La Dolce Vita
Geek was standing near the cold box in one of our favorite Michigan wine shops last week when a patron strolled in and asked: ‘do you have any cold Sancerre?’ We replied: ‘not sure, let’s see’. There was indeed a chilled Sancerre there, but it was $55 and apparently above her budget
The Language of Wine
Geek recently described a wine to a young acquaintance, saying something like: ‘lean, but balanced overall’ and their reply was ‘you wine geeks and your wine speak; tell me in English’. We were sorta surprised: we thought that was English.
Tipping Point
About 5 years ago, Geek noted on these pages a concerning trend: the unrelenting, upward march of the prices for Napa Cabernet. At the time, we wondered if they were going to ‘kill the golden goose’ which Napa was (is).
Grapes of Wrath
Wine Geek is not one to declare his hair is on fire very often: crises and emergencies are part of life so addressing such things should be done calmly and logically.
Planned Obsolescence for Wine Nerds
The Chianti Classico Version Without going too far down a rabbit hole, in the 50’s and 60’s U.S. auto manufacturers practiced something called ‘planned obsolescence’ where they purposely built cars that were not too durable, thereby causing consumers to replace their cars/parts more quickly than could have been accomplished. As lovers of capitalism, we sort […]
Mt. Etna
When Mt. Etna was ‘rediscovered’ 20 years ago, there was an eruption of activity which continues to flow today Geek is old enough to remember when there were semi-regular new ‘discoveries’ in the wine world. New Zealand comes to mind as a hot ‘new’ category in 1980 (even though they’ve been making wine there since […]
A Love Letter to Piedmont
Over the past 40 years (!), Geek has had the extraordinarily good fortune to have visited many (most) of the wine world’s classic regions. In addition to producing some amazing wines, most of these places are incredibly beautiful as well: think Tuscany, Alto Adige, Provence, New Zealand, South Africa, Napa, the Sonoma Coast to name […]
Wanna Buy a Winery?
In Napa, Prices and Risks are Up, Interest is Down… The numbers are a bit squishy, but depending on how one defines ‘winery’ there are almost 500 physical wineries or wine brands with dedicated tasting rooms, but there are north of 1,700 wine brands producing Napa Valley wines (and clearly the majority of these brands […]
‘What’s Behind Door #2?’
‘What’s Behind Door #2?’ Hint: not beer Big Beer Isn’t Happy: Seltzers & RTD’s Continue Their March Towards ‘Cold Box’ Dominance The Cold Box. Our retail customers know how important their reach-in coolers are: over 90% of guests that enter a store purchase something from the cold box, whether a bottle of water for immediate […]