What I LIKE knowing about and, of course, talking about is wine. I read about wine, I talk to other people about wine, I go to tastings, but mostly I drink the stuff. I also have a personal commitment to a healthy lifestyle, including organic foods. When I was asked if I might be interested in writing a column about wine with a focus on organic and biodynamic wines, my initial reaction was stunned silence. After a few minutes, I managed to squeeze out the words, “Of course!” I walked around the rest of the day on pins and needles, muttering, “Why didn’t I think of that?”
The best part is, the very next day, one of my favorite wine stores announced a tasting of organic wines from Spain. “Perfect!” I thought. “Now I’ll have something to write about.” Before I get down to it, though, I thought I’d let you know how this column is going to go.
Once a month and occasionally more, I’ll write something about wines and spirits (spirits, apparently, is an industry term for booze). I’ll try to avoid this sort of jargon as much as I can. Nobody likes jargon.) For the most part, I’ll focus on organic, sustainable and biodynamic wines. I’m also going to talk about small production wines, since I buy a lot of those (see below—I rave about one).
You’ll get a lot of my opinions, and some stories. You won’t get any kind of wine ratings. If I think it’s useful, and someone has already rated a wine, I might include it but, I just don’t think in those numerical terms when I’m drinking. I usually think along the lines of, “I’d like to try this wine with some duck,” or “I hope the bottle isn’t empty,” or “I wish I had not put that in my mouth.” A trip to Seneca Lake in upstate New York had me mutter those words, which I’ll share in an upcoming column.
Yours in the wine shop,
Guy