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Some slightly related from Technorati and Google.

[Professorbainbridgeonwine.com] Professor Bainbridge on Wine: E. Guigal Côtes-du-Rhône (Côtes-du ...: In 2001, Guigal's basic Côtes-du-Rhône is a deep ruby. The nose is clean and somewhat complex, evoking wild blackberries, prunes, lilacs, and dusty herbs. The palate offers up similar flavors, as well as a strong suggestion of game and anise. Excellent mid-week quaffer at a very reasonable price (I paid $12).

[Professorbainbridgeonwine.com] Professor Bainbridge on Wine: France: Other: In 2001, Guigal's basic Côtes-du-Rhône is a deep ruby. The nose is clean and somewhat complex, evoking wild blackberries, prunes, lilacs, and dusty herbs. The palate offers up similar flavors, as well as a strong suggestion of game and anise.

[Vinography.com] Vinography: a wine blog: My Conversation With Robert M. Parker, Jr.: At the end of the tasting I mentioned to him the remarkably different way he approached the wines in a setting like this -- the stories, the casual way of describing the wines. In addition to admitting perhaps a bit of this enthusiasm and informality might not come through in his writing, he said that while he tries to give some background on the wines that he reviews, that he simply can’t tell such stories about every wine, and that meant really that he couldn’t tell stories about any of them. I begrudgingly suppose this is true – the man is so serious about his job as impartial critic that perhaps these charming, informative, and enticing stories are perhaps too close to favoritism for him to abide. It’s a shame though, because as I am back to interacting with Parker through the stripped down, formal pages of his newsletter, I can’t help but remember that behind the sometimes frustratingly terse notes Parker and I speak exactly the same language.

[Vinography.com] Vinography: a wine blog: Ramblings and Rants Archives: At best this is rude, like someone who can't have a serious conversation with you without fidgeting and staring off into space rather than meeting your eye. At worst it is a nasty way of making an unstated point about your subject, as when a rich wine estate owner is talking to the camera, but Nossiter starts filming an old man arthritically climbing a ladder to clean the man's gutters instead, or when a well-to-do winery owner is talking to the camera about the work that has gone into his winery and Nossiter starts filming the automatic pool cleaning device. Compare these types of interviews and footage, usually paired or bookended with either pop, rock, or occasionally folk music, to interviews with the aged old-world winemakers which show very little of the wandering camera syndrome and are usually paired with classical and older styles of music that conjure a nostalgic and romantic mood, and it's hard to argue that Nossiter is treating his subjects with an equal amount of respect.

[Vivisjournal.com] Vivi's Wine Journal: JuiceCowboy's January Tasting Roundup: Everyone comes to the wine business from different places and for different reasons. Peter and Betsy Spann describe their entry into the wine business as "a combination of stupidity and bad real estate decisions." Peter had worked in the wine business for years - in retail, wholesale, marketing, you name it - when he and his wine decided to move to the Bay Area for work during the height of the dot.com boom. They couldn't afford to buy a house anywhere near San Francisco and so started looking farther and farther north until they found themselves visiting properties that came with vineyards in the back yard. Thinking that the grapes could be a source of additional income, they purchased a property outside of Glen Ellen and attempted to sell their first vintage just as the dot.com bubble was exploding.

Reflected tags on Technorati: Blog, Wine, Gourmets Of Wine