TITLE TROUBLES
Two months ago I ran into Bob Lawrence, a local pathologist and erudite socialite. He was dining at Wine Wizard's with his elegant wife Eleanor. Bob loved my book Dogmeat and penned a positive review for it on Amazon.com. I told them that my new short story book was ready for publication. When they asked me what the title would be I said Appassionata, and told them what the flagship story entailed. They surprised me with a firm response that they would not buy a book with that title, nor would others. This touched off a rare crisis of confidence[...]
CHENIN BLANC RENAISSANCE? WHO KNEW!
Eric Asimov, a wine columnist for the New York Times penned a recent article, published last August, in which he announced a renaissance of Chenin Blanc in the United States. Apparently a dozen new California producers have joined those who never quit making Chenin Blanc, and they, along with others in Oregon and New York State, are driving this revival. The news caught me by surprise, for not only did I not know about this, but more surprisingly, I didn’t notice the decline of the varietal. New World Chenin Blanc has been off my radar for decades. Lettie[...]
A RECIPE AGAINST LOGORRHEA IN BACK LABELS
The wine you see in the photo appeared in a recent Friday night tasting. It was rather indistinct in the impression it made, light bodied, toasty, crisp, with tropical fruit flavors and a slightly toasty, citrusy finish. It was an easy drinker. I guessed it as a New World Chardonnay. Instead it turned out to be Chenin Blanc from the Santa Ynez Valley. No harm done. Never underestimate domestic winemakers' abilities to take any white grape varietal and make it taste like Chardonnay.Indistinct as the wine was, the experience was distinct in two different ways. First, the wine epitomized the[...]
VIRGIN VISIT TO SIDEWAYS COUNTRY
Thirty miles north-east of the scenic seaside town of Santa Barbara there lies a vast wine country made famous by the 2004 movie Sideways. Stretching along both sides of Highway 101 its three main appellations form a triangle, the Santa Maria Valley at its apex, and fifty miles south, Santa Ynez Valley and Santa Rita Hills at its base. Recently two more appellations have been created in the southern sector along the base, Ballard Canyon and Happy Canyon. The area has become especially well known for its pinot noirs, again thanks to Sideways. In a recent visit to the southern[...]
WALTER SCHUG; A HUMBLE GIANT PASSES ON
I just found out that Walter Schug passed away on October 10th. The news did not make any headlines. My friend Archie Steele, who just visited his winery in Carneros texted me. Schug was one of a multitude of hard working, devoted pioneers of the Napa Valley who shunned the limelight and sought to make good wine, in the process expanding the wine horizons of the region.Schug's winery, at the cross-roads between the Carneros Highway and Highway 12 on the way to Sonoma, was a humble affair with a small, unassuming, friendly tasting room that reflected his own personal style.[...]
ON THE BRAIN AND THE HEART
As we await the artist I hired to complete sketches that will accompany my stories, we have begun working on preliminaries to publication. Included are various elements of the marketing copy, a summary of the book being a most essential component. I had no idea how to go about summarizing seventeen diverse stories in a brief essay. Mim to the rescue. The following is a draft summary for Amazon.com. [...]