The WC’s career as the WC

A brief history of the blog, its origins, and all the rest

My career as the Wine Curmudgeon started more than 20 years ago. That’s when the food editor at the Star-Telegram newspaper in Fort Worth, Amy Culbertson, wanted to name the occasional wine column that I wrote. I offered the usual stupid suggestions — several of them used the word “grape,” if I recall correctly — when Amy came up with “Wine Curmudgeon.”

The rest is history.

Two points to note here: First, that was also the nom de plume of a renowned wine writer named Jerry Mead, who died around the time Amy named the column. However, Amy didn’t know that, and choosing Wine Curmudgeon was more about my approach to wine writing than anything else.

Second, many, many people have helped me over the years, not only teaching me about wine but offering wisdom and advice about the blog. Amy is the only one I‘m going to mention publicly, since most of the rest still work in the wine business and the last thing they need these days is a compliment from me. But they know who they are, and thank you.

So, the blog’s history and my career as the WC:

• There were actually three versions of the blog — the first, using a TypePad address (winecurmudgeon.typepad.com) and which still shows up every once in a while in a Google search; the free version at winecurmdgeon.com that ran from 2007 to 2021; and the Substack newsletter.

• I taught wine and beverage management at the Cordon Bleu in Dallas before the school went bottom up in the U.S., as well as at El Centro College in Dallas (now called the El Centro campus of Dallas College). I taught off and on five or six years; I loved teaching, and still miss it. The students, almost all of whom were fun and attentive, didn’t care much about the blog, which I never understood. And yes, I had to attend faculty meetings, which — as my mother warned me, having taught on the college level — were even worse than could be imagined.

• Wine talks at the State Fair of Texas. Yes, the WC was a draw, and people still ask me when we’re going to do them again.

• Two Wine Guys. My pal John Bratcher and I did home wine classes in the Dallas area, and we had a steady business before the recession. There was even a website, though it’s long gone.

• Consulting for the Private Label Manufacturer’s Association. I still run the video we made featuring holiday wine advice every year around this time. And there is a video or two of me somewhere doing a TV-style stand-up from the trade group’s annual convention: “This is Jeff Siegel, the Wine Curmudgeon, reporting for the PLMA.” We were going to change the wine world and convince supermarkets to sell quality cheap wine under their own label. But the group’s legendary president, Brian Sharoff, died and then the pandemic hit.

• Drink Local Wine. I was the president for a while, as well as one of the co-founders with Dave McIntyre. We did some of the best work anyone in wine has done in getting regional wine its due.