Category:Wine Curmudgeon

A virtual wine tasting — and you can participate

by Wine Curmudgeon Posted On

This Sunday, at around 8:15 p.m. central time, I’m going to do a virtual wine tasting on Olivia Wilder’s Art of Living Magazine on Blog Talk Radio.

How do you do a tasting on Internet radio? It’s quite simple, actually. I’ll have a bottle of Bogle chardonnay and the Osborne Solaz tempranillo-cabernet sauvignon blend (both in the $10 Hall of Fame, so don’t worry about cost or quality). If you want to participate, pick up a bottle of each, and follow along. We’ll smell and sip the wines, and I’ll talk about what is supposed to be there, what isn’t supposed to be there, and why it doesn’t matter if you can’t smell aromas of hazelnuts and beechwoods.

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Wine at the State Fair of Texas

by Wine Curmudgeon Posted On

Each year, The Wine Curmudgeon does four or five events that are not typical events for most wine writers. This year, I spoke to a wine festival in Wichita Falls, where the Saturday night tasting was held in the county ag center, and at a music festival 60 miles from San Antonio that’s held in a campground. I did a Wine 101 talk at Grapefest in Grapevine, Texas, home of the People’s Choice wine competition ? no so-called experts allowed. And, for the third year in a row, I ?m doing a series of Wine 101 talks at the State Fair of Texas.

In most of these settings, the people who attend don’t know much about wine and might not be able to tell a cabernet from a chardonnay. But that’s OK, since that probably holds true for most Americans. It’s also why I speak to these groups. The wine world already has more than enough people who want to preach to the very small choir that is the wine world, and I didn’t get to be The Wine Curmudgeon by being like the rest of the wine world.

More, after the jump:

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Say goodbye to Gourmet

by Wine Curmudgeon Posted On

I'm in there, with Charlie Trotter and banana desserts, in the March 1997 issue. The Wine Curmudgeon has always enjoyed Gourmet magazine, and not just because it had good recipes. One of the most pleasant experiences I have had in my 20-some years of freelancing came when I sold a story to the magazine: The Not so Thin Man: Food and the Detective Novel. (The link is a bit iffy ? my Web site is having technical problems.)

I mention this not to plug myself; the story is 10 years old. I mention it to wish the magazine a fond farewell. Its publisher, Conde Nast, announced today that it ?s closing the book after 69 years, a victim of the recession that is gutting print media.

Freelancers always — and I mean always ? complain about editors, the editing process and anything that has to do with getting a story in print. To hear us tell it, there are three evils in the world, and magazine editors are first and second. I ?m as bad as anyone, and I ?ve got the whining to prove it.

But that didn ?t happen with Gourmet. It paid promptly, and if the story got held for six months, at least the editors kept me apprised of what was going on. Most importantly, it ?s a better story for the editing process. Few writers like to admit that editing can improve their work, because we ?re perfect and our prose is untouchable. But the Gourmet editors were tops, using a sure hand and good sense. It was a fine story when I wrote it, and it is a great story now.

So long, Gourmet. You will be missed.

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“The Wine Curmudgeon made it look easy”

by Wine Curmudgeon Posted On

This was supposed to be the ">link to my hard-hitting ?- and 90-some odd second ?- appearance on Dallas ? CBS affiliate on Friday morning. In fact, it's a link to the station's video library. None of the videos in the library apparently has its own URL, so you have to search for the video you want to watch. Type in "state fair wine" in the box on the upper right if you're so inclined. If you aren't, I don't blame you. This is a foolish, Mainstream Media way to run a Web site, because it's designed to pump up visitor numbers instead of making it easy to find what you want.

There are two highlights – ? me mumbling into the microphone when I gave the blog address, wasting who knows how many thousands in free publicity, and Channel 11 ?s Ginger Allen, the blond woman at the end, saying what everyone already knows: "The Wine Curmudgeon makes it look easy." Or what I wished everyone already knew.

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The Wine Curmudgeon at the State Fair of Texas

by Wine Curmudgeon Posted On

One of my favorite things to do each year is speak at the State Fair of Texas, where we talk about wine, answer questions and spread the gospel about quality, value and regional wine ? and all in English. I ?ll be back this year, with my Two Wine Guys colleague John Bratcher and the great Dan Peabody, at the Fair ?s wine garden.

The fair starts Friday; our schedule is here. The first talk each day will be Texas Wine 101, and the following talks will be Wine 101. It ?s a lot of fun, especially when I describe how to spit. Stop by and say hello if you ?re at the Fair.

And, for those of you who will be in the Dallas area on Friday morning, I ?m going to be on the local CBS affiliate, Channel 11, at 6:45 or so. We ?ll chat about the wine events at the Fair this year, Texas wine in general, and even offer some food and wine pairings ? because, I know, everyone wants to know what to drink with a corny dog. And for those of you who can ?t see it, I ?ll post the video next week.

The Wine Curmudgeon at Grapefest

by Wine Curmudgeon Posted On

Boy, there is a lot of shameless self-promotion on the blog this week, isn ?t there? I ?m speaking at 12:15 p.m. Friday at Grapefest, the three-day celebration of Texas wine in Grapevine, Texas. I’ll be in the culinary pavilion, offering a few insights on Texas wine and what to look for in this year’s People’s Choice competition.

The People ?s Choice is one of the most unique wine competitions in the country, where consumers ? and not the so-called experts ? get to pick the winners. It ?s a lot of fun. If you ?re in the Dallas area this weekend, it ?s worth a look.

The Wine Curmudgeon on Blog Talk Radio

by Wine Curmudgeon Posted On

This is last Sunday ?s Art of Living with Olivia Wilder; I ?m on for the first 30 or 40 minutes. We talked about local wine, good cheap wine, and the debut of Palate Press and my wine nutrition label story. We also offered wine suggestions for a woman in the chat room who wanted to start drinking red wine.