Dr Vino's wine blog

It’s been too long! Here’s a round-up of some wine news you can’t drink:

Mark Fisher explores the pay-to-play side of the annual Wine Spectator dining awards. He gets a note from publisher Marvin Shanken and publishes it on his blog. Don’t forget Amanda Hesser’s vintage piece that examined the high profit margins of the awards three years ago [link].

Beau is back! Fellow wine blogger has posted a round-up of his reporting from Austria includig many tasting notes, producer interviews and photos. [BasicJuice] R. W. Apple of the NYT also visited Austria.

Juanita Duggan, head of the Wine and Spirits Wholesalers Association for the past six years, has left without many accomplisments. Tom thinks she was pushed and didn’t jump.

Meanwhile in NYC, two big wine and spirits distributors, Charmer and Peerless, are merging. This furthers the consolidation that started when Southern Wine and Spirits entered the market in 2004. The new name of the merged company? Empire Merchants…And in Illinois, National makes a bid for Glazer’s.

Matt Kramer debunks the idea of critics who are “supertasters.” Reprising a recent NYT theme of whether a star is born or made, I’d go with “made” too. [NY Sun]

“Already famed for angry labor strikes and philosophical debates in smoke-filled cafés, the French have now brought these passions online to become some of the world’s most intensive bloggers.” [IHT] Um, could have fooled me!

And finally, I spotted the UK version of the popular book Freakonomics. Not only is the cover the most interesting by far I have ever seen for an economics book, but the ironic thing is that it sets up an arbitrage situation: because the book is only in hardback in the US, it can be had for less than half-price via amazon.co.uk. Out freakin’ the freak! [link] (OK you caught me, that had nothing to do with wine.)

tags: wine | wine news | freakonomics