Wine Sediments - Feds acknowledge myth of underage drinking in direct-shipping debate

Wine Sediments - Feds acknowledge myth of under-age drinking in direct-shipping debate.

Wine Journalist Mark Fisher (and I really mean journalist) reports on minors buying wine over the Internet. I always thought the concept of teenagers, motivated by instant gratification, would have the patience to try to illegally buy wine over the Internet was ridiculous. Now here is some research to back that up.

A Well Fed Network

Its great to see the continual expansion of high quality food and wine blogs. There can be no doubt the nature of culinary conversation is changing. Thank God. The recent issue of Bon Appetit features the following fine cooking advice on preparing a platter of fresh fruit for a spring party, “Make things really easy by everything ready the night before or – even simpler – by buying prepared fruit from the deli section of the supermarket.” So much for the concept of “fresh”

The explosion of alternative ideas brought by Bloggers are making culinary information fresher than ever. On excellent new source is The Well-fed Network (http://www.wellfed.net), which is a group effort featuring contributions from a wide range of food bloggers. On the wine side of things the Wine Sediments section of The Well-fed Network offers entries from such thoughtful writers as Tom Wark (Fermentations), Andrew Barrow (Spittoons), Lenn Thompson (LENNDEVOURS) and Mark Fisher (Uncorked) among other fine writers.

An example of the anti-Bon Appetit cutting corners approach is The Terroirista post by Tom Wark linked below:

Wine Sediments - The Terroirista.

Élevage

Written words can be such beautiful things. Artfully used, they can communicate the emotions we feel inside of us. Wine is an emotional experience for many of us, but so often words about wine are only presented in a sterile textbook style or in the combative debate fashion of the wine forums. Every once in a while a writer succeeds in conveying the pleasure that the appreciation of wine brings to so many. This experience, which wine somehow brings to us, is lovingly described by Vincent Fritzsche, a Portland Oregon educator, in his charming wine blog, Élevage. (http://elevage.blogspot.com)

Fritzsche describes his blogging in this way, “Élevage is French for breeding or upbringing. It also refers to the maturing or raising of young wine until bottling. Élevage is also sometimes described as the educating of a wine, which got me thinking about my own education of wine. And so this blog, updated when I'm able. There's much more to write than I make time for.”

True, he does not post everyday, but when he does it is well worth reading. Best of all, reading of his experiences bring a reflective moment to your day to ponder your own experience with wine. I highly recommend visiting Élevage.

Fermentation: The Daily Wine Blog: Memo to French Wine Industry: CHANGE!!

"Call me old fashioned, but I just don't get he idea of causing havoc as a way to address the fact that the world is changing when it comes to economic and marketing models that govern the French wine industry." Tom Wark
Fermentation: The Daily Wine Blog: Memo to French Wine Industry: CHANGE!!.

While Tom gets a lot of things, he clearly does not get the French, or, perhaps Europeans in general. First of all, Tom lives in the heart of California wine country doing PR for wineries. While that is clearly a respectable profession, California wine culture and politics has little to do with the life of the average European wine farmer. Let’s face it, California wineries for the most part have buckets of money. Small boutique wineries are often owned by mega-bucks owners who made fortunes in other industries. Then there are the giant corporations like Constellation, Vincor and others who make wine with the passion of your average Vodka producer, the ethics of Enron and financial resources of Exxon.

What Tom does not take into account that all those radical Frenchmen taking to the street to fight for their rights, actually need those rights to stay in business. It not the Drouhins or Rothchilds tossing up the barricades, but small farmers just trying to get by who are taking this fight to the streets.

No, these small farmers can’t afford the professional PR skills of a Tom Wark and they don’t know they need to put funny pictures of animals on their labels in order to sell their wines to the sophisticated Americans. All they know is their farms are on the edge of failure.

The fact of the matter is that most European countries are far more democratic than the United States and that people, even small groups, are used to having their voices heard as a basic right of their freedom. Tom wants them to give up their freedoms and to fade quietly into history so that corporations that can afford the proper PR to sell their wines can take over the wine world.

For me, I’ll take the producer that hits the streets and has the courage to fight the system. These are the types of souls that have the passion and intensity required to make great wine. While obviously few of these protesters will ever make a great wine, their spirit is worthy of our respect and their problems are worthy of our understanding.

Whirlwinds

Whirlwinds of work and a nasty bout with the flu have kept me away from Wine Camp over the last weeks and it feels good to be back at the keyboard. These everyday realities remind one deeply about the time and mental commitment of creating a meaningful journal.

I an pleased to announce that the beginnings of the Wine Camp eMagazine are starting to take shape. What is planned to be a quarterly e-publication will have its premier this spring, but I invite you to watch and better yet, take part, in the creation of an new wine resource. Everyone is invited to submit articles for inclusion - the more-the-merrier. All topics related to wine, spirits, beer, cuisine and culinary travel are welcome.  If you have questions or an article to submit please write me at craigcamp@winecampblog.com. While blogs are focused on shorter pieces and thoughts, it is the goal of The Wine Camp eMagazine to feature longer, more in-depth features.

Please visit www.winecampblog.com to get a look at this work-in-progress. 

You Say Its Your Birthday?

Tom Wark, the indefatigable blogger that created Fermentation: The Daily Wine Blog (http://fermentation.typepad.com), has become the cornerstone of the wine blogging community with links and feeds scattered far-and-wide across the Internet. His enthusiasm for wine blogging has expanded the public awareness of wine blogs and his selfless devotion to promoting all wine bloggers has set the tone for this virtual community. Yes, Tom is one of the grand old men of wine bogging and, as unbelievable as it may seem, today is only his first anniversary as a wine blogger. For those of us who follow Fermentation that is astounding. How can such a influential blog be only having its first birthday? It really brings home that wine blogging is a medium in its infancy.

What really sets Tom apart is the journalistic edge he brings to Fermentation. There are not only opinions there, but real reporting. I often feel like I’m reading the Op-Ed section of the wine industry. In particular Tom has led the charge on the direct shipping issue, even outing crooked state representatives.

The whole wine blogging community owes Tom much for his support, leadership and fine example. Happy Birthday Fermentation and many, many happy returns.

Reasons to be Cheerful - Part Three

Reasons to be Cheerful:

1. 2002 Coho Pinot Noir Russian River Valley
2. 2002 Coteaux du Layon Domaine des Baumard Clos de Sainte Catherine
3. 2002 ChinonDomaine Phillippe Alliet Coteau de Noire
4. 2003 Chinon Vielles Vignes Domaine Phillipe Alliet
5. 2004 Muscadet de Sevre-et-Maine sur Lie Domaine de la Pepiere, Clos des Briord Cuvee Vielles Vignes

Why are these reasons to be cheerful? Besides being very nice wines, it makes me very cheerful to know that someone is not only drinking them with pleasure, but taking the time to tell us about that pleasure. This is the power of Wine Blogging; the ability to greatly expand communication on wines beyond larger producers with advertising budgets and wine blogs stretch the envelope beyond the usual suspects. The list above are recommendations from a very fine Wine Blog, Catherine Granger's Purple Liquid. This is really a lovely Blog that marries well the experience of fine food and wine served at a passionate table. Catherine captures the experience of wine and food beautifully and I highly recommend passing on the link to her site to all your wine loving friends.  http://manageyourcellar.blogspot.com/

The Transition

I have changed sides. For the last 30 years I have been a critical consumer and wine trade professional. Now I am getting my hands sticky with freshly picked grapes and have spent a full year with vineyards I find I am transformed. Wine is no longer what it was before and I will try to communicate those issues to the readers of this blog. There is truly an "other side" to wine and I will try to bring an appreciation of wine as an agricultural art to my readers here.

So we start...