Wine critics

The Grapevine: Wine drinkers also love a good summer read

As summer winds down, many of us are still in search of another good book for reading on vacation or during a lazy afternoon in a hammock or under a beach umbrella. For some people, this means devouring mysteries or romance novels. But if your tastes run to wine, there is some good summer reading for you. The books that follow have something else in common: They all, to one degree or another, sound an alarm about globalization, the power of some wine critics and the homogenization of wine styles...

Wine Politics - another media roundup!

Here’s a quick roundup of some recent reviews and mentions of my new book, Wine Politics: How Governments, Environmentalists, Mobsters and Critics Influence the Wines We Drink. If you’ve already gotten the book, many thanks and let us know your thoughts! John Mariani (who has a Ph.D. himself from Columbia) wrote a review on Bloomberg.com saying [...]

Offals, Innards and the Unusual

Offals don’t get the respect, in and out of the restaurant community, that they deserve. This is an injustice that MUST BE corrected. Let’s start with a few definitions so that we are all on the same page. According to Offal Good, chef Chris Cosentino’s educational and inspirational website for those who are interested in learning and cooking with offals: OFFAL those parts of a meat animal which are used as food but which are not skeletal muscle. The term literally means “off fall”, or...

Can (and Should) Wine Critics Eschew the Subjective?

Anyone who has been reading wine blogs for a while knows about Vinography, the granddaddy of all wine blogs. It's publisher, Alder Yarrow, is one of the wine blogosphere's most thoughtful, talented people and this post from last week Subjectivity,...

Introducing the World's Best (FREE!) Wine Cellar Management Software

This constitutes the first and possibly the only time you will ever find me endorsing, recommending, and generally plugging a commercial product (that isn't a bottle of wine or sake) here on Vinography. There are two clear reasons for this. The first is that the product I am endorsing is free. The second is because I designed it. Those of you who know a little bit about me may be aware that by day I run an interactive design and strategy consulting firm called HYDRANT, which, among other things...

Wine Labeling: Roos, Recession and Rhymes

As wine has evolved over the past couple of decades from upper class indulgence to beverage of the masses, its presentation to the consumer has changed dramatically. Back in the day, producers clung to stoicism, banking on the old guard's reliance on heritage and respectability. Enter the 1990's; thanks to globalized markets, the efforts of critics, and a growing domestic interest in new foods, quality wine ceased to be the realm of the aristocrat and trickled down to the world of the common mob...

Time Magazine Favorite Robots

Time Magazine Favorite Robots Reference: http://www.shakewellbeforeuse.com/2008/07/time_magazine_aroused_by_robot.php http://www.time.com/time/photogallery/0,29307,1815874_1725473,00.html Little Bugger The Sommelier Robot, that identify the flavor and brand of a wine, using the information it collects to recommend which dish would best suit the selected vintage. Butler "Twendy-one," was developed for nursery and household assistance work. Kiss the Bride with "Tiro" serves as master of ceremonie...

The Myth of the Monolithic Wine Palate

If you have more than a passing interest in wine, you've no doubt heard some form of this common complaint: wine critic Robert Parker's palate, with it's emphasis for 'hedonistic fruit bombs,' has ruined the wine world, because now everyone makes (unappealing/monstrous/one-dimensional/sweet/spoofulated/choose-your-adjective) wines that taste the same and have the singular goal of a high point score from Parker. I have long maintained that this "sky is falling" point of view (perhaps best typifie...

What's Cookin': Drink Wine to Save Water

Coming up Tuesday is the second annual Seattle Hot Picks. Sponsored by Wine & Spirits Magazine, this event celebrates the June issue’s annual Critics’ Picks—the magazine’s favorite inexpensive wine... See more on... Where: Earth & Ocean · Beato · Qube · Crush · Harvest Vine What: food

Pauline Kael: An Un-Appreciation (Kiko's House)

Kael wrote that The Sound of Music was "The Sound of Money" Robert Stein has been an editor, publisher, media critic and journalism teacher, is a former Chairman of the American Society of Magazine Editors and present-day blogger with a perspective, scope sensitivity and ability to write smart and short that his peers can only envy. He's also a friend. It was while he was editor of McCall 's magazine that he hired and fired Pauline Kael in the course of a few turbulent months in 1966. Here is Bo...