Out of Balance

Is it me, or was that kind of a nasty summer? I’ve been trying to keep a positive mind but then circumstances seem to conspire and throw everything out of whack – either personal or some wider social context. Between notable deaths, ongoing wars, economic anxiety, that tea-bagging/town hall silliness and a host of other [...]

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A Tale of Two Vineyards

(Above: Old-ass vines at Old Hill Ranch in Sonoma Valley)
Apologies for not posting regularly but these have been busy weeks. Thought I’d get a few posts up while in New York last week but all I could manage was the 140 characters on Twitter. So there’s that if you’re curious.
This post comes to mind after [...]

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State of Thirst, Update

Jeremy wrote in with a childhood recollection of water rationing in California in response to yesterday’s post:
I remember water rationing when I was a kid in San Diego. We didn’t ration but in SF you did. Once I asked for a glass of water in a Chinese restaurant. I was like 7 or 8. The [...]

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Prop 8, the Musical

This has been making the rounds but I’m posting it anyways because it’s great:
[there was a YouTube video up, but alas that's no more]
Click here to see Prop 8, the Musical.

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View From America: Sarah Palin on Al Jazeera

Not at all wine related…
My friend Casey works for Al Jazeera, the Doha-based Arabic and English language cable news channel. It’s a job that takes him to all corners of the world, places far more exotic than this wine journalist ever gets to. My inner traveler is insanely jealous.
Casey’s currently covering the US presidential campaign, [...]

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Coffee Wars and Locavores

(Above: Lemon-pistachio donuts and coffee at Four Barrel)
Three’s a war, right?
It seems that the coffee wars have officially come to San Francisco. The last few years have seen the arrival of Blue Bottle, Ritual and now, Four Barrel (no website yet; tel: 415-252-0800). Blue Bottle began as a roaster based in the East Bay, with [...]

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Remembering Genoa

(Above: The heavy boots of the Italian military police. Image courtesy of Indymedia)
Yesterday marked a grim anniversary of sorts. Seven years ago on July 21, during the tumultuous G8 conference hosted by Italy in the Ligurian city of Genoa, Italian riot police stormed the Diaz Petrini school which had been officially designated a housing center [...]

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He’s Back…

I snapped this picture of the infamous “No Barrique, No Berlusconi” bottle during a visit with Maria Teresa Mascarello at Bartolo Mascarello’s winery in Barolo two weeks ago.* It was out on the table in the homey room at the front of the winery where Maria Teresa receives visitors, a quiet yet poignant political statement [...]

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“Che Bella, Italia”

…, he said sarcastically. Then he raised the tumbler of Santa Maria al Monte to his lips–a savage, pungent amaro–and knocked it back, the black, bitter shot an inoculation against the budding romanticism he had begun to feel for this place, his wayward spiritual home.
Trashy, I know, but in the course of developing a [...]

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Olfactory Delights

…Or maybe not if you fear a little funque in your wine.
I believe that the perfume and wine worlds occupy similar rings in the sensory universe (anybody read Patrick Suskind’s Perfume?).
In a move that reflects the sensory aspirations of both worlds–and which could make even the most flowery wine writer choke on his or her [...]

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