Dr Vino's wine blog

No, the headline does not refer to Harriet Miers whose state of denial came to an abrupt end this morning.

It refers to the wine picks of King Tutankhamen. Archaeologists have shown that he was buried in his tomb with a jug of red wine, which was consumed by ancient Egypt’s upper classes.

King Tut was a man for origins:

Wine bottles from King Tut’s time were labeled with the name of the product, the year of harvest, the source and the vine grower, [researcher] Guasch-Jane said, but did not include the color of the wine. (CNN)

Vin rouge de Nile 1352 BC? Not quite.

A jar from Tutankhamun’s tomb was marked: ‘Year 5. Wine of the House-of-Tutankhamun Ruler-of-the-Southern-on, l.p.h (in) the Western River. By the chief Vintner Khaa.’ BBC

Different strokes for different folks. The Japanese baseball champs douse their star with Sapporo beer (I love the beer goggles–literally). The Major League Baseball champs Chicago White Sox douse themselves with champagne sparkling wine.

After taking the division title the ChiSox reportedly doused themsevles with Korbel. Let’s hope owner Jerry Reinsdorf splurged for something a little better to celebrate the end of the nearly 90 year championship drought.

The celebrated Paris tasting of 1976, which stunningly established California wines as among the world’s best after beating equivalent French wines in a blind tasting, is getting a lot of attention in the run-up to its 30th anniversary.

George Taber, a former editor at Time, has expanded on the four paragraph story he originally wrote after the event and has a new book out on the subject, Judgment of Paris (Scribner).

Yesterday, Warren Winiarski and Mike Grgich, the makers of the red (Stag’s Leap Wine Cellars) and white (Chateau Montelena) wines that won, were in the Capitol Hill office of Mike Thompson (D-Calif), wining and dining with the Congressional wine caucus.

Republicans and Democrats alike packed Thompson’s office. Fraternité across the political divide on the Hill? Wow, maybe next year the 30th anniversary reception will be at the French Embassy!

You can win a 14-day trip for four worth $20,000 by telling the world about your “first time”–in 75 words or less. Oh yeah, that’s the first time you fell in love with French wines lest you think it is anything else.

Usually I wouldn’t post about promotional events such as this. But hey, 20 grand is 20 grand! (What are the tax consequences of that?) There’s also a EuroCave wine cellar and some Michelin green guides thrown in too.

For the details and entry forms, check out www.wines-france.us

Quick: where does Kendall Jackson Vintner’s Reserve Chardonnay come from? And Yellow Tail? Woodbridge? Anyone? Bueller? Bueller?

According to a recent survey, unearthed from deep in my inbox, the most influential factor in a consumer’s wine buying is the recommendation of a friend. The second most important is the region where the wine comes from.

So states the new Center for Wine Origins, a new organization based in Washington DC and funded by the European Union, the Champagne bureau and the Port Authority (er, the port wine trade commission). I have enjoyed their ads over the past few years emphasizing the importance of place. And I indeed search for wines very often by place of origin and I agree that place names should have greater legal protection. But I couldn’t help but raising a quizzical eyebrow at these survey results. (See survey highlights; raw data not available)

“Where is the YellowTail?” is something an American consumer is less likely to ask according to the survey than “do you have anything from the Corbieres?” (Or Napa or wherever). “I’m looking for a good red under $10” would be next as price comes in only fourth importance. And asking “Do you have any wines over 90 points and under $20?” does not exist since the scores of critics do not influence wine buying at all according to the survey.

With domestic wines accounting for about 75% of the wine sold in America, and much of that quantity coming from the largely anonymous San Joaquin Valley, I find these results emphasizing origins a little tough to swallow.

Harrumph. Show me the data!

With all the Nobel prizes announced recently, it made me wonder…What if there were a Nobel prize for wine? Of course, Alfred Nobel may have been a teetotaler for all I know but still, a wine geek can but dream. (Nobel grape they might call it)

If there were a Nobel prize for wine, who would get your vote?

Vote here

Although I generally make wine picks, there are also a few web items/web sites worth flagging:

wineforall.com: W.R. Tish says on his site that he got got carried away as an auctioneer and “sold off most of my full name.” If you haven’t discovered Tish’s writing, you have to check out his site. The serious points that underlie his light-hearted prose make him the leading candidate for the Jon Stewart of Wine Writers trophy. Sign up for his periodic email list to be kept au courant.

Amuse-bouche.net: Wine writer by day for MSNBC, Jon Bonne’s blog presents Jon unfined and unfiltered. I check his site regularly for his punchy reactions to news items for foodies and wine geeks. Jon points out a news story in his current “lagniappes” that French lawmakers are pushing to make foie gras “part of the cultural and gastronomic patrimony, protected in France.” I remarked earlier on the Chicago alderman who sought to ban foie gras from Chicago restaurants.

Jancis Robinson has now introduced a 15 day free trial option on her paid-subscription “purple pages.” Check out the lively and moderated forum in “your turn.”

Bertrand Celce, a French photographer, has spent this entire harvest in Hungary. He has excellent photos of the wine growing areas and people involved in the harvest there.

And the never-ending debate about “authenticity” versus technology is revived on HJWOW. On this note, I had a wine from a California producer with the name of Luddite Vineyards recently.

‘Nuff for now. Cheers.

This question is for the true wine geeks out there:

Which French wine producers have “quit” the AOC system and make at least one table wine (vin de table)? I can only think of Aime Guibert at Domaine de Daumas Gassac in Languedoc but there are undoubtedly others (I think Michel Rolland has declassified some of his wines and have vague notions about Northern Rhone producers too). Are there any other appellation geeks out there who can help me come up with anything more specific?

All right, now back to our regular programming of “wine talk that goes down easy.”