The Continuing Legacy of Sokol Blosser Winery
Relative to the rest of the world, the wine industry in the United States is still very young. This is especially true of the wineries of the Northwest. Several of the pioneers of the industry in Washington and Oregon are still active in those industries, or are a mere generation removed from involvement. The origin stories of most wineries and [...]
The Women of the New Wine Media
Wine writing in the traditional media has long been somewhat of a boys club. Although there are a handful of women who have managed to penetrate the Riedel Ceiling, such as Jancis Robinson and Alice Feiring, the overwhelming majority of wine writers in print have been male. Thanks to the new DIY options that have sprung up with the advent [...]
The Continuing Odyssey of Randall Grahm
I still remember the first time that I heard Johnny Cash’s original American Recordings album. There is something haunting about the vulnerability of an aged Cash’s gravelly voice singing over a simple acoustic guitar. There is an intense honesty that comes across in the music once you have stripped away all of the excess instrumentation and production that had gone [...]
Portland, Here We Come!
Although my activity as a blogger has slowed to a trickle here on Vinotology, I still count myself as a part of the blogging community. I keep telling myself, and all of you, that I am going to start blogging regularly again. I suppose that I have, if you consider once or twice a month to be “regular”. Most social [...]
Put a QR Code On It
I know that this is probably shocking to you, but the wine industry is not the most agile market for adoption of new technologies. That said, there is a tendency within the industry to latch onto marketing fads with the wild abandon of a rabid honey badger. Although the initial reaction to some of these efforts is to applaud wineries [...]
Here I am, after a long hiatus from the blogging world, jumping back into the fray. There were a lot of reasons for my absence from the world of wine blogging, which we don’t really have to get into in this post. I have missed all of you guys while I was away from it all, and I’ve been planning [...]
It’s been a good week. I had a great experience hanging out with some new friends that we had just met over a few bottles of wine. Sharing some vino with friends always reminds me why I love wine, and it also always puts me in the mood for… They folks at the Wine Bloggers Conference didn’t give the guy [...]
I don’t do this often, but I beg your forgiveness for another one of my self-indulgent jaunts into wine fiction. The night had consisted of a steady stream of Lucky Strikes and copious quantities of beer. The cool night air of an early summer evening in Denver had descended on us like an albatross, driving most of the crowd indoors. [...]
So, after a long delay I am putting on my TGTBTU shoes and getting back down to business. I have chosen to basically pretend like my unannounced absence never happened, instead of typing out a long tome of an explanation. Without further ado… One of the coolest stories to come out of this whole wine blogging world has been that [...]
One of the developments in the wine world that I have found most interesting is social media tasting events. I have been involved in a number of these events, and they really have the potential to provide a great social tasting platform to groups of people spread out across the map. There are some different formats for these events that [...]
The last few months have seen some exciting developments in the local wine scene here in Eastern Washington. There have been several wineries that have opened tasting rooms here in the Tri-Cities, including Thomas O’Neil Cellars, Kitzke Cellars, and Hamilton Cellars. Add to this mix the addition of some great new restaurants cropping up, such as Picazo Restaurant and Bar [...]
Added May 27, 2011, Under:
Humor
1. I’ve been busy selling off all of my earthly positions in preparation for last week’s rapture. 2. I have only recently returned from a top secret mission in the Middle East. 3. Hey, creating a new religion is hard work, bub. 4. I’ve decided that this internet thing, it’s just a fad. 5. Writer’s block is a bitch. 6. [...]
For the second week in a row, I have to put my man Hardy Wallace in this spot. I can’t think of a trip that produced more great material than Hardy’s trip to Bordeaux. His “reviews” of Petrus and Lafite Rothschild are absolutely classic. Hardy is now back in his beloved “Healdsburgundy”, and it will be interesting to see if [...]
If there is one person on these here interwebz who I would want to read about their trip to Bordeaux, and that person is Mr. Hardy Wallace. He is using the most innovative scoring system known to man while he visits the classic wine region. So far he has posted from Chateau Latour, Mouton, Chateau Ausone, and Chateau Belair Monange. [...]
Added Apr 5, 2011, Under:
Humor
One of the cool things about wine tastings is observing the differences in people’s palates. Not only will different people like different wines, but they will also find different things in the wine. Sometimes hearing these observations can help you pinpoint that thing that you can’t quite identify in the nose, and sometimes they can just make you scratch your [...]
