine is not is a jammy, oaky ultra-purple barbera like so many make these days. If you can, give it a few years in the bottle and you’ll have something special.
• Gigondas, Bertrand Stehelin, 2004 - Big and beautiful is not easy to do, but this wine achieves it. The aromas and flavors are richly pungent, bringing to mind an old fashioned butcher shop where the aromas of raw meat mix with sawdust and smoke. Intermingled with all these carnivorous sensations are ripe wild blackberries, an engaging warmth and round tannins that give it a nice backbone. I served this wine with some braised, bone-in pork loin and all three of us enjoyed the experience. While obviously too young to be at its best, this is a wine that just draws you into its sumptuous experience and you find yourself savoring each drop as you finish your glass after the meal is done.

Carbonnieux

I still remember the experience clearly. I walked into the wine shop, armed with my new found expertise provided by Alexis Lichine and Alexis Bespaloff, and purchased my first ” serious wines” to age. The year was 1977 and the wines were 1975 Château Carbonnieux Blanc and 1971 Rouge. They were priced outrageously at about ten bucks a bottle. I bought three bottles of each and placed them with honor in the new, but still empty, racks I had constructed in the unused coal bin in the cellar of the old house I lived in at the time. I had selected these wines because of the lovely stories provided by two famed Alexis’ about the Château and its wines. I kept the reds for many years and the whites for at least two or three years before pulling the corks. The precise tasting notes have long ago left my memory, but I remember them with pleasure and a certain sentimentality.

This warm recollection has led me to order many a bottle of Carbonnieux over the years. More often than not I drank the Blanc as it was widely available and a staple on wine lists. However, those days are long gone and I haven’t seen a Carbonnieux Blanc on a wine list for a long time, but suddenly there it was on the list yesterday at lunch and I could not resist the warm tug of nostalgia and ordered a bottle of the 2004. The Carbonnieux white wine vineyards are planted to 65% sauvignon blanc, 34% semillon and 1% muscadelle and, although the semillon is the junior partner, its smooth creamy oily textures dominate the blend, while the sauvignon blanc provides lift, highlights and zest to the finish. Considering the improvements in winemaking at this estate over the last decades, it’s safe to assume that these are far better wines than I drank in the past. While there are more profound whites from Graves, this is a lovely wine with a character that easily flows across the palate. In addition, the 12.5% alcohol maintains the liveliness of this wine instead of letting the dense oily character of overripe semillon make the wine heavy and dull. This Grand Cru was just labeled Graves when I first drank it, but the wine is now part of the prestigious Pessac-Léognan Appellation, which was first created in 1987.

This trip down memory lane made for a very pleasant lunch. Like, music, wine can also transport us to a different time and place.

Pointless Beauty

It’s amazing how the poetry that is fine wine is allowed to express itself when points don’t get in the way as demonstrated here by Wine Library TV’s Gary Vaynerchuck. These back to back episodes make you really feel like you know the wine. If only more wine reporting was like this!

Wine Pics-Saignée

Fresh saignée being drawn from a fermenter of pinot noir.

Big Pinot

I never got the big pinot thing. Happily, it seems now that the pendulum is swinging the other way, best of all, it's back to my side. My biggest complaint about the point-driven fad for big pinot is that they really had no reason to exist. If you wanted a big wine there were varieties out there that could handle the job with more elan. If you want big drink syrah or zinfandel, which excel at the task, not super-charged pinot that is barely holding itself together as a wine.

Oddly enough I seem to have a new teammate in this struggle against goopy pinot noir. The odd part is that it is winemaker Brian Loring, the "poster boy" of big pinot. On a recent thread on Wine Therapy, winemaker Loring makes the following statement, "While I was the poster boy for "the darker side" of Pinot Noir... I'm happier now making wines that are in the mid 14s (alcohol) and have enough acid to live at least 3 or 4 years in bottle. I'm done with the "dry port" style... that just turns to prune juice after 3 years."

I applaud Brian for his guts and honesty. This is an almost unbelievable statement for a winemaker to make these days and only someone of great passion would take the risk. I can't wait to try some of his new wines.

While this is a testament to Brian's integrity and devotion to winemaking, it is a strong indictment against those wine writers who gave 90+ score-after-score to wines, which in Brian's own words, "that just turns to prune juice after 3 years". I can't fault Brian for this as he was doing what he truly believed in and when he found it was the wrong path changed directions. As in all art, not everything works. However, the so called expert critics should have known better. Once again reviews provided by "sixty second tasters" fail the consumer.

With all varieties there will be excellent wines made that range from robust to delicate. However, wines that are over-the-top should be easily recognized by any critic worth following.

Wine Pics -Foggy Dawn over Dundee Hills, Oregon

The 60 Second Taster

I’ve now been a wine professional for over thirty years. Before I got in the wine making side of the business I was a wine distributor for almost twenty years. The low point of that experience was more-often-than-not the presentations to retailers. You’d take samples of wines from small estates, where the producers sweated every day over their vines and wines passionately trying to make the best wines they could, and present them to the buyers. Often you were in some seedy back room and the resident wine expert would rapidly blow through the samples making instant pronouncements on the life’s work of others and then subject you to enduring their pontification on the qualities of each wine. Sometimes they would have cheap Libby glasses, but usually they would make their judgments out of plastic cups. You would often have to wait in line for the privilege presenting wines to these “connoisseurs”. Perhaps in their defense it should be noted that they worked brutally long hours for very little pay and this probably forced them into such foul moods and the need to exert whatever power and humiliation they could over sales people and the samples of their poor producers. The best account of this horror is the now famous The Three-Tier Schnook System by Joe Dressner.

Fortunately I have not had to be exposed to such a situation in years, but today something brought that feeling chillingly back to me. I finally saw my first episode of Wine Library TV. There before my eyes was that retailer of my past, only with a Riedel glass instead of a plastic cup. That, at least, is a little progress. I had tried to avoid watching his programs after first seeing him in a horribly embarrassing segment on the Conan O’ Brien Show, but I kept getting so many hits to this site from a link that someone had placed to one of my posts that I had to check it out. That was a mistake as I should have followed my instincts and stayed away, but like someone passing a car wreck I could not avert my eyes.

Under cover of supposedly witty banter, Gary Vaynerchuk with a minute or less thought tells you all you need to know about the wine he is tasting. Not only that, but he actually gives you points so you can have an exact reference to how a wine tastes and can rank it among other wine choices. Well actually he only gives you an accurate reference point if you only drink a wine for sixty seconds before moving on to the next bottle. Once again someone is gaining influence by rating wines in a situation that has nothing to do with how we actually drink them. Many writers over the years have complained that Robert Parker’s method of tasting sometimes hundreds of wines in very short periods, often giving wines scores after only seconds, did not allow for wines of elegance to show their true character, while big alcoholic wines that were not very good to drink full glasses of stood out under the onslaught he put his palate through. Lately we have all been hoping that the explosion of wine blogs would bring so many voices to the consumer that the monochromatic recommendations of someone like Robert Parker would never again dominate the market. The apparent popularity of Wine Library TV once again dashes our hopes as yet again we have someone pumping out casual opinions as calibrated pointy facts after only a few seconds of consideration. Anyone who has tasted a really memorable wine remembers how the wine evolved and developed as you drank it and how the symbiosis of wine and food expanded the experience to a new plane. An experience taking something more than a minute. The method of tasting on Wine Library TV ignores this most alluring facet of wine.

I’ll admit that my dislike of these programs is probably partially generational as I don’t find him funny, just hyper and trying too hard to be cool. However, what bothers me most of all is the lightness which people like Mr. Vaynerchuk take someone else’s’ life’s work. If you define a wine after only a few tastes you will make a lot of mistakes. It seems irresponsible to turn such shallow experience into recommendations that will impact what people will buy. It should be remembered that Wine Library TV is a product that Mr. Vaynerchuk is selling and that the attitudes that he takes are more about selling his product than accurately reviewing wines. Just as The Wine Spectator is not about selling wines, but about selling magazines, Wine Library TV is about getting hits, not about wine. Such advise should be taken with caution.

The Internet’s most passionate wine programming? How sad.