As I think I have mentioned before in this space, I get a ton of emails every day. A ton. Like everyone, a lot is spam, but perhaps unlike some of you, most of what clogs my in box is self-inflicted, as I signed up to receive them. I shudder to think how many mailing lists I have voluntarily joined and I often wonder why I continue to stay on them because most of them are just crap.
Yes, I know it makes no sense that I spend a good part of my day opening and reading much of the wine “journalism” that is produced every darned day. There are, of course, some really thoughtful, well-written, and informative articles produced, but those seem to be increasingly rare. Most of it is, well, crap.
But I still read most of them.
Just about every month, there is at least a handful of articles that answers the burning question: “How many glasses of wine are in a bottle?” Then there is the equally popular “You are storing your wine wrong” articles, the “How to perfectly pair wine with food” thrillers, and the “How to properly order wine at a restaurant” page-turners.
It really is amazing how often those exact stories appear. Doesn’t anyone ever Google anything any more?
Moving on.
This week, I selected a couple of gems for my
The first, entitled “6 Iconic California Wines You Need To Try At Least Once”, came out in a few months ago in Chowhound. The author lists four wines that, while are not all that interesting, most people have heard of and are widely available: Rombauer Chardonnay, Caymus Cabernet Sauvignon, The Prisoner, and Chateau Montelena Chardonnay.
Fine. Like I said, not very interesting, but I can get behind the premise that one should try those wines at some point. Those first four wines range in price from about $40 (Rombauer) to $80 (Caymus). While I would not ever buy Caymus (and certainly not for eighty bucks), each of those wines make sense for someone who is starting to try to understand Californian wine, I guess. Not the bottles I would suggest, at all, but I am granting some creative license here.
The last two wines on the list that “You Need To Try At Least Once”?
First, there is Opus One.
Opus One? I could almost agree on that wine, too, since it is an iconic brand with a history and it helped to change the perception of Napa Valley wine. But it retails for around $400. Not exactly “consumer-friendly”.
Then there is Screaming Eagle. Screaming Freaking Eagle.
Screaming Eagle, if you manage to get on the mailing list (you can’t any time soon), goes for $1400/bottle and you have to buy three bottles, I believe. On the secondary market, it can command $4000 or more.
And that is just stupid.
No one “needs” to drop $400, much less $4000 to understand Californian wine. Heck, I could put together a whole case of wine that would be a much better representation of the Golden State’s wine scene for less than $400 total.
Screaming Eagle. Yeesh.
The second article this week comes from Food & Wine, “What if You Didn’t Have to Go to Burgundy for Grand Cru–Level Wine?”
OK, I’ll bite.
The author uses about 2,000 words to try to convince you that the Finger Lakes Region in upstate New York, is on par with Burgundy in central France. I will help her out using only three words.
It is not.
Don’t get me wrong, I love the Finger Lakes. Full stop. The region is beautiful, has some wonderful producers, and, if you have never been, it should be a bucket list item for any wine-lover. Two of the wineries that figure prominently in the piece, Dr. Konstatin Frank and Hermann J. Wiemer Vineyard are certainly world-class producers, really fantastic.
But.
No one is ever going to confuse a Finger Lakes wine with a Grand Cru Burgundy. Ever. In fact, it is a stupid premise on so many levels. People have been making wine in Burgundy since the 1st Century, as in 2,000 years. In the Finger Lakes? It has been around 200 years. Does the region have potential? Without question. Is it currently on the level of the absolute best vineyard sites in Burgundy, which is perhaps the world’s greatest wine region? Um, no.
But you got me to click, so I guessed it worked.
the drunken cyclist 