tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-253778302024-03-19T04:00:07.998-05:00comp/lexusA blog about life, language, writing, and other trivia.Lancehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14530215510224882172noreply@blogger.comBlogger134125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-25377830.post-36521909264731683232010-10-15T12:28:00.001-05:002010-10-15T12:31:33.105-05:00What is a "Dry" Wine, Anyway?<!--[if gte mso 9]><xml> <w:worddocument> <w:view>Normal</w:View> <w:zoom>0</w:Zoom> <w:trackmoves/> <w:trackformatting/> <w:punctuationkerning/> <w:validateagainstschemas/> <w:saveifxmlinvalid>false</w:SaveIfXMLInvalid> <w:ignoremixedcontent>false</w:IgnoreMixedContent> <w:alwaysshowplaceholdertext>false</w:AlwaysShowPlaceholderText> <w:donotpromoteqf/> <w:lidthemeother>EN-US</w:LidThemeOther> <w:lidthemeasian>X-NONE</w:LidThemeAsian> <w:lidthemecomplexscript>X-NONE</w:LidThemeComplexScript> <w:compatibility> <w:breakwrappedtables/> <w:snaptogridincell/> <w:wraptextwithpunct/> <w:useasianbreakrules/> <w:dontgrowautofit/> 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<w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="19" semihidden="false" unhidewhenused="false" qformat="true" name="Subtle Emphasis"> <w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="21" semihidden="false" unhidewhenused="false" qformat="true" name="Intense Emphasis"> <w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="31" semihidden="false" unhidewhenused="false" qformat="true" name="Subtle Reference"> <w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="32" semihidden="false" unhidewhenused="false" qformat="true" name="Intense Reference"> <w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="33" semihidden="false" unhidewhenused="false" qformat="true" name="Book Title"> <w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="37" name="Bibliography"> <w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="39" qformat="true" name="TOC Heading"> </w:LatentStyles> </xml><![endif]--><!--[if gte mso 10]> <style> /* Style Definitions */ table.MsoNormalTable {mso-style-name:"Table Normal"; mso-tstyle-rowband-size:0; mso-tstyle-colband-size:0; mso-style-noshow:yes; mso-style-priority:99; mso-style-qformat:yes; mso-style-parent:""; mso-padding-alt:0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; mso-para-margin-top:0in; mso-para-margin-right:0in; mso-para-margin-bottom:0in; mso-para-margin-left:.75in; mso-para-margin-bottom:.0001pt; text-indent:-.25in; line-height:200%; mso-pagination:widow-orphan; font-size:11.0pt; font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif"; mso-ascii-font-family:Calibri; mso-ascii-theme-font:minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family:"Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-theme-font:minor-fareast; mso-hansi-font-family:Calibri; mso-hansi-theme-font:minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family:"Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-theme-font:minor-bidi;} </style> <![endif]--> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 0in; text-indent: 0in; line-height: normal; font-family: arial;">One of my main goals in writing this column is to help readers develop their wine knowledge and, in doing so, increase their enjoyment of wine.<span style=""> </span>An important part of this development is learning to use wine-specific terminology in the same ways that wine pros do.<span style=""> </span>Without a common language, after all, we have no reliable way to communicate about—and learn from—our wine drinking experiences.<span style=""> </span>This is especially true when two people are using the same word to mean different things, virtually guaranteeing miscommunication.</p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 0in; text-indent: 0in; line-height: normal; font-family: arial;">Such is often the case with the descriptor “dry.”<span style=""> </span>For most novices, dryness seems to equate to a combination of astringency and bitterness.<span style=""> </span>Astringency in wine is caused primarily by tannins, and it is that puckery feeling you get from over-steeped tea or accidentally chewing up a grape seed (or, if you’re a cartoon cat, accidentally sucking a pile of alum through a straw).<span style=""> </span>Bitterness can be caused by a number of different factors (the presence of various phenols, certain kinds of oak, specific grape varieties and winemaking techniques), and it is—well, anybody who’s had a cheap cup of coffee knows what bitterness is.<span style=""> </span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 0in; text-indent: 0in; line-height: normal; font-family: arial;"> </p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 0in; text-indent: 0in; line-height: normal; font-family: arial;">The fact is, however, that a dry wine is simply a wine with very little residual sugar in it relative to its acidity.<span style=""> </span>(Acidity mitigates sweetness; that’s why we add vinegar to a too-sweet salad dressing to make it more savory, and that’s why dessert wines with high levels of acidity taste vibrant rather than sticky and cloying.)<span style=""> </span>Dryness, in short, is essentially a quantitative measurement.<span style=""> </span>In the European Union, for example, wines with 4 grams of sugar or less per liter of wine (assuming a relatively low level of acidity) are considered dry.</p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 0in; text-indent: 0in; line-height: normal; font-family: arial;"> </p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 0in; text-indent: 0in; line-height: normal; font-family: arial;">I note this fact because I frequently hear people saying, “I don’t like dry wines,” when what they really mean is, “I don’t like bitter or astringent wines.”<span style=""> </span>Many ripe, full-bodied wines can be, technically, bone-dry but still please most people’s palates with their round, easy-drinking, fruit-forward flavors.<span style=""> </span>And many slightly sweet wines can still have off, bitter flavors or be astringently tannic.<span style=""> </span>Being able to make this distinction when talking to a wine salesperson can help you zero in on that perfect wine.<span style=""> </span>It at least reduces your risk of going home with a sweet, sticky red that tastes like it should be poured into a club soda rather than a wine glass.</p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 0in; text-indent: 0in; line-height: normal; font-family: arial;"> </p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 0in; text-indent: 0in; line-height: normal; font-family: arial;">So next time you go into a wine shop, instead of looking for a wine that’s not too dry, try asking for something that’s “round,” “fruit-forward,” and not too tannic or oaky (tannins and oak being major contributors to astringency and bitterness respectively).<span style=""> </span>Chances are you’ll find just what you’re looking for.</p>Lancehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14530215510224882172noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-25377830.post-9489787800589890752010-09-14T11:36:00.004-05:002010-09-17T18:05:48.100-05:00Don't Judge a Wine by Its Label<!--[if gte mso 9]><xml> <w:worddocument> <w:view>Normal</w:View> <w:zoom>0</w:Zoom> <w:trackmoves/> <w:trackformatting/> <w:punctuationkerning/> <w:validateagainstschemas/> 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<w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="33" semihidden="false" unhidewhenused="false" qformat="true" name="Book Title"> <w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="37" name="Bibliography"> <w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="39" qformat="true" name="TOC Heading"> </w:LatentStyles> </xml><![endif]--><!--[if gte mso 10]> <style> /* Style Definitions */ table.MsoNormalTable {mso-style-name:"Table Normal"; mso-tstyle-rowband-size:0; mso-tstyle-colband-size:0; mso-style-noshow:yes; mso-style-priority:99; mso-style-qformat:yes; mso-style-parent:""; mso-padding-alt:0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; mso-para-margin:0in; mso-para-margin-bottom:.0001pt; mso-pagination:widow-orphan; font-size:11.0pt; font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif"; mso-ascii-font-family:Calibri; mso-ascii-theme-font:minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family:"Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-theme-font:minor-fareast; mso-hansi-font-family:Calibri; mso-hansi-theme-font:minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family:"Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-theme-font:minor-bidi;} </style> <![endif]--> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 0in; text-indent: 0in; line-height: normal;font-family:arial;">When I was growing up, most Americans thought there were only three kinds of wine to choose from—red, white, and white zinfandel, depending on whether one was having meat, fish, or an insulin reaction.</p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 0in; text-indent: 0in; line-height: normal;font-family:arial;">In the last decade and a half, though, the U.S. wine market has exploded, and now even casual wine drinkers may, over the course of a year, experiment with ten or fifteen different grape varieties from <span style=""> </span>countries as diverse as the U.S., Italy, France, Spain, Australia, Chile, and Argentina.</p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 0in; text-indent: 0in; line-height: normal;font-family:arial;">This fact has been both a boon and a burden to the growing world wine industry.<span style=""> </span>For established producers, it has meant greater sales potential but also greater competition.<span style=""> </span>For those just trying to break into the market, it means unprecedented opportunity but also struggling to get consumers’ attention as they scan an ever-swelling sea of bottles on the shelf.</p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 0in; text-indent: 0in; line-height: normal;font-family:arial;">The result?<span style=""> </span>Flashy labels designed to amuse, shock, or even titillate.<span style=""> </span>There is an entire line of wines whose labels look like 50’s horror movie posters, while another bottle boasts a seductive image of Marilyn Monroe.<span style=""> </span>There are in-your-face names like “Fat Bastard,” “Cleavage Creek,” and “The Bitch.”<span style=""> </span>There is even a wine called “Mommy’s Time Out,” whose label depicts a single chair facing a forlorn-looking corner, suggesting, I surmise, that if the burdens of contemporary parenthood become too great, then you can always turn to closet alcoholism for help.<span style=""> </span>How uplifting.</p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 0in; text-indent: 0in; line-height: normal;font-family:arial;">To be sure, I'm not entirely critical of this phenomenon.<span style=""> </span>I know it’s hard to break into a competitive market.<span style=""> </span>But there’s also a cynicism to it, namely, that most consumers will drink just about anything as long as you can get it into their hands.<span style=""> </span>More often than not, then, the wines inside of these clever bottles just aren’t very good.<span style=""> </span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 0in; text-indent: 0in; line-height: normal;font-family:arial;">There are, of course, exceptions.<span style=""> </span>The Australian Shiraz “Boarding Pass,” whose label looks like a plane ticket, can boast a lovely combination of intense, dark berry fruit and spicy complexity.<span style=""> </span>And the impishly-titled Zinfandel “7 Deadly Zins” recently earned a coveted 90 point score from a well-known and influential wine publication.</p> <p class="MsoNormal" face="arial" style="margin-left: 0in; text-indent: 0in; line-height: normal;">But most good wines, from old and new producers alike, have traditional, relatively unassuming labels.<span style=""> </span>After all, the bottle is just a vessel in the end.<span style=""> </span>If you really want to find the best wine for whatever occasion you happen to be celebrating—whether an all-out Christmas dinner or just Spaghetti on Tuesday—then buy it from a shop where the staff know what they’re doing and can steer you in the right direction.<span style=""> </span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 0in; text-indent: 0in; line-height: normal; font-family: arial;">They may indeed point you to a fancy bottle that will also look nice on your bookshelves after you drink it.<span style=""> </span>But chances are just as good that you’ll take home an off-white label with black letters.<span style=""> </span>Oh, and also a delicious wine.<span style=""> </span>Let’s not forget that.</p>Lancehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14530215510224882172noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-25377830.post-2434371914990380082010-07-15T13:24:00.003-05:002010-07-15T13:32:20.164-05:00Merlot Post<span style="font-family:Arial;">Another wine post (with co-author Bill Stimmel, though, as always, this is one I drafted):</span><br /><br /><span style="font-family:arial;">It’s time we put our money where our mouth is (when we write this column, we write with one voice, and, so, one mouth): in more than one column, we’ve defended Merlot against the hordes who, in a backlash against the Merlot glut of the 1990’s (and spurred on by the wildly influential film Sideways), have so abused and denigrated this once proud, noble grape that it has become a second-class citizen in the popular wine world.<br /><br />It has not always been this way. Merlot actually is one of the three so-called “noble” red grapes (the others being Cabernet Sauvignon and Pinot Noir, with some people adding Syrah as a fourth), and it is of fundamental importance to the world renowned red blends of Bordeaux, second only to Cabernet Sauvignon. In fact, on the “right bank” of the Gironde river, which cuts through the heart of Bordeaux, Merlot often dominates blends, constituting 50% or more of many Chateaus’ wines. Indeed, one of the world’s most famous wines, made principally from Merlot, comes from the St. Emilion region on the “right bank:” Chateau Petrus is universally lauded as one of the best wines in the world, and individual bottles of it can sell for more than $5,000.<br /><br />Outside of France, Merlot has thrived in many locations, though Chile and the west coast of the U.S. are particularly noteworthy here. Merlots from Chile can take on earthy flavors of smoke and roasted chili peppers, while California and Washington Merlots can seem to be made of pure satin, dripping with rich flavors of baked plums, red currants, chocolate, cinnamon, and other warming spices.<br /><br />Indeed, it’s largely due to the success of Merlot in the “New World” that it is now so widely scoffed at: in the 1990’s, a veritable flood of Merlot swamped the U.S. market with hundreds of new bottlings, most of which were made from cheap juice that was heavily oaked to mask imperfections so that growers could capitalize on a growing trend.<br /><br />Wine drinkers became justifiably suspicious, but the fact is that there have always been good Merlots out there at all price points. One of the beauties of the grape is that, while it can certainly be made into world-class, age-worthy wines with bold tannins and firm structure, it also grows well in less-than-perfect sites and can yield, with a little care, an easy-drinking, fruit-forward wine that still has some personality—some earthy notes, perhaps, or a hint of cocoa.<br /><br />In short, we think Miles, of Sideways fame, was just being snobby when, in a full-on tantrum, he exclaimed (rather infamously), “I am not drinking any (expletive) Merlot!” He may have had a great palate, but we can have more class—and a good glass of Merlot to boot. </span>Lancehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14530215510224882172noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-25377830.post-81467254428029892862010-06-09T10:27:00.003-05:002010-06-09T11:04:44.724-05:00Why I Think the Tea Party Movement is Racist<span style="font-family:arial;"><em>For once, I'm not posting about wine. This is a response to a Facebook post from the politicially-oriented, very conservative "Johnny's Blog Thingy!!!" that links to a video of a tea party rally in which non-ranting, patriotic people are stirred by a retired Marine's spontaneous singing of the last verse of the Star-Spangled Banner. The upshot of the post is that tea partyers are not ranting, raving, racist lunatics but are, rather, concerned patriots who are acting together to make their nation a better place.</em><br /><br />I am certain that, despite what seems to me to be a just-barely-concealed current of real, and fierce, anger running throughout the tea party movement, most of the movement’s adherents are just like this guy and the people cheering him—honest patriots who want their country to be the greatest nation on earth and a beacon of freedom to all people.<br /><br />But what most of them don’t realize is that the very idea that there is a left that is systematically waging a war on Judeo-Christian values has an insidious kind of racism built into it, even if that racism is not something consciously promulgated by the people whose actions nevertheless have this ill effect. (But I also think it's time for Americans to acknowledge that the kind of vicious racism many of us thought died with the last generation and the success of civil rights has not gone away and is still frighteningly, distressingly common.) What seems like an onslaught from the left is, far more often than not (and with full acknowledgement that the left has its share of nut cases, too) an attempt to make the U.S. a place that is open and welcoming to people who can’t trace their roots back to Thomas Jefferson, or William Penn, or one of the people on the Mayflower. It’s an effort to acknowledge that the history of the U.S. is more than just the chopped down apple tree, Davy Crockett, the shores of Tripoli, and the Saturday Evening Post. But it’s precisely this opening up of culture—this acknowledgement that we are, and always have been, a deeply, profoundly, multi-ethnic, multilingual, multi-religion society—that feels like an attack to most conservatives and especially tea-party folks (who, despite the color of the man in the video, are an overwhelmingly white group), for whom the privilege that comes with being white and Christian in this country has never felt like privilege—only like basic fairness. This sense that some better, apple-pie-eating, God-fearing America has been lost and needs to be regained is, by and large, a reaction to the increasingly officially acknowledged, if also to many people unsettling, reality that U.S. history, and the U.S. itself, is far more complex and multi-colored than most of us Christian white folks ever knew, or ever could have known. </span><br /><span style="font-family:arial;"><br />Put simply, it boils down to this: we’ve had the luxury of having <em>our </em>stories about the history and identity and character of the U.S. be <em>the</em> stories about the history and identity and character of the country. But there are lots of stories that can be told, and lots of ways to tell them. When it’s done right—as it most often is—righting that wrong is what the so-called PC revolution has been about.<br /><br />I know we all have equal rights under the law. But the U.S. has always been a place that favors white Christians in terms of <em>actual</em> opportunity and <em>actual</em> justice. So even the recourse to such standards as “the law of the land” or, in educational settings, “basics,” “merit,” or “achievement” is <em>in effect</em> racist, because they assume that theoretical equality is the same as actual equality, when in fact legal rights and educational opportunities have always been distributed very much in favor of “us” and against “them.” My hope is that this point, articulated as I just have, resonates with the right wing of this country, who have always been distrustful of theory and its potential to be utterly disconnected from reality.<br /><br />So when I think of, and portray in my own work, the far right in this country as racist, I do so with the understanding that racist effects can emanate from actions based on motives that feel pure, and even altruistic, to the people committing those actions. It’s time for all of us to acknowledge that fact and work together to build a truly, and fully democratic America, both in theory <em>and in practice</em>.<br /><br />For other writings of mine along these lines, see <a href="http://www.facebook.com/#!/profile.php?id=1175748797&v=wall&story_fbid=120437951305935&ref=mf">this facebook exchange </a>and <a href="http://lancemassey.blogspot.com/2006/11/chevy-our-white-country.html">this previous post </a>on this blog.</span>Lancehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14530215510224882172noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-25377830.post-91702459161984404602010-05-25T11:08:00.002-05:002010-05-25T11:19:02.129-05:00What, Exactly, are Tannins?<span style="font-family:arial;">Another wine column from Bill Stimmel and me (though I only post here the columns that I'm wholly or primarily responsible for drafting):<br /></span><br /><span style="font-family:arial;">It’s the question everybody wants to ask but is too intimidated to: What are tannins? The technical answer is that tannins are bitter-tasting polyphenols that, in grapes, are present in largest quantities in the seeds, skins, and stems. Tannins’ astringent flavors are responsible for the sensation you sometimes get from red wines, or from over-steeped tea—the one where your gums stick to your teeth and you feel like Tom after Jerry tricks him into sucking up a pile of alum.<br /><br />So why don’t winemakers try to keep tannins out of their wines? Because tannins only make you feel as if your mouth was sandblasted with sidewalk chalk when they are either too “green” or when their levels are so high they overwhelm other elements of the wine. When they are fully “ripe” (which is not the same thing as ripeness of fruit—getting these two levels in sync is one of the signature challenges of great winemaking), tannins provide “structure;” by virtue of the tactile sensation they cause in the mouth, tannins work with a wine’s acidity to keep big, high-alcohol wines from tasting flat and lifeless. Tannins are also preservatives: when a young wine is overpowered by tannins, if they are ripe enough, that same wine ten, even twenty years later will have had time to develop a sensual, earthy depth, while at the same time the tannins will have softened and faded into the supporting role they were meant to play. Finally, tannins can also help red wines stand up to aggressively flavored foods. A tannic wine that is off-putting on its own may sing like the Vienna Boys’ Choir with a char-grilled steak.<br /><br />One of the most famously tannic grapes is Cabernet Sauvignon, and winemakers often accentuate a truly great Cabernet’s tannins by leaving it in contact with the skins, seeds, and stems for longer than they would if they were going for a fruitier style meant to be drunk young. In fact, world class Cabernets often need ten or more years of aging before their tannins mellow, allowing the grape’s naturally earthy flavors and aromas to emerge in ways that less tannic, fruit-driven Cabernets just can’t match. Think of an aged wine as a stew: you can get good flavor in one or two hours (mostly from showy aromatics, herbs, and spices—things that yield big flavor quickly), but for a stew to achieve true depth and complexity, it needs long, slow simmering. Another grape almost infamous for its tannins is Nebbiolo, the grape responsible for the legendary Italian wines Barolo and Barbaresco.<br /><br />Not all red wines are tannic beasts, nor do they need to be. We love easy-drinking, fruit-forward reds. But the next time you throw a porterhouse on a blazing grill, try pairing it with a five-to-ten-year-old California Cabernet Sauvignon, or another good-quality tannic wine. You won’t regret it. </span>Lancehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14530215510224882172noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-25377830.post-22494058424039463292010-05-03T16:11:00.004-05:002010-05-03T16:17:01.258-05:00Tips for Teaching Yourself about Wine<span style="font-family:arial;">I'm not yet ready to turn this blog into a wine-only blog, though that's what it's been in principle for quite a while now. I may still have other things, even rhetoric- and writing-related things, to say in the future. For now, though, here's a recently-run column from Bill Stimmel and me (it ran in the Bowling Green [OH] Sentinel-Tribune):</span><br /><span style="font-family:Arial;"></span><br /><span style="font-family:arial;">People always ask us how we learned so much about wine. And while we admit that we have much more to learn, the simple answer is that we read about, taste, and talk about wine as often as we can. In this column, we want to elaborate on these simple strategies, which can help you build your experience and knowledge and which in turn will offer you heightened satisfaction from your wine drinking experiences.<br /><br />When learning about wine, reading is vital, and there are many different sources of good information. For general information, books are indispensable resources. Sources like our favorite, Karen MacNiel’s Wine Bible, are full of information and tips about winemaking, world wine regions, wine purchasing and storing, major and lesser-known grapes, tasting techniques, and pairing wine with food that are a must for building basic knowledge. There are also a number of wine books devoted to more in-depth information, focusing on specific subjects like wines from a single grape or region, though we recommend these as supplements to the required general reading. And, for more time-sensitive and topical information, a periodic publication like Wine Spectator would be a perfect choice. Even the internet is full of information that is only a Google search away (though you need to make sure you wind up on a site run by a person or people who know what they’re talking about).<br /><br />Tasting, of course, is a key counterpart to reading, and any tasting is better than none. But there is a way to maximize your learning from tasting: taste systematically. While it’s ok to go to a tasting with whites and reds from all over the world, it’s also important to seek out—or engineer for yourself—opportunities to taste together (or over a short period of time) many wines from the same grape and region. Doing so helps you develop a sense of a grape’s and a region’s signature qualities (body, color, aroma, flavor, etc.). You’ll be surprised at how proud you feel the first time you’re able to note that a California Sauvignon Blanc has New Zealand-like tropical fruit, or that a Napa Cabernet Sauvignon has Bordeaux-like earthiness. And, with focused tasting, it doesn’t take all that long to learn to do so.<br /><br />Finally, it is vital to talk about wine with fellow wine lovers. Sharing your wine experiences and interests with others, and listening as they share theirs with you, can stimulate curiosity, broaden your knowledge, and create a sense of community that can only make drinking wine more fun and more satisfying. After all, wine, like food, is a way of bringing people together to celebrate, to build friendships, and to cement social and cultural bonds. It is, in short, a way of making us more human.<br /><br />So take our advice. After all, the world needs a little more humanity.<br /></span>Lancehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14530215510224882172noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-25377830.post-59907359064345726092010-03-09T22:01:00.003-05:002010-03-09T22:03:51.585-05:00Riesling Column<span style="font-family:arial;"><em>Coming this Thursday in the Bowling Green (OH) Sentinel-Tribune</em>:<br /><br />Let’s just admit it: nobody does Riesling better than Germany. German Rieslings can be so utterly pure, so clean, that drinking them is like “drinking the tears of angels,” as one of our cheekier friends recently put it.<br /><br />And that’s exactly what German winemakers want. While Rieslings from a region like France’s Alsace might tend toward richness and full body, German winemakers revel in the mouthwatering crispness, sleek minerality, and tart green apple and pear flavors that they see as the grape’s most compelling expression.<br /><br />Though tart, however, many German Rieslings also have a touch of sweetness, which explains their reputation as cloying, saccharine wines better suited for pouring on pancakes than drinking. But this reputation is undeserved, for two reasons. First, many German Rieslings are quite dry, though these can admittedly be hard to find in grocery stores. Second, great sweet German Rieslings inevitably boast such precise, lightning-tinged acidity that their sweetness, far from being overwrought, is all that keeps them from bolting out of the glass, resulting in a wine so perfectly suspended between sweet and tart, rich and gossamer, that it almost levitates in your mouth.<br /><br />Finding a good German Riesling, moreover, isn’t terribly difficult. You need only follow some simple guidelines (assuming, of course, you’re not near a computer with which you can find all you need to know online). First, look for wines with “QmP” on the label. This stands for “Qualitätswein mit Prädikat,” or “quality wine with special attributes,” and this group of wines marks Germany’s highest classification. (QbA wines—“Qualitätswein bestimmter Anbaugebiet,” or “quality wine from a specific region”—can also be good, though they will tend to be more hit-or-miss.) Second, look at the alcohol level printed on the label. Lower alcohol (8-10%) generally means sweeter wine, since less sugar was metabolized into alcohol during fermentation. (Knowing a wine’s level of sweetness may not tell you much about its quality, but it can tell you how it will match up with your palate.) You can also look to a further set of terms for guidance: QmP wines are subdivided, from least to most ripe, into the categories Kabinett, Spätlese, Auslese, Beerenauslese, and Trockenbeerenauslese. Just be careful here, since, until you get to the Beerenauslese level, wine from very ripe grapes can still taste dry if all the sugar is allowed to be converted during fermentation, which is why alcohol levels can be helpful guides. And, finally, if you’re at a real wine shop, never be afraid to ask for help.<br /><br />While we could say more about German Riesling, we hope we’ve at least piqued your curiosity enough to convince you to try a few. Not every bottle will taste like angels’ tears, but if one even comes close, you will never look at Riesling the same way again. Hallelujah.</span>Lancehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14530215510224882172noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-25377830.post-41191974276017781192010-02-05T14:59:00.007-05:002010-02-05T15:15:56.141-05:00Pinot Noir Column<span style="font-family:arial;">Here's the latest wine column. I'm pretty happy with how it turned out, and I don't even mind the melodramatic overstatement about pinot's potential to inspire poetic reverie. Maybe somebody will read it and discover pinot noir <em>and</em> Keats:</span><br /><br /><blockquote><span style="font-family:arial;">Of all the grapes we’ve written about, pinot noir probably has the most cachet in the U.S. market—a fact attributable to Miles, the struggling writer, wine snob, and fictional main character of the 2004 film Sideways. Miles’ wistful rumination on the delicate beauty of pinot noir elevates it from mere grape to object of literary inspiration every bit the equal of the Elgin marbles or a Grecian urn.<br /><br />And for good reason. As Miles says, pinot noir is very hard to grow and vinify. It is subject to rot, it ripens unevenly, and one wrong step in the winemaking and you’ve got vintage vinegar. But, when it is treated just right, under perfect conditions, it can produce a wine so graceful and delicate—so full of utterly supple fruit and seductive, earthy flavors and aromas—that, as Miles put it, it is “haunting.”<br /><br />The bad news is that its mercurial temperament makes pinot noir very expensive, which means we wine lovers of average means will probably only ever get to taste a handful of truly haunting pinots. Fortunately, less-than-literary pinot noirs can, and often do, still taste great. Pinots from France’s Burgundy region can be affordable and still show off the grape’s lively acidity and sensuous, mushroom-like earthiness. Many Oregon pinot noirs (which are often compared to Burgundies) boast invigorating, virtually electric acidity and flavors of black and red cherry, cola, and damp leaves. California also produces many wonderful pinots, ranging in style from full-bodied to every bit as sleek as those from Oregon and Burgundy. And let’s not forget New Zealand, many of whose pinots almost vibrate with mouthwatering grapefruit and other citrus notes.<br /><br />When you do choose a bottle and get it home, then, you should look for these qualities:<br /><br />1. The fruit tastes ripe without being overly concentrated or “jammy.” Pinots are about subtlety. Warmer climate pinots may push this rule a bit, but they should never drink like “fruit bombs.” Conversely, Burgundies often have notable tartness, which can be turned into an asset by pairing them with a creamy, earthy cheese like Brie.<br /><br />2. It has a light- to medium-bodied mouthfeel. Rich, syrupy syrahs may taste delicious, but that kind of heaviness in a pinot will kill any nuance the wine might have had.<br /><br />3. There is plenty of acidity. Just as a delicate sauce like hollandaise needs fresh lemon juice to wake it up, pinot noir needs acidity to give lift to its subtle flavors. Pinots without enough acidity taste “flabby” and lifeless.<br /><br />Use these criteria, and with a little practice you’ll be an able and confident judge of your own pinot noir experiences. And should you, in your wisdom, find one that haunts you, you’ll finally be able to wax poetic on something besides that old vase on your mantle.</blockquote><br /></span>Lancehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14530215510224882172noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-25377830.post-82857685304005920972010-01-06T21:52:00.005-05:002010-01-06T22:30:43.056-05:00Any Ideas?<span style="font-family:arial;">As you know if you've read this blog lately, I've been writing a wine column for some time now--nine months, give or take.</span><br /><span style="font-family:arial;"></span><br /><span style="font-family:arial;">The column, as you might have guessed, is strictly small potatoes. My co-author and I have abstract plans to establish a blog or a website devoted solely to the column (whereas this is my personal blog), but for now we're a one-newspaper, no-pay operation with no effective mechanism for getting reader feedback. I guess people just don't write letters to the editor complaining that the wine guys are giving Burgundy short shrift. Needless to say, we'd love to know what people are finding interesting, helpful, etc. Even more than that, though, we'd love to know what sorts of topics our readers are interested in so we can write about them.</span><br /><span style="font-family:arial;"></span><br /><span style="font-family:arial;">So I'm asking a favor: if you come here for the wine columns, leave a comment about something you're curious about but haven't seen from us (or, since this is my personal blog, from me). If we don't already have an existing piece that addresses your questions, we'll see what we can do about whipping one up. And if we do have one, I'll post it here.</span><br /><span style="font-family:Arial;"></span><br /><span style="font-family:Arial;">I may be away from the blog for a couple of days, but rest assured my co-author and I will pay close attention to what you say.</span><br /><span style="font-family:arial;"></span><br /><span style="font-family:arial;">In the meantime, here are our thoughts on Tuscan wines:</span><br /><span style="font-family:arial;"></span><br /><div align="center"><span style="font-family:arial;">Versatile Tuscany Offers Choice of Luxury or Value</span></div><span style="font-family:arial;"><div align="left"><br />When we set out to write the “Italian” column, we quickly realized that there’s not enough space on this whole page, let alone in this column, to do justice to such a huge topic. Italy boasts so many wines and wine regions that just listing them would use more than our allotted column space. Fortunately, wines from one of Italy's greatest wine regions, Tuscany, are widely available—and at a wide range of price points—in the U.S.<br /><br />Tuscany forms what would be the top half of the shin in Italy’s famous boot shape. Both red and white wines are produced there, but the reds—which will be our focus here—definitely steal the show. Tuscany’s two most renowned reds are Chianti and Brunello di Montalcino. Wines from Chianti Classico (the subregion where the best Chiantis are generally found) tend toward cherry and plum fruit with spice and leather notes adding complexity. They are not generally deep, brooding wines, but rather medium-bodied reds with bright acidity, making them quite versatile food wines. They pair well with anything from rich fish like salmon to grilled red meats. Brunello di Montalcino, on the other hand, tends toward darker fruit, deeper, richer earth and leather notes, and ultra-sensual dried mushroom aromas and flavors. The best Brunellos are truly rare wines, and their price shows it. While you can find a good Chianti Classico for as little as $30, you won’t even find an entry-level Brunello in a wine shop for less than $60 or $70.<br /><br />Despite the magnificence of Chianti Classico and Brunello di Montalcino, we find wines simply labled “Tuscany” or “Toscana” to the most exciting, especially for the average consumer in search of good values. Wines with this more general label are subject to far fewer restrictions than wines from specific regions like Chianti (where winemakers are limited to certain proportions of certain grapes with specific aging requirements), giving them more opportunity for creativity and innovation. What’s more, while many of these wines—the ones known as “Super Tuscans”—can be very expensive and mind-blowingly good (think Bordeaux, but gamier and more powerful), there are also a number of simple but delicious ones out there. These wines tend to be more New World in style, with more obviously fruit-driven flavors, but they will give you a glimpse of Tuscany’s brilliance at a fraction of the price of its more majestic wines.<br /><br />As you can see, it’s a struggle just to squeeze a sliver of Tuscany into a column of this size, never mind Italy. If your curiosity has been piqued, however, we encourage you to read more on your own. And if you find yourself needing help with some on-site research in Chianti or Montalcino, give us a call. We work cheap.</span></div>Lancehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14530215510224882172noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-25377830.post-90287767998951764372009-12-05T21:33:00.003-05:002009-12-05T21:43:21.848-05:00Cabernet Sauvignon Column<span style="font-family:arial;">It's always hard to write an informative wine column in only 450 words (give or take), but this time was almost impossible. Cabernet sauvignon is just too good and too interesting. Difficulty notwithstanding, here's the latest column:</span><br /><span style="font-family:arial;"></span><br /><span style="font-family:arial;">Despite our recently professed love for syrah, cabernet sauvignon continues to deserve its long-held title as the “king of grapes.” At its best, it surpasses all other grapes in taste, texture, and balance, yielding a wine of such stunning depth and impossible smoothness that to drink it is quite simply to experience bliss. At such moments, one feels as if the glass contains pure liquid satin infused with hypnotic currant, plum, earth, leather, and spice notes. Few gastronomic experiences even approach comparison.<br /><br />Like most wines, cabernet sauvignon is often categorized as “New World” or “Old World.” New world examples tend to be very ripe, full-bodied wines with sweet fruit balanced by herbal and spice notes. While Chile and Australia produce excellent ones, the dominant source of outstanding New World cabernet is California, which produces a dizzying number of world class cabs and has done so for decades. But we’re also extremely excited about Washington state, which now produces several bottlings that are, by most accounts, as good as or even better than California’s most revered legends. In fact, many experts predict that Washington will someday replace California as the United States’ premiere region for cabernet sauvignon.<br /><br />By far the most famous, and most would say the best, source of Old World cabernet sauvignon is the Bordeaux region of France, where many of the wines are blends consisting of 75% or more cabernet sauvignon. While often winemakers do not list the grapes that make up their wines, a few minutes on the internet will usually reveal the blend. (Incidentally, many U.S. cabernet sauvignons are blends as well; U.S. law requires that a wine labeled with a specific grape name consist of at least 75% of that varietal, leaving room for wines made from other grapes to be added for balance and complexity.) But brilliant examples can also be found in southern France as well as in Italy, where many “Super Tuscans” are composed of a majority of cabernet sauvignon. In contrast to their New World counterparts, these European cabernets tend to favor elegance over brawn, with subdued fruit and more prominent earth and leather notes. <br /><br /></span><span style="font-family:arial;"></span><span style="font-family:arial;">As you might expect, however, perfection comes with a price. High end cabernets often retail for $125 or more. And, unlike syrah, good cabernet sauvignon rarely costs less than $20. But, as we see it, the Holiday season—with its requisite procession of succulent roasted meats and rich cheeses—marks the perfect occasion for splurging on a special bottle. If you do decide to splurge, though, get help. There’s nothing worse (in the context of wine-drinking) than an astringent, overly-tannic cabernet that you just blew $40 on. But, then again, there’s nothing better than a good one.</span>Lancehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14530215510224882172noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-25377830.post-8708732972990015302009-11-10T14:42:00.003-05:002009-11-10T15:25:01.183-05:00Thanksgiving Wine Column<span style="font-family:arial;">This one will be coming out in the Bowling Green Sentinel-Tribune Thursday, so I'm scooping myself (and my co-author).</span><br /><span style="font-family:arial;"></span><br /><span style="font-family:arial;">It's a very revised and expanded version of my first Thanksgiving beverage </span><a href="http://lancemassey.blogspot.com/2007/11/thanksgiving-wine-cider.html"><span style="font-family:arial;">post </span></a><span style="font-family:arial;">on this blog. And you'll notice that I incorporated the advice K8 mentions in her comment. It was good advice.</span><br /><span style="font-family:arial;"></span><br /><div align="center"><span style="font-family:arial;">Choosing Thanksgiving Wine (and Why It’s So Difficult)</span></div><span style="font-family:arial;"><br />Every year about this time, food and lifestyle magazines and TV shows begin the desperate, ritual flailing that is the search for the perfect Thanksgiving wine. Why? Because this industry depends on (among other things) its ability to give good, simple advice, which, when it comes to finding a trusty Thanksgiving wine, is about as easy as writing a one-sentence summary of War and Peace.<br /><br />That’s why, recently, we’ve seen dozens of wines—practically the gamut of whites, rosés, and reds—recommended as the ideal choice for Thanksgiving. Still, we do have some general advice—beyond, of course, just going with beer or cider (though we wouldn’t fault you for that).<br /><br />If you can afford it, let your guests choose from a range of wines. Two whites and two reds (one full-bodied, one light-to-medium-bodied in each category) will virtually ensure that there’s a wine available to please every palate. And if you really want to be thorough, throw in a crisp, dry rosé. (Some guests may also want to try different wines with different courses, if there are courses.)<br /><br />But holidays are expensive, and we understand that you may want to save money by finding one good pairing for the meal. If so, then the first thing to do is to throw taste out the window. You’ll never find a perfect match for the combined flavors of turkey, sweet potatoes (with or without marshmallows), mashed potatoes, stuffing (which itself can contain half of your pantry), green bean casserole, and cranberry sauce.<br /><br />In place of flavor, we recommend you focus on the weight of the meal. Since it is rich, filling, and rustically-textured (if a Christmas crown rib with demi-glace is a satin gown, turkey with gravy is a flannel lumberjack shirt) a typical Thanksgiving meal can benefit greatly from a streamlined, crisp, and elegantly-styled wine—one with enough acidity to cut through the richness of the food and cleanse your palate between bites.<br /><br />What wines fit this bill? Just about any style or varietal known for high acidity, if it is done well, is a good option here: sauvignon blanc and riesling stand out as obvious choices for whites, while pinot noir and Chianti (sangiovese) stand out among the reds.<br /><br />But the best option of all, in our opinion, is one with bubbles, like Champagne, Cava, Prosecco, or a nice Champagne-style sparkler from California. The heady effervescence and almost poignant acidity of a good sparkler will make the whole meal—maybe the whole day!—seem lighter and fresher.<br /><br />Then maybe, just maybe, you’ll make it through the first half of the Lions’ game before drifting off to dreams of sugarplums and the next holiday’s bacchanalia. And, of course, you can look forward to our column about that one, too.</span>Lancehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14530215510224882172noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-25377830.post-72945706243800070682009-10-14T13:24:00.003-05:002009-10-14T13:28:29.297-05:00An Original Short Story 2<span style="font-family:Arial;">Again, by Olivia Massey, age 3:</span><br /><span style="font-family:Arial;"></span><br /><div align="center"><span style="font-family:Arial;">Quack Quack</span></div><div align="center"><span style="font-family:Arial;"></span> </div><div align="left"><span style="font-family:Arial;">The giant scared Jack and the Beanstalk. Then Jack got a cow. Then a wild tree came and crunched his bones and then put new bones in. And then an apple slice came and it wanted to take his bones and it gave him a lot of new bones. Sometimes the duck said, "Quack, Quack," and it had to go poopy.</span></div>Lancehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14530215510224882172noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-25377830.post-89823308018544440832009-10-12T19:58:00.004-05:002009-10-12T20:46:27.021-05:00An Original Short Story<span style="font-family:arial;">By Olivia Massey, age 3 (as recorded by her father):</span><br /><span style="font-family:Arial;"></span><br /><div align="center"><span style="font-family:Arial;">Superheroes</span></div><div align="center"><span style="font-family:Arial;"></span> </div><div align="left"><span style="font-family:Arial;">The bumblebee didn't sting me. It didn't have a mouth and it didn't sting me. And then the other time it stinged me a little but it didn't hurt. Then he got chalk on his hands and had chalk hands. And then a bee just liked my flower and I wanted him to have my flower so I shared. And then I like singing "Hip Hip Hooray! The Superheroes saved the day!"</span></div>Lancehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14530215510224882172noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-25377830.post-444508821781400862009-07-29T19:02:00.008-05:002009-07-29T19:16:57.935-05:00Remediation<div><span style="font-family:arial;">Seen on old Route 66 outside of Springfield, MO:</span><br /><br /><img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5364040394078746050" style="DISPLAY: block; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; WIDTH: 400px; CURSOR: hand; HEIGHT: 300px; TEXT-ALIGN: center" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhabak6dWU8BnNR2mz9Naq7mkuVM-31QC1n08uPFWu-5AaYYTVRcTGyWpHwsTsziKhQ-4JnisKC_HNOTMIjex7E0G7fzGcrQ8VDUJarnsR75N1qo6uQywth40AnoIQrK68EbiIw/s400/vac+bib+school+alien" border="0" /><br /><p><span style="font-family:arial;">Now if only someone would remediate the <em>Smoky and the Bandit</em> theme song, substituting Heaven for Texarkana. And I don't know what to make of the alien. Did Buzz Aldrin (he's the "real live astronaut") see one or something?</span></p></div>Lancehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14530215510224882172noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-25377830.post-83345323661958231472009-07-22T20:01:00.005-05:002009-07-24T15:02:09.836-05:00Another Wine Column<span style="font-family:arial;">My co-author and I take turns writing our semi-weekly wine column (we each offer feedback on the other's before it goes out). Here's one I wrote that came out yesterday. It's about the ways oenophiles describe the flavors and aromas of wines. Of all the columns I've written, this one draws the most on my training in rhetoric, especially the not to kairos in my discussion of wine tastings as specific moments. Here it is:</span><br /><br /><span style="font-family:Arial;"></span><br /><span style="font-family:arial;">Like any subculture, the world of wine that is so dear to us and our fellow oenophiles (that is, wine lovers) can seem—with its rituals and jargon—downright silly to some. Swirling your glass, sticking your nose in it for a sniff, swishing the wine around in your mouth: these practices are, admittedly, easy targets for satire. But no ritual is an easier mark than how we describe the wines themselves, using terms like “barnyard,” “hot dog,” and even “diesel fuel” to capture their tastes and aromas. </span><br /><span style="font-family:arial;"><br />And we’re ok with that. After all, if you can’t laugh at yourself, who can you laugh at? We love it, for example, when the über-pretentious Miles, from the film Sideways—you know, the one who won’t drink Merlot because he thinks it’s pedestrian—describes a wine as having “just a flutter of, like, a nutty Edam cheese,” even though we see more than a bit of ourselves in the caricature.<br /><br />Yet, fun as they may be to lampoon, such descriptions are also deeply communicative. In addition to (and perhaps even more important than) conveying simple sensory impressions like taste and smell, they evoke feelings and moods, suggesting holistic impressions that capture the full range of the tasting experience.<br /><br />After all, tasting a wine isn’t just about gathering information. It’s also about the ineffably rich texture of a moment—season, time of day, setting, circumstances, company, and of course the wine itself. All these things come together to form a single, unique event. Are the other tasters lighthearted, or are they tired from a long work week? Are you tasting wines from the same region, or are they all over the map? Can you smell the bakery next door? Is it cold outside? Did you wear your new pants? There are an infinite number of factors that affect your perception of a tasting. How could describing a wine as merely “a dry red, full-bodied, with dark berry fruit” do justice to such a moment?<br /><br />If you’re still not convinced, though, then consider one other reason: some wines are just so special that they defy simple, straightforward descriptions; each sip is an experience in itself. For example, Lance once described a Hungarian dessert wine as “apricot syrup infused with medicinal herbs and cigarette tobacco, which transsubstantiates into sweet pipe tobacco on the improbably long finish. This is Sauternes after reading Kafka.” At that moment he couldn’t have said it any other way or—modesty aside—any better.<br /><br />So we’ll continue to be easy targets for satire, and we’ll even send ourselves up now and then. But we wouldn’t quit describing wines this way for all the minty, peppery, graphite-laced wine in France.<br /></span>Lancehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14530215510224882172noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-25377830.post-42030515492274024672009-06-02T09:14:00.007-05:002009-06-02T09:27:41.063-05:00Finding Value Wine<span style="font-family:arial;">A friend of mine, Bill Stimmel, and I, write a wine column for our local paper. Since we own the copyright, and since the paper doesn't pay us for the column, I thought I'd post one of our recent columns here. Pragmatically, I want to keep this blog moving forward with new content, but I also hope one or two of you might actually find the advice helpful. If you do, let me know. (And remember, this was originally composed for a small daily newspaper, not for the academic blogosphere.)</span><br /><span style="font-family:Arial;"></span><br /><span style="font-family:Arial;">Here's the text:</span><br /><span style="font-family:Arial;"></span><br /><span style="font-family:arial;">Despite what you may have heard, there is a sea of delicious wines out there that sell for not much money —often less than $10. But there is also plenty of junk floating around in that sea, especially below that magic $10 mark. (Below that point it takes serious skill, care, and luck to craft a wine without unpleasantly bitter or sour flavors.) So how does one find the good stuff?</span><br /><span style="font-family:arial;"><br />There’s no foolproof strategy, and the best (and most fun) approach is simply to experiment. If you like a wine you’ve tried, write it down—what grape or grapes it was made from, what year it was made, where it comes from. Then try buying wines of similar prices from the same grapes, region, and/or year. Once you’ve explored some possibilities, making sure to keep a record of your successes, try a different grape or region and start the process again. Pretty soon, you’ll have a nice list of go-to value wines.<br /><br />But we also know that nobody wants to go through several lackluster bottles just to find a good one. Even a $10 investment is not one most of us make lightly. So here are some tips. They’re not foolproof; you will still run into the occasional dud. But, if you follow these pointers, your odds of discovering great value wines will go up considerably:<br /><br /><br /></span><span style="font-family:arial;"><blockquote>1. Look for grapes that tend to yield good wines at lower prices. Grapes with strong fruit character like zinfandel or syrah (also known as shiraz), and grapes with soft, rounded flavors like merlot often do well in simple, inexpensive forms.<br /><br />2. Try wines from up-and-coming regions and countries. You can find outstanding deals on wines from Chile, Australia, South Africa, and lesser known regions in Spain (two of our favorites are Jumilla and Calatayud).<br /><br />3. Explore whites. Because white wines tend to contain almost no tannins, it is generally easier to achieve a tasty, unadorned fruitiness with whites. We find chenin blanc especially approachable.<br /><br />4. Go to tastings. A wine tasting is a perfect way to try wines you think you might like without draining your wallet. Check with local merchants to find out when and where you can find a tasting.<br /><br />5. Keep your eyes and ears open. What are people at tastings, at parties, and in online forums raving about? You can find some real gems this way.</blockquote><br />Of course, there’s nothing wrong with that mass-produced, $6.99 merlot on the grocery store shelf. If you enjoy it, drink it. But also try branching out. We have the most fun when we’re discovering new, exciting wines and learning about the places they come from. We hope you will, too.<br /><br />Our recommendations:<br /><ul><li></span><span style="font-family:arial;">Man Vintners Chenin Blanc 2008 ($6.99). Crisp and refreshing, like a Granny Smith apple. Would be a very versatile food wine, to be paired with anything from Thai curry to chicken salad to grilled pork chops.<br /><br /></span></li><li><span style="font-family:arial;">Casillero del Diablo Carmenère 2007 ($10.99). Rich, full-bodied, and spicy, with surprisingly complex flavors reminiscent of blackberries, pepper, and coffee. A steal at this price.<br /><br /></span></li><li><span style="font-family:arial;">Las Rocas Garnacha 2006 ($12.99). A perennial value, with supple raspberry fruit and wonderfully sensual earth and spice notes. The perfect bridge between the “New World” (ripe, rich, fruit-driven) and “Old World” (subtle, nuanced, earthy) styles.<br /><br /></span></li><li><span style="font-family:arial;">Penfold’s Koonunga Hill Shiraz/Cabernet 2006 ($9.99). Big, chocolaty, and bursting with ripe berries, this full-bodied red shows enough balance and structure to stand up to the heartiest grilled or roasted meats and even has some aging potential.<br /></li></ul></span></span>Lancehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14530215510224882172noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-25377830.post-18211137152949085882009-05-05T09:40:00.004-05:002009-05-21T14:39:39.600-05:00Get Out the Vote<span style="font-family:arial;">I knew it had been a long time since I posted. But March 18? Jeez. </span><span style="font-family:arial;">In lieu of an actual post, then (I'm still not in blog mode), I'll just do some <a href="http://contest.newyorker.com/CaptionContest.aspx?tab=vote&affiliate=ny-caption">shameless self promotion</a>.</span><br /><span style="font-family:Arial;"></span><br /><span style="font-family:Arial;">Update: I got 2nd place in the New Yorker Caption <a href="http://contest.newyorker.com/CaptionContest.aspx?tab=winner&affiliate=ny-caption">contest</a>. At least the one I lost to was funny.</span>Lancehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14530215510224882172noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-25377830.post-43644677459090584862009-03-18T13:58:00.001-05:002009-03-18T14:01:12.261-05:00Apparently, I write about wine. A lot.<span style="font-family:arial;">From <a href="http://www.wordle.net/">Wordle</a>:</span><br /><a href="http://www.wordle.net/gallery/wrdl/663970/comp-lexus_3-18" title="Wordle: comp/lexus 3-18"><img src="http://www.wordle.net/thumb/wrdl/663970/comp-lexus_3-18" alt="Wordle: comp/lexus 3-18" style="padding:4px;border:1px solid #ddd" /></a>Lancehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14530215510224882172noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-25377830.post-83318815874247872912009-03-09T13:32:00.003-05:002009-03-09T14:58:35.549-05:00What's the Deal?<span style="font-family:arial;">Does anybody know what is going on with the <a href="http://www.jowr.org/">Journal of Writing Research</a>? Issue 1:1 came out last June, and the website mentions 3-4 issues per year. But there's been nothing since. </span><br /><span style="font-family:Arial;"></span><br /><span style="font-family:Arial;">There are lots of reasons a journal might move more slowly than anticipated. I'm just hoping that that's what's happening, and not that the economic maelstrom has claimed another victim.</span>Lancehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14530215510224882172noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-25377830.post-16261033757815190542009-02-20T09:49:00.006-05:002009-02-20T10:05:48.571-05:001st Amendment, 1; Sanity, 0<p><span style="font-family:arial;">How will they keep from putting each other in the bags?<br /></span><br /></p><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgYIf-R17opxPGU4cs0JAlnF1g-BMlZDJR_TlnurCq4T-ySmdJHcIGtsZeFe0KEjdmFTFlYHJZ0bMWiRv6N5B-IZ5pl_k-Nlv9tJrcbZXjacO7PTNyOTV9ZowOn96Y13Xv4Jgkt/s1600-h/national+socialist+movement+springfield.jpg"></a><img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5304892401228001874" style="DISPLAY: block; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; WIDTH: 209px; CURSOR: hand; HEIGHT: 320px; TEXT-ALIGN: center" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgYIf-R17opxPGU4cs0JAlnF1g-BMlZDJR_TlnurCq4T-ySmdJHcIGtsZeFe0KEjdmFTFlYHJZ0bMWiRv6N5B-IZ5pl_k-Nlv9tJrcbZXjacO7PTNyOTV9ZowOn96Y13Xv4Jgkt/s320/national+socialist+movement+springfield.jpg" border="0" /><br /><br /><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgYIf-R17opxPGU4cs0JAlnF1g-BMlZDJR_TlnurCq4T-ySmdJHcIGtsZeFe0KEjdmFTFlYHJZ0bMWiRv6N5B-IZ5pl_k-Nlv9tJrcbZXjacO7PTNyOTV9ZowOn96Y13Xv4Jgkt/s1600-h/national+socialist+movement+springfield.jpg"></a>Lancehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14530215510224882172noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-25377830.post-71760767507843106562009-02-16T23:38:00.003-05:002009-02-16T23:42:12.106-05:00Tasting Notes (Feb. 12): Cabernet Sauvignon, Or, Hail to the KingCross-posted from <a href="http://stimmelsmarket.blogspot.com/">Grape and Grain</a>.<br /><br />As much I've been into syrahs lately, I have to admit that cabernet sauvignon is still the one grape that, when it soars to the heights it's capable of, can mesmerize like no other wine, with simultaneous strength, balance, concentration, elegance, and sheer flavor. As (potentially) an "iron fist in a velvet glove," cabernet, when done well, deserves its reputation as the king of grapes.<br /><br />Now, the notes:<br /><br />1. Clos du Marquis 2002 (Bordeaux, France; $49.99/bottle)<br />Still somewhat young at seven years old, this medium-full-bodied Bordeaux (the "second" bottling of Chateau Leoville la Cases) is nevertheless drinking beautifully, with a spicy, earthy nose and gorgeous flavors of black currant, tar, leather, dried leaves, and a hint of wet stone. Balanced and very smooth. Excellent. Rating: 93<br /><br />2. Cignale 2001 (Tuscany, Italy; $72.99/bottle)<br />Full-bodied, sweetly ripe, and incredibly sensuous, with almost primordially earthy flavors and aromas of black plum, mushrooms, animal hide, chocolate, and spice. Beautiful. Rating: 94<br /><br />3. Columbia Crest Reserve Cabernet Sauvignon (Washington; $34.99/bottle)<br />The first time I tried this wine (last week) I thought it was lackluster, but it was my first sample of the day, and I didn't go back. This time, with some warm-up samples under my belt, I saw this wine's charms: bright acidity and sweet, jammy plum and rhubarb fruit are laced with rich vanilla and lead to a lively, licorice-tinged finish. A bit one-note, but it's a good note. Rating: 91<br /><br />4. Schweiger Cabernet Sauvignon 2003 (Napa; $49.99/bottle)<br />Full-bodied and very smooth, with black currant, black earth, spice, and tar notes. Ripe, well-integrated tannins and acidity from the cool Spring Mountain fruit lend a hard-to-resist elegance. Drinking beautifully now, but may not hit full stride for another 3-5 years. Rating: 93<br /><br />5. Los Vascos Cabernet Sauvignon Colchagua Reserve 2004 (Colchagua, Chile; 16.99/bottle)<br />Very big, bold, and concentrated, this South American cabernet is not for the faint of heart. Full-bodied, with assertive flavors of blackberry, earthy leather, and (telltale Chilean) baked stuffed bell pepper. A bit rough around the edges, but overall not bad (and a decent value). Rating: 86<br /><br />6. Vinum Africa 2006 (South Africa; $17.99/bottle)<br />With a nose of currant, plum, smoke, and pepper, this medium-full-bodied cabernet is super-smoky on the palate, with round but penetrating blackberry fruit and chewy, peppery tannins. Bold, classic South African wine. Think BBQ. Rating: 88Lancehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14530215510224882172noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-25377830.post-41743383788326491572009-02-09T13:36:00.019-05:002009-02-09T16:26:50.483-05:00Re-Working (a Metaphor)<span style="font-family:Arial;">We're talking about the difference between revising and editing in my "grammar for language arts teachers" class today, and that has got me thinking about writing teachers' penchant for literalizing the term <em>revision</em> as re-vision, re-seeing.</span><br /><span style="font-family:Arial;"></span><br /><span style="font-family:Arial;">I've accepted and even used that literalized sense myself, but there's always been something about it that didn't feel quite right. As I was preparing for class today, though, what had been a vague, gut-level dissonance emerged into the light of consciousness: To me, re-seeing implies wholesale change--a total do-over. Of course, it is possible to re-see as a way to solve a problem with an existing argument and, so, to not completely scrap what's already there. But the term definitely tends toward the global: <em>To truly revise, you have to re-see your writing, to understand it in a wholly new sense</em>. </span><br /><span style="font-family:Arial;"></span><br /><span style="font-family:Arial;">But sometimes revision doesn't require re-seeing. Sometimes it just takes a lot of brain-wrenching labor to get your writing where you've always wanted it to go in the first place. When that's the case, one is less re-seeing one's writing than re-working it. </span><br /><span style="font-family:Arial;"></span><br /><span style="font-family:Arial;">Why bother with the distinction? For one, I think <em>re-working</em> gets closer than <em>re-seeing</em> to the heart of why so many of our students seem not to be able, or not to want, to engage in deep, meaningful revision of their writing. While it's true that students who fail to engage in deep revision often do so because they can't "see" what needs to happen in their writing, the nature of that blindness stems not from lack of knowledge but from lack of having powered through three, five, ten hours of cross-eyed attempts to figure out what, exactly, it is that they're not seeing. Or, more precisely, the lack of knowledge itself <em>is</em> a lack of work, and vice versa.</span><br /><span style="font-family:Arial;"></span><br /><span style="font-family:Arial;">For their writing to be good, most people have to be willing to put in what amounts to more work on the revision than they did on the first (or second, or seventh) draft. "Re-working" may not have the benefit of cleverness that the vision/seeing wordplay did at one time, but it more than makes up for lack of wit in its simple, if somewhat brutish, precision.</span>Lancehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14530215510224882172noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-25377830.post-89094922736675099882009-02-06T13:49:00.017-05:002009-02-06T16:36:25.103-05:00(Potential) Injustice and the Rhetoric of Duty<span style="font-family:arial;">I found the "Officer Down Memorial Page"--and specifically </span><a href="http://www.odmp.org/reflections.php?oid=2982"><span style="font-family:arial;">this entry</span></a><span style="font-family:arial;"> on Pierce City, Missouri police officer R.J. Chappell--after doing some research to find out more about the Pierce City race-cleansing of 1901, in which a gun-toting, torch-wielding mob drove around 200 blacks out of town. In the process, the mob killed three black residents of Pierce City and attempted to kill many more, after the alleged murder of a white woman by a black man. </span><br /><span style="font-family:arial;"><br />One of the people killed by the mob was Pete Hampton, who was suspected of having killed Chappell the year before. But, given Southwest Missouri's racial climate at the time, how, I wonder, can people today be so sure that Chappell was a faithful public servant? His memorial webpage reads: "You have served your country and community with devotion, courage and valor. You will not be forgotten. I know the Lord has said to thee, 'Enter faithful servant in whom I am well pleased.'"<br /><br />Assuming that Pete Hampton was involved in Chappell's killing, is it really not possible to imagine a scenario in which Hampton acted in self-defense against someone he perceived, possibly even rightly, as a threat to his life? After all, since even in turn-of-the-20th-century SW Missouri, Hampton was only suspected and not tried or convicted, the details of the shooting must be unknown. Without having done a lot of archival footwork about Chappell himself, how is it possible to know that he was a fair man and not a petty thug? How is it possible to know that he wasn't trying to kill Chappell or to pin a crime on him that he didn't commit?<br /><br />Such a seemingly innocuous tribute is to me a chilling illustration of how the rhetoric of duty, of "devotion, courage, and valor," can (even if only potentially), by virtue of its blanket applicability and immunity to context, allow specific acts of injustice to be exonerated by the broad blanket of honor wearing a uniform seems to provide.</span><br /></span><span style="font-family:arial;"></span><br /><em><span style="font-family:arial;">The August 25, 1901 St. Louis Post-Dispatch ran a detailed story of the Pierce City race cleansing. The text is reproduced on the Chappell memorial page, but below is a (very big) jpeg image of the original article. Some time I'll write about the events themselves:</span> </em><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhWhfmj1pEv4CAK-ynqfaFdbUp3esukaAJ_zIeOCBMZ5HzcNiSpwfXajEGohre3F5gmGEbjYxC8jq9k0te-14c-Iy7NM4lLzDTcMizbbnmaZx9oMmhClyKmpxjIxL5-aPZkZUL2/s1600-h/Peirce+City+Race+Cleansing--StLouisPost.jpg"></a><em><br /></em><br /><br /><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhcaVTaAvykhkcDr2krAqXjzqMqgbD46yn7pYKZBCO7mLAxgDqytem7rWJeXMsWv43-3rnIF-fWuMQsj_kp5lUMHd5a_zDX01VPzyffEzBsZMXgfx1_Qff1wocBGoufwYvSppla/s1600-h/Peirce+City+Race+Cleansing--StLouisPost.jpg"><img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5299781677576472162" style="DISPLAY: block; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; WIDTH: 240px; CURSOR: hand; HEIGHT: 320px; TEXT-ALIGN: center" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhcaVTaAvykhkcDr2krAqXjzqMqgbD46yn7pYKZBCO7mLAxgDqytem7rWJeXMsWv43-3rnIF-fWuMQsj_kp5lUMHd5a_zDX01VPzyffEzBsZMXgfx1_Qff1wocBGoufwYvSppla/s320/Peirce+City+Race+Cleansing--StLouisPost.jpg" border="0" /></a><br /><div></div>Lancehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14530215510224882172noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-25377830.post-83107303369794817612009-02-05T14:06:00.003-05:002009-11-10T14:59:22.562-05:00Carlin on the Repressive Hypothesis<span style="font-family:arial;">George Carlin died less than a year ago, so there’s still a fair amount of hyperbolic rhetoric about his comedic greatness floating around. (His posthumous, November receipt of the Twain award has no doubt helped.) Not that he wasn’t a great comic; he was. But so far nobody seems willing to point out how strained a lot of his concepts were, despite how brilliant the tirades they enabled often undoubtedly were. (A house is nothing more than a place where you keep your stuff? Really?) Even the good folks at Slate’s “<a href="http://media.slate.com/media/slate/Podcasts/Culturefest/SG08070201_Culturefest.mp3">Cultural Gabfest</a>” take him to task more for his very brand of humor than for its occasional lapses in execution.</span><br /><span style="font-family:arial;"><br />But the “seven dirty words” routine was, and is, brilliant from start to finish. And the best part of it—despite what I would have told you when I was 12 years old—is not the part where he says the seven words. Not even close. It’s the intro material, where Carlin says about profanity in a few brilliant lines what Foucault labored to say about sexuality in a whole book.<br /><br />Foucault:<br /><blockquote>….Without even having to pronounce the word, modern prudishness was able to ensure that one did not speak of sex, merely through the interplay of prohibitions that referred back to one another: instances of muteness which, by dint of saying nothing, imposed silence. Censorship.<br />Yet when one looks back over the last three centuries with their continual transformations, things appear in a very different light: around and apropos of sex, one sees a veritable discursive explosion.<br />….There was a steady proliferation of discourses concerned with sex….</blockquote><br />And Carlin:<br /><blockquote>We have more ways to describe dirty words than we actually have dirty words. That seems a little strange to me. It seems to indicate that somebody was awfully interested in these words. They call them bad words, dirty, filthy, foul, vile, vulgar, coarse, in poor taste, unseemly, street talk, gutter talk, locker room language, barracks talk, bawdy, naughty, saucy, raunchy, rude, crude, lewd, lascivious, indecent, profane, obscene, blue, off-color, risqué, suggestive, cursing, cussing, swearing. And all I could think of was shit, piss, fuck, cunt, cocksucker, motherfucker, and tits.</blockquote><br />Still, those seven words are motherfucking hilarious, too.</span>Lancehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14530215510224882172noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-25377830.post-30646989872635021572009-01-30T14:42:00.007-05:002009-01-30T15:01:23.246-05:00Pinot Noir Tasting Notes<span style="font-family:arial;">Since I've not had the time or inclination to feed this blog lately, I thought I'd at least cross-post some of my recent tasting notes from <a href="http://stimmelsmarket.blogspot.com/">Grape and Grain</a> (though with minor tweaking).</span><br /><span style="font-family:Arial;"></span><br /><span style="font-family:arial;">Last Thursday (1/22) featured a pinot noir tasting, which was an absolute delight. If you know me, you know </span><a href="http://lancemassey.blogspot.com/2008/08/im-no-miles.html"><span style="font-family:arial;">how I feel </span></a><span style="font-family:arial;">about the Sideways-inspired pinot craze. But there are lots of damn good ones out there--several of which were poured this night. A few were even priced reasonably. (Will wonders never cease?)</span><br /><span style="font-family:arial;"></span><br /><span style="font-family:arial;">Also, I'm experimenting with a 100 pt. rating system. I started doing it for myself as a way to help me better access my memories and experiences of the wines, and I thought I'd include those ratings here to see how they float. Just remember, though--one person's 85 may be another's 92. The trick is to find a taster you relate to and trust her or his opinion (but even then, never blindly).</span><br /><span style="font-family:arial;"></span><br /><span style="font-family:arial;">Now, the notes:</span><br /><span style="font-family:arial;"></span><br /><span style="font-family:arial;">1. Chandon Brut NV ($24.99/bottle)</span><br /><span style="font-family:arial;">This is a basic, serviceable Champagne-style sparkler. Better than anything you'll get at most New Years' parties, though not as good as what you might expect for $25. For the money, I'd go with a Cava (Spain) or a Prosecco (Italy). Still, not bad. Rating: 83</span><br /><span style="font-family:arial;"></span><br /><span style="font-family:arial;">2. Labaume Mercurey 1er Cru 2002 ($39.99/bottle)</span><br /><span style="font-family:arial;">Smooth and light-bodied, this Burgundy shows pure but lean, tart black cherry fruit with earthy, forest-floor secondary notes. Would be a beautiful wine, but ultimately the fruit is just too thin. Rating: 85</span><br /><span style="font-family:arial;"></span><br /><span style="font-family:arial;">3. Tohu Marlborough 2004 ($24.99/bottle)</span><br /><span style="font-family:arial;">This is two-thirds of a brilliant wine: enchanting nose, gorgeous flavors, and no finish. Cherry, cola, cedar sawdust, and earth infuse this refined, medium-bodied, aromatic pinot. For food pairing, think cedar plank roasted salmon or duck stuffed with wild cherries. Rating: 91</span><br /><span style="font-family:arial;"></span><br /><span style="font-family:arial;">4. Styring Signature 2005 ($26.99/bottle)</span><br /><span style="font-family:arial;">The beautiful, seductive, Old-World-style nose on this pinot suggests crushed violets, graphite, and musky earth. On the full side of medium-bodied and very smooth, with a solid core of acidity to keep the ripe fruit and deep, rich earthiness on their feet. Finishes with cherry and black licorice. Rating: 92</span><br /><span style="font-family:arial;"></span><br /><span style="font-family:arial;">5. Au Bon Climat Santa Maria Valley 2004 ($39.99/bottle)</span><br /><span style="font-family:arial;">This wine's nose is rich and dark, with enticing if subtle nuances of earth, grapefruit, and medicinal herbs. Super complex and almost mesmerizingly smooth, the palate is a riot of perfectly-poised oppositions: bitter but sweet, brooding but upbeat, darkly rich but light on its feet. Gives weight to the normally empty term, a "drinking experience." Rating: 94</span><br /><span style="font-family:arial;"></span><br /><span style="font-family:arial;">6. Kosta Browne Sonoma Coast 2006 ($69.99/bottle)</span><br /><span style="font-family:arial;">Unbelievably smooth, this wine features fine, ripe tannins to go with the standard bolt of acidity. The result is an uncommonly-structured, age-worthy pinot (5-7 yrs.) with indulgent aromas and flavors of cherry, fresh strawberry, sweet vanilla, cinnamon, and something like tree bark. Less challenging to the senses than the Au Bon Climat, this pinot is nevertheless expertly executed and (almost) too easy to love. Rating: 94 </span>Lancehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14530215510224882172noreply@blogger.com0