VINOGRAPHY: a wine blog

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Wine, Health, Science and Journalism: A Study in Headlines

I consume a lot of wine news. When I say a lot, I mean literally almost everything that's published for free on the Internet about wine "passes by my desk" courtesy of Google Alerts, Technorati, a massive collection of RSS feeds, and more. Increasingly I get the opportunity to see how wine stories develop and spread through the Web's news outlets, and it's quite amazing to watch. Recently I've been watching with fascination as the mainstream press does its usual unraveling of some recently released research results focused on wine drinking in women and weight gain. Specifically, I've been giggling... continue reading

Posted by: Alder on March 9, 2010 10:53 PM

Filed under: Ramblings and Rants , Wine News

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If Your Wine is Organic, Don't Tell Consumers

Apparently, organic wines taste better but consumers don't think they're worth as much money as conventionally produced wines. At least, that's a plausible interpretation of a study conducted by a UCLA professor and her graduate student that was recently published in Business and Society, the official journal of the International Association for Business and Society. Professor Magali Delmas and PhD candidate Laura E. Grant conducted an analysis of 13,426 wines from 1,495 California wineries for eight consecutive vintages from 1998 to 2005. The two tracked correlations between the scores of the wines, their prices, whether they were made from certified... continue reading

Posted by: Alder on March 7, 2010 5:41 PM

Filed under: Ramblings and Rants , Wine News

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Vinography in the Saveur Blog Awards

I found out earlier this week that Saveur Magazine had quietly launched a set of awards to bring attention to the universe of food blogs. They happen to have a wine blog category and Vinography is one of the nominees. The others are Wine Camp, Lenndevours, Good Wine Under $20, and Enobytes -- all friends, and familiar company. None of us makes a living tapping away in our respective little corners of the internet, so, apart from the enthusiasm of our individual readers, such awards are among the few bits of official validation we receive for our efforts. If you... continue reading

Posted by: Alder on March 6, 2010 9:49 PM

Filed under: Ramblings and Rants

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Italy's Best Wines: Tasting the Tre Bicchieri 2010

I pride myself on my broad tastes in wine. I like wine from everywhere, and don't believe I have a specific bias towards one region or another. However, each year, that claim is shaken a little as I emerge from what is one of the best wine tasting events held in San Francisco, The Gambero Rosso Tre Bicchieri tasting. For those unfamiliar with the Gambero Rosso, it is essentially an organization focused on the promotion and evaluation of Italian food and wine. Each year the organization publishes a guide by the same name. The Gambero Rosso is the Italian Wine... continue reading

Posted by: Alder on March 5, 2010 9:27 PM

Filed under: Boutique Wines , Wine Reviews

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Book Review: Continued Surveillance by Jake Lorenzo

Review by Tim Patterson. Wine writers love Jake Lorenzo's stuff; many wish they could write like him, or more precisely, get away with writing like he does. It's not so much the sheer literary quality of Jake's "mostly true stories of the wine business," the book's subtitle; it's the vantage point and the audacity. Jake Lorenzo is the rare wine writer who views the wine world from inside the industry, not as an outside observer dispensing judgments and scores. Better yet, he freely admits that he and his friends love to get hammered--common enough among wine writers, but rarely the... continue reading

Posted by: Tim on March 3, 2010 9:36 PM

Filed under: Book Reviews

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Wine Writers and Social Media: The Panel Video

As some of you know, I spent the week before last at the Symposium for Professional Wine Writers in Napa. I published a recap of some of the highlights last week, but as some attendees pointed out, there was a glaring omission: the panel that I moderated that dealt with wine writing and social media. I left it out with the hopes that I would be able to get the video I made of (most of) the panel up online. It took me a while to get the 5 gigabytes of HD video online for your viewing pleasure, but I... continue reading

Posted by: Alder on March 2, 2010 9:29 PM

Filed under: Ramblings and Rants

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2007 TAZ Vineyard Pinot Noir, Santa Barbara County

The good $15 Pinot Noir is the unicorn of the California wine industry. A mythic beast, highly sought after, no one is actually sure whether it exists or not. I'm always on the lookout myself, as it's one of the most frequent questions I get asked when people find out I review wines. Consequently, whenever I do come across something that comes close, I feel almost obligated to share the find. It's been some time since I visited the wines made under the brand TAZ, but a couple of bottles arrived recently and went into the tasting lineup and they... continue reading

Posted by: Alder on February 27, 2010 6:55 PM

Filed under: Red Wine , Wine Reviews , Wines under $20

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2005 Chateau-Grillet Vin Blanc, Rhone Valley, France

With just a quick glance at the bottle, you might think to yourself, "Oh, it's just some random little white wine from somewhere in France." After all, it's just a Vin Blanc with some unfamiliar name on it. But look a little closer, and you might start to get the idea that this isn't just any wine. For starters, the bottle is somewhat unusual, resembling something you might see in Germany or Austria. Indeed, it would be easy to mistake this wine as coming from the Alsace region of France for that reason. A slightly more studied glance at the... continue reading

Posted by: Alder on February 24, 2010 10:19 PM

Filed under: Boutique Wines , White Wine

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Napa's Best Cabernet: Tasting at Premiere Napa Valley 2010

One of my favorite events each year involves the opportunity to sample some of the best wines that Napa produces in a given vintage. At Premiere Napa Valley, an auction that serves as the world's most expensive "bake sale" to support the efforts of the non-profit Napa Valley Vintners Association, journalists like me get a chance to sneak a taste of hundreds of unique wines that are purchased by the nation's top wine retailers at staggeringly high prices. This year, as every year, 200 member wineries each crafted a unique auction lot of wine that in most cases represents the... continue reading

Posted by: Alder on February 23, 2010 10:14 PM

Filed under: Boutique Wines , Wine Activities , Wine Reviews

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Glass Wine Bottles Strike Back. In the Wrong Direction.

It's not every day I get the opportunity to display my inner cynic. But I'm still cackling at the little bit of fear mixed with preemptive aggression that manifested today in the form of a web site called Wine Loves Glass. Those who spend time in wine circles know a lot about the "threat" to posed to natural cork producers by the proliferation of alternative closures. In the face of shrinking market share and demand for their product (read: threat to their income streams) they've been striking back with a multi-pronged offensive, covering every base from carbon footprints to endangered... continue reading

Posted by: Alder on February 22, 2010 9:22 PM

Filed under: Ramblings and Rants , Wine News

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Highlights From the 2010 Symposium for Professional Wine Writers

I spent most of the week playing hooky from my day job and pretending that the only thing that mattered to me was writing about wine. It was a lot of fun. Every one of the five years that I've attended the Symposium for Professional Wine Writers has been uniquely interesting, largely due to the group of attendees that joins us every time. In past years I've been able to blog a bit more in the course of the event, but this year I found myself using spare time to catch up on other things, so here are some of... continue reading

Posted by: Alder on February 20, 2010 10:58 PM

Filed under: Ramblings and Rants

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Vinography Images: Wine Country Sunset

Wine Country Sunset Great sunsets can be found anywhere, but this particular one happens to be from Sonoma County's wine country. Just below the silhouettes of the trees, rows of grape vines lie in shadow. -- Alder Yarrow INSTRUCTIONS: Download this image by right-clicking on the image and selecting "save link as" or "save target as" and then select the desired location on your computer to save the image. Mac users can also just click the image to open the full size view and drag that to their desktops. To set the image as your desktop wallpaper, Mac users... continue reading

Posted by: Alder on February 19, 2010 8:45 PM

Filed under: Vinography Images

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What Wine Writers Talk About

Those of you who also follow my twitter feed (see the little tab on the left hand side of my home page) will know that I'm spending the week at the Symposium for Professional Wine Writers. This is my fifth year attending the Symposium, and my fourth year as a speaker. Tomorrow I lead a panel discussion featuring Steve Heimoff, Patrick Comiskey, Doug Cook, and Joe Roberts about the role of New Media in wine writing. But for the past two days I've been experiencing the symposium as a participant, which means hanging out with a lot of people who... continue reading

Posted by: Alder on February 17, 2010 11:13 PM

Filed under: Ramblings and Rants

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2007 MacRostie "Wildcat Mountain Vineyard" Chardonnay, Sonoma Coast

There are two worlds of California Chardonnay drinkers in this country. There are those who continue to order their favorite white wine whenever they go out to dinner, and are collectively responsible for making California Chardonnay the most consumed wine variety in the country each year. And then there are those who consider themselves wine lovers, critics, and geeks, and the consensus in recent years seems to be that there are few California Chardonnays worth paying attention to. Put more bluntly, it's getting easier and easier to find someone who hates California Chardonnay these days. I've read several major wine... continue reading

Posted by: Alder on February 16, 2010 11:01 PM

Filed under: White Wine , Wine Reviews

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2007 Cornelissen MunJebel 4 Bianco, Etna, Sicily

Many of the world's greatest wines are also the most unlikely. Unlikely because most sane, rational, educated, and professional winemakers wouldn't be caught dead making wine in some of the strange ways and places that yield the truly exciting. It takes a strong vision, or as some might suggest, a special breed of insanity to break all the rules of modern winemaking and winegrowing, but those who break such rules often follow their passions across the border without a moment's thought to the uncharted territory they are exploring. High on the slopes of one of the world's most active volcanoes,... continue reading

Posted by: Alder on February 13, 2010 11:18 PM

Filed under: Boutique Wines , White Wine , Wine Reviews

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Vinography Images: Old Souls

Old Souls I love the individual personalities of older vines like these head-pruned vines that are grown without any trellising or training. These young green shoots will eventually become wild mops of growth as the Spring progresses, like hundreds of green fountains sprouting from the dry soil. Vines like these often receive no irrigation other than what may fall from the sky,but from their gnarled roots and serpentine canes of green, they often yield the most complex of fruit. -- Alder Yarrow INSTRUCTIONS: Download this image by right-clicking on the image and selecting "save link as" or "save target... continue reading

Posted by: Alder on February 12, 2010 11:08 PM

Filed under: Vinography Images

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Champagne, Advertising, and the Problem with Principles

They follow me everywhere I go. On the commute to work, in my favorite magazines, even on the web sites that I frequent. Everywhere I turn I'm being exhorted, admonished, and educated to umask the truth. For whatever reason, I'm clearly the target demographic for what is obviously a massive advertising campaign by the Champagne Bureau, a U.S.-based organization whose charter is to "educate American consumers about the uniqueness of the wines of Champagne and expand their understanding of the need to protect the Champagne name in the United States." These ads have become so prevalent in my daily life... continue reading

Posted by: Alder on February 11, 2010 11:33 PM

Filed under: Ramblings and Rants

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2010 Anderson Valley Alsace Festival: February 20-21, Boonville, CA

With all the fanfare surrounding Cabernet and Pinot Noir coupled with the obsession this country seems to have with Chardonnay, it's sometimes hard for people to remember that California produces a lot of other different kinds of wine. It's even harder, it seems, to get people to drink some of it. Enter what may be the most unique wine festival in California and perhaps the country. Some of the most under-appreciated and least consumed wines in the state are those made from grapes like Gewurztraminer, Pinot Blanc, Pinot Gris, and Riesling. There aren't a lot of places in California where... continue reading

Posted by: Alder on February 10, 2010 10:35 PM

Filed under: Wine Activities

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Scottish Wine: Crimes and Misdemeanors

Not ordinarily known for their wine or wine drinking habits, the Scots have recently been making news in the world of wine. Who knew that one of the most popular beverages among Scottish criminals was wine? Specifically, Buckfast Tonic Wine, a (rather unholy, if you ask me) concoction of wine, sugar, caffeine, and other additives that make it a bit more like Red Bull than wine. Often called "Wreck the Hoose Juice," according to to the New York Times: "In a survey last year of 172 prisoners at a young offenders' institution, 43 percent of the 117 people who drank... continue reading

Posted by: Alder on February 9, 2010 10:32 PM

Filed under: Wine News

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Video of the Social Media Panel from Vino2010

My real reason for attending the Vino2010 conference in New York this week was that I was asked (and paid) to be on a panel discussion about the impact and meaning of social media for the wine industry. A number of you have asked about it, and I'm happy to offer the (somewhat low quality) video that captures our session. Unfortunately you can't see (or hear at various points) some of the questions that were asked, but you can certainly get the idea of what we discussed. Please note that it takes a few minutes for the session to get... continue reading

Posted by: Alder on February 7, 2010 11:53 PM

Filed under: Ramblings and Rants

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