A Long Pour
There are, much like wineries, myriads of blogs in this world. Just about any topic you can think of, there is blog that covers it (go ahead and try, google any word you like with the word “blog” after it and see what you find. My favorite is blog blog). Wine is no exception with hundreds even thousands dedicated to every aspect of the fermented grape. Some have huge followings and have even become influential forces within the wine community. Others are little more than one person’s quest to share their wine experiences with others, or to prove their personal knowledge and snobbery of the subject. Perhaps, this later point is what lead Anthony Dias Blue, Editor-in-Chief of The Tasting Panel Magazine to refer to wine bloggers as “…bitter, carping gadflies who, as they stare into their computer screens and contemplate their dreary day jobs, let their resentment and sense of personal failure take shape as vicious attacks on the established critical media.”
Ah…Mr. Dias Blue, I believe you are often correct! For I am one such bitter gadfly who does indeed spend his day staring at his computer screen in deep contemplation of what should have been of my life. OK, an over exaggeration, much as Anthony Dias Blue’s observation is.
However, there is some truth in his statement, for the whole “blogging community” actually. There are indeed too many people with much opinion and little expertise to back it up (by the way, I hate the word “blog” and never imagined writing a blog myself, especially about wine). It seems that these days there is no shortage of people who offer their humble or not so humble opinions about any number of things, ever increasingly in real time, thanks to Twitter and Facebook. Some of these opinions can be well founded, well researched, and well presented. But sadly, many are not. Will A Long Pour just be another arrogant wine novice spouting his irrelevant opinion? Probably not, for I assure you dear reader, I am an idiot, a young one too.
So what is the point of A Long Pour? Simply, to take a year’s look at the wines of California and the people behind them. While I can’t promise this will be as exciting as the year Robert Kull spent living alone on an empty island 100 miles off the coast of Chile (Kull, Robert. Solitude), or as challenging as the year without “Made in China” Sara Bongiorni attempted (Bongiorni, Sara. A Year Without Made in China ), or worse, without toilet paper (yes, someone actually did this), I can promise it will be an adventure. Each week, I will bring you a new winery, covering all of the major American Viticulture Areas (AVA’s) of California, from North to South and East to West. From the giants of the industry, to some new comers and pioneers.
I hope you will join me, even if only from time to time. Check in occasionally and see who we have been meeting, and what we have been drinking. But above all, let this encourage you to go enjoy some new wine with friends and family.
