Leaving for France on Tuesday Night....Will be Attending Vinexpo!
I hate Vinexpo but always go. Vinexpo is like a family obligation -- similar to attending the wedding of a relative you despise and pretending to have a good time. At least you don't have to bring a gift to attend Vinexpo.It is always mind-boggling (as the wine critics say) that kilometers and kilometers of wine producers show their horrible industrial wines once every two years in Bordeaux. One would think all these kilometers of producers would be more discreet and less aggressive about showing their horrible wares. Apparently, they not only expect people to buy these wines, they act ually find customers at Vinexpo!
I go because it feeds my meglomaniacal notion that I'm a Big Man in The Wine Industry. There will be Big Men in The Wine Industry (an Occassional Big Woman, but on the whole it is a sexist trade, like everything else) from all over the world for one week in Bordeaux and I sure as hell am not going to miss all that action. Even if the air conditioners don't work yet once again.
Of course, I would not make a special trip from New York to Bordeaux just to be seen amongst the powerhouses of the industry in Bordeaux. I will already be in France, leaving tomorrow evening, to take my annual summer residence in the Louis/Dressner Family Compound in the hamlet of Poil Rouge in beautiful St-Gengoux-de-Scissé, somewhere in the Mâconnais.
The Louis/Dressner Family Compound in Southern Burgundy during the Catastrophic 1994 Harvest
Copyright 2001 John Danehy