For Blog Day 2005, I have chosen an eclectic group of blogs I regularly read that deserve more attention:

In the wine blog world, I suggest you check out The Wine Chicks. It’s always a fun read and great to get a female perspective in the male dominated world of wine blogs.

I must confess that I am fairly new to the food blog scene, so my recommendation here is the widely linked new blog, Slashfood. I really like the mix of subject matter, their wacky themes such as Grilled Cheese Day and Andrew’s incisive wine posts.

Thinking locally, I enjoy reading (and watching) Chuck’s Blogumentary and Garrick’s gFeed, both legendary Twin Cities bloggers.

And finally, in the podcast world I have to point to a brand-new wine podcast: The Valley Vine. Gotta love a wine podcast featuring country music and covering the wine happenings in North Dakota’s Red River Valley, and he’s a Mac user to boot

Viva Blog Day!

Way back in December, when I had another host with something like 3GB of monthly bandwidth, I posted a warning that I would most likely run out and go off-line. Thankfully, I have not had to post such a warning until now. So, even though I have purchased more GB this month, I am about 97% through my monthly allocation as I post this fairly early in the day. No, I don’t think I will go off-line at this rate, but I will hold posting the AAC version of Winecast 37 until later tonight… and, yes, I have made arrangements so I won’t have to post another message like this ever again

Between my 2 hosts, I have served almost 300GB of content this month; that’s about 25,000 podcast downloads! Thanks for your support!!

Tuesday is teaching night for me in St. Paul and I arrived early enough today for a quick side trip to Solo Vino, a local wine shop I had heard about, but had never visited. When I first walked in the door, I knew I was at the right place, as rack after rack of hand chosen (and labeled) wines from interesting appellations from around the world surrounded me. Things got even better when I struck up a conversation with one of the owners, Chuck Kanski. What really made the difference for me was the passion Chuck obviously had for wine and the respect for the palette of his customers. Yes, I probably know a bit more than the average person walking through the door, but I suspect that anyone who talks with Chuck will come away with great bottles at prices you can live with (care to put this hypothesis to the test, Garrick?; their selection of Tempranillo is the best I’ve seen in town).

So for listeners in the Twin Cities, I strongly recommend that you visit Solo Vino the next time you are in the area. Great selection and excellent customer service. I’ll be buying the wines for future shows there, so you might see me. For others, seek out the artisan wine shop in your area and vote with your wallet. It’s the retail equivalent to wine podcasts and blogs. Recommendations from real people who are passionate about wine.

What prompted my visit? It was one of the only places in town I could buy Trinitas Cellars Zinfandel that I plan on matching with chocolate cake for Wine Blogging Wednesday next week. The tip to try Trinitas came from listener, Stephanie (thanks!). Sometimes the stars just align themselves…

I’m a big fan of the blog Lifehacker that gives tips on “hacking” everyday items (OK, sometimes they also hack tech). This got me thinking how “hacks”, ingenious solutions to everyday problems, could extend to the wine world. A quick search of Lifehacker turned up just one example of a wine hack: having a vintage chart in your wallet. Hmm, nice tip, but not in the same league as the hack I blogged about last week from Slashfood. Google searches also turned up very little except the term “hacks” being used as slang for writer.

So I am on the look out for any wine hacks you find and have setup a new category to make them easy to find here… just post to comments or pop me an email. I’ve also got a few hacks in mind to blog from time to time.

This week’s podcast is a bit of an experiment in the format, influenced by Jon Gordon’s, “Future Tense”, show and podcast. I introduce a hot new wine region in California, the Sonoma Coast AVA, and recommend some Pinot Noir and Chardonnay to check out from the area.

Wineries mentioned on the show:
- Williams-Selyem
- J Rochioli Vineyards & Winery
- Gary Farrell
- Flowers Vineyard & Winery
- Littorai
- Hirsch Vineyards
- Siduri Wines
- Kistler Vineyards
- Peay Vineyards
- Sonoma-Cutrer
- Marcassin Vineyard
- Aubert Wines
- Martinelli Winery & Vineyards
- Pax Wine Cellars
- La Crema

Feedback: winecast@gmail.com | Audio comments: +01-206-33-WINE-9 (+01-206-339-4639)
Copyright 2005 Tim Elliott. Licensed to the public under http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0/

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Looks like Georges Duboeuf, the king of Beaujolais, is in hot water with French wine authorities for blending bulk Beaujolais-Villages with more expensive Cru Beaujolais. If this is just an accident, as Duboeuf claims, it could mean some pretty cheap Beaujolais coming to market at low prices and a shortage of Cru Beaujolais from the 2004 vintage. None of the wines in question have been released yet, so no harm done to consumers. I’ll keep an eye on this story to see if this affected any wines in my cellar from Duboeuf in previous years.

Christian has posted a satirical scenario over at Turn the Screw that brings up a serious point. Namely, what would happen to the wine world if Robert Parker and the leading writers from the Wine Spectator passed away? Where would we get the skinny on which wines to try and cellar? How could we collect those 95+ or Top 100 wines if no one was there to tell us?

For me, it boils down to what I taste and the recommendations from friends. Yes, I read Parker and the Spectator just like any other cork dork, and it does have an effect every time I visit a wine store. But I think we would all adjust (after the shock of loss and grieving, of course) to the world after Parker, et. al. Smart retailers would have more tastings and the wine blog world would have more readers. We might even talk to our friends about what wines they like to drink and learn something. Isn’t that what this wine thing is all about; sharing? We would also have plenty of British wine writers to fill the void, as well.

It was good to see Matt Kramer was unscathed in Christian’s horrible nightmare. At least he could continue to provide professional commentary…

Yet another wine preservation system scribed over at Gizmodo (I like the author’s obscure reference to the book Sideways, which features drunken crossbow hunting). Not sure why you’d go for this one over something more wine geeky such as this, but to each his (or her) own…

Not sure if Adam has getting into wine or what, but I am again honored to be featured on the latest edition of Apple’s Podfinder ‘cast (#6 or “VI”). This time he features a clip from Winecast 35. Very cool; thanks once again Adam, and you might also like Grape Radio

Interesting demographic data about wine consumption from the UK that echoes my earlier post, but one quote stood out:

“While wine remains the largest alcoholic drinks sector in France, it is losing its traditional and central role as a meal accompaniment, and for many water has become a more common drink at meal times.”

Does this mean that the French wine industry will need to conform to “New World” fruit-forward wines to compete? Where does this leave terroir?

UPDATE 8/24/2005: More data here on UK wine growth; it’s not surprising some wineries are targeting their wines directly at women after reading this.