Signs you’ve been writing about wine for a long time, post-pandemic edition
by Wine Curmudgeon Posted On
Once again, and after some 4,200 blog posts, the WC realizes he has been writing about wine for a very long time
1. You recognize the wine being used on a cooking show even though you can’t see the name on the bottle. How come? From the shape and design of the label – and what’s worse, you remember the last time you tasted it and whether it was any good. Like the wine on this show.
2. You walk into a local retailer, go to where the wine you want to buy is, and it’s not there. And when you ask where the wine went, the employee gives you one of those, “He’s a weird old dude” looks.
3. When someone asks you how much a wine costs, you launch into a long, detailed (and probably boring) explanation, listing the price at a half dozen places in town as well as on-line. Like for this wine.
4. Restaurant wine prices make you even crazier than usual. This happened the other day, when I was doing a story for the local alternative weekly about the wine list at a trendy and high-end Italian place. The list had a bottle of $10 Italian rose – but since it was trendy and high end, the restaurant charged $40 for it. I think everyone in the dining room heard me gasp.
5. Someone mentions a wine they recently tasted, and you can’t help yourself: “Oh yes, that’s a nice wine. I know the person who made it.” Like for this wine.
6. You find yourself trying to explain – yet again – what the three-tier system is and why we have it. And, yet again, the person who asks looks as if they want to run and hide. And, yet again, you don’t blame them.
Photo: Zakhar Vozhdaienko
More about wine writing:
• The metaphysical challenges of wine writing
• 10 signs that you’ve been writing about wine too long
• Ernest Hemingway, wine and writing about wine