Category:Wine Curmudgeon

Coming Monday: The 2011 $10 Wine Hall of Fame

by Wine Curmudgeon Posted On

Seven wines in, four out, and an analysis of what happened with cheap wine in 2010 — that’s the 2011 $10 Wine Hall of Fame, which will post on the blog on Monday. Want to get a sneak peak? Browse to Olivia Wilder’s Art of Living Internet radio program at 8 o’clock central tonight, when Olivia and I will talk about the wines, take questions from listeners, and field queries from the show’s chat room.

Happy New Year 2011 from the Wine Curmudgeon

by Wine Curmudgeon Posted On

The Wine Curmudgeon is celebrating New Year’s today, but the blog will return on Monday with the 2011 $10 Hall of Fame. Until then, enjoy this, courtesy of ambervon at YouTube. A tip o’ the Curmudgeon’s fedora to Tom Johnson at Louisville Juice, who first noticed just how suave James Mason makes Thunderbird sound. Yes, that would be the same Thunderbird that is politely called “low-end fortified wine.” Happy New Year.

$10 Hall of Fame Internet radio preview

by Wine Curmudgeon Posted On

The 2011 $10 Wine Hall of Fame debuts on Monday, but you can get a sneak peak at 8 p.m. central on Sunday. That's when I'll be on Olivia Wilder's Art of Living Internet radio program. Olivia and I will talk about the wines, take questions from listeners, and field queries from the show's chat room.

Happy holidays 2010 from the Wine Curmudgeon

by Wine Curmudgeon Posted On

Bruce Springsteen's "Santa Claus is Coming to Town" is a holiday tradition here at the blog, whether on a 45 or animated (though, apparently, not any more — thanks Sony Music). This version, Baltimore in 2009, is courtesy of usbomb99 at YouTube. The camera work is a bit shaky, but the Boss and the E Street Band are in all their glory. Enjoy the holiday with people you care about and your favorite wine.

The Wine Curmudgeon will return on Monday with some New Year's sparkling wine suggestions.

2011 $10 Wine Hall of Fame preview

by Wine Curmudgeon Posted On

The work is mostly done for the fifth annual $10 Wine Hall of Fame, which will appear on the blog on Jan. 3. I'm still doing some fine tuning, but most of the decisions about which wines will drop out and which wines will be added have been made.

We're even going to do a special Internet radio kickoff for the 2011 $10 Hall — 8 p.m. central on Jan. 2 on Olivia Wilder's Art of Living program on Blog Talk Radio. Olivia and I will talk about the wines, take questions from listeners, and field queries from the show's chat room.

The good news is that there were many great $10 wines in 2010, and I'll probably add a half dozen or so to the Hall. The recession focused consumer attention on cheap wine, and wine drinkers discovered that they didn't have to pay $15 or $20 or more for quality wine.

The bad news is that I tasted way too many flabby and dull $10 wines over the past year, and especially $10 wines from California. Lots of producers were apparently throwing anything in a bottle that they could find to sell for $10 or less, regardless of quality, in order to lure all those customers who had discovered cheap wine during the recession. Or, sadly, they were downgrading the quality of the wine to keep their margins up, figuring their customers were too stupid to know the difference.

The results, too often, were not pleasant. So call the 2011 edition a mixed case — some fine wines, but lots of disappointment.

Did you enjoy the M&Ms, Canadian customs?

by Wine Curmudgeon Posted On

Canadian customs, called the Canada Border Services Agency, seems to do a fine job. They go after phony jewelry, untaxed cigarettes, and drug smugglers.

And, apparently, the Wine Curmudgeon's birthday M&Ms. One of the winners of the birthday week giveaway lives in Canada, so I filled out the necessary paperwork and dispatched his prize, including the tin of M&Ms, north of the border. I got an email that said all arrived, though he noted that the M&Ms seem to have been sampled in transit. No doubt some sort of anti-terrorism measure?

Next time, I'll send two tins — one for the prize winner and one for customs.

The Freakonomics view of the wine business

by Wine Curmudgeon Posted On

Stephen Dubner is the co-author of the popular Freakonomics books and blog, which look at economic theory from a less than traditional perspective. In this radio interview transcript, Dubner talks about wine prices and the wine business, and whether price reflects quality and whether the experts are really experts.

A couple of the Wine Curmudgeon's pals show up, including Robin Goldstein of The Wine Trials, and it's a decent discussion of the objective vs. subjective nature of wine quality and wine prices. Which is nothing new to regular visitors here.

But anyone who appreciates what we do on the blog will love this. Dubner quotes his Freakonomics co-author, Steven Levitt: "My approach to buying wine for gifts is simple: I go in the store, and I look for the label that looks the most expensive of anything in the store. And I make sure it costs less than $15, and if it does, then I buy it."

Maybe I should should send each of the Steves a tin of Wine Curmudgeon M&Ms.