Wine Geek Speaks

Imagine this: in less than five years, Detroit has gone from ‘Will the last person to leave please turn out the lights?’ to ‘2014 Bar City of the Year’[1], ‘15 Hottest Cities in America’[2] and Zagat’s ‘#3 Hot Food City in America’. Really. The #3 Hot Food City in America—right …

    Geek loves to use this page to inform, educate, chastise & pontificate to other geeks and wannabe geeks alike. We typically try to be ‘au courant’ and address the very latest hot button subjects, but today’s subject: ‘minerality’ in wine is not a new subject: it has been …

   FACT SHEET Wine Institute is the association of 1,000 California wineries. In recent days, unfounded litigation has raised questions about the safety of California wine. We want to assure you that the health and safety of consumers is of the greatest importance to our wineries and that the wine …

March 18, 2015   WINE INSTITUTE STATEMENT ON POSSIBLE ARSENIC LITIGATION   As the association of 1,000 California wineries, Wine Institute is concerned with the health and safety of consumers who enjoy wine. We have learned of possible litigation alleging that certain wines pose a risk to consumers because they …

January 21, 2005 was the U.S. theatrical release of the iconic film Sideways. Recently, Geek has seen numerous articles noting this pending 10 year anniversary, and the effect the movie had on Pinot Noir sales, Merlot sales and wine tourism. Of course, Wine Geek has his own opinions. In case …

One of our hardworking retail wine reps posted this video on YouTube of him building a display. If you’ve ever wondered what a retail wine sales rep does, check it out. (Most don’t don’t make short films though; nice job, Jake.)

Alphabet Soup  When Wine Geek was a little wine geek, his father’s best friend sold ‘booze’. Not exactly sure of everything he sold, but Geek specifically remembers hearing that said salesman ‘could drink any man in town under the table’.  Apparently, this was the skill-set needed to be a ‘booze …

A Noble Pursuit ‘In Pursuit of Balance’ is not just a movement but the actual name of an organization of some movers and shakers at the super-premium end of the wine business, and they are starting to bring some balance back to the ‘style debate’. The group even has a …

Although things like appellation boundaries and production rules are finite and not flexible (unless you are in Burgundy), the appreciation of wine, i.e. drinking & enjoying it, is entirely subjective. Wine Geek has read of or witnessed the entire spectrum of opinions and practices on this subject. His kitchen looks …

An old idea + new technology = a wine revolution* The most seasoned (read: oldest) of those reading this might remember ‘draft wines’ from the 70’s and 80’s. Usually in flavors of ‘Chablis’ and ‘Burgundy’ in 15 gallon beer barrels, they were innocuous, inoffensive (usually) wines that were great for …