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Chicago Wine Personality Runs New York Marathon
I just received the following note from Josefa Concannon of Maverick Wines, who successfully ran the New York Marathon this past Sunday:
Joe:
I prepared for the marathon by carbo loading at Lupa and drinking Degli Ulivi Gavi Filagnotti.
The marathon was a huge challenge for me. I had a small cold coming on and compounded by the heat that day. I felt really shitty by the half way point and I wasn't even out of Brooklyn yet! Usually, a 13-15 mile run is a piece of cake for me and I don't start feeling the distance until about 18 miles. I wanted to quit.
The best part of the marathon should be that run up First Ave in Manhattan and it was the worst part for me. I looked for you (ha-ha) and figured YOU would be the one to get me through the rough spot but couldn't find you in the crowd. (just kidding) At mile 20, crossing into the Bronx, I saw a woman trip and fall on the bridge and crack her face open. I didn't want to be the next casualty so something in me got it together and at that point I started feeling a bit better. I knew long ago that I had blown my goal of 4:45 so by the time I got to Harlem, heading south on 5th ave, my new goal was to not run a slower time than last year. I would be cutting it close.
Josefa Concannon after beating her own personal best at the New York Marathon
By mile 24, in the park, I knew that i had to really suck it up if I wanted to beat the time. I also heard those last words of my ex "you'll never run a marathon" and that actually got me to pick up the pace. Along 59th street, I felt as if I was sprinting and when I rounded the corner at Columbus Circle, I took off and ticked off the meter markers, until I could see the finish line. It was pure adrenaline at that point. I was crying when I crossed the finish line and my time was 21 seconds faster than last year. 5 hours, 15 minutes and 5 seconds..
All in all, I accomplished my goal. It was a bad marathon and a good one at the same time. The best part was walking over to Grey's Papaya on 72nd street and eating a couple of dogs as my post marathon nourishment.
The thing what amazed me most about the experience is that I was really stiff and sore on Monday, Tuesday I still had a bit of soreness in my quadriceps, but by yesterday, my body bounced back completely. Is it physical or simply will and the resilience of the human spirit?
I had a great experience and its a great marathon. The city is beautiful, and the people were amazing........from every borough and neigborhood. They were such a positive force for me. I know you were in that crowd in spirit because you are a true New Yorker.
Josefa Concannon
Exploring New Markets
One the great things about being a wine importer and having a blog is all the great e-mail offerings I get to this e-mail address. We wine importers are always looking for the next cheap thing. Chile has been done and Argentina and Uruguay are all over. The next big spot will be India.
Indian wine, like Italian wine, has the support of a large Indian Community. Every city, big or small, all over our nation has an Indian Restaurant and this sector of the restaurant trade seems to be exploding. Indian wine consumption will also explode as more non-Indian Americans become familiar with delicious Indian cuisine and the wines which enrich and highlight Indian food. Again, like Italian wines, Indian wines will begin as an ethic market but will expand to the general interest wine arena.
An interesting offer arrived in my e-mail today:
It gives us immense pleasure to inform you that “Pyramid Wines Pvt. Ltd”. is wine manufacturing center at M.I.D.C. Baramati. The machinery used for producing such a quality wine is imported & sophisticated one. The Distemper Crushing machine is Italian make & crusher 5 tones of grape per hour. The fermentation vessels are totally Stainless Steel SS 316 L material with dimple jacket. This kind of vessels is first of its kind in India. We are proud to say that right from crushing till bottling, there is not manual process involved. The microprocessor controlled automated computerized chilling plant keeps appropriate & controlled temperature at fermentation & aging. So, the purity, odourness colour, powerful & attractive crispy of wine is maintained, and help in gaining best quality of wine in India.
I also received an interesting but unrelated offer from China today:
JIAL , SPECIAL INFLATABLE PRODUCTS , MADE IN CHINA -- We manufacture high quality and good price inflatable products in any size or style, please browse the inflatable products sorts
Semantics
Why is it that in Europe everyone talks about the harvest but in America everyone talks about crush time?
Dollar at 5.56 French Francs!
Nice to know it is creeping up!
All your French wines should be cheaper soon, but I'm not sure how the lira is doing.
No Notable Wine Celebrities Dead in the Past Few Days!
Of course, this is good news.
I'm occupied with endless personal problems of no interest to my readers. Of course, you can talk to me about my problems by calling me on my cell phone at 347.832.4321.
Your advise has always been astute and reassuring. So feel free to call.
On wine news: I have not spotted anyone reading any books by Andrea Immer, Daniel Johnnes, Karen MacNeil or Mary Ewing Mulligan on New York's Mass Transit System. This is an unscientific survey, as I've been riding my bike lately.
What everyone seems to be reading these days, be it on the Lexington Local or the 7th Avenue Express, is the latest comprehensive guide to wine appreciation. This one is modestly entitled The Ultimate Wine Lover's Guide and the authors are Fred DuBose, Evan Spingarn and Nancy Maniscalco. This book is particularly present on the 7th Avenue Local with only occasional sightings on the Lexington Line or the Sixth Avenue IND.
I have no idea who Fred DuBose is but Evan and Nancy are well-known and well-liked members of the New York Wine Trade. Even I like Evan and Nancy and I don't like many people. Naturally, there are not many people who like me.
Nancy and Evan are card-carrying members of the New York wine trade and former associates of Willy Gluckstern, the author of the best-selling Wine Avenger. Their new book lives up to its billing and it is in fact The Ultimate Wine Lover's Guide. My congratulations to the three authors -- I suppose Andrea Immer, Daniel Johnnes, Karen MacNeil and Mary Ewing Mulligan will be throwing in the towel. Although, rumor has it that Karen MacNeil, who has already penned The Wine Bible is working on a new project named The Penultimate Wine Lover's Guide.
This is truly the ultimate view of the wine world as perceived by people who like wine and food, who don't shrink from acidity, and who have been attending New York wholesale tastings and having sales reps come to their stores for the past decade. Not only that, they are extremely likeable if not adorable people (at least Evan and Nancy are, I've never met Fred DuBose and have no idea who he is although he might be every bit as likeable as Evan and Nancy).
The book is not based on trips to viticultural regions, interviews with growers or extensive research. There is not much new ground or much to learn here about what makes a great wine a great wine, but instead there is a compilation of tasting notes of individual wines along with food tips. I don't have the money to buy their book but have browsed through it at someone's liquor store. It is filled with lots of wines I would ultimately never want to drink along with lots of wines I ultimately like to drink. This is perfectly normal as I don't like many wines, finding 98.32% of wines today taste like they went through someone's assembly line. Of course, that still leaves a significant 1.68% of good wines out there.
I always think it would be a service to the consumer to desmystify what wine is about -- how it is made, how the fields are worked, the history, the people -- to explain how wine is something other than a commodity. How wine expresses a time, place, vintage, and the work of the vigneron. How wine has a personality beyond what is immediately apparent. That wine not only has a present, but also has a past and a future.
To my mind, all these wonderful consumer guides reinforce the notion that wine is a commodity and the key is to find a Ralph Naderesque Consumer Advocate to coach you along. To me, this reinforces commodity fetishism, something I have been against since I first read Karl Marx's Grundrisse and The Collected Works of Antonio Gramsci when I was 17-years-old. I particularly enjoyed Gramsci's The Ultimate Guide to Commodity Fetishism which unfortunately is no longer in print. But this seems to be a minority view.
Denyse and I are supposed to write a book. Maybe we will, maybe we won't. I'm very busy with my personal problems and don't seem to find the time. Call me on my cell phone at 347.832.4321 if you have any good advise.
The other major wine development is the exciting new web site by wine writer Thor Iverson. I was in Starbucks yesterday and everyone seemed to have their laptop browsing through this site. Thor is a veteran wine writer and a frequent contributor to internet wine sites. He has done a lovely travelogue about New Zealand and his work should not be missed.
Thor Iverson's Wine Site
Skitch Henderson -- Hedonist or Terroirist?
Skitch Henderson, the Grammy-winning conductor who lent his musical expertise to Frank Sinatra and Bing Crosby before founding the New York Pops and becoming the first "Tonight Show" bandleader, died Tuesday. He was 87.
Henderson died at his home in New Milford of natural causes, said Barbara Burnside, spokeswoman for New Milford Hospital.
Born in England, Lyle Russell Cedric Henderson moved to the United States in the 1930s, eking out a living as a pianist, playing vaudeville and movie music in Minnesota and Montana roadhouses.
He got his big break in 1937, when he filled in for a sick pianist touring with Judy Garland and Mickey Rooney. When the tour wrapped up in Chicago, he used the original pianist's ticket and went to Hollywood.
There he joined the music department at MGM and played piano for Bob Hope's "The Pepsodent Show." His friendship with Hope put him in touch with other stars of the day, including Crosby, who became a mentor to Henderson.
He studied with the noted composer Arnold Schoenberg, and Henderson's talented ear brought him renown from some of the era's most successful musicians.
During World War II, Henderson flew for both the Royal Air Force and the United States Army Air Corps. At his estate in New Milford, which he shared with his wife, Ruth, Henderson kept a collection of aviation memorabilia. Even at 87, he had said he hoped to fly the Atlantic once more.
After the war, Henderson toured as Sinatra's musical director and lived what he called a "gypsy lifestyle," touring the country with various bands. It was Sinatra's phone call that lured Henderson to New York.
"Frank said, 'I'm moving the "Lucky Strike Show" to New York. Get rid of those gypsies and get back here where you belong,"' Henderson recalled in 1985.
He served as musical director for the "Lucky Strike" radio show and "The Philco Hour" with Crosby. And when NBC moved to television, the studio brought Henderson along as musical director.
In 1954, NBC pegged him as the bandleader for Steve Allen's "Tonight Show," which brought Henderson into the nation's living rooms every night. Even as the hosts changed from Allen to Jack Paar to Johnny Carson, Henderson was a constant.
He founded the New York Pops in 1983, using popular tunes to make orchestral music exciting.
"People come to hear music that's accessible to them -- old songs that are powerful and don't go away," he said.
Even in his late 80s, Henderson maintained a tireless work schedule as music director for the Pops, where he regularly served as conductor. He also was a frequent guest conductor at a number of orchestras around the world.
"I watch the public like a hawk. If I see boredom, I worry," Henderson said. "You can tell by the applause: There's perfunctory applause, there's light applause, and then there's real applause. When it's right, applause sounds like vanilla ice cream with chocolate sauce."
Lloyd Bochner -- Hedonist or Terroirist?
Actor Lloyd Bochner, best known for his roles as Cecil Colby on TV's Dynasty and in the classic "To Serve Man" episode of The Twilight Zone, has died. He was 81.
Bochner died of cancer at his Santa Monica home on Oct. 29, family members said Tuesday.
Bochner's career in television and film spanned more than five decades. He was a character actor who "almost always played a suave, handsome, wealthy villain," said his son, Paul Bochner.
Lloyd Bochner began his career on the radio in his native Toronto when he was 11. He went on to perform on stage and screen, earning two Liberty Awards, Canada's top acting honor.
In 1963, Bochner starred as a government cryptographer in The Twilight Zone episode "To Serve Man," which TV Guide ranks No. 11 in its "100 Greatest TV Episodes of All Time."
He also appeared in such films as The Detective and Tony Rome, both with Frank Sinatra, and The Night Walker with Barbara Stanwyck. Other films included The Man in the Glass Booth, Point Blank and Naked Gun 33 1/3.
His television work included appearances in Columbo, Mission: Impossible, McCloud, Wild, Wild West, Battlestar Galactica and Designing Women.
In 1998 he co-founded the Committee to End Violence to address the impact of violence in TV and movies on popular culture. Bochner was also active in the Association of Canadian Radio and Television Artists.
In addition to his son Paul, of Valley Cottage, N.Y., Bochner is survived by his wife, Ruth Bochner of Santa Monica, son Hart Bochner of Los Angeles and a daughter, Johanna Courtleigh of Portland, Ore.
A memorial service was scheduled for Nov. 10 at the Leo Baeck Temple in West Los Angeles.
Louis/Dressner Presents Plans for Platypus Pete Brand!
Louis/Dressner Selections announced today a new line of Pineau d'Aunis from the Loire Valley.
Platypus Pete, the Patron Saint of the Pineau d'Aunis
The Brand, called Platypus Pete is sourced from several of the best farmers in the Loire Valley. Individually, each of these growers has small quantities, but by grouping them together, Louis/Dressner will create a large quantity of product for market penetration. By controlling all aspects of the wines production, importation, packaging and distribution, Louis/Dressner hopes to turn Pineau d'Aunis into a popular wine throughout America. The use of the Platypus Pete mascot makes the wine more accessible and identifiable to the American consumer and creates a strong-brand-identity.
First shipments are scheduled to arrive in early December.
Congratulations to the Sox!
All our congratulations to Mike Ditka and the entire Chicago White Sox Organization!
What a superb sweep!
We celebrated the White Sox victory yesterday by opening several bottles of Wooloomooloo. Wooloomooloo is a hot new brand from Australia which glides across the palate faster than its name rolls off the tongue! There are several flavours of Wooloomooloo (I find I use British spellings like flavours whenever I drink wines from the British Commonwealth) including Shiraz, Chardonnay and Red Blend. Red Blend is not a grape variety but is a mix of Shiraz, Cabernet, Grenache and Mataro. I asked the guy at the liquor shop the exact percentages of each grape variety but he was listening to his IPOD and didn't hear my question.
Lovely stuff that went great with a dinner of BBQ Ribs in Tasmanian Hot Sauce. The wines have terrific and fun packaging with a picture of a Kangeroo on each label! Not only is this cute, but it allows the drinker to immediately identify the wine as coming from Australia.
Smart thinking!
I've heard the next big thing will be Kangeroos hopping across labels while listening to their IPODs.They can store the device in their pouches. It seems a natural evolutionary step for both the Kangeroo and the Australian wine market.
Winners of the Wacky Wine Contest at the Louis/Dressner October 19th Tasting Are Announced!
Speaking at a press conference today in downtown Manhattan, Eddie Wrinkerman from Louis/Dressner Selections announced the winners of last week's exciting Wacky Wine Contact.
92 Points Domaine de la Sansonnière Anjou Blanc les Fouchardes 2003
84 Points Emmanuel Houillon Arbois Pupillin Poulsard 2002
82 Points Cascina degli Ulivi Monferrato Bianco La Merla Blanca 2003 (6/750ml)
82 Points Domaine de Bellivière Coteaux-du-Loir Vieilles Vignes Eparses 2003
80 Points Cascina degli Ulivi Monferrato Bianco Montemarino 2002
80 Points Pierre Frick Pinot Noir Rot Murlé 2002 Sans Soufre
79 Points La Biancara di Angiolino Maule Bianco de Gambellara Sassaia 2003
79 Points Domaine du Closel Savennières les Caillardières 2003
79 Points Château Sainte-Anne Bandol Cuvée Collection 2000
76 Points Weingut Mayr Nusser Bianco Blaterle Vino da Tavola (2004)
72 Points Domaine Luneau-Papin Muscadet Semper Excelsior Clos du Poyet 2002
72 Points Luneau-Papin Muscadet Semper Excelsior Clos des Noëlles 2002
The 37-year-old Wrinkerman, the Events Planner Coordinator at Louis/Dressner, announced that 124 votes were cast, slightly more than 50% of those attending the tasting. The wines were carefully selected for wackyness and the participants were asked to rate the wines from 1 to 100 points, with 100 being the perfect wacky wine. The idea is that by scoring wacky wines on a 100 point scale, the results will be easier to follow by Americans used to the 100 point scholastic system. Mr. Wrinkerman said: "We were very much interested in having a user-friendly event and the choice of the 100 point scale made the event easier to navigate for all the participants and will make the results easier to understand by the wine drinking public."
Mr. Wrinkerman went on to add: "These are wacky wines and there’s nothing wrong with that. They’re unusual, that’s all. They come from odd grape varieties, or odd vintages or odd terroirs or odd producers or all of those oddities. Nevertheless, they make our lives so much more interesting and give us so much more variety."
Mr. Wrinkerman handed out a sheet with the general rules for the contest:
90 – 100 is equivalent to an A and is given only to an outstandingly wacky effort. Wines in this category are the very wackiest produced of their type. There’s a big difference between a 90 and a 99, but both are plenty wacky. Avoid 91s. No one likes a 91.
80-89 is equivalent to a B in school and such a wine is very, very wacky. Many of the wines in this range also offer good wacky value. Wines with an 85 tend to have the best wacky/value ratio
70-79 represents a C, or average mark, but obviously 79 is much more wacky than a 70. 73 is in an odd spot and people rarely know what to make of a 73 point wine.
Below 70 is a D or F, depending on where you went to school. For wacky wine, it is a sign of normalcy, convention and potential mass market appeal.
Anything below 70 is suspect and may as well come from Australia.
Andrea Immer Sightings!
I took the 1st Avenue Bus to 79th Street early this afternoon. A guy in his 30s was reading Andrea Immer's Wine Buying Guide for Everyone. I would never write such a book, because I know very few people. Just yesterday, I met a women who had 200 people attend her 40th birthday party. I don't even know 200 people. At the best, I could round-up 20 people to celebrate my birthday, and I'd probably have to bribe six of them to attend. Imagine how many people must attend Andrea Immer's parties!
So, writing a Guide for Everyone seems a daunting task to an isolated guy like me. I asked my fellow bus passenger what he found most useful about the book, and he replied: "the Kitchen Survivor TM grade that tells you how long the bottle stays fresh after opening."
I've subsequently learned that Andrea Immer has trademarked the term Kitchen Survivor TM. The TM is the giveaway. It's always good to branch out into other fields outside your main field of expertise. In Ms. Immer's case, if the wine racket doesn't work out, she could always write a follow-up book for a broad public: Andrea Immer's Intellectual Copyright and Protection Guide for Everyone. Alternatively, she could do Trademarking for Dummies but I think someone has already copyrighted that title. Or perhaps, they copywrited that title, it is hard to keep track.
After seeing my Doctor, I took the Lexington Avenue Line down to Astor Place. Non New Yorkers call this the Six Train. But we locals still call it the Lexington Line, or the East Side IRT.
Sitting next to me was a woman in her late 20s, fashionably dressed, putting a copy of Andrea Immer's "cool" CD, Bubbles, Brazil and Bossa Nova into her Walkman. I asked the woman what the CD was like but she had soundproof headphones on and didn't hear my inquires. I looked up the CD on Andrea Immer's wonderful web site and discovered the CD is a "scorcher: sexy sounds, bold flavors, tiny bubbles (and cool Caipirinha cocktails, too!)..."
Not only is the CD sexy, it is also educational -- Andrea promises to "show you how, right on the disc, to open sparkling wine safely, and to make and shake Brazil's national drink, the Caipirinha."
Andrea Immer is not as old as I am. She's even younger than Robert Parker. But at a certain age, it is time to stop using the word cool. It is not a pretty sight when a person of a certain age calls things cool or awesome. Please, let's try to act our age, or I will have no choice but to write a book entitled: Joe Dressner's Guide to Speaking English For Everyone Who Is No Longer Twenty-Years-Old.
At first, I thought that Ms. Immer was only referring to the temperature of the Caipirinha cocktail. But the word "cool" is used throughout her web site. She even has a Cool Products Corner on the site, which surprisingly was not Trademarked.
Later in the day, I went to my Gym and took the East Side BMT back uptown. Sitting opposite me was a 40s-Something Gentleman reading Andrea Immer's Great Wine Made Simple : Straight Talk from a Master Sommelier. He was also listening to music on his IPOD, which 8 out of every 10 BMT riders wears these days, but was not wearing soundproof headphones and heard me when I asked him what he thought about the book.
He was dining tonight at Restaurant Daniel and always finds it intimidating to order wine at fancy restaurants where the sommellier seems to be wearing plumbing tools around their neck. Where does one start, he asked me? He had already read the Collected Works of Daniel Johnnes, but found those books intimidating and confusing. He told me that Andrea's book made the process of ordering wine at Restaurant Daniel so much easier and manageable. He even learned how to correctly pronouce the names of the wines he was ordering. Ms. Immer's book is user friendly and she goes so far as to print phonetic pronunciations: Kenn Dull Jak Sun, for instance. The poor fellow had not been to Daniel's in six months and I didn't have the heart to tell him that Daniel Johnnes was now the sommelier there. Why ruin the poor man's evening?
Random House recently sent me Ms. Immer's collected works and I've started to receive e-mails from her. Or at least someone claiming to be Andrea Immer. You never know who is sending you e-mail. Andrea Immer's e-mail address is from a Yahoo domaine, and that seems dubious to me. So maybe the Andrea Immer e-mails are all fraudulent.
You never know about anything you read about on the internet. Recently, someone told me that I don't look anything like my picture on this site. Imagine!
Anyhow, the person claiming to be Andrea Immer or who maybe actually is Andrea Immer, has told me that Byron Bates, the New York Star Sommellier, owes her $50.00 from years back. She also claims that she, not the movie Sideways, is responsible for American Pinot Fever.
I just bought Daniel Johnnes Collected Works on E-bay. I plan on doing a comparative literary student of Daniel and Andrea's Collected Works. The Johnnes books I bought on the internet were autographed by Daniel himself.
I'm a slow reader and when I'm through with those books, I plan on attacking Karen MacNeil's The Wine Bible. This is a major work, comparable to The Bible itself. The original Bible has only passing references to the wine scene and was not a Karen MacNeil project. Rewriting the Bible might seem a tall task in any field (be it wine or intellectual property law) but why not....anything goes! Mr. Johnnes describes himself on his own website as: "one of the top sommeliers and most respected wine personalities in the country."
Karen, like her co-authors, appears to have a glamorous life style. She's even landed a series on public television called "Wine, Food & Friends with Karen MacNeil." It is quite possible she has more friends than Andrea Immer, Daniel Johnnes and myself combined. Perhaps even twice as many.
As with Andrea and Daniel, Karen has taken on the dirty work of making wine easy for the masses. Her web site explains that her television series was "created as an antidote to “wine anxiety” – the intimidation factor that keeps so many Americans from experiencing the excitement and pleasures of wine." If I was Karen, I would trademark "Wine Anxiety" but perhaps Andrea Immer has already beaten her to the punch.
Andrea Immer used to have a televison show on The Food Network, which was cohosted by another wine personality whose name I can't remember. Maybe she has one again, but I'm not sure. I find it painful to watch The Food Network, to the point that it ruins my appetite and if Andrea is back I simply would not know. I asked my daughter, who is always watching The WB if they had a wine show, but she insists that the WB has no such thing.
It is a lot of work being a wine personality, but it is always happy work. Karen, Daniel and Andrea are always smiling in the publicity pictures for their projects. While they write books, they multi-task quite a bit and are usually working on multiple projects. Each of these projects makes them even happier than the last one. They are always smiling because wine is just so much fun and being a wine personality keeps them bursting with good cheer, mirth and unbounded happiness. Basically, it is grumpy guys like me, guys who are not sure they can round up 20 friends to celebrate his birthday, who are keeping America from falling in love with great wine. We're causing wine anxiety! Which makes me wonder if Mary Ewing Mulligan attends Karen MacNeil's or Andrea Immer's or Daniel Johnnes' parties.
My publicist tried to teach me how to smile, but she had no luck.
She suggested I blog.
Chicago is a Great City!
I don't read the sports pages, so I had no idea until I got into town last night that the White Sox are in the World Series. The city is abuzz and everyone is hoping that Chicago wins the World Series for the first time since 1917, or something like that. The Sox never recovered from losing Babe Ruth to the Yankees and Chicago fans have suffered disappointment after disappointment. The Sox even went so far years ago as to field midgets in the hope that the reduced strike zone would lead to more base runners.
I spent the day at something called the Chicago Wine and Spirits Experience, or something like that. There were a lot of people from Chicago eating free food from celebrity chefs and drinking wines with furry animals jumping, hopping or running across the wine's label. This seems to be a popular marketing scheme and you find everything short of rats on the wine labels these days.
Just last night, I went to my top account in Chicago, Rothschild's Liquor Discount Center. Popular brands included Yellowtail, Little Boomey, Jackaroo, Dinky Do, Koala Creek and Little Penguin. There was also Rodney the Rodent, but that was in the remainder bin. Rodney the Rodent comes for Uruguay and is a mix of Tannat and Marechal Foch. The buyer at the store, Al Rothschild, told me that business had slown down with my wines but they hoped to rebound in the winter season. Al, by the way, is no relation to the French banking and winemaking family. Al is the fifth generation of Rothschilds to run this store on Chicago Avenue and has high hopes that his grandson, Myron Rothschild, will eventually take over the reins of the family's flagship enterprise. The family's business interests also include a chain of dry cleaning stores.
The Chicago Wine and Food Extravaganza, or something like that, was held under heated tents. This is a great spot to have a food and wine tasting because the pumped-in heat intensify the smells from the the food thats cooking, from spilled and spat wines, and from women's perfume. It was quite a scene!
I taught a seminar on Real Wines, but paid some guy from the local distributor to give the talk. Instead, I attended Robert Kacher's Burgundy seminar. I was disappointed that Bobby Kacher did not have a Microsoft Powerpoint Presentation, like all the other seminar leaders. I had prepared one for my seminar but forgot to bring my laptop computer.
There were a lot of people from Chicago there. As a New Yorker I felt very conspicuous and I was sure everyone was staring at me, as if I was wearing a scarlet NY. I was staring at them. They're very American and as a New Yorker who spends a large part of the year in France, I find Americans very exotic looking. They look a lot different than Europeans and New Yorkers, although many of them are very pleasing looking. Some of the men are strikingly handsome and some of women are drop dead beautiful. They also mean well. They're just different and I find them fascinating in their diversity and native customs and garb.
They also dress differently and drive automobiles. We New Yorkers don't like automobiles and are distrustful of car cultures. Chicago looks like a big city, but you need to get into a car to buy a quart of milk. This is very disorienting for me.
It's the ninth inning and the Astros just tied the game. Personally, being a contrarian and being in Chicago, I'm rooting for the Astros. Although, I'd probably root for the White Sox if I was in Houston, even though the White Sox threw the 1919 World Series.
I didn't eat tonight. There are so many hot restaurants here in Chicago that I'm afraid that if I eat out, I will choose incorrectly. People are dying to get into all these new hot restaurants, although I'm not sure why. If I knew which one to go to I might know why there is so much restaurant lust here, but I have to admit I"m in the dark. I've had lovely meals at Demon Dogs but nothing else I've had in town has matched those meals.
The game is now tied in the bottom of the Ninth Inning. Go Astros!
Oops, some guy from the White Sox just hit a home run and the White Sox won again. It's very distracting to blog here with all this baseball going on. Maybe I'll go down to the bar in my hotel to join all the celebrations.
I'm staying at the Tremont Hotel, which houses Mike Ditka's Steak House, which is famed for the quality of their chicken soup. At first I was staying at the home of the fabulous Josefa, but she turns out to have a cat. I'm allergic to cats and I was ill last night. So, I booked a hotel room last night while sniffing and tearing from cat hairs. Is tearing a verb?
Mike Ditka used to be the Chicago Bulls coach and is a big celebrity here in town. He is also a corporate spokesman for Viagra or a Viagra equivalent. I always thought it was courageous of Bob Dole (another midwesterner) and Mike Ditka to publicly admit they take these drugs.
I was here last Spring and one night I went down to the restaurant to have a beer and chicken soup. There was a group of young women at the bar discussing their favorite Pinots. They had all seen the movie Sideways, which is about two miscogynists, one of whom is bald, who spend their time drinking Pinots (as they call them) and bedding beautiful women who throw themselves at these two repulsive guys.
Inexplicably, these two totally unsympathetic characters have created a Pinot mania here in America, making Jim Proser a wealthy man. Jim Proser is American's best looking winemaker and makes Pinots in Oregon. Mike Ditka and Bob Dole wish they looked like Jim Proser.
I always find the term "Pinot" distrasteful. As someone who spends time in France, I find I prefer the French insistence on common courtesy, everyday formality and politieness. I don't like people I don't know calling me Joe. I would prefer they call me Mr. Dressner until we get to know each other. But in New York, they all call me Joe. In Chicago, they call me Joe and they slap me hard on the back. I've been slapped so many times since I came here, first by Al Rothschild at Rothschilds LIquor Discount Center on Chicago Avenue, that I now have a permanent red spot on the middle of my back.
The name of the grape is Pinot Noir. Or Mr. Noir to the first-time Pinot Noir drinker. All this false familiarity with Pinots is so American. Why not call the variety Pinot Noir, rather than making believe that everyone is on a first name basis with the variety?
We do the same thing with Cabernet Sauvignon. No red-blooded American calls a Cabernet Sauvignon a Cabernet Sauvignon. They call it a "Cab." This verbal shorthand and familiarity signals that the "Cab" drinker is on an intimate, first-name basis with Cabernet Sauvigon. This is particularly confusing as the Federal regulations demand that your American Cabs have no more than 60% or some similar percentage of "Cab" in the "Cab." I'm always relieved though that nobody asks for "Merls", although they do ask for "Sauv Blancs." I'll have the Sauv Blanc, they'll say.
The women Pinot lovers at the Mike Ditka bar also told me that they loved white Pinots. I suspected that they weren't talking about Henri Gouge's Nuits mutations and asked them which white Pinots they liked. Naturally, they all loved Pinot Blanc. I pressed further and asked which Pinot Blanc's they liked and one of them told me her favorite was Trimbach. I was impressed!
All of the women were clutching books by Andrea Immer and attended many wine events to learn more about Pinot and his friends. I wouldn't be surprised if some of my fellow attendees at Bobby Kacher's Burgundy presentation today were also regular's at Mike Ditka's and fans of the movie Sideways. Pinot fever is contagious. Even if they don't yet have little furry animals scurrying across their labels.
I should go to sleep. I'm very depressed. I'm also hungry, but Mike Ditka's restaurant doesn't deliver to the hotel rooms. Its 11 pm and he's probably already taken his nightly dose of Viagra and has other things on his mind than delivering a hamburger up to my room.
Isn't that the problem with modern medication. All the products just add to everyone's pre-existing self-absorption.
That's a lot of hyphenation, but isn't hyphenation what made this a great nation. Our boys are in Iraq fighting for the right to overhyphenate, whether in English or Arabic!
Byron Bates Won the Lucky Sweepstakes at the Louis/Dressner Selections Tasting
Byron Bates, the award-winning Beverage Director at the award-winning Bette Restaurant in New York City, was the winner of the Louis/Dressner Grand Prix Sweepstakes at last week's award-winning Louis/Dressner Tasting.
As the winner, Mr. Bates will be the topic of a feature profile on this award-winning site. The profile will be authored by me, award-winner blogger Joe Dressner.
I'm in Chicago for the next few days meeting disinterested consumers, retailers and restaurant owners. But I will be interviewing Mr. Bates when I return to New York.
Don't miss this exciting, fast-breaking coverage of Byron Bates' wine career!
Appearing soon in an award-winning wine blog near you!
The Tasting Rocked!
Thanks for coming.
I have to run to Chicago to give a seminar to a group of disinterested consumers.
See you soon.
See You All Today!
Eric is here from Charnay. João is in from the Douro. Whitney from Portland is sleeping in a hotel somewhere near JFK airport after a late night stopover in Cincinnati. Tom Slocum is riding the I95 to get to New York by noon.
Everything is in place.
See you all at the fabulous 13th Annual Louis/Dressner Selections tasting today.
Late Breaking News!
Steve Mosher, the Boston Retailer, will be in attendence at tomorrow's Louis/Dressner tasting!
Mr. Mosher was originally going to watch Whirling Dervish run the fifth race at Suffolk Downs, but cancelled the engagement when he learned we would be showing a bottle of Teobaldo Cappellano's 1947 Chinato. Mr. Mosher is an investor in Whirling Dervish, along with five other race horses.
We're glad he will make the time to attend the tasting and wish Whirling Dervish great success.
Only One More Day Until Exciting Louis/Dressner Tasting!
A Mini-Vertical from Marc Ollivier!
A Mini-Vertical from Pierre Breton!
A Mini-Vertical from Teobaldo Cappellano!
A Mini-Vertical from Emidio Pepe!
A Special Wacky Wines Contest!
Win a Feature Article With Your Photograph (touched up with Photoshop) Appearing on This Blog!
Eric Texier Back and Live!
João Roseira With Infantado Portos!
Jeff Viera!
Amy Pommier!
Meet Mona Moore!
I also publicly promise that I will be nice to everyone who attends. I will shake your hand, discuss the state of your business and personal life with you, smile, and act charming. I will be sympathetic and find all your jokes very funny. I will make direct eye contact and appear engaged by everything you say to me.
Ìt will be difficult, but I have working with a Business Coach for the past three months.
Don't miss the tasting!
Superb Harvest in the Arbois
We just received an e-mail from Anne Houillon and they couldn't be happier with the quality of the harvest at Domaine Houillon/Overnoy.
Below is Adam Houillon checking the phenolic ripeness of the savignan: