THE EXTRACTION CHALLENGE
“High extraction,” I said, describing an Italian wine during our Friday night tasting group. It was a 2007 Campaccio Terrabianca, a super-Tuscan, Sangiovese fortified with Cabernet and Merlot. The comment provoked a challenge from a member of our group, a relative newcomer with Italian roots, who took umbrage at the slight – it was indeed a slight – and asked me what exactly I meant by “high extraction”. If I perceived a fruit forward style or high concentration, then why didn’t I say so?The wine was fruit forward and concentrated, but I had meant something else. I had no answer at[...]
DO ONTO OTHERS
“Do onto others as you would have them do onto you.” Lettie Teague, wine columnist for the Wall Street Journal, recently recounted an anecdote involving her dentist who hosted two colleagues at a fancy New York restaurant. One of his guests, a self declared wine expert, ordered three bottles of Napa Cabernet worth over $1000 and let the host pick up the check. Teague’s dentist asked her if she had heard of such a thing, while inspecting her teeth. She most certainly had, on many occasions. Would that guest have done the same if he was paying for the wine himself?Do wine[...]
THE GALLOPING HORSE AND ITS TAIL
I have been feverishly writing my new crime novel since Christmas 2015. Despite voluminous, time demanding research needed for the story, both for settings and technical elements, in four short months I produced around forty chapters in excess of 70,000 words. All the while I had the strange feeling that the story was a galloping horse and I, the writer, was running after it, barely holding on to its tail.My biggest fear was to lose grip of that tail. If I interrupted my furious pace for any reason, would the story run away from me, never to return?The fear was[...]
ON PIANISTS, REAL OR IMAGINARY
Soon after the publication of my second book Appassionata, an anthology of seventeen short stories, I began fantasizing about how wonderful it would be to have a recital by a solo pianist entitled The Music of Appassionata. My first attempt at organizing such an event drew a surprising observation about pianists, real or imaginary. My flagship story Appassionataunfolds amid music for solo piano performed by Modesto, an Italian character I invented, a skillful amateur pianist. These include all three movements of Beethoven’s Appassionata Sonata (# 23, Opus 57, in F minor), Rachmaninoff’s Prelude in G minor, the Chopin Nocturne in E[...]
IS OLD REALLY GOLD? THE MYHT OF OLD VINES
One of my favorite Chateauneuf du Pape wines, Chante Cigale, has two versions, regular and Vieilles Vignes. I bought a case of both from the fantastic 2009 vintage. I no longer have any regulars left. They were delicious; I drank them all – hence the 2011 in the above photo. I do have six Vieilles Vignes left. They were not as good. Yet they were more expensive, as are all old vine bottlings. That’s what Vielles Vignes means. Is wine derived from old vines better than that from young vines? Is it worth the extra price? After a bit of research,[...]
ARE WINE COMPETITIONS RELEVANT? A WINDOW INTO THE CALIFORNIA STATE FAIR
How many of you have come across a bottle of wine with some ornate ribbon on it proclaiming that it won a gold or silver in a wine competition?Did this impress you?I recently had a chat with a wine enthusiast who judges in the California State Fair, the most prestigious such competition in our state. It made me realize that after two decades of studying wine I know very little about these events. The competition is old, going back to 1855. It takes place every June at Cal Expo, near Sacramento. The affair employs 72 judges who assess wines over three[...]