by Jeff Miller of Artisan Family of Wines (Seven Artisans, Sly Dog Cellars, Red Côte)
Every Wednesday I post my recommendations of the best of last week’s postings concerning wine, whether blogs or news. I list them in the order I read them, so you shouldn’t infer anything about the order in which I list these posts.
Can A Wine Really Be Bad for Your Soul?
Fermentation
http://fermentation.typepad.com/fermentation/2012/05/can-a-wine-really-be-bad-for-your-soul.html
Are high alcohol extracted low acid wines simply bad wines? While some may think so, when what one likes in wine is so subjective, it’s impossible to classify any style that at least some people like as bad.
Au revoir, Hospice du Rhône
Steve Heimoff
http://www.steveheimoff.com/index.php/2012/05/31/au-revoir-hospice-du-rhone/
Apropos of my post last week about the demise of Rhone style wines, this post notes what is just another nail in the coffin.
Wine Blog
It’s always seemed unfair to me that Australian wines, which can be so good, just don’t seem to get the respect they deserve. This post focuses on the factors that have led to the demise of Australian wines that aren’t dirt cheap.
Tasting Wine, Broadly Speaking
Meg Houston Maker
http://palatepress.com/2012/05/wine/tasting-wine-broadly-speaking/
An excellent summary of what wine tasting is all about. I’ll note that much of the post is devoted to non-flavor components of the wine (e.g., acidity, tannin), that I believe are underemphasized in wine tasting.
Hill Of Grace, Fifty Vintages On (Henschke Recent Releases, And Getting Schooled In Australia’s Greatest Vineyard)
1Wine Dude
Interesting that this article appears concerning one of Australia’s great producers in the same week as the Wine Blog post on Australian wines.
Infinite Substitution Means That Without A Unique Wine Brand Message, You’re Screwed
1 Wine Dude
This is a really interesting take on wine marketing, one that proceeds from the assumption that pretty much all wine is easily substituted with other wines that are pretty similar.
Winebits 231: Grape glut edition
The Wine Curmudgeon
http://www.winecurmudgeon.com/my_weblog/2012/05/winebits-231-grape-glut-edition.html
Some thoughts on whether there’s really a shortage of grapes. Based upon current grape pricing, though, I can’t come to any conclusion other than there’s a shortage, at least here in California.
How much can we drink without risking our health?
http://www.wineanorak.com/wineblog/business-of-wine/how-much-can-we-drink-without-risking-our-health
This post is a good reminder of how difficult it is to evaluate alcohol’s effect on health.
For keeping up to date with what’s going on the in wine world, the best all around source is http://winebusiness.com.
