Best of Twitter – Archives #3 (July 2012)



Week of July 23rd – July 29th

Lettie Teague discusses a problem close to my heart – which wine to bring as a house guest (a problem I suffer from as host, not guest)?

A new wine tasting panel system introduced by Decanter prompts some analysis from Mike Veseth (a/k/a the Wine Economist).

As Robert Parker hits mandatory retirement age, W. Blake Gray pays the legendary wine critic proper tribute.

What is the real purpose of a wine bottle’s back label?

A great and recently discovered [by me] wine blog – Wine Folly – highlights some basic wine characteristics that can be helpful is finding your own oenophilic preferences.

Meg Maker lucidly illustrates, as anyone with a little interest in wine can appreciate, the weighty burden of “taking responsibility for the wine”.

Week of July 16th – July 22nd

The unveiling of the world’s largest wine bottle left me scrambling to find an appropriate and not-yet-used Jewish Kings name for a moniker.

With the mercury rising, Sauvignon Blanc tends to get pushed around a bit. Terroirist comes to the grape’s defense as does Ray Isle.

Despite its usually boring existence, the wine world gets a bit of excitement here and there (although usually relating two magnets for controversy, to Robert Parker or James Sucking). This time is the relatively docile Eric Asimov and James Molesworth who amusingly (for the spectators) go head to head.

The Wine Blog Awards announced the all deserving 2012 Wine Blogger Finalists and I was happy to see many of my favorite bloggers on the list including Alder Yarrow from Vinography, Joe Roberts from 1 Wine Dude, David White from Terroirist and Ron Washam a/k/a the Hosemaster. In the spirit of top writing, Tom Wark lists five important rules for successful wine blogging.

In his near-classic style, the Hosemaster gives us a peek of his latest wine tasting notes & reviews. His samples acceptance policy makes a mockery of many wine bloggers as well.

Discovery of a new yeasts strain could hold the key in providing thousands of allergic suffering red wine drinkers with welcome relief.

While Château Lafite may be all the rage these days, Will Lyons talks about Lafite’s good old days when a bottle could be had for a song.

Likely unintentionally providing us with one of the year’s best headlines, Pot-smoking moms got tired of being judged by wine drinkers.

Week of July 9th – July 15th

Besides wine, oenophilic gadgets make a great gift for any budding aficionado. DesignWan has a nice list of 15 good wine gifts and the Drinks Business has ten more.

Starting a wine collection? Wine Folly has ten tips for getting started and I have a handy list of great collectable starter wines.

Adam Montefiore reveals how Spring and Summer truly bring out the best [and most beautiful] of Israel’s Galilee Region. Specially mentioned are the Dalton, Galil Mountain and Ramot Naftaly wineries. Egregiously left out was the Adir Winery.

Over at eater.com, Talia Baiocchi talks about Counterfeiting, Auctions, and the Impact on Wine Lists.

As [partial] retribution for California’s recent [ridiculous] ban on foie gras, French merchants start banning imports of California wines.

As the mercury continues to rise, some tips on protecting your wines during shipping, on the right temperature for drinking your wine and on generally keeping your vino cool.

In a riff on most popular wine blogs, the Hosemaster let’s us know what HE is reading.

In classic French one-upmanship, French farmers eschew Wagyu and feed their cattle 2 bottles of quality wine daily to produce finer beef.

Eric Asimov pens a terrific piece on Champagne‘s black box of bottling dates and disclosure.

Taking a stand on behalf of oppressed wine geeks worldwide, Lettie Teague defends us poor hapless wine snobs.

Week of July 2nd – July 8th

The Institute of the Masters of Wine recently became a bit more transparent and released its most recent Masters of Wine exam. Dr. Vino analyzes and discusses the test.

Concerned there are more Rudy’s out there? Bloomberg has you covered with some pointers for beating the wine scams.

With typical irreverence the Hosemaster satirically previews some [potentially] “coming soon” wine films.

With his typical insightfulness, Adam Montefiore drills down on wooden barrels, thier usage and effectiveness.

While Carmel’s Kayoumi Riesling has helped, together with Burgundy, kosher Riesling remains the holy grail of the kosher wine industry with exceptional food pairing ability & delightful refreshingness.