Tag Archives: Wine Curmudgeon

Has the WC’s neighborhood become too trendy for the WC?

map of northeast Dallas
That’s the WC’s house, mid-century plumbing and all, about where the d is in “and.”

Can someone who appreciates quality $10 wine live in “America’s most-sought neighborhood”?

A new study says the Wine Curmudgeon lives in perhaps the hottest real estate market in the United States, which raises serious questions about my lifestyle – wine included.

Here’s the thing: I don’t have granite counter tops. I don’t have a Wolf range or Bosch refrigerator. I don’t have a sauna or swimming pool. I do have mid-century plumbing and a paid-for, stick-shift Honda Fit.

And, of course, a passion for quality $10 wine.

So when the study said my part of Dallas was “America’s most-sought neighborhood,” I was at a loss for words (which, as regular visitors know, is almost impossible). How can this be? I live there. Doesn’t that automatically disqualify my neighborhood?

Most importantly, does it mean I can no longer drink the wine I love?

Because, as the study notes, real estate seems to be the culmination of 21st century American culture – that we’re a “a nation of virtual carpet treaders” who love “Zillow porn.” Which I can vouch for: I have a neighbor who probably spends as much time on Zillow as I do looking at wine store inventories. Plus, just now, I got yet another text asking to buy my house, which happens with astonishing regularity.

Hence my conundrum. If my neighborhood is really this trendy, what will the hipsters say when I buy this instead of this? And what will they do when they find out that I write – and most convincingly, if I may say so – that expensive wines are not necessarily better just because they’re expensive? Don’t both of those actions defeat the entire purpose of trendy?

Will they snub me when I walk Churro, the blog’s associate editor? Will they point me out to their visitors, shaking their heads and sighing, as the neighbor who is just a little “off?”

Fortunately, the study has its flaws, as the authors acknowledge. If nothing else, it’s based on Zillow data, which may be even less accurate than many of the wine and health studies that claim we’re drunk every night – even though fewer of us drink and most of us are drinking less.

And, as my mother is probably thinking as she reads this, the last thing I care about is fitting in, and especially fitting in with people who don’t understand the value of a paid-for, stick-shift Honda Fit – or a fine bottle of $10 Gascon white wine.

Map: Courtesy of Zillow

 

Three (more) ways to save the wine business from itself

women dr4essed as Brefoot wine bottles
“Pick me… pick me!”

Once again, the Wine Curmudgeon offers top-notch marketing suggestions to bring the fun back to wine

The Wine Curmudgeon, always willing to help the wine business work itself out of whatever mess it finds itself in, has come up with three ideas that, frankly, are beyond magnificent. The only catch? We have to hold off on them until the writers’ strike is settled. Solidarity, after all.

So here are three ways the wine business can leverage current pop culture trends to make wine fun again:

• A dating show called “Wine Love,” loosely based on all those dating shows (“The Bachelor” and so forth) that TV loves because they’re cheap to produce, slightly titillating, and reinforce sexual stereotypes. We rent a Napa chateau, hire 30 or so incredibly beautiful people who know nothing about wine, and spend 10 weeks watching them sip, spit, and fall in love. It can’t be any worse than Fox’s “Farmer Wants a Wife,” can it?

• “The Next Wine Superstar,” because if Gordon Ramsey can call himself a chef, CEO, and mogul, then why can’t someone in wine? We get a fabulously successful wine executive (and you know who you are) to host the show, in which the executive will pick from a dozen incredibly beautiful people who know nothing about wine, but will curry favor in all sorts of ways so the executive will anoint one of them as wine’s next big thing.

• “The Masked Wine Geek,” in which a panel of always screaming Winestream Media types try to guess which contestant is dressed in which wine bottle costume. So someone might come on the show dressed as the legendary 2000 Cheval Blanc; someone else might wear a Barefoot Strawberry Moscato outfit. The panel’s job will be to ask the sort of incredibly wine geeky questions that annoy the rest of us in order to identify the contestants.

Churro, the blog’s associate editor, contributed to this post. He suggested doing the dating show as “Chihuahua Love,” so he could frolic with a bunch of Hollywood starlets.

 

The Substack-Twitter feud

Substack notes layout
“Oh no, the WC is ranting about scores again.”

And why the WC has never done much with social media

When the Wine Curmudgeon started on this cyber-adventure all those years ago, I did social media like everyone else. I figured the experts knew what they were talking about and social media would be a key to the blog’s success. Imagine: The WC trending on Twitter, just like all those Internet celebrities.

Except that never happened. I had a fair number of followers on Twitter, and even a bit of a Facebook presence. And all of that did exactly nothing for the blog. My assumption? That my content didn’t fit what people wanted on social media – it was very limited in scope; I didn’t write in capital letters and SCREAM; and my audience was mostly older and less interested in social media.

It also didn’t help that I never had the patience or the interest to follow my social media feeds closely enough to start a flame war (which is what it was called then) to attract attention

I mention all of this because Substack has added a Twitter-like app called Notes, and, in the usual Substack fashion, the company insists it will make all of us rich. Imagine, it writes, “Alison Roman sharing a quote from an amazing recipe developed by a little-known food writer who then gets a flood of subscriptions.”

Maybe.

The other kicker here is that Elon Musk, the czar of Twitter, apparently hates Notes. Twitter blocked Notes for a while, and though it relented, “if you try to search the term ‘Substack’ on Twitter, you will be brought to results for the term ‘newsletter’ instead. This makes it harder to find or interact with Substack content. It also makes it difficult to find Substack’s Twitter account without searching it on Google.”

So should I bother with Notes? I can see where it offers advantages – I can recommend wine articles that I like, even if they’re not on Substack; I can comment on wine news; and I can discuss a wine, all without having to write a blog post. And maybe, sort of, kind of, I guess it’s possible that someone reading the Note would pass it along and I would get a subscriber.

The catch – in addition to the Twitter imbroglio, which truly limits the audience – is that I don’t want to bother my subscribers. You’re paying for the blog, not to be Note-d to death. Yes, I am amazing and brilliant, but do you really care that I have found yet another sales decline story that shows why I worry about the future of the wine business?

So maybe Notes, maybe not. In the end, social media reminds me of 15 percent chardonnay. A lot of people like it, but that doesn’t mean I want to drink it — or that I will enjoy it if I do.

Cheap Wine of the Year 2023 shortlist

Mack Turner at restaurant
This one is for you, Big Guy.

One of these six wines will be named the Mack Turner 2023 Cheap Wine of the Year

The blog’s Cheap Wine of the Year has been named the Mack Turner Cheap Wine of the Year, to honor one of the WC’s dearest friends and a terrific cheap wine advocate. Mack (known on the blog as The Big Guy) died at the end of the year, and he will be much missed.

Mack and I have been drinking wine together for some 20 years, and I will miss not only his friendship and terrific palate, but that he would sometimes bring wine to the house that he knew I wouldn’t like. Because, of course, he wanted to see the WC launch into a rant. And then he would smile – maybe even giggle a little – and we’d drink some more.

The award’s selection process and eligibility rules are here. I considered wines that cost as much as $15 to take into account price creep and regional pricing differences.

The six wines on the Turner shortlist include three from California, which speaks to the change that could be coming in California as smart producers understand the need to make affordable wine. The list is in no particular order.

The winner will be announced Jan. 12:

Matchbook Cabernet Sauvingon 2020 ($12, purchased, 13.9%): This tastes like California cabernet and not a red wine called cabernet that has been blended with who knows what to take out all the cabernet characteristics. Hence, dark berry fruit that opens up and becomes less brambly, fine-grained tannins, and a bit of cedar.

McManis Petite Sirah 2020 ($10, purchased, 13.5%): McManis has long demonstrated that it’s still possible to make quality, cheap, and varietally correct wine in California. This is oh so petite sirah — plummy and rich with sweet dark fruit, dark and interesting, but also fresh and vibrant.

Domaine Reine Juliette Picpoul 2020 ($14, purchased, 13%): French picpoul doesn’t get much better than this — clean, well-made, and yes, lip smacking. Lots and lots of tart lemon.

Rickshaw Sauvignon Blanc 202 ($15, purchased, 13.5%): Easily the best affordable California sauvignon blanc I’ve tasted in years. And yes, it tastes like California sauvignon blanc — no shortcuts to lower quality and increase margins, no dumbing down to bamboozle the consumer, and no sweetness.

Moulin de Gassac Guilhem 2020 ($12, purchased, 12%): This French white blend is always Hall of Fame quality; the 2021 is even better, with some spice, some stone fruit, and a bit of tartness. Plus, it’s made with terret.

Santa Julia Reserva Mountain Blend 2019 ($12, purchased, 13.9%): The highest praise for this Argentine red? It made the shortlist even though I don’t like this style of wine. It’s that well made – with lovely, rich, and ripe dark fruit.

More Cheap Wine of the Year:
2022 Cheap Wine of the Year: Scaia Rosato 2020
2021 Cheap Wine of the Year: MAN Chenin Blanc 2019
2020 Cheap Wine of the Year: Le Coeur de la Reine Gamay 2017

 

It’s a Wonderful Wine Life 2022

The WC rolls out the holiday traditions, both video and literary

What does one acquire after writing the blog for 15 holiday seasons? Holiday tradition, of course. So enjoy:

• The video is the WC’s epic holiday wine advice video, made with the legendary Michael Sansolo for the Private Label Manufacturers Association. This was supposed to be a series, but then the pandemic happened. The original post ran here. The video is age-restricted, since it’s about alcohol, but click the link to watch it on YouTube.

The WC’s take on “It’s a Wonderful Life” — not quite as wonderful as the original, but it has its moments. And, no, my version of “White Christmas” isn’t coming any time soon.

• The first two holiday parodies — A Wine Curmudgeon Christmas Carol and ‘Twas the Night Before Christmas: The cheap wine version. Frankly, pretty classic stuff.

The Wine Curmudgeon’s favorite posts of 2022

woman typing at laptop
“Wow. I need to find that ‘Planet of the Apes’ parody. How cool.”

These eight posts weren’t necessarily the most popular, but they were among my favorite posts of 2022

Welcome to the Wine Curmudgeon’s eighth annual year-end top 10 list, which is not about the most read posts. Or necessarily has 10 items. Neither of which is surprising, yes?

Instead, these are the posts that I enjoyed writing, thought were important to write, or both. Why not a best read list? That’s because, on the old blog, Google determined that, and the various Barefoot posts were always the most read. And, apparently, still are.

Here, then, in no particular order, are my favorite posts of 2022:

Solving the mystery of a 90-year-old California wine bottle. A reader found an empty wine bottle in a Denver attic. Was it one of the first wines made in California after Prohibition?

Cutting prices boosts sales and profits – unless you’re the wine business. The pandemic, combined with high ticket prices and crummyy products, pounded the movie business. So what did savvy theater operators do? Cut prices, of course.

Why are wine sales numbers so different – and often disagree? One survey says business is booming. Another says business is terrible. And a third says something else. The WC explains all,

Fred Franzia’s legacy. I was surprised at the indifference – and sometimes outright hostility – to the news of Fred Franzia’s death this year. But this is the wine business, and he will never be forgiven for Two-buck Chuck.

The deep, dark secret behind Mega Purple. What’s the additive made of grape juice that no one wants to talk about? Mega Purple, a juice concentrate.

Yes, Prohibition was a failure. Check the Internet, and the results are mind-boggling. Prohibition, one of the greatest failures in social policy in world history, worked. And people with credentials actually believe this.

The “healthy” wine fraud. The WC dissects healthy wine, one of the biggest trends of the year.

Planet of the Grapes. The various movie and TV parodies never do well; I hate to think it’s because wine drinkers don’t have a sense of humor. This was one of the best I’ve done – with acting and direction, even.

Photo: kristinhardwick via Morguefile

More of the WC’s favorite posts:
Favorite posts of 2021
Favorite posts of 2020
Favorite posts of 2019

The blog’s holiday, 2023 Hall of Fame, and Cheap Wine of the Year schedule

woman with wine glass
“Perfect. … now I know what to give my friends for the holidays — the WC.”

The 2023 $10 Hall of Fame and Cheap Wine of the Year are just a month away — and the blog makes a fine holiday gift

The WC is already hard at work reviewing tasting notes and deciding which wines to sip again in the quest for the 2022 Hall of Fame and Cheap Wine of the Year. As always, your suggestions are welcome.

The blog’s schedule for the rest of the year includes:

• Christmas and New Year’s wine ideas on Dec. 22 and Dec. 29.

• The always popular Do it Yourself wine resolutions on Jan. 5.

• The 2023 $10 Hall of Fame will make its 16th appearance on Jan. 13, and the 2023 Cheap Wine of the Year will post on Jan. 12. As always, email me with suggestions for either or leave them in the comments. Eligibility rules are here. Keep in mind the wine should cost less than $12 or $13, should be generally available, and can’t be a private label sold exclusively by one retailer.

And, of course, how could it be a holiday season without a WC plug for the cheap wine book and a 12-month subscription to the blog (discounted, of course)?

Photo: Matilda Wormwood via Pexels