Belated condolences to the Dusi family on the passing of Dante Dusi late last year. A Paso Robles pioneer, his legacy to the wine world is being carried on by granddaughter Janell with her J Dusi Wines.
Morgan Twain-Peterson of Bedrock Wine Company recently posted on Facebook that the Historic Vineyard Society will be releasing a 2013 blend of the Bedrock Vineyard Zinfandel. The blend will consist of wine produced by Bedrock, Biale, Carlisle, Ridge and Turley – the big five supporters of the HVS.
Speaking of Morgan, we’ve been drinking an awful lot of Bedrock Wines these days. Easy to see why the San Francisco Chronicle named him co-winemaker of the year [along with Tegan Passalacqua of Turley].
NapaValleyRegister.com reported that more than 400 sprinkler heads were stolen from Yountville vineyards earlier this year. Hmmm, just…hmmm.
From NYPost.com – A major champagne producer changed distributors, upon which a top salesman of the fired distributor sent a picture to a female executive of the winery. The photo was of him pouring the winery’s champagne out into a bucket while his crotch was being grabbed by a stripper.
Classy.
Does it bother you when you are watching a television show and they go to the trouble to have nice wine glasses but the actors sit around holding the glasses by the bowls instead of the stems? Drives me crazy.
A popular festival used a picture of a winemaker from one of my articles to promote that winemaker’s appearance on their radio show and at their festival. The photo was used without my permission. Not sure if I should be flattered or annoyed – I guess a little of both.
A good friend of mine asked me to write something about whether wines really benefit from aging. I expect that in the right hands this would be a huge topic with a lot of information. I don’t have the right hands. My own opinion, for what it is worth: Most wines aren’t built for long term aging and don’t need to be. I rarely age wines beyond five years, so I don’t have a lot of experience in that area. But I think lots of wine can benefit from at least a short-term laydown, with the caveat that there are a lot of variables that might influence the outcome, such as temperature, humidity, lighting and of course the wine itself. Not to mention the type of closure.
And speaking of closures [don’t worry Eve, I’m not going to beat this dead horse for long], the debate will probably rage on long after I am gone as to whether corks versus screwtops should be used. I’ve expressed my opinions ad nauseum and others have expressed theirs. But one of the arguments consistently used by natural cork advocates is that the porosity of cork is necessary for proper long term aging. Now winemaker Stillman Brown has effectively in my opinion put to rest that “canard” so I won’t dwell on it here. But, I will add that since most wines are not laid down for long term aging, that argument, whether you buy into it or not, doesn’t really apply to the vast majority of wine being sold.
Michael Perlis has been pursuing his passion for wine for more than 25 years. He has had the good fortune of having numerous mentors to show him the way, as well as a wonderful wife who encourages him and shares his interest. After a couple of decades of learning about wine, attending events, visiting wineries and vineyards, and tasting as much wine as he possibly could, he had the amazing luck to meet Eve Bushman. Now, as Contributing Editor for Eve’s Wine 101, he does his best to bring as much information as possible about wine to Eve’s Wine 101 faithful readers. Michael is also Vice President of Eve Bushman Consulting (fka Eve’s Wine 101 Consulting) http://evebushmanconsulting.com/ and President of MCP Financial. Michael can be contacted at michaelthezinfan@aol.com or michael@evebushmanconsulting.com.
