? Those were the days: The Italian Wine Guy remembers when no one had heard of Santa Margherita pinot grigio. Hard to believe, no? His point, and he makes it well, is that the Italian wine world (and, by extension, all of the others) has changed significantly in the past four decades ? sometimes, even more than we realize. Or, as he writes: ?Anyone who complains about not being able to get an Italian (or any other) wine of their choice is either lazy, unimaginative or just plain silly. Go down the aisles of a local liquor store, and see the immense selection we have now that we didn ?t have in 1977."
? Fooling the wine world: This epic story from New York magazine (more than 4,000 words) is entitled ?Chateau Sucker ? ? which should tell you everything you need to know about the Rudy Kurniawan case. He ?s the fellow who has been selling counterfeit wine to the experts for years, and is currently under federal indictment. Most of the big names in the wine business are in the story, and the question it raises is whether they wanted to be fooled ? a question that speaks volumes about that part of the wine business.
? Yes, screwcaps are here to stay: In which another wine drinker wonders why they have to put up with those silly screwcaps.Though it does offer one of the best explanations of screwcaps, which the Wine Curmudgeon wishes he had thought of (and will now update and steal). Think of corks as music on CDs. Think of screwcaps as digital music. Doesn ?t make the music any worse, does it?