Ar.Pe.Pe. ? mountain Nebbiolo

Nebbiolo, it’s not just for Piedmont! Well, actually it is just for Piedmont (think: Barolo, Barbaresco) since there are so few examples of the grape outside the region. But consider this example from Valtellina, in the adjacent region of Lombardy, slammed up against the alps and Switzerland. Perched at about 4,200 ft altitude, the vineyards [...]

Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/blogspot/GuSC/~3/CLxS7ATTVJM/

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On Biodynamics, Voodoo Vintners and the Learning Imperative

When The Oregonian wine columnist and first-time author Katherine Cole says in the preface of her book (Voodoo Vintners: Oregon’s Astonishing Biodynamic Winegrowers) that its, “An examination of an inscrutable topic” I wondered if that was a caveat that she bolted on after the fact, a veiled warning to readers that she felt incomplete in her examination of the nascent, controversial and woefully misunderstood viticultural practice that is Biodynamics (BioD).

To the contrary, Cole has largely triumphed in surveying the origins of BioD while providing a sweeping and balanced perspective of its practice in the decidedly progressive cultural environment of Oregon. And, in my opinion, the introduction and first two chapters of Voodoo Vintners provides more coherency on the underpinnings of Biodynamics and its ideological leader, Rudolf Steiner, than most of what has been published to date.  In and of itself, that is worth the price of the book because Voodoo Vintners is not a tidy, self-contained opinion piece for those looking for an easy treatise that jives positively or negatively with existing opinion.  Instead, it gives the reader plenty of food for thought and enough well-researched background to lead an individual in exploration in what is ultimately a very complex subject. 

Consider it a jumping off point.

image

When it comes to Biodynamics, grappling with the inherent complexity and pursuing independent exploration is a particularly important point: While it’s easy to latch onto opinions that validate our potentially narrow viewpoint, it’s much more challenging to understand the origin of BioD and form a fully realized opinion that rationalizes a 360 degree perspective with sympathy towards the unknown.

At the risk of injecting my own bias when author Cole doesn’t, I lean sympathetic to BioD and its esotericism.  I’m comfortable with ambiguity.  I’ve repeatedly experienced déjà vu, I don’t dismiss ghost stories, and as a now aged amateur athlete I’ve experienced a heightened state of consciousness on occasion, what is called being in, “The Zone.”  Most can relate to these things, even if none of them are fully understood.

Spiritually, I’m a lapsed Catholic married to a reformed Jew with an “All God’s Creatures” sensibility.  We underscore that mélange with an Eastern philosophical bent.  Suffice to say, the ritualistic spiritual aspects of BioD combined with the fuzziness of sensory perception and energy forces isn’t something I dismiss out of hand.

As Lynne Carpenter-Boggs, the research lead for the Center for Sustaining Agriculture and Natural Resources at Washington State University is quoted as saying in the book, “There are many ways of knowing.  There is logic, there is intuition, there are dreams, there is conversation, there is observation.  All of these should be respected and developed.”

I agree.

However, there is much in the historical melting pot of BioD that borders on forbiddingly complex for the layperson – Goethe, an obscure Persian religion called Zoroastrianism, Steiner’s own philosophy of Anthroposophy, the over-arching philosophy of Theosophy, and the power of intent via quantum mechanics (to name a few) that can be linked to BioD and Steiner’s seminal lectures that make up the foundation of the movement.  These are all skillfully referenced and examined with varying degrees of depth in Voodoo Vintners, available to the reader for further exploration.

Yet, where Cole’s writing picks up its own energy is when she switches from the thesis-style aspects of her research and writes first person about the personalities in the Biodynamic and sustainable Oregon wine scene.  Despite the book not being contiguously linked chapter by chapter, this area of the book provides cohesion and context to the subject matter, along with a warm writing style that best suits the author.

When writing about the late Jimi Brooks or Alex Sokol Blosser, the book takes on a vitality that is relatable, especially when Sokol Blosser says of some of the infamous manure-based BioD soil amendments, “I don’t want the vineyard guys to do anything I wouldn’t do.  And I don’t shovel shit”

Ultimately, the book leaves the reader with a broader sense of Biodynamics, but willfully, no answers.  When consultant Dominique Lafon says of Biodynamics, “It’s as simple as it is complicated” I nodded in agreement intrigued to understand this subject on deeper terms after Cole artfully laid out the case that what is known is only equaled by what is unknown and because of that, ultimately, Biodynamics boils down to belief.

If you like your news to hew closely to your political belief system, there’s no amount of persuasion that will get you to cross the proverbial aisle – in politics or Biodynamics.  However, if you approach life with an open mind and an open heart, you’re likely to find something in this book that will make you a little smarter, intrigued to learn more and, ultimately, better equipped to make your own judgment on a subject that is still early in its adoption cycle.

Source: http://goodgrape.com/index.php/site/on_biodynamics_voodoo_vintners_and_the_learning_imperative/

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Wine Loves ?Transparency? Until it doesn?t:  An Ethical Debate

The domestic wine world loves authenticity and transparency – especially consumers.  This is a common refrain albeit more ideal than reality. 

This point has been underscored for me recently with David Darlington’s new book, An Ideal Wine: One Generation’s Pursuit of Perfection – And Profit – in California.  Darlington spends much of the book elucidating the use of technology tools in the wine business.  These tools are principally from service providers like Enologix and Vinovation. 

While many vintners are quoted (and seemingly forthright) in the book, the reality is that both companies have cloaked client lists and the respective businesses operate on the margins of the industry with precious few of their clients willing to go on record about their use of analytical and corrective wine tools. 

Transparent?  When it comes to the production side of the business, not so much.

There’s another area where wine isn’t exactly transparent, and that’s on the pricing side of the equation in between distribution and retail.

image

Wine media members can secure a subscription to the Beverage Media price list magazine in their geography (used as a retail reference) and see monthly wholesale pricing, comparing that pricing to the actual prices on local store shelves, or even restaurants.

Who is gouging who?  Who offers legitimate deals?  The information is available.

I’ve always had a slight desire to re-publish wholesale pricing, comparing it against actual store pricing, shining a light on a couple of retailers in my town who are less than magnanimous in the alleged “deals” they are offering.  Yet, societal mores have precluded me from doing so.  I’d probably bear the wrath of enough people to earn a Scarlet Letter.  Or, worse, I would violate some Beverage Media terms and conditions that I wasn’t aware of.  At the least, I would break an unspoken rule in the gentlemanly sport of business – similar to the unspoken baseball rule that says you shouldn’t break up a double play AND use your cleats as a weapon whilst doing so.

Well, in the Netherlands, an online wine shop lacks the compunction that I possess and for the better.  At least I think it’s for the better.  Anything that can blunt the criminal blow that is restaurant wine pricing the world over should at least deserve an, “Atta boy.”

Sterwijnen Thuis, a Dutch wine web site, loosely translated as “Home of Star Wine,” has taken wine list selections from the top 60 Dutch restaurants, and they then sell some 350 - 400 of the same labels online for considerably less, listing the name of the restaurant where the wine is featured.  In doing so, the spread of margin in between what Sterwijnen Thuis sells the wine for versus the restaurant pricing becomes glaringly obvious.

As you might imagine, not everybody is happy about this, especially the restaurants.

The Dutch Alliance Gastronomique is conferring with restaurateurs and some are talking lawsuit.

image

Sterwijnen Thuis, reflexively perhaps, indicates that they are simply making publicly available information, well, publicly available.  It’s not their fault if they can sell the same wines as a restaurant for much less money.

Ahem.

Unfortunately, in order to follow this story you’ll need to use an auto-translation tool in your browser (I use Google’s Chrome browser), and you can find the story here and here.  An English-language blurb can be found here.

I open this up to readers.  Is Sterwijnen Thuis within their right to baseline their inventory against the gloss of very reputable restaurants while showing cost savings in the process?  Is all fair in love and war?

Or, is this an egregious lack of decorum worthy of brush back pitch to the chin in the top of the inning as recompense?

Leave a comment with your thoughts.

Source: http://goodgrape.com/index.php/site/wine_loves_transparency_until_it_doesnt_an_ethical_debate/

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On Biodynamics, Voodoo Vintners and the Learning Imperative

When The Oregonian wine columnist and first-time author Katherine Cole says in the preface of her book (Voodoo Vintners: Oregon’s Astonishing Biodynamic Winegrowers) that its, “An examination of an inscrutable topic” I wondered if that was a caveat that she bolted on after the fact, a veiled warning to readers that she felt incomplete in her examination of the nascent, controversial and woefully misunderstood viticultural practice that is Biodynamics (BioD).

To the contrary, Cole has largely triumphed in surveying the origins of BioD while providing a sweeping and balanced perspective of its practice in the decidedly progressive cultural environment of Oregon. And, in my opinion, the introduction and first two chapters of Voodoo Vintners provides more coherency on the underpinnings of Biodynamics and its ideological leader, Rudolf Steiner, than most of what has been published to date.  In and of itself, that is worth the price of the book because Voodoo Vintners is not a tidy, self-contained opinion piece for those looking for an easy treatise that jives positively or negatively with existing opinion.  Instead, it gives the reader plenty of food for thought and enough well-researched background to lead an individual in exploration in what is ultimately a very complex subject. 

Consider it a jumping off point.

image

When it comes to Biodynamics, grappling with the inherent complexity and pursuing independent exploration is a particularly important point: While it’s easy to latch onto opinions that validate our potentially narrow viewpoint, it’s much more challenging to understand the origin of BioD and form a fully realized opinion that rationalizes a 360 degree perspective with sympathy towards the unknown.

At the risk of injecting my own bias when author Cole doesn’t, I lean sympathetic to BioD and its esotericism.  I’m comfortable with ambiguity.  I’ve repeatedly experienced déjà vu, I don’t dismiss ghost stories, and as a now aged amateur athlete I’ve experienced a heightened state of consciousness on occasion, what is called being in, “The Zone.”  Most can relate to these things, even if none of them are fully understood.

Spiritually, I’m a lapsed Catholic married to a reformed Jew with an “All God’s Creatures” sensibility.  We underscore that mélange with an Eastern philosophical bent.  Suffice to say, the ritualistic spiritual aspects of BioD combined with the fuzziness of sensory perception and energy forces isn’t something I dismiss out of hand.

As Lynne Carpenter-Boggs, the research lead for the Center for Sustaining Agriculture and Natural Resources at Washington State University is quoted as saying in the book, “There are many ways of knowing.  There is logic, there is intuition, there are dreams, there is conversation, there is observation.  All of these should be respected and developed.”

I agree.

However, there is much in the historical melting pot of BioD that borders on forbiddingly complex for the layperson – Goethe, an obscure Persian religion called Zoroastrianism, Steiner’s own philosophy of Anthroposophy, the over-arching philosophy of Theosophy, and the power of intent via quantum mechanics (to name a few) that can be linked to BioD and Steiner’s seminal lectures that make up the foundation of the movement.  These are all skillfully referenced and examined with varying degrees of depth in Voodoo Vintners, available to the reader for further exploration.

Yet, where Cole’s writing picks up its own energy is when she switches from the thesis-style aspects of her research and writes first person about the personalities in the Biodynamic and sustainable Oregon wine scene.  Despite the book not being contiguously linked chapter by chapter, this area of the book provides cohesion and context to the subject matter, along with a warm writing style that best suits the author.

When writing about the late Jimi Brooks or Alex Sokol Blosser, the book takes on a vitality that is relatable, especially when Sokol Blosser says of some of the infamous manure-based BioD soil amendments, “I don’t want the vineyard guys to do anything I wouldn’t do.  And I don’t shovel shit”

Ultimately, the book leaves the reader with a broader sense of Biodynamics, but willfully, no answers.  When consultant Dominique Lafon says of Biodynamics, “It’s as simple as it is complicated” I nodded in agreement intrigued to understand this subject on deeper terms after Cole artfully laid out the case that what is known is only equaled by what is unknown and because of that, ultimately, Biodynamics boils down to belief.

If you like your news to hew closely to your political belief system, there’s no amount of persuasion that will get you to cross the proverbial aisle – in politics or Biodynamics.  However, if you approach life with an open mind and an open heart, you’re likely to find something in this book that will make you a little smarter, intrigued to learn more and, ultimately, better equipped to make your own judgment on a subject that is still early in its adoption cycle.

Source: http://goodgrape.com/index.php/site/on_biodynamics_voodoo_vintners_and_the_learning_imperative/

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Exquisite art collections of St. Regis hotel in Singapore redefines luxury

Singapore, the only address of extensive luxury presents the prestigious St. Regis hotel, which is the landmark of ambience and unsurpassed deluxe. The hotel can also be identified as Asia?s finest private art museum because each of the 299 luxurious rooms is highly decorated with exclusive collections of magnificent creations. Every room of the hotel [...]

Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/vagablond/ysSN/~3/tmVQ3-rXyR4/

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Mas Des Dames, Rose, Coteaux Du Languedoc 2009

Outside here in Minnesota it’s in the mid 20′s Fahrenheit with a thick snowpack. It is far from springtime here but a bit of spring can be had here inside a bottle of dry rosé. Every spring and summer I resolve to drink more rosé but for one reason or another rarely do. So I [...]

Mas Des Dames, Rose, Coteaux Du Languedoc 2009 originally appeared on Winecast. Licensed under Creative Commons.

Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/Winecast/~3/Sofm980mQUI/

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Wine Blogging Wednesday #70: 2009 Bodega Bernabeleva Camino de Navaherreros Garnacha

Gabriella and Ryan’s post inspiring wine bloggers to get creative and seek out a unique Spanish wine or one from an unheard of region for the comeback edition of New York Cork Report Executive Editor Lenn Thompson’s Wine Blogging Wednesday, fueled my determination to get my hands on a bottle or two that would expand [...]

Source: http://familylovewine.wordpress.com/2011/02/16/wine-blogging-wednesday-70/

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